A few representatives from NP Now attended the ASPR conference in Orlando last month, and they were particularly impressed with Paul Olzak’s discussion on the topic, “How to Get Your Emails Read.” We were fortunate to be able to have an interview with him in order to further learn from his expertise.
Paul H Olzak, MBA, FASPR, CMSR is the Medical Staff Development Officer at Lake Health in Cleveland, OH. As a leader in the Healthcare Provider Recruiting industry, Paul Olzak has been at the forefront redefining the traditional In-house Provider Recruiting role. In his position as Medical Staff Development Officer at Lake Health in Cleveland, Ohio, Paul integrates collegial interaction, analytics and provider experience expertise to drive a differentiated recruitment strategy.
“Recruiting has been my exclusive focus for the past four years, supplemented with a strong background in healthcare business development and strategy. Providers are an integral part of the business development equation and I honed the soft skills necessary to communicate well with them. I was already comfortable discussing the various medical specialties so recruiting was a natural extension of my expertise.”
1. Why did you decide to speak on the topic, “How to Get Your Emails Read”?
With a 56.3% annual average open rate on initial emails coupled with a 22% annual prospect to candidate conversion rate, I wanted to share the best practices that got us here.
In the summer of 2015, after reviewing our recruiting email process, it was clear it lacked direction and measurability. We needed all the tools we were using for recruiting to be effective and efficient.
In January 2016, we completely overhauled the process, creating a forward thinking, proactive strategy for recruiting that is measurable and engaging. As we track the conversion of prospects to candidates, email continues to contribute to our candidate pool at a rate we deem worth the investment of time and energy.
Without incurring any additional cost, we crafted many versions of subject lines and job descriptions over the last 3 years. We trial them. We keep what works well and continue to seek improvement.
I’m sure we haven’t maximized our effectiveness of our email process but we are putting up big numbers with a 56.3% annual average open rate and a 22% annual prospect to candidate conversion rate. We’re going to keep this tool working for us.
2. What are your 3 biggest takeaways regarding your discussion recruiters can easily implement?
- The subject line must include: Geographic location, organization name and specialty
- 43 characters is your max. Geographic location, organization name and specialty, in this order, need to squeeze into the first 43 characters of a subject line. Forget a clever or flowery subject line. Most views are on a hand held device and subject lines, on average, get cropped at 43 characters.
- Bullet points are the body of the email. List the 8 aspects of the opportunity that relate:
- # providers
- Work location(s)
- # Hospitals to serve
- Office hours
- Call ratio
- EMR
- # pts seen per day / shift
- CME time and budget
(Forget listing “competitive salary and benefits” – it’s assumed and expected).
3. If they implement these 3 takeaways, what is the biggest benefit that they will see?
You’ll engage a larger number of prospects, creating a larger, qualified, candidate pool because of:
- Higher initial open rates on prospecting emails
- Higher open rates on follow up mails to prospects
- Your differentiating information is in bullet point format which reads quickly and clearly
4. What is the biggest mistake you see recruiters making within this topic?
There is a common misconception that a vague subject line will prompt the prospect to open the email based on curiosity. Or sharing the location in the subject line may scare off a prospect if the recruiter believes the location is not attractive.
And there is a belief that the candidate can be talked into the opportunity if they can be engaged. This may be somewhat true but the reality is that these types of candidates have the highest placement turnover rate.
Another mistake is ignoring the power of bullet points. Bullet points read quickly and easily on a hand held device.
By Dorothy Blalock, Director of Brand Management at NP Now