The steps for successfully recruiting and retaining staff, who will become part of the fabric of your organization, are spelled out with the word RETAIN.  Good luck, happy Recruiting and more importantly Retaining.

Recognize

Recogonize the type of person who can be a benefit to your organization.  Most recruitment efforts are won or lost before you speak to your first candidate. Develop skills that enable you to evaluate candidates and determine whether they will be an asset or a liability to your organization.  Too many times a candidate looks great on paper and was engaging over dinner, but their profile was not a good fit for the position.  My companies have found repeated increased success by finding those ‘diamonds in the rough’ that no one had given a second glance— and turned them into my star producers.  Out of understandable desperation, warning signs are overlooked or ignored resulting in non-optimal hires; when with a little more effort a better fit could have been found.  Use the interview process to find the qualified candidate who has what it takes to be a part of your organization.  We have taken many employees, from the receptionist to support staff, to a potential high producing position through the same process.  We started with phone interviews.  I always wanted to hear the person’s voice.  I wanted to hear conviction and passion.

Enlighten

Enlighten your candidate.  Make a strong, honest case for what your organization and community has to offer and how the candidate fits into the picture.  Outline your vision and mission and let the candidate understand that they will be a part of the bigger plan.  In order to connect with the right candidate— enlighten, educate, and enter into a trust with the candidate.  If all the candidate feels is your wallet, it will be hard to convince them they are valued for anything more than financial gain.  By leading with your heart, the candidate is more likely to be motivated by and a sense that they bring intrinsic value to the organization.

Take Time

Take time to understand the needs of the candidate’s family.  Too often it is the spouse and children that are not happy about the move but go along for the ride because that’s what they are ‘supposed’ to do.  Eventually, the physician will decide to put their family ahead of their career and move on.  Be sure to spend time evaluating the family.  Do they seem interested?  Supportive?  Genuine?  It is hard to ignore clear signs from a family that is not supportive or enthusiastic about a move.  When the family is not aware of what a community has to offer perhaps the family will simply never be happy with their new surroundings.

Assign

From your hospital, assign a liason who caters to the physician during their first full year at your facility.  Anyone in administration is probably going to be too busy to monitor the physician’s everyday life.  But, someone who is responsible for regularly checking in with the new physician to make sure everything is available to them, would improve the odds of their success.  Among other things, that liason could assist in facilitating referrals needed to ensure success of a specialist.  If they are not getting the referrals they can conduct some discovery to determine why, and intercede before things turn south.  If you are pro-active you will be able to catch anything that is not going according to plan.

Introduce

Introduce the candidate and spouse to a variety of people in the community.  The position is great and it satisfies the physician professionally but if they never integrate fully into your community they will never truly feel as if they are a part.  Encourage someone at the hospital to provide the physician with as many opportunities as possible to speak to the various civic groups.  This is especially important if you are introducing a new service to the community that requires education.  Find out about the individual’s interests and help them make connections with people or groups who share those interests.  For instance, if the person is a private pilot, introduce them to other general aviators in the community; or if the spouse is an avid tennis player or golfer, at least introduce him or her to others who enjoy those activities.  Your job is not to nurture those relationships, but making the introductions demonstrates a level of care for the individual that is helpful.  Never forget, they are moving from an area where they have bonds they will miss.  The more quickly you help them to establish relationships with those of like-mind in your community, the more quickly they will begin to feel as though they are actually a part of the community.

Never

Never leave anything to chance.  Make a plan and work the plan.  When a new recruit works out, it doesn’t happen by chance.  It happened because you understood from the start what it would take to enjoy a successful recruitment.  You also understood you would never retain this physician without doing the little things to insure them becoming a long-term player.  It always amazes me when I hear we will buy life insurance for yourself, insurance for the car, the house, the boat but we never put in place an insurance plan that ensures you are going to keep your candidate around for more than 2 years.  Unless you simply enjoy the recruitment process, I would strongly encourage you to put the mechanisms in place that protect your assets.  I tend to lean toward the fact that someone who generates revenue for an organization is an asset.  They certainly aren’t a liability.