By: Dr. Benjamin Schultz-Burkel, DMA

If you’ve been in recruitment for any amount of time, you know the feeling. The constant demands. The pressure from leadership to fill roles yesterday. The late nights spent smoothing out onboarding details or making sure retention strategies actually stick.

We’ve all been there before. Feeling burned out, running on empty, wondering how long I could keep it up. And I know I’m not alone. Burnout among recruitment professionals is real, and it’s taking a toll on our teams and our organizations.

Why We Rethought Compensation

The turning point for us came when we realized something simple but critical: our recruitment, onboarding, and retention teams weren’t being compensated in a way that reflected the weight of their work.

We were competing with other health systems not only for physicians and providers, but also for skilled recruiters. Without competitive pay, transparency, and flexibility, we risked losing the very people who keep the entire system running.

So, we made the choice to reexamine our compensation structure. We turned to benchmarking data to understand where we stood. Seeing the 50th percentile numbers gave us the clarity we needed. It wasn’t about guesswork anymore; it was about facts.

We introduced more transparent salary ranges. We created incentive opportunities tied to meaningful goals. We put structures in place that allowed recruiters to feel recognized and rewarded.

Burnout Needs Creative Solutions

But just like with providers, we knew compensation alone wouldn’t solve everything.

Here are a few things we tried that made a difference for our recruitment team:

• Part-time or flexible roles.
  For team members juggling family responsibilities or simply needing a break from the grind, flexible structures helped us retain talent instead of losing it.
• Peer support.
  We paired new recruiters with seasoned team members, creating community and reducing the sense of isolation that often fuels burnout.
• Protected focus time.
  Whether it was for professional development, building pipelines, or strategic projects, giving recruiters uninterrupted blocks of time helped them feel more in control.
• Recognition.
  Sometimes, it wasn’t just about dollars, it was about acknowledgment. White-glove onboarding wasn’t only for candidates; it became part of how we treated our own teams.

These changes didn’t magically eliminate burnout, but they gave our teams breathing room.

What We Learned

We saw an immediate shift. Feedback from recruitment professionals turned positive. Leadership started noticing improved retention within our team. And most importantly, we stopped losing great people to burnout quite as quickly.

The lesson? You can’t build sustainable recruitment teams without a clear picture of what fair compensation and support really look like.

Why Benchmarking Data Matters

That’s why I believe so strongly in the 2025 AAPPR Recruitment Team Professional Compensation Benchmarking Report. It shines a light on industry trends that matter, where compensation stands today, what benefits are being offered, and how organizations are supporting the people behind recruitment, onboarding, and retention.

This report gives you the data you need to make the case for fair compensation, create systems that keep recruiters engaged and supported, and show leadership that investing in the recruitment, onboarding, and retention teams isn’t optional – it’s essential.