The Value of Specialist Medical Recruitment

The Value of Specialist Medical Recruitment: More Than Finding a CV

Recruitment agencies are sometimes seen as offering a service that an organisation can manage itself.

And of course, health services can recruit themselves. They should. Internal workforce, talent acquisition and medical workforce teams know their organisations better than anyone, and they play a vital role in attracting and appointing doctors to their services.

But there are circumstances when health services need additional support or extended reach to take their vacancies to market.

A role might be proving particularly difficult to fill. There may be a genuine workforce shortage in a specialty or location. The internal team might be managing several recruitment campaigns at once, or there may be a senior or critical appointment where it makes sense to make sure the opportunity reaches as much of the relevant market as possible from the outset. That is where specialist recruitment services add real value. 

Our service offering is never about replacing or replicating the organisation’s recruitment capability. It is about adding another layer of market knowledge, relationships, extended reach and candidate engagement when it is needed.

Recruitment works best when it is complementary

There are many roles that health services fill very successfully through their own careers pages, networks, advertising and talent acquisition teams. External recruitment is not necessary for every vacancy.

There are also situations where a health service needs additional recruitment support. A particular specialty may have a very limited pool of available doctors, including internationally. A regional or remote location may make attracting candidates more challenging. A role may require a specific combination of clinical skills, experience or qualifications. Internal recruitment teams may also be managing multiple campaigns and competing workforce priorities at the same time.

In these circumstances, a specialist recruitment agency can provide additional capacity and extend the search beyond the candidates reached through traditional recruitment channels.

This is especially relevant in senior medical recruitment because the most experienced doctors are not actively applying for positions. They are generally not looking at job advertisements or registered with a particular careers page, but they may be open to a conversation about the right opportunity.

A specialist recruiter will identify and approach those doctors directly, introduce the opportunity and discuss if the role is relevant to their personal circumstances and career plans. 

A database is not the same as a network

Most organisations involved in recruitment have access to databases of potential candidates. Health services have their own talent pools and applicant databases, while job boards and professional platforms can provide access to large databases of candidates. Recruitment agencies also maintain databases of candidates.

The database itself is not the differentiator. A database contains data. A professional network is built through what happens after that information is captured.

Specialist recruiters stay in contact with doctors throughout their careers, including when they are not looking for a new position. We might first speak to a doctor as a registrar, then again when they become a consultant, later when they are considering a move into a senior or leadership role, and all throughout their career.

That means the relationship isn’t necessarily connected to one vacancy or one job search.

At Elective Recruitment, we speak to doctors through all stages of their career and life stages. We learn what they are interested in, where they might consider working, what is important to them professionally and personally, who their loved ones are (even the pets), what is important to them too, and what might prompt them all to consider a move. The details are what is important, both to us as consultants and to the doctors as people.

Some doctors we have known and worked with for many years have been placed more than once, at different stages of their careers and into increasingly senior positions. Those relationships give us context that cannot be captured by a CV or a database record.

So when a difficult role comes to us, we aren’t necessarily starting with a list of names and sending out a generic message. We may already know doctors with the relevant experience. We may know who is considering a move, who has recently become available, who has particular career ambitions, or who would consider a location or type of role they hadn’t previously thought about.

We pride ourselves on building relationships with doctors, and that is the difference between having access to data and a professional network.

A database can help you find contacts. A network gives you a reason to call, historical conversations to draw on, and an understanding of what might make an opportunity relevant to an individual.

Those relationships take years to build.

The conversations are different

This is probably one of the most valuable parts of what a recruiter can do differently to an employer.

When a doctor speaks directly to a potential employer, the conversation quite rightly focuses on the organisation, the role, the department and the opportunity.

When a doctor speaks to a recruiter, the conversation can start somewhere else: with the doctor.

What are they actually looking for? Where are they in their career? What do they want professionally over the next few years? What matters to them outside work? What does their family need? Would their partner be able to relocate? Are their children at an important stage of schooling?

The individual might want a bigger department, a particular clinical opportunity, more flexibility, research opportunities or a pathway into leadership. Sometimes the role we are discussing isn’t right for them at all, and that is useful information too.

Our role isn’t simply to persuade someone to take a particular job. It is to understand the person well enough to know whether an opportunity actually makes sense for them.

One conversation can open up the market

Because we aren’t representing just one organisation, we can have a broader conversation with a candidate about the market.

A doctor might tell us they are thinking about relocating but aren’t sure where they want to go. They might be considering a move from public to private practice. They might want a leadership position but haven’t actively searched for one. They might be interested in regional Australia, but only if the professional and family circumstances are right.

Our job is to understand those priorities and talk to them about the opportunities that might fit. What often transpires in those conversations is that the role we originally contacted them about, is not the best fit, but we can offer access to other possibilities that align with their goals.

This broader conversation is one of the biggest differences between speaking to a recruiter or a potential employer.

The right person isn’t always the person looking for a job

Headhunting and relationship based recruitment is a huge advantage. Often the strongest candidates for the role are not actively applying for positions. They may be perfectly happy where they are and have not looked at a job board in years. The best talent for senior and transformational roles are genuinely busy and often not considering a new role until someone approaches them with an opportunity that could be a great fit.

The approach isn’t about trying to convince someone to leave a job they are happy in but rather ensuring sure the right people have the opportunity to hear about a role and decide for themselves whether it is worth exploring.

Sometimes that conversation goes nowhere, but sometimes it leads to a candidate who would never have applied directly becoming interested in the position. 

Recruitment is valuable when the market is difficult

There are situations where external recruitment support is always needed. Hard-to-fill roles, global workforce shortages, geographically challenging positions, specialist or niche appointments and critical roles can all benefit from a more proactive approach.

External support can also be useful when an internal team is managing multiple campaigns or competing priorities and simply needs some additional capacity.

For senior or sensitive roles, a targeted and confidential approach may be more appropriate than relying solely on advertising.

In all of these situations, the value isn’t just in processing an application. It is in extending the organisation’s reach into the market and having conversations with people who may otherwise never have heard about the opportunity.

Good recruitment is consultative

A significant amount of consultation happens on both sides of a placement.

We talk to clients about what the market is telling us and offer access to confidential feedback and market intelligence that may not be provided through direct enquiries. Sometimes a role can be made easier to recruit simply by understanding what the market is offering and what candidates are currently looking for.

We have those same honest conversations with candidates. What are they looking for? What would make them move? What do they need to understand before they make a decision?

That two-way market intelligence can be extremely useful, particularly when recruiting into a tight medical workforce market.

A recruitment fee reflects the work behind the introduction

When a successful placement is made, the most visible parts of recruitment are usually the CV and the invoice.

This makes the process look simple. A CV arrives, the client interviews the doctor, an appointment is made and a recruitment fee is paid. The initial CV is only the visible part of a much larger process that happens in the background, which is sometimes years in the making.

Before a client receives a CV, a specialist recruiter may have spent considerable time identifying and speaking with many more potential candidates, researching backgrounds, approaching them directly, having conversations about their career and personal circumstances, understanding what they are looking for and determining whether the opportunity is genuinely relevant to them.  

A doctor who isn’t actively looking for a job may need to understand why a role is worth considering. They will have questions about the location, the department, the clinical workload, remuneration, professional opportunities, their partner’s work, their children’s schooling or what life would actually look like if they moved. We often engage external financial advisors to discuss the financial implications of a move for the individual before any contract is signed.The recruiter brings all that information, certainty, and understanding back to the client.

A doctor may have been known to a recruiter for years before their CV ever reaches a particular health service. They have had multiple conversations about their career, considered different opportunities before deciding that this particular role is worth exploring because the recruiter understands what matters to them.

Much of this work is invisible to the client because, when it has been done well, it ensures the process is seamless for both the client and the doctor.

A successful appointment also doesn’t show the doctors who were approached but weren’t interested, the conversations that established why they weren’t interested, or the market feedback that helped the recruiter understand why a role was proving difficult to fill.

The CV is presented once the largest part of the work is done. Recruitment fees reflect a much larger body of work, relationships, knowledge and activity that sits behind it.

Recruitment should add to what clients already do

The best client relationships are not about an organisation outsourcing recruitment, they are collaborative.

The client brings its knowledge of the organisation, the department, the role and its workforce and the recruiter brings market reach, candidate relationships, specialist knowledge, headhunting capability and a different kind of conversation with potential candidates.

Internal recruitment remains essential. External recruitment has a different role to play.

The question isn’t whether an organisation can recruit its own doctors, it is whether, for a particular vacancy, there is value in taking a different approach. 

Only the health service can determine the cost and impact of a vacancy remaining unfilled, and whether external recruitment support is warranted. Our role is to be there when that additional support is needed, whether that is from the outset or further into a recruitment campaign, and to provide whatever assistance the client requires.

What can a specialist recruitment partner add?

For clients, specialist recruitment can provide:

• Access to a broader market through established relationships with doctors who may not be actively applying.
• Headhunting and proactive search for difficult or critical appointments.
• A different conversation with candidates, focused on their career, family, professional goals and circumstances as well as the role itself.
• Market intelligence about candidate expectations, availability, competing opportunities and remuneration.
• Additional capacity when internal teams are managing other priorities or multiple recruitment campaigns.
• Specialist knowledge of the medical workforce and the particular challenges of recruiting doctors.
• Independent consultation to help both the client and candidate understand whether an opportunity genuinely fits.
• Ongoing relationship management throughout the recruitment process.

Where Elective Recruitment fits

We believe the best recruitment relationships are partnerships, with the client and recruiter working together towards the same outcome.

When the market is tight, the role is critical, the right candidate is unlikely to be actively looking, or the internal team simply needs additional reach and capacity, a specialist recruiter can bring something different to the process.

We don’t just want to know whether a doctor matches a job description. We want to understand the person, the client and the market well enough to know whether there is a genuine opportunity for the two to work together. Ultimately, recruitment isn’t just about filling a vacancy. It’s about helping the right people find the right opportunity, and helping organisations reach people they might not otherwise have reached.

If you are looking for market insights, workforce trends, a difficult-to-fill role, or if we can simply point you in the right direction, don’t hesitate to get in touch. 

We are always happy to have a conversation and help where needed. Contact our team today for a confidential chat and let us guide you every step of the way.

About the author

Emma Gordon is Director of Elective Recruitment, with 18 years’ experience in specialist medical recruitment across Australia.