Finding candidates is the first job of any recruiter, and what follows is my six-point plan for attracting the best candidates out there.
First: Five Ways to Write an Attraction- Based Job Description
Telling your company’s story better than anyone else is the beginning to landing A-players. Tell them where your group came from and where your group is going. People want to join what they perceive to be winning teams. Describe your ten-year vision, core values, and core purpose (why you do what you do). This isn’t just a mission statement, it’s a true story that is meant to attract people to you.
Explain why a new team member is needed. Describe how the new team member can be a catalyst and make a huge impact in the group’s overall success. Everyone wants to feel like they are a part of something bigger than themselves.
I have included examples of good attraction- based job descriptions (ABJDs) in the appendix, and here is what each of them has in common:
- Be specific. People are attracted to specifics, not generalities. Write about when you were founded, what awards you have won, your locations, the number of team members, their average tenure, the average time to get promoted or a this makes your company and job seem real and candid.
- Tell how a candidate will fit into the Tell them how they will make a big impact. Tell about why the position is open, where the company is going in the future, and how valuable this specific role is to the future of the company. Also, tell your core purpose—why you do what you do. The best candidates will be most attracted to your vision, core values, and core purpose, and these are likely to be your A-players.
- Show in detail how you value and appreciate your team members. (Don’t call them ) In addition to talking about 401(k) amounts and PTO time, talk about all the little things you do for your team members—birthday lunches, gifts to their favorite charity, turkeys on Thanksgiving, onsite daycare, award recognition, fun team outings, etc. A lot of people are leaving positions because they don’t feel valued and appreciated.
- Include a salary range and bonus range, if it We have found through testing that more people will apply when there’s a salary range. If you offer productivity bonuses, sell it! Nothing excites a high performer more than a chance to be rewarded for high performance.
- Create an attractive headline on top of your ABJD that tells who you are, where you are and what you are looking for all in one Include your name, email, and phone number in the top-right of the posting. People’s eyes tend to move to the top-right. Don’t put it at the bottom. You’ll actually increase your applications by putting it at the top-right. It doesn’t have to be five thousand words long. You want it all to fit in an eight-by-eleven Word document sheet, at eleven- or twelve-point font. It’s okay to use bullet points so it’s easy to understand.
Second: Spread the Word That You Are Looking
You can easily multiply your efforts by finding the right people to help you recruit. Talk to twenty “connectors” and twenty A-players (also called “thoroughbreds”) about what you are looking for and ask them for help. Connectors are people you know in the business who know a lot of other people. As for the other A-players, thoroughbreds run with other thoroughbreds, so contact other A-players. A-players are way more likely to know other high performers. Get the ABJD into their hands and tell them to go find as many as they can. A-players typically know other A-players.
Consider sweetening the pot with these people. Many recruiters offer small referral bonuses of $300 or $500. Think about boosting that to $3,000 or $5,000. If you can, you’ll find those twenty A-players and twenty connectors will do some proactive recruiting for you. When you think about the cost of a job vacancy being anywhere from $63,000 to $93,000 a month, it may be worth it to offer a larger incentive to those connectors and A-players.
Third: Contact State, Local, and Educational Organizations
Get the ABJD into the hands of the local dean of the medical program you are recruiting for or the head of out-placement and ask them to pass it along to new grads or post-grads. Those are highly connected people who know the exact type of person you’re recruiting. Also contact state and local organizations for whatever position you are filling. A Google search will find them; go to their website, call, or email them and find the person who can pass the posting out at their next meeting.
Fourth: Contact Previous Applicants
You should be keeping an internal database of candidates who have previously applied and/or are in your area. Maybe they weren’t a fit for a position a year ago, but now they are. Or maybe you didn’t have an opening for them three years ago, but now you do. You should stay in touch with them via newsletter, email, or content marketing to stay in front of them. Then, when a position opens, go right into your database and send them your attractive job descrip- tion. Ask them if they’re interested—or, if not, ask if they can pass it on.
Fifth: Cold Call
Professional organizations like medical or nursing boards have lists of all their members in their particular region. If you are in Boston, for example, you can get the names of everyone in the organization in a fifty-mile radius of Boston. These people may not have applied, so this is actual, real recruiting. Most everybody avoids this, because nobody likes cold calling, and it’s a time-consuming task. (That’s one of the reasons companies pay us to do it.) But it can be extremely effective. Just ask them for a couple minutes of their time to help you. Then tell your story and ask them if they want more information on it, or if they would be willing to pass your name along to a friend. The fact is, this is where the real A-players are. They are happy where they are, they’re doing a great job for their current employer, and they are not out on job boards looking for something else. This step is the hardest, but it can be the most fruitful step, because the candidates that apply to jobs on job boards are typically always on job boards, and they turn over in positions faster. fthey don’t stay in positions as long,which is not what you want.
Sixth: Post the Job on Multiple Websites
Okay, I just said candidates on job boards may not be the best candidates. So why bother with them? Because at this stage of the process, you are casting as wide a net as possible. We have more than three hundred different online advertisement partners, just because we love the theory of casting a wide net, and there is a chance that we could hook somebody really good from a job board. I want to see all the candidates so I can evaluate them. A lot of healthcare groups rely only on candidates applying to their job; this is a big mistake if you want to build a world-class team.
Stay tuned for the second step in my nine step recruiting and hiring process!
David Wolfe, Owner and CEO of NP Now.
David’s vision for the company is to make NP NOW, LLC the absolute best source for healthcare groups to find the best Nurse Practitioners or Physician Assistants quickly. His main role is finding new healthcare groups to recruit for, coupled with recruiting NPs & PAs and implementing the best overall strategies for the company.
David grew up in Tucson, Arizona and credits his college baseball playing and coaching background with the competitive drive he brings to the recruiting market. He is married to Michelle and they have 5 kids. David enjoys vacations to the mountains of NC with his family, finding the best barbecue around and kayaking.
Contact David at david@npnow.com or 843.494.1253.