New research makes the case for investing in – not replacing – the human recruiters building physician pipelines and community trust

The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) has released its 2026 Recruitment Team Professional Compensation Benchmarking Report, revealing significant gains in compensation and retention among physician and provider recruitment professionals, and making a compelling case for why hospital and health system leaders should be doubling down on their in-house recruitment teams, not replacing them with technology.

According to the report, median recruiter compensation increased 10.4% in 2025 to $100,420 – the highest level reported since AAPPR began tracking the data. Recruiter turnover also fell to an average of 12.1% in 2025, down from approximately 20% in recent years, suggesting that institutional knowledge is being built and retained inside organizations that are choosing to invest in their people. These findings are further supported by AAPPR’s The Heart Behind the Hire report, which found that 87% of in-house physician recruiters feel genuinely called to do this work. That statistic underscores that recruitment is not a transactional function technology can replicate, but a relationship-driven profession rooted in purpose.

“Physician and provider recruitment professionals play a vital role in helping healthcare organizations ensure patients have access to care,” said Carey Goryl, CEO of AAPPR. “As demand for physicians and advanced practice providers continues to outpace supply in many communities, recruitment teams are being asked to do increasingly complex and important work. AI can support a recruiter’s workflow, but it cannot replicate the trust a recruiter builds with a physician candidate over months, or the deep community knowledge that comes from years inside an organization. Health system leaders who want to win the physician recruitment challenge need to focus on building their teams, pouring into their teams, and giving them the right tools and compensation to succeed. This year’s findings suggest organizations are doing exactly that – and it’s working.

The report includes two chapters highlighting survey results related to physician recruitment profiles and compensation levels. The first chapter, “Recruitment Professional Profile,” provides data on demographic information, including recruitment professionals’ roles, education levels, years of experience, work arrangements and responsibilities. A total of 428 internal physician and provider recruitment professionals participated in this survey.

The second chapter, “Recruitment Professional Compensation,” examines compensation levels of recruitment professionals by their role, experience, education level, location desirability and remote work status. Of the 428 participants, 396 provided compensation data.

Some notable findings include:

• Recruiter turnover declined to 9.8% in 2025, compared with rates ranging from 18.9% to 22.7% over the previous four years.
• Remote and hybrid work remain the norm, with more than 90% of recruiters working either fully remotely or in a hybrid arrangement.
• Recruiters working fully remotely reported higher median compensation than those working in hybrid or fully onsite roles.
• Nearly three quarters of recruitment professionals were somewhat or completely satisfied with their current position or role.
• Turnover persists: Median turnover rates for physicians (7.3%) and APPs (7.9%) remain higher than pre-pandemic levels.
• Two-thirds rated their work/life balance as good or excellent. However, 66% reported a somewhat high or very high degree of workplace stress.

The industry-level data in AAPPR’s benchmarking surveys helps recruitment professionals and departments establish target productivity levels, set goals and expectations, evaluate compensation competitiveness and grow their teams.

Organizations that participate in annual surveys gain free access to AAPPR’s Benchmarking Portal, where they can run custom benchmark comparisons to organizations and departments similar to their own. The Benchmarking Portal includes time to fill and compensation calculators and enables users to compare a range of data, including organizational profiles, search information, recruiter profile data and recruiter compensation figures, helping them make more informed decisions.

The complete 2026 AAPPR Recruitment Team Professional Compensation Benchmarking Report is available to organizations for sale online. To order, visit https://aappr.org/research/benchmarking/. The Heart Behind the Hire Report is also available online, free of charge at: https://aappr.org/research/surveys-reports/

About The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR)

The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) is the mission-aligned authority on addressing clinical workforce shortages and expanding access to care. For more than 30 years, AAPPR has connected and supported physician and provider recruitment professionals who serve as strategic partners within hospitals and health systems nationwide. Today, AAPPR represents over 2,700 members. Fully integrated into their organizations, AAPPR members lead the full recruitment continuum, designing hiring, onboarding, and retention strategies that mitigate vacancy impacts and strengthen care delivery. Guided by our RECRUIT values – Respect, Equity, Collaboration, Responsibility, Understanding, Inclusion, and Trust – AAPPR and its members cultivate a diverse, data-informed workforce dedicated to ensuring equitable access to care. To learn more or to become an organizational member of AAPPR, please visit https://aappr.org/join-now.