Oftentimes, the chance of finding your ideal prospect on the first attempt is like randomly opening a dictionary and hoping to land on a specific word; the odds simply aren’t very high.
It can take time and multiple attempts to find the candidate you want for your organization. But what if there was a pool of candidates you would be four times more likely to hire?
According to LinkedIn, that’s the case with employee referrals. Similarly, 82% of employers rated employee referrals above all other sources for generating the best ROI. Here are some reasons why they’re such an effective sourcing tool and result in more recruits:
Quality recognizes quality
Dedicated, dependable and quality employees will recognize others with aligning characteristics. So, when you reach out to your hardest working hires to identify individuals with similar work ethics, their suggestions should be trustworthy; if you value the employee, you’ll likely see value in their opinion and the candidate they’re referring.
Additionally, the individual being referred probably trusts their peer or friend to direct them to an opportunity where they would thrive. When your staff members create this mutual interest between you and the individual they’ve referred, next steps are more likely to happen.
It’s time and cost effective
Whether it’s covering the expenses for a physician to visit your organization or engaging in conversations and interviews to learn more about them, vetting candidates requires money, energy and time. It’s even more costly when you determine they aren’t the right fit for your opportunity.
LinkedIn found that employee referrals can save a company over $7,500 per hire. Additionally, while most hiring methods can take an average of 53 days, referred hires only take an average of 38. Although bringing a provider on board may take longer due to the nature of the role and there being more details to cover during the hiring process, referrals’ effectiveness for cutting down time-to-hire is still significant.
Utilizing referrals can help you avoid exhausting resources on the candidates you’ll eventually stop pursuing and allow you to put more of your budget, energy and time toward the ones you’ll want at your organization. If there’s not already one in place, an employee referral program is a great option for incentivizing your health system’s staff to recommend potential candidates.
Retention receives a boost
Retaining hires isn’t always easy, no matter how well your organization is run. There are always reasons outside your control that a physician will choose to leave, whether it’s to live in another location, create opportunities for their spouse or family members, or even for a needed change of scenery.
However, LinkedIn’s research supports that those who are referring employees are more likely to remain at their organization longer; this is likely because their recommendation has strengthened a sense of pride in their organization and loyalty to the individual they referred.
With greater retention and reduced turnover, positions stay filled, patient volume remains consistent and other staff members can avoid spreading themselves too thin from picking up the slack of a lost hire.
Your health system’s physicians and advanced practice providers can be fantastic recruitment sidekicks if you utilize them. Focus on establishing or strengthening your organization’s employee referral program, and you’ll see just how much your staff’s input can benefit your recruitment and retention efforts, your health system and its work culture as a whole.
Alexandra Cappetta
