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The Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) is redefining recruitment to retention and is the only professional organization where physician and provider recruitment leaders and others who influence recruitment, onboarding and retention can connect, learn and advance their careers.
In part one of our C-Suite series, you learned how advancing your expertise and influence throughout your organization begins by creating strong advocates among your C-suite and senior leadership (insert reference link here to AAPPR downloads). Data fueling your organization’s recruitment strategy is an effective way to yield greater value to executive leaders by applying the language of numbers for a more efficient and transparent approach to recruitment.
However (as we all know too well), getting on an executive’s calendar is much easier said than done. For most of us, the idea of finding even 10 minutes of your key executives’ time (BTW, at least one month in advance, right?) is a daunting and whimsical task fraught with rescheduling and last-minute cancelations. Fortunately, there’s a tool to help… one, that if you develop well, will be highly valued by leaders, will keep a pulse on what you have to say, and will provide the necessary visibility to all your recruitment efforts. The tool? It’s the executive dashboard!
A well organized and thoughtful executive dashboard has many benefits, including, but not limited to, showcasing your success, keeping a pulse on others’ accountability throughout the recruitment process, written justification for additional investments/resources, and an amazing tool for securing your seat at the strategic table.
In fact, the key performance indicators (KPIs) built within an effective executive dashboard are designed to help you close performance gaps, identify needed efficiencies, reduce expenses, accelerate peak performance, celebrate goals, innovate new approaches, and evolve your organization’s practices to better align and exceed national industry benchmarks (Hint: go and download the latest AAPPR annual benchmark study!).
Architecting the details of your perfect dashboard begins by understanding your organization’s key strategies within your calendar/fiscal year:
You will want to gather this information in advance – remember to use data (i.e., real numbers). For example, you can’t say your strategic recruitment goal is to do better than last year. Hint: the most meaningful way to express a strategic goal in an executive dashboard is via a real number together with a timeline. For example, your organization will achieve hiring X number of physicians and advanced practice clinicians by the end of 2022. Or, your organization will outperform last season’s performance by 5% (from X to Y) by the end of 3Q2022.
With a clear understanding of your organization’s strategic recruitment goals, you’re ready to lay out your one page. The layout should consist of four key areas (each space adjusted appropriately to coincide with your data, but NOT to exceed your one page):
The data table is designed to showcase a quick visual (using numbers and colors — such as red, yellow, and green) where your performance is during the timeframe that you are reporting; and, it allows for any analytical/operating leader to quickly perform their own calculations to pivot data that is meaningful for them. There’s a reason as to why C-suite and senior leaders speak the language of data and this is why you lead with it at the top!
For leaders who like to review the visual cues and then obtain the interpretation points, this is where you’ll display your language expertise. Be sure to use alpha points (e.g., A), B), C), D), etc.), so during report-out meetings or discussions you/your leader can easily reference. For example, “In this month’s executive dashboard, you’ll note a 35% increase as seen in point D under By the Numbers. The interpretation points should include highlights of the data table and the important value it presents to your strategic goal (Hint: if the executive leader completely ignores the data table, what are the key takeaways and why is it important?).
Every leader enjoys achieving a goal and learning/sharing good news. By adding this section to the dashboard, you are psychologically incentivizing your leaders to await your dashboard at each cadence. And you have psychologically incentivized yourself, your team, and others around you to get the credit to appear in that section of the dashboard! Keeping this section filled helps to compile at year’s/fiscal’s end, all of the significant successes you and the team have made toward achieving the organization’s strategic recruitment goals (Hint: this list of achievements bodes well for annual performance reviews as well!).
Remember, each executive leader also needs visibility as to what is next and what they need to do to support your efforts. Outlining your action plans prior to the next executive dashboard report helps showcases where performance can be improved, what milestones have yet to be achieved, and how you and your efforts are aligned and poised to make progress to the overarching recruitment goals. The action plans should list who you collaborate with to create accountability and visibility for all. By listing others, you’ll obtain the needed action you required from others, especially in the eyes of the C-Suite and other senior leaders. Action plans give way to purposeful urgency by treating recruitment as a priority to drive collaboration, accountability, and results. Whatever isn’t achieved in the action plan, be willing to provide the reason(s) why during a report-out and more importantly, what actions can then be taken to bring about a solution.
Establish a routine and consistent cadence of reporting for the executive dashboard with your leaders. After all, success is measurable over time. Depending on your organization’s goals, sometimes bi-weekly is appropriate. More often, monthly is seen as an acceptable standard by most executives and times well with overall financial reporting. Creating monthly reports can easily lend into aggregating to quarterly and annual reports. Additionally, each report gives way to complete transparency of the outstanding efforts undertaken to fill difficult physician and advanced practice clinician vacancies.
Creating strong advocates among your C-suite and senior leaders using their language of data while architecting an exceptional executive dashboard are necessary foundation items to be a successful recruitment thought leader for your organization. For a sample Word template of a dashboard, visit the AAPPR library. You can also download the Quick Guide to Building an Effective Executive Dashboard in the Resource Library.
In the next and final part in our C-Suite series, you’ll learn how to align your advocates and your dashboard reporting to individually author your organization’s story of recruitment success!
A new year brings a fresh start, setting new goals and thinking about the future. Now that 2022 has arrived, it also has me reflecting on the events of the past year. The resiliency we collectively have to endure and overcome is inspiring. Even in struggle, I recognize the opportunities for change & innovation that the year brought to our profession. Much of which inspired notable and historic accomplishments for AAPPR and our Members.
In 2021, knowing that our traditional in-person Conference was not going to be an option, AAPPR pivoted and stood up our first ever Virtual Conference, hosting over 600 attendees and offering a virtual translation of our much-beloved annual conference. We held the first ever Leaders Connect in-person event, with a focus for leaders and stakeholders in the provider recruitment space. Additionally, the launch of the AAPPR Academy brings all our tools and resources together for a one-stop, easy to navigate, virtual learning experience.
AAPPR published its very first White Paper – a collaborative effort between the Board and a panel of leaders within our own membership – calling out the alarming trends and shifts we’re seeing in our industry impacted by the pandemic. In complement, AAPPR published 3 research reports on COVID’s impact on physician career changes, recruitment, onboarding, and compensation structure and benefits. In addition, the Annual Benchmark Survey hit a record high number of participants and search data points – inclusive of nearly 170 member organizations and almost 17,000 searches – shattering our prior year record of 11,000 searches.
Being at the forefront of industry trends and shifting landscapes is critical to supporting AAPPR’s strategic imperative of elevating our profession and our members as the source of knowledge and truth when it comes to recruiting and retaining physicians and providers. It is critical to us as a Board in ensuring that we are not only supporting our Members with the tools and resources they need, but always thinking ahead with foresight to advance our profession along the recruitment to retention continuum.
So, in addition to reflecting, we also start to ask, ‘what comes next’?
In 2022, I will reach a milestone in my own career – 20 years working in the physician and provider recruitment. From coordinator to recruiter to consultant to leader, I’ve worked within a multitude of care models, from fee-for-service, multi-hospital integrated academic systems, to capital-backed, technology driven health startups out of Silicon Valley – and everything in between. Experiences like these shape us as professionals and how we see things. The diversity of my own experience has shown me how much variety exists within our profession when it comes to
• how we do our work,
• what drives it and
• who the key contributors are.
The evolution of our industry is remarkable to watch.
Our traditional “in-house” recruiter lines are a bit greyer – with movement of physician and provider recruiters back and forth across the employer vs agency models. We have recruitment teams now that operate purely on production models, particularly those in the VC, pre-IPO space as new care businesses emerge every day and stretch to meet aggressive growth & hiring goals. As leaders in our industry, we need to consistently ask
• What is changing and how can we proactively anticipate the needs that come along with that change?
As we think towards the future, I challenge us to consider what that looks like.
• How is our work evolving?
• Who are the people influencing that change?
• Where are the content experts, the thought-leaders and the experiences that shape how we do our work and touch the physicians, providers, and communities whose lives we impact?
• Are the influencers part of our conversation and, if not, how do we invite them to the table?
• How do we continue to embrace and welcome change in a way that only makes us better – creating opportunity for learning and collaboration across the spectrum of our profession?
AAPPR embraces the change that is occurring and is eager to see what the future holds.
Greetings and Happy Holidays from the AAPPR Board of Directors!
While we wind down the calendar year 2021, I encourage many of you to take some time to reflect. Reflect with your teams on all of the achievements, growth, and successes that have been fostered this year. The AAPPR board of directors met for a final time in 2021 participating in a 2-day session. The first day we met with leaders from our Strategic Corporate Partners and the task proposed was not simple. Our goal was to foster relationships between and among AAPPR and its Strategic Corporate Partners by sharing our insights and engaging in a robust conversation about our collective abilities to influence this profession and generate growth. This blog could quickly turn into a whitepaper if I notated each beg, brag, or what if that the group worked through. Together, with our Strategic Corporate Partners we also explored ways to elevate our industry. Let us just say many ideas were spurred and thoughtful discussion was had. On Saturday, we wrapped up our sessions with a full agenda. We focused heavily on our strategic plan progress and governance details. Please stay updated in 2022 as we roll out new programming material that are truly ground breaking. We welcome new technology such as our chat app that you can download now by searching Connected Community in the App Store. Please be sure that our annual conference is on your 2022 calendar as you prepare for the New Year. We look forward to seeing many familiar and new faces in-person in April at our Chicago annual conference.
On behalf of the AAPPR Board of Directors we wish you a safe and happy holiday season!
One of the highlights of my childhood growing up in Chicago was the Christmas season, especially spending time in the downtown area. Like thousands of others, I remember hopping on the “L-Train” and, once there with anticipation and excitement, visiting the many window displays for the major department stores: Lord & Taylor, Marshall Fields & Co., Carson Pirie Scott & Co., etc. along State Street and the Magnificent Mile (if you’re from the Midwest, you know!) These displays captured the imagination and ‘wow’ of Christmas – all the sights, sounds, and trappings were inescapable. Of course, the store’s goal was to ‘wow’ you enough at the window that you’d come inside. True to form, the window display didn’t come close to the grandeur one witnessed walking through the entire store once inside. I can feel the excitement like I’m there right now!
Over the last 18 months, we’ve witnessed an unprecedented level of national interest, attention, and action centered around Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion – particularly in the corporate/organization space. In fact, in a recent search, I noted over 20,000 vacant ‘Chief Diversity’ officer and similar manager positions in the U.S. alone. Recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce has become priority #1. To succeed in this journey, the first question for organizations to ask is, “Does my organization represent my display window?” It’s a tough question and one that requires a great deal of courage. However, it is precisely the question that you – my physician and provider recruiting colleague – are uniquely qualified to influence and facilitate discussions as C-Suite decision-makers develop organizational strategies and action plans.
From this place of excitement, I invite you to become a part of the AAPPR Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Advisory Council! I’ve always believed the physician recruiter’s natural alignment with the C-Suite is paramount to organizational success, and let’s face it, there’s no one better to guide local D&I efforts than You! I presented the “display window” analogy in my organization, and it simply opened the door for meaningful dialogue that flowed from anxiety to awareness to action. These types of conversations can improve D&I in your local provider workforce and lead an exploration into matters related to healthcare access and equity. The spectrum for opportunity can potentially move your organization to reflect the community it serves!
As your own organization’s resident expert, your role is significant! It’s a principal aim of the AAPPR DEIAC to equip and empower our members to lead these efforts. I look forward to future discussion around productively partnering with your executive leadership to make the organization reflect its public-facing display!
Has anyone noticed how much higher recruiter turnover is these days? Or employee turnover in general? There are a lot of people “on the move”. Many of us are reached out to for positions weekly, and sometimes daily. We are all sought after, and we are all burned out. And who knows, the grass might be greener on the other side??
A July 27, 2021, article on LinkedIn Talent Blog stated, “New Data Shows a Soaring Demand for Recruiters and Where You Can Find More of Them”. This Blog quoted that there are 364,970 Recruiter jobs advertised on LinkedIn Worldwide. And for comparison they stated that there are 342,586 Software Engineers roles open on LinkedIn Worldwide.
Recruiters are in VERY high demand across all industries and all over the globe (not just in healthcare in the U.S.), especially since the world has seen some signs of recovery from the pandemic.
What can we, as individuals, do to keep our teams together? As we all know, strong relationships = strong results. As our friend, Philosopher Aristotle said: “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. As a well-oiled team we can get much more done than each of us individually.
So how can we keep each other engaged and motivated? We probably can’t stop people from leaving for large pay increases or promotions, so how can we let our teams know that we love working together and that we appreciate them?
I started sending handwritten notes to individuals on the team who I felt could use an encouraging word. And when I say team, I don’t just mean those who are in the same department as me. For me a team consists of all who work together for a common goal! I am fully aware everyone is going above and beyond, and everyone works morning, noon, and night in our industry. I want them to know they are appreciated!
I have also started picking up the phone and letting someone know they have done a great job with this hire in this very difficult market. Under “normal” circumstances I might have sent an email: “great job”. That is just too easy! In this electronic and remote day of age, we need more personal touches. Send something small for a birthday, get some people together on a video call and sing “happy birthday” together. We warn everybody before we do this that they most likely will end up with a headache, but they all absolutely love the fact that we take a few moments and celebrate their special day. Do not lose those personal connections and let’s keep supporting each other now more than ever. And when a new recruiter/sourcer/coordinator/credentialer joins your organization, be extra supportive and remember your first few weeks in a new organization. We are all in the same business; making sure our patients have world class care. Let’s do this for them; they deserve a strong team!
It’s Friday, and you have a physician who starts Monday, and the medical staff office hasn’t cleared them for a start. Meanwhile, you have a recent hire who has questions about their offer letter. Oh wait, you have to work with the department for another physician for last-minute coverage? But hang on, you also have to post the internal medicine position your leader wanted two months ago for a start date in the next three months. Then, whoops, your email just notified you that another physician resigned, and a department lead just sent you a text message saying they need an advanced practitioner partner and asking when you can meet to discuss the recruitment strategy. And the list goes on and on. Sound familiar?
As if the day-to-day challenges of recruiting talented physicians and providers weren’t enough, many of us find ourselves asking how we are going to get the job done…in a timely way, under budget, without adding resources, and delivering what seemingly becomes an all-too-often quest to help educate and realign stakeholder expectations.
From becoming and staying a destination employer to having the selectivity of candidate-of-choice, today’s recruitment environment leaves little in the way of maintaining a competitive advantage to recruit exceptional talent.
Undoubtedly, the success you encounter is not easy, and the days of advocacy for your needs are few and far between. But there are ways to stage your best advocates for success — your C-Suite and leaders. Really! Despite the unrelenting question of ‘where’s my hire?’, instilling their needed trust and support for you and your ideas requires not only your knowledge to speak their language, but to do so in a meaningful and effective way to help remove recruitment barriers and level-set expectations for an increasingly competitive market.
The art and science behind the language of the C-Suite and leaders is fueled by none other than data — and, more importantly, the interpretation/translation of that data into action. After all, data points are meaningless numbers without the understanding and recommendations of physician and provider recruitment leaders like you. Data fueling a recruitment strategy yields greater value by the C-Suite and senior leaders for a more effective and efficient approach to recruitment with greater confidence that clinical workforce growth goals can be achieved. Without data and value analysis, the risk of losing millions of dollars in lost revenue, expensive position vacancies, and perhaps costly temporary staffing resources.
For key data and strategies to help your C-Suite and leaders become recruitment advocates, please download our Creating Advocates Among C-Suite and Leadership quick guide.
Ready for more C-Suite/leader language? Be on the lookout for the next blog post, Let the Numbers do the Talking: Developing Effective Executive Dashboards to Showcase Your Success!
It has been 17 months since the COVID-19 Pandemic started, and many of us vacated our offices, never to return. Now we are embarking on the new horizon of the post-pandemic world and where we work. As we enter the fall of 2021, many organizations are making declarations around the future of one’s workplace. A silver lining for me in this is that before the COVID-19 Pandemic, my organization had little to no work-from-home opportunities. Fast forward to now, and my organization is completely on board with offering this option for applicable employees. This newfound flexibility is a welcome game-changer and something that has been a long time coming.
But these changes have not come without testing our resiliency as an industry, as many of us were forced to change how we connect and where we do our work almost overnight. A common personality trait for recruiters is extroversion. We are energized by engaging with our recruits, our stakeholders, and our colleagues. You can feel some of that energy in a virtual format, but it will never be fully recreated. One thing that cannot be recreated in a virtual world is the spontaneity of running into a hiring manager in the hallway and finally getting the answer to that email that has been sitting in their inbox. So much of our work is accomplished ad-lib.
For those of you who may not be returning to the office or for those that will be working a hybrid model of split time between the office and home. How will you continue to foster that engaged energy and impromptu collaboration? I will be working a hybrid schedule officially starting this fall. For the days I am on-site, I will ensure I walk my rounds because I never know who I might run into. For the days that I am home, I have weekly virtual calls scheduled with my colleagues. Even if we do not have agenda items to discuss, I have found these frequent check-ins helpful to feel connected.
It’s been fascinating to hear how our members have also stayed connected. I’ve had the opportunity to sit in on several AAPPR Roundtables. Through this, I learned how AAPPR members, all over the country and Canada, pivoted for continued success in their roles across the provider recruitment spectrum. One theme emerged across these conversations; no one stopped recruiting or doing the work! Rather, they modified, adjusted, and carried on. They were proving that no matter “where you work,” you can still stay connected to your mission, your candidates, and your colleagues, even in a newly modified workplace.
As a member of the AAPPR Board of Directors, it’s important for members to know that as an organization we fully support all of the regional Affiliate groups and encourage you to become involved with one closest to you. In thinking back to the whirlwind of my first year as a new physician recruiter, I had so much to learn in a short time. Nobody goes to school to be a physician recruiter. What stands out from that first year was my predecessor insisting I immediately join the regional ISPR (Illinois Staff Physician Recruiters) and national AAPPR (formerly ASPR) recruiter groups. After joining, I was quickly welcomed to the industry, provided educational resources, and mentors I could call for help. I hope you could say the same when you joined.
As a solo physician recruiter, I quickly felt a sense of security and inclusion within both organizations. AAPPR provided me with instant access to a huge volume of education, technical tools, and other recruiters. I had a place to find the answers to my questions. Yet it was my affiliate group where I distinctly remember the sense of recruiter community to be unique and memorable. I found that I could easily connect with them personally, due to our geographic familiarity and convenience of meeting together. They knew where my little town was and we often had someone in common, like the Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Our meetings and conferences always left me feeling understood and a part of a bigger network.
Today, as a senior recruiter, my affiliate group and AAPPR synergistically allow me to continue grow as a professional. It has provided me with the opportunity to gain leadership experience that is not always available to physician recruiters within their healthcare organization. In my 18 years as a physician recruiter, my affiliate group colleagues are the people with whom I have shared many professional challenges and successes. When I need advice, they have my back and I have theirs.
The Board and I would like to thank all of the Affiliate group leaders for their time and contributions. They appreciate members who get involved so if you haven’t already engaged with your local group – please consider reaching out.
In April, AAPPR held its annual conference virtually with over 600 members across the United States attending. Over two full days we were able to connect with one another and learn from subject matter experts on a wide variety of topics. As we settle into the summer months and ramp up our onboarding season, I am excited to implement new approaches and processes that were takeaways from our annual conference. For example, I have completely updated my recruitment to retention plan. If you’re not making consistent improvements, your recruitment practices will be out of date in no time. It is hard to articulate the true value of AAPPR’s annual conference. Sure, it is educational, and we are able to connect and learn from our peers, but in reality, it is so much more. The annual conference is hands down my favorite event that AAPPR hosts. If you are a new member or haven’t previously attended, I highly recommend that you save the date and attend next year’s conference in Chicago, April 23-27, 2022.
As a member of AAPPR, you already know that new content and programming are generated weekly. The roundtables that began during the pandemic continue to be extremely helpful and a wonderful way for members to get to know one another. As an independent director of a recruitment team, I do not have the opportunity to bounce ideas off peers. Networking and volunteering through AAPPR provide a support system for me and help me to stay up to date on trends in the industry.
Serving on the Board of Directors, I can attest that the leaders of AAPPR have been very strategic over the years to ensure long-term organizational sustainability for our members. We are so fortunate to have an industry association that supports us through relevant content and education events. The AAPPR live webinar series welcomes a number of speakers year-round to discuss trends and hot topics in recruitment. Whether you are new to the industry or a seasoned professional the webinars are a great way to keep up to date on the latest developments from sourcing through interviewing and from onboarding to retention.
Moving into fall, I am looking forward to the return of in person events at regional affiliate meetings and the opportunity to participate in face-to-face discussions with colleagues from other organizations. The mission of AAPPR is to continue to advance the physician and recruitment profession and careers of our members. With the continuing education opportunities offered to our members both in person and virtually, AAPPR remains the industry leader in physician and provider recruitment.
May is Mental Health Awareness month and for me, nothing has stood out more over the past year than how many of us struggle with our mental health and just how prevalent mental health illnesses are. I recall speaking with my therapist last summer about how, while we may not recognize it, we are all experiencing a collective trauma. Living through a pandemic – or any historic and disruptive event – fundamentally disrupts our way of life, way of thinking and sense of safety and security. Then, during the AAPPR Virtual Conference last month, speaker Dian Ginsberg made a comment that really stuck. It was the first time I had even considered it but she acknowledged that through this pandemic, while almost everything shut down, we as physician and advanced practitioner recruitment professionals never really got to stop. Whether you were furloughed, redeployed, impacted by reductions, or were still operating “business as usual” – the urgency around the work we do became so much greater!
Reflecting on that, and in watching the opening videos of conference of what “office life” looked like for us or how we coped living in a world where we could no longer operate within our norms, I found myself being grateful for the support that I found and curious about what all of you did over the past year to bring light into what for many has been a very difficult time. For me, self-care became an even higher priority – and self-care can come in many forms. What we do – and the pressure that comes with it – is not easy. We operate in environments that are often high visibility and high stress. Not only that but we are wearers of many hats and are expected to pivot on a dime at any moment depending on what meeting comes next, what candidate or leader we are talking with or what fire drill is coming at us on any given day. And that can be HARD. So hard.
About 5-6 years ago I found myself in a work situation that was incredibly toxic, to the point where it had an impact on my physical and mental health. I hit a breaking point where I had no choice but to seek help. And through that help I learned so much about myself and my mental wellbeing. I was told that I had likely been operating at an extreme level of depression and anxiety for so long that it was almost unrecognizable – because it was my normal. Years of it. It took hitting rock bottom to realize that but I am so grateful I somehow, somewhere, found the strength to reach out. It changed my life for the better – both personally and professionally. I share this because I believe it is so important to shift the stigma around mental health. And as I speak with our colleagues and we share stories I find that often we are not alone.
The opening 90 second videos from the virtual conference can be found on AAPPR’s Facebook page. There are so many great examples of what work and life has looked like for our colleagues over the past year. I would love to hear from you about how you’ve coped or taken care of yourself over the past year and I would be delighted to share some of my own stories! Watch AAPPR’s social media and Chat channels for posts where you can share stories and photos. And for now I will leave you with just a few simple examples of ways you can look after your own mental health:
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