The physician shortage continues, and 2012 will be even more competitive.

2011 saw increased demand for a limited supply of physicians in hospitals and primary care practices. 2012 will be even more competitive. Here are the top four issues we predict will have the greatest impact on recruiting success:

4. We’ll recruit through mobile devices.

Doctors are on the go and using smart phones more than ever. Emails and direct mail campaigns can’t keep pace. Extend your reach with instantly accessible messages — make sure they’re easy to look at and easy to read!

3. Employer branding will be huge.

The physician shortage is worsening. Doctors want to know who you are, what you offer, and why the environment and culture you offer should matter to them. It’s not enough to state that a position is available — you need to tell the prospect what’s unique about your organization and how it matches his or her needs.

2. The big guys will enter the fight!

We knew it was coming: The big healthcare systems that used to recruit through their “old boy networks” now have to advertise their opportunities. And they have deep pockets. That’s why it’s critical for you to communicate why a candidate should choose your institution over the competition.

1. As the economy recovers, retention rates will take a hit.

Doctors stay put in a tight economy. But as the employment market heats up, more physicians are willing to take that leap of faith to something better. Make sure your institution’s physicians feel valued for their loyalty. Keep them engaged or you could be in for a staffing challenge.

Social Media and Recruitment

Social networking recruitment has become the “must do” sourcing activity across all of HR. Whether it’s using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn – the pressure to use these channels is greater now than ever. And without knowing it, recruiters and talent evaluators are falling into some significant legal traps.

Using social networks is an excellent way to source potential employees. The trouble comes when we use personal information, photos or content found on a candidate’s profile to disqualify him or her for positions.

When you visit a potential candidate’s social networking page you may be privy to photos, religious beliefs, personal information about life events, personal information about drinking or drug use, and poor communication skills or lewd comments made to others. And once you learn any of these things about a candidate, you can’t unlearn it.

If a candidate suspects that you have disqualified him or her based on any of this information, you are opening up your organization to a discrimination lawsuit. How do you prevent this? Recruiters cannot use information from social networking sites for evaluating candidates. Decision makers cannot eliminate candidates based on what they see on their social media profiles. Candidates must receive thorough explanations as to why they are being eliminated; explanations should be recorded.

An additional resource on this topic is available here:

Social Media + Legal Reality & Perspective = Caution for Recruiters

Using your differences for better recruiting.

Successful recruitment is more than simply putting together a job description and posting it out to the industry’s dominant job board. In your struggle to find top talent you need to understand two essential truths: 1.) You are different; and 2.) Your differences are what make your organization attractive.

What makes you different is your employees and the culture within your organization. If your employees are happy and say good things about your organization you’ll have an easier time recruiting top talent. If they are willing to provide testimonials, or to speak through social media channels about your organization, even better.

All employees want to work where they feel comfortable. They want to be successful within a culture that feels right to them. Beyond salary, beyond benefits, beyond the traditional, building a sense of belonging serves organizations well in recruitment and retention. When competing on salary, the company willing to pay the most wins. When competing on benefits, the company willing to pay the most wins. When competing on culture, the company that communicates the most wins.

So, if you’re struggling with bringing in top talent, maybe it’s not the salary or benefits that are the problem. Maybe you’re not providing them with the information they are looking for, “What is it really like to work there?”

Welcome to Recruitment 2.0

Physician recruiters have fallen on hard times. Once viewed as heroes who deliver agents of change to organizations in need, they now find themselves constrained by ever-growing demands on their time and budgetary resources. As a result, recruiters are finding it harder to compete — they can only do so much with their list of contacts; they can expect only so much in return on their marketing efforts.

What’s a recruiter to do? Social networking on the web.

A research company, Aberdeen Group, recently published a report titled, “Employer Branding: How to Grow, Measure and Manage Your Company’s Perception.” The report recommends that recruiters more than double their adoption of Web 2.0 tools — mainly networking platforms such as Facebook, Linked-In and Twitter. Such sites are enabling recruiters with fewer resources and tighter budgets to reach more passive and active candidates. Not only do these media provide ample opportunity to connect directly with potential hires, the interconnected nature of a user network allows for greater reach of message — something the lone recruiter, with his or her contacts, phone and email could only dream of just a few years ago.

Another compelling reason to adopt social networking is the changing face of the workforce. Baby boomers, advancing in years and commanding big salaries, are becoming less viable candidates. Gen X’ers, while heading toward the twilight of their career lifecycles, are still in their prime. Entering the workforce are the Gen Y candidates — at an estimated 70 million strong. In short, the prime targets for most recruiters are Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers, both of whom are major users of social networking channels.

Lots of physician recruiters want to beef up their marketing mix, but their funds have dried up. And, while they may be familiar with social networking sites and salivating at the potential for recruitment, they don’t know how to get started. Here’s how: First, develop a plan — spell out what you want to accomplish. Then assess your resources — know what you have to work with so you can use it as efficiently as possible. Build some time into your plan for monitoring progress and managing the activity. Time may be your least expendable resource — obviously a recruiter’s time is best spent recruiting — but you have to think of marketing tactics as an integral part of your job, especially when it comes to social networking.

Several of our recruiter clients have come to us for agency assistance — a minor investment to extend their marketing mix and include social networking, plus the minor investment in time needed to monitor and manage these activities. Their employer brand gets regular exposure, their messaging is kept up to date, the media allows for instant interaction and — best of all — they’re seeing results.

How to measure effective recruitment marketing?

Recruitment marketing is a simple balancing act, right? Place your message on one side of the scale, and your communication medium on the other. If your message clearly illustrates the value of the position you are trying to fill, great. But if you don’t balance your strong message with an effective way to get it across to potential candidates, well, not so great. Conversely, if you have excellent communication tactics but a weak message, your scale will again be out of balance.

But something’s missing in this scale analogy: the fulcrum.

Which, in this case, is ROI tracking and reporting. You have to know how to track a campaign’s success — or lack thereof. More important, you have to know how to report the results to the folks in the executive suite. Otherwise, they won’t be writing any more checks for any future campaigns.

Track how many candidates you get from your campaigns and where they came from. Note how you stack up against the competition. It’s the best way to prove your value to the suits — and the best way to maintain balance between your messaging and media.