Healthcare Recruiting Made Smarter

Over the last several years, there has been increasing attention given to disruptive concepts such as “On-Demand”, “Shared”, and “Collaborative” services. Uber is arguably the most well-known and sits high on a mountain of offerings. Whatever you choose to call it, the concept is the same: innovative client solutions, valuing convenience and accessibility, without the associated overhead costs. But one industry has been left on the sidelines of this revolution - healthcare.

Healthcare is an industry that, historically, has been slow to embrace change for a number of reasons, including legal and regulatory considerations, as well as the expense and complications that accompany introducing new technological solutions (as it is, we’re barely getting over the EMR hangover). But recently, the industry has seen this changing.

Recruitment is one area in which healthcare organizations can make very real changes, while avoiding the concerns named above. In the last two years, several groups have emerged that challenge the traditional ways recruiters work with clients. Historically, employers have had two options: contingency recruiters who provide the flexibility of no commitments but often simply grab low-hanging fruit, or retained recruiters who offer quality services but with an often-prohibitive price tag - usually more than 30% of a candidate’s salary. With the former, many employers become frustrated with cattle-call style interviewing and, with the latter, private practices can’t afford the services and large systems opt to hire internal recruiters, as they pay for themselves within a few hires.

But groups like Creative Healthcare Solutions and People Foundry have come to the market with a new hybrid solution - provide the quality of a retained firm with the flexibility of a contingency firm and affordable pricing structures. It’s a model that values scale and accessibility, and allows companies of all sizes to streamline costs by assigning a fixed value to a solution that is required a few times a year.

And it seems to be working! Creative Healthcare Solutions has seen more than 125% growth over the past year, while People Foundry just expanded beyond Chicago to a new office in Cincinnati and has grown from a team of 4 to a team of 22. This is not to suggest these services should be replacements for existing internal recruiting departments but, rather, supplemental options that allow healthcare organizations of all sizes to utilize flexible resources for specific purposes while streamlining operational costs.

Regardless of how your organization is leveraging recruitment options, one thing is certain - the On-Demand economy has finally reached healthcare.