With the threat of a severe physician shortage looming, smart organizations must target their recruiting practices to their appropriate audiences. A key audience with widespread influence? The millennials.
Millennial physicians are now in the job market—and they aren’t afraid to make a career change. Use this cohort to your organization’s competitive advantage by recruiting their way.
Below are top tips for effectively recruiting millennials:
- High impact, low frequency communications: Millennials want the recruitment process explained to them—from start to finish—at the very beginning of the process. They want to know what to expect and when to expect it. But, once they receive this information, they don’t want to re-receive it in a different format multiple times.
- Text: Millennials prefer texting over email and phone calls. Text the candidates reminders and any short bits of information to make them feel special throughout the process.
- Performance-based: Millennials are partial to performance-based recognition, as opposed to recognition based upon hours worked. This should be an easy “win” for organizations changing their compensation plans to satisfaction- and value-based systems in the era of population health if it is communicated correctly.
- Balance: Millennials place a high value on work-life balance. Organizations on a mission to recruit millennials should emphasize a balanced approach to professional and personal lives and be open to innovative call schedule arrangements.
- Socially Active: Millennials appreciate employers who are active on social media. Be sure to maintain interesting content on social networking platforms other than Facebook, though. Increasingly, millennials are leaving this site in favor of others like Instagram, LinkedIn, and Twitter.
- Recognition and Responsiveness: This group wants to be recognized—and they want things right away. The term we’ve heard thrown around is “google-spoiled.” They don’t know a world in which they don’t have instant access to information—and so they feel entitled to it. They also expect to be recognized for accomplishments. So, if you are going to attract millennials, you must have some performance-based recognition systems in place.
- Opportunities for Growth: Millennials are looking to land in an organization that fosters career-long learning and opportunities for advancement. Stipends for continuing education, conferences, and career trajectory conversations can have a meaningful impact on recruitment—and retention.
Millennials may be challenging to recruit, but they are infinitely more difficult to retain than baby boomers. Their entire perspective about their career trajectory has changed. They aren’t afraid to switch jobs multiple times to find the perfect work-life balance combination. In fact, they assume that they will change jobs multiple times throughout life, and view this flexibility as a way to acquire skills and find the right professional fit.
Although it can seem daunting, with a little strategic planning from a knowledgeable recruitment firm, you can fine-tune your recruitment initiatives to attract the best millennial healthcare candidates to your organization.
