Recruiting Skills Explained

Recruiters need three skills foreign to many physicians and their practice administrators: marketing skills, sales skills and negotiating skills.

Consider the skills required to manipulate the social media and Internet landscape to identify, attract and engage candidates.  I pirated this tip from my favorite marketing guru: Write recruiting copy that describes the person, not the position.  Most copy doesn’t.

Few medical staffers have learned the art and science of search keyword analysis.  Nor are they adept at combining headlines and effective copy that energize candidates.  Fewer lack the experience to discern which social media to avoid.  Select online content with care.  Internet mistakes last forever.

Furthermore, your team needs selling skills to crack barriers and persuade superstar candidates.  They’re highly prized and you’ll never find them online.  They aren’t looking.  Your practice won’t appear on their radar screens.  In many cases, superstars won’t respond without a gentle nudge from a cold call.  Recruiters with terrific persuasion skills consistently uncover superior candidates, and far more of them.  Most staff recruiting teams lack the time (and skills) to make 300 candidate cold calls per week.

Finally, few administrative and medical staffs have mastered negotiating.  These skills are essential to overcome candidate resistance and secure agreement on delicate contract issues.

Your staffs are not at fault; they exercise these skills too infrequently to master them.  (When was the last time you or your staff attended any sales or negotiation skills training?)