Recruiter News: 2011 Fall Edition

September 8, 2011

Welcome!

Welcome to the premier edition of the Recruiter News e-newsletter by the American Academy of Neurology's Neurology Career Center. Our goal is to provide bimonthly news and tips to:

• Bring you timely and useful information involving the recruitment of neurologists
• Provide a forum for engaging in dialogue with us and your colleagues regarding industry issues, trends, tips, and more
• Update you on new initiatives and improvements to the Neurology Career Center

Above all, this newsletter is a partnership with you, the recruiter. We intend Recruiter News to be a lively, interactive forum. Whether you are on staff at a health care organization or conducting searches on behalf of your clients, we need information from you. For example, we welcome your thoughts on trends or conditions you are seeing in the industry. See our State of Neurology Recruiting Today two-part series.

We, in turn, will strive to bring you the latest and greatest on the sometimes challenging profession of recruiting this physician specialty and its subspecialties.

We'll also help keep you up-to-date on events and special cost-saving offers at the Neurology Career Center. See our discount offer in this issue for a Feature Job posting. Please save the date for the Academy’s first annual Career Week from October 10–14, 2011. Events during Career Week include an Online Job Fair, free CV review for Academy members, mock interviews, daily webinars, a special career-focused supplement to Neurology Today® magazine, and much more!
In closing, I hope you find Recruiter News useful and enjoy reading it. I encourage you to send your feedback, including suggestions for topics you would like to see covered.

Sincerely,

Amy Schoch
Manager, Neurology Career Center
American Academy of Neurology (AAN)

State of Neurology Recruiting Today: Physician Recruiting Challenges

Physician recruiters–whether at search firms or on staff with health care providers–face many challenges in their jobs. First, shortages in specialties such as family practice, internal medicine, and neurology add difficulty to recruiting. With further predicted shortages of physicians and many leaving private practice for larger health systems, challenges mount. On the bright side, the level of connectivity enabled through online recruiting helps cast a wider net. According to the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), the use of online job boards continues to rise. This trend supports 2007 benchmark data by the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters (ASPR) and MGMA which found nearly 28 percent of physician recruiters use these job boards to recruit physicians, among a mix of resources such as referrals, networking with residency and fellowship programs, job fairs, and association meetings.

Give and take with online recruiting

“Both job seekers and employers have a lot more tools with online recruiting now. Job seekers want to conduct the search on their terms,” says Amy Schoch, manager of the AAN’s Neurology Career Center. While tools such as those that ensure confidentiality and automatically email job postings aid the job seeker, other resources aid the employer. “Online recruiting helps level the playing field for smaller practices.”

“Recruiters are under tremendous cost pressure to manage their advertising budget. Web tracking tools offered in online recruiting offer transparency to support return on investment,” Schoch says. Online job ads give recruiters flexibility to change postings on demand, such as by adding more detailed benefit information, a subject in which new physicians may not be versed.

Reality check

The recruiting picture complicates when the nuances of supply and demand collide. “Many practices hire neurologists just out of residency and fellowships, certainly within a couple of years,” Schoch says. Given the competition, employers are having to offer more as they compete for the same pool of physicians fresh from residency and fellowships.

On the other hand, these new physicians may have opted for extra training, which doesn't guarantee job placement. “I wouldn't blame any physician for thinking that extra training in the form of a fellowship will make them more marketable. It seems like common sense: more training, better chances of finding a great paying job. Unfortunately, this is often not true as it really depends on the subspecialty,” says Kira Fleshman, physician recruiter with Hospital Corporation of America.

The picture further complicates as larger health systems in the form of hospital-based employers–versus private practice groups–attract physician hires. Given predicted increases in hospital-based employment, recruiters seeking physicians for non-hospital jobs may face more difficulties ahead. “In recent years, more and more specialists are becoming hospital employees,” says Jennifer Metivier, MS, FASPR, executive director of ASPR. “Physicians completing training prefer hospital employment as it allows them to focus on the clinical aspects of the practice rather than the business aspects.”

Creative recruiting

To be sure, employers are getting creative in their job offerings by adding incentives, including:

• sponsoring employment visas for those physicians who are not US citizens
• paying stipends to physicians in training for those who agree to stay on staff
• creating effective onboarding and retention programs
• paying off student loans

Metivier adds, “The level of student loan debt has increased and organizations willing to offer loan assistance for physicians will be much better positioned for successful recruitment.”

Physician employment trends are boosting job security for in-house physician recruiters. “In-house physician recruitment professionals have a unique and specialized skill set and are focused solely on the physician recruitment needs of an organization,” Metivier says. She notes recruiters will also be busy filling more jobs for advanced practice providers such as nurse practitioners, midwives, and physician assistants.

Highlighting the Neurology Career Center

Since 1985, the AAN’s Dendrite Careers in Neurology service has worked to link its members with career opportunities that fit their goals through print ads in AANnews® (the Academy’s monthly member newsletter) and online on AAN.com. Earlier this year, we launched an exciting new online career website and shed the Dendrite name in favor of the Neurology Career Center. A few highlights:

For Job Seekers

• Create and save profile and CV in the system and make public and searchable by recruiters, if desired
• Create a job agent to automatically email new postings
• Apply for open positions through system

For Employers

• Track hits and applications online to support ROI for online advertising expenditures
• View publicly posted CVs and receive applications online
• Maximize reach with the National Healthcare Careers Network, a network of more than 100 medical job boards

The numbers tell our success story. Since the January 20, 2011, launch of the Neurology Career Center, results include:

• 73,500 views of individual job postings, for an average of 130 per posting
• Nearly 300 job applications through the site, in addition to those made directly through employer sites and via email/fax/mail

Use a Featured Job to add visibility to your posting

Leverage the power of AAN.com by adding a Featured Job upgrade to your online job posting. Postings appear on the homepage of AAN.com, with more than five million page views per year!
Until September 30, save $100 when you upgrade to a Featured Job for only $750 (regular price $850). Use Promo Code RECRUITSEPT when checking out.

Check out all of the ways you can make your posting stand out by downloading the Neurology Career Center 2011 Media Kit.

Need some help posting a job? Check out our helpful How to Guide.

Your job posting is now on Facebook–for free!

All jobs posted on the Neurology Career Center now appear on the American Academy of Neurology and Neurology® journal’s Facebook pages. The nearly 6,000 fans of both pages can now preview new job postings in real time and access the full posting with one click.

Online Job Fair

The Online Job Fair is a big part of the Academy’s first annual Neurology Career Week, October 10–14, 2011. Held during the peak of job search season for graduating residents and fellows, the Online Job Fair connects employers with job seekers. “The Online Job Fair is the only neurology-specific, web-only recruitment event of its kind,” says Amy Schoch, manager of the AAN’s Neurology Career Center. “It's a remarkably efficient way to reach your target audience at the peak of their job search and save on travel costs.”

The Online Job Fair offers opportunities for employers to connect with prospects in a live, multimedia environment. Like any job fair, booths are central to the event. “We're offering online spaces for up to 60 customizable employer booths across three exhibit floors. Employers that advertise at the sponsorship level receive top placement in their exhibit hall,” Schoch says. The event also features:

• Space to detail more about your organization, list jobs, and link to your organization's existing online content
• Integration with Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn: search for connections and update your status
• Interaction with fellow attendees in the Networking Lounge
• Live conversations with candidates via instant chat and/or webcam (recruiters receive session transcripts)

Combined with other Neurology Career Week events including webinars about career topics, CV critiques by experienced AAN members, and evaluation of interviewing skills via Skype with a professional recruiter, the Online Job Fair is sure to attract neurology prospects to your organization. To sweeten the incentive, job seekers who create a profile for Career Week or register to attend the Online Job Fair will be eligible to win an iPad 2 and other exciting prizes.

To see a demo and for more information, visit the Online Job Fair. For more information, contact the Neurology Career Center or Amy Schoch at (651) 695-2749.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this posting are those of the author only and do not represent the views of the American Academy of Neurology or any of its affiliated subsidiaries.

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