The Increasing Demands on Internal Recruitment Departments

Internal healthcare executive talent acquisition is changing dramatically for many provider organizations. Health systems are consolidating, and as a result of tighter budgets, some entities opt to conduct executive recruitment. This decision means organizations must expand training for their recruitment teams to help them understand new ways to find top executive talent in the market. They also need to find recruiters with experience in executive recruitment and who understand the complexity involved with this level of search.

As healthcare moves from volume to value, recruiting candidates with the background needed for executive-level positions is becoming more difficult. More relevant skill sets are required for executives to lead well in today’s environment,including an understanding of managed care contracting, population health, and clinical integration. Additionally, new leadership attributes are in demand by hiring managers to compete in the changing market. One of the top in-demand attributes is a strategically focused and inspirational leadership style that motivates others to reach new goals and helps set a vision for the future. Finding executives with these levels of experience is becoming more challenging in the healthcare talent market. The usual methods of recruiting have had to change, and a more proactive and network-based recruiting approach is required to find top talent. Posting positions and waiting for talent to send in resumes is no longer an effective search method. Identifying great talent requires a deeper focus on the candidate’s personality and leadership style. More importantly, the candidate’s personality and behavioral dynamics must match the culture of the organization and the specific team they will oversee.

There are a couple of ways to draw out these dynamics during the recruitment process. One is to ask behavioral-based interview questions that focus on examples of how the candidate would handle certain situations. Further, ask the candidate to describe their leadership style and the type of culture where they lead well. One of the most dynamic ways to do this is to talk in more detail with the individual’s references about their leadership style by attaining examples of how they handled certain situations, and ask for the reference’s opinion of how that person will fit with the culture of the new organization. Behavioral assessments are becoming a favorite tool in understanding a candidate’s behavioral and personality tendencies. Thus, recruitment teams must be skilled in how to interpret these results and tailor their interview based on the outcomes. These recruitment best practices require more in-depth processes and time commitment for internal talent acquisition teams. They also call for the health system to provide more training for their recruitment teams, which takes time, money, and staff.

At Coker Group, we continually look at ways we can better serve healthcare organizations in the constantly changing recruitment market. We realize that the changes place an added burden on recruitment teams. As a result, our executive search and leadership development division has launched a customized recruitment offering that allows organizations to get assistance with the phases of the hiring process where they feel they need the most help. With this support, the team can assume the areas of the process where they feel they are more comfortable and have the staff to manage.We offer a phased recruitment package that allows organizations to partner with Coker Group for support in each critical phase of the placement process. As an example, Coker Group may only conduct the sourcing for candidates for a specific position. If, after this point, the entity needs additional help,it can engage Coker Group to do more in-depth screening and vetting of the candidates. In some instances, organizations can be overloaded with open positions. Here, they have the option to engage Coker Group to complete the rest of the search process, which includes the in-person interviews, reference checks, behavioral assessments, and the coordination of on-site interviews.