History of PhysEmp, Part II
The advent of AI in recruiting
The field of online job search continues to rapidly evolve. The model employed by PhysEmp—and that of other job boards—often includes the collection of user data showing what physicians are seeking.
“We crunch the data to improve our suggestions of similar jobs, and to help recruiters focus on the physicians who want what they are offering,” said Truog.
Some industry watchers believe that AI will eventually come to replace human workers in recruiting. PhysEmp’s CEO and Founder Bob Truog isn’t so sure about that. “The technological component in the business is key but it must be backed up by real people who can speak to clients directly,” Truog said. “The professionals who work in medical recruiting will need time to change ingrained processes developed over many years.”
The PhysEmp strategy has always been to evolve its software and practices along with the needs of the the industry, physicians and employers, while always keeping in mind that clients will want to be a phone call away for human help.
“I see AI as allowing us to quickly pull together information about physicians to send them the best-fitting jobs,” said Truog. “The essential steps of sending jobs, doing follow-up, and getting questions answered and support, which recruiters routinely do, isn’t so easy solely with AI.”
Today’s ad posting landscape—include the job locations in ads or get left behind
In spite of Google’s dominance in search and advertising, many physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals seek work on boards specializing in medical jobs. There are dozens of such sites active today, including PhysEmp, which has been in business since 1994.
One significant change in the industry is the requirement by search giants such as Google that job ads include cities and zip codes, which generate far more interest than a blind ad, which does not include location data. In fact, many aggregate job sites no longer will accept ads that lack city and zip code.
Sites generate revenue based on responses to ads, and ads lacking job location do not perform well. “This is why on PhysEmp.com, we offer a comprehensive report on our client’s ad content, which alerts them to these types of issues straight-away, so they can make the necessary changes,” said Truog.
Lessons Learned
Truog’s many years in the business have taught him a number of important lessons. Perhaps the key one is this: “So much of what we do in this field is driven by our use of technology,” he said.
“As an online business, we leverage the power of tech to tell us how to evolve our site to perform at the highest level. But ours is also very much a people industry involving physicians and industry professionals, and the human touch is important.”
And it probably will continue to be for some time to come.
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