QUESTION: How can recruitment costs be minimized?
ANSWER: Costs can be minimized by knowing what costs exist and where.
BobKat recognizes that the expense of selecting, interviewing, and relocating candidates can be considerable. A healthcare facility’s greatest financial cost is tied not only to physician salaries and benefits, but also to those of the numerous highly skilled medical professionals. BobKat understands that the key to minimizing financial exposure is to accurately assess the need for a given medical service in the community, prior to recruiting. BobKat will sit down with you and do that.
Time-to-Fill
When traditional recruiting techniques are moving slowly or ineffectively, the cost of recruiting physicians or highly skilled medical professionals will increase.
What should you consider?
ü Revenue lost. Intuition might suggest that you are saving money on the salary and benefits, until you hire.
Example: Every month without an adequate physician in place equals revenue lost. A recently conducted survey of hospital CFOs found that physicians generate, on the average, more than $1.5 million a year in patient revenue. Result: Each month the needed physician is not on staff can cost a hospital $100,000 or more.
The revenue lost can be much greater when recruiting for some specialties such as cardiovascular surgery ($3,134,615 annual revenue) neurological surgery ($2,364,864 annual revenue) and vascular surgery ($2,216,463 annual revenue).
QUESTION: How can a healthcare facility recover the cost of recruitment, salary, and set-up in a short time?
ANSWER: Get active. In the long run, it’s the cost of inaction that’s highest.
ü Recruiting sources. Thousands of hospitals and medical groups are vying for a limited number of physicians, increasing the difficulty and cost of finding candidates. HR departments are trained and hired to minimize costs and maximize visibility. HR professionals cast a wide net to attract the largest number of candidates: collaborating with residency programs; networking with existing staff and administration; advertising in medical journals and physician websites; sending recruiting letters and direct mail; and exhibiting at physician conventions. Just these costs can range from $2,500 to more than $10,000 per search.
ü Staff or Recruiter Time and Fees. A recent MGMA study found that it takes about 350 man-hours for the recruiting process. That’s nearly three months for a recruiter to source one candidate. In-house recruiters often earn a base salary of $35,000 to $65,000 plus bonuses. If the HR salary is $50,000 and 350 hours are utilized, the cost is $8,400 per recruited highly skilled medical professional.
ü Know the search market and criteria. This is often done through our medical staff plan, which examines population growth in the service area, the incidence of diseases, accessibility of medical services, and practice patterns of current physicians and highly skilled professionals. When need has been established, a search will be conducted efficiently. Poor search methodologies are costly and wasteful.