Top Tips on Recruiting Medical Residents

If you missed this month’s “Top Trends in Resident Recruiting” webinar, hosted by Barbara R. Tamberlane of Execu|Search, fear not! We’ve got the webinar replay for you to listen to at your convenience anytime. In the interim, here are some of Barbara’s top three tips on recruiting medical residents.

In her webinar, Barbara Tamberlane covered the following areas: outreach/connecting different specialties and timelines; creating an organized interview process; and on-boarding/retention focused on recruiting residents and fellows. Here are a few slides with some notes and comments from Barbara, who is Senior Managing Director of Execu|Search’s Physician Recruitment division.

1. Approaching Different Specialties & Planning New Grad Timelines

As Barbara says, “Talking to new grads about their timelines is very important. We try to identify if somebody is an early, middle, or late stage decision maker and work accordingly.” Asking qualifying questions to identify a resident’s level of preparation is important, whether you are an agency recruiter or in-house.

The slide below also emphasizes the fact that it’s important to get your ducks in a row and recruit ahead of time, but always have a fall-back plan. “No matter what candidates say,” says Barbara, ” the real test comes when they have to pull the trigger and give a yes or no.”

And finally, remember: there are million points of influence telling residents why to take or not take a new position. Advises Barbara, “New grads are generally fearful of making the wrong decision, so staying as relatable as possible is important.”

Putting Together an Organized Interview Process

This next slide is of value whether you’re an in-house recruiter looking to refine your interview processes or an agency recruiter looking to have conversations with employers prior to starting a search.
Preparation is key for many reasons but the main one is making impression – these days, residents have so many options!

Says Barbara, “Develop a formal itinerary and get all the decision makers involved and organized in one meeting. Our goal in an ideal world is to have every doctor wowed by the interview process and also come away understanding all information.”

Because medical residents have a lot of options to choose from, most new grads will feel nervous about joining a practice that doesn’t have a structured interview process or address key factors. Every grad will be wondering, “How am I going to build? What metrics does the organization look at to evaluate progress?” It’s important to make compensation transparent; every new grad should walk away knowing how much they will be able to earn, should they hit your patient volume and quality goals.

Says Barbara, “Many RVU/collection/bonus models are confusing and it’s hard to compare apples to oranges from one offer to another. We find that if it’s not clear or they don’t buy into the expectations, residents will go find a place that can paint a clearer picture with real steps and real potential outcomes more clearly.”