How To Talk To Healthcare Recruiters
Searching for a job can be a tedious and boring exercise. Regardless of which post you are searching for, finding suitable opportunities is often a daunting task. However, headhunters and recruiters can help make this process as smooth and effective as possible.
Their experience coupled with their networking ability can be vital assets to match job seekers with openings in hospitals and healthcare facilities. The headhunters and recruiters in the healthcare industry focus on matching the best candidates with the best available opportunity hence knowing how to attract them can be beneficial to job seekers.
As an example, healthcare recruiters and healthcare headhunters help talented professionals directly connect with potential job opportunities, learn about new positions, and act as a go-between for hospitals, healthcare facilities, and qualified candidates.
What do healthcare recruiters do?
Before getting to know how to attract recruiters, it is vital to have a basic understanding of what headhunters and recruiters do. Understanding their work will help potential candidates and job seekers know how valuable a recruiter can be for them.
Subsequently, this will go a long way in understanding the importance of attracting them and the potential benefits that await anyone who masters the art of communicating with and attracting headhunters during your job search.
1. Carry Our Intensive Interviews
Headhunters and recruiters in the healthcare industry interview potential candidates to try and gauge their suitability for available openings. The meetings serve to help the headhunters understand job seekers better and find the best job possible for their abilities.
These intensive interviews are designed to evaluate a candidate's interests, their prior experience, their skill set, certifications or licensures in the healthcare industry, and their knowledge as it relates to the position they are applying for. Because recruiters and headhunters often act as a go-between on a contract basis for organizations or hospitals that have hired them to find candidates for certain positions or openings, headhunters and recruiters often try to narrow down the pool of candidates to figure out which ones are best suited for particular positions — so they can present those candidates to the hospital or healthcare facility that has contracted their efforts.
Successful applicants are notified and offered opportunities in collaboration with the hospital or healthcare facility while the remaining applicants may be kept in a pool for future openings.
2. Review the curriculum vitae or resume of applicants
The number of potential job seekers is often too large for hospitals or healthcare facilities to handle on their own. They cannot adequately review all the resumes they receive on a daily basis for the potential hundreds of openings they have at any given time. Therefore, they outsource recruitment efforts to professional recruitment firms.
The resources available to headhunters allow them to consider the curriculum vitae and resumes of all the applicants and make the relevant determinations like a candidate's suitability to a job. In eliminating some of the responsibilities that HR departments have to deal with, human resource professionals can focus on more important matters like evaluating candidates, educating job seekers about the facility, dealing with HR issues, and more.
While it isn't often that headhunters or recruiters are hired to review the CVs or resumes of applicants, it's not unheard of to hear that a hospital or healthcare facility has outsourced a considerable amount of work to headhunters and recruiters in the ever-expanding healthcare industry.
3. Assigning Employees to Categories
Headhunters and recruiters often have access to a large pool of potential employees. Hospitals and healthcare facilities are usually aware of this; hence they try to leverage this to get the best candidates by outsourcing some of their recruitment efforts.
The headhunters are, therefore, are responsible for allocating job seekers to a wide range of opportunities from numerous hospitals and healthcare facilities by assigning employees to categories. This means that hospitals and healthcare facilities can be given access to the list of employees or potential candidates in the event they would like to search and evaluate candidates that the recruiter or headhunter has identified or interacted with in the past.
4. Communication
Headhunters and recruiters serve as a link between the employer and potential employees/candidates. Therefore, it is their responsibility to ensure that there is effective communication flowing in both ways. They communicate vital pieces of information to potential candidates such as job responsibilities, facility or hospital information, terms of employment, and the goals of the potential employee if they were hired in the role they were being interviewed or considered for.
This information is critical in ensuring that the needs of both the employer and those of potential employees are met and considered when the candidate selection process is underway.
5. Background checks
Sadly, the hyper-competitive job market has resulted in some potential employees exaggerating or even completely falsifying their qualifications to be more suitable for jobs. Headhunters and recruiters have been tasked with the evaluation of candidates which often includes evaluating whether or not their credentials, experience, and history aligns with their applications, resumes, and cover letters that they submitted when they filled out the job posting they were considering.
Headhunters perform rigorous background checks on job seekers and check their credentials, transcripts and even references. This serves to ensure that the allocated candidates are the best candidates possible from populated pools or sourced candidates. In addition, this helps employers and hospitals evaluate whether or not a candidate is consistent in their background checks because they often conduct their own as well.
6. Negotiations
Negotiations can be a daunting exercise for hospitals and healthcare facilities. Not to mention they take up countless hours of back and forth dialogue between the hospital and candidate. These resources can be better spent elsewhere, and negotiations aren't often the strong suit of the hospital or healthcare facility. Negotiations are an important part of the candidate evaluation, selection, and hiring process so it must be taken care of by qualified professionals who can negotiate well.
To combat this potential time waster, hospitals and healthcare facilities will outsource the negotiations process to headhunters and recruiters. Headhunters and recruiters will often be given guidelines on the negotiation boundaries that include the minimum and maximum salary they are willing to pay, the benefits package they are willing to offer, additional employment concerns, documentation to sign, expected start date, and more.
Headhunters and recruiters understand that negotiations can be a tedious process, and often take several days because both parties involved would like to consider whether or not the offer they are presented with is the one that they'd like to move forward with.
The headhunters iron out issues like remuneration and hiring agreements among others we've highlighted. The negotiation process helps establish additional levels of trust and guidance between the recruiter and job seeker because the job seeker is relying on the recruiter and headhunter to represent them in the negotiation process and attempt to get them the best employment contract.
Reasons Why You Should Talk To Recruiters When Searching For a Job
Many job seekers have negative opinions or have heard bad things about working with recruiters or headhunters from their friends or peers, but there are plenty of reasons that you should still consider working with them to help you find a job in the healthcare industry. Recruiters offer plenty of benefits to job seekers who are struggling to find potential job openings, connect with employers and organizations that are hiring, and identify areas where they can improve in their job search.
1. They Can Save You Time
Headhunters are entirely devoted to the recruitment process and have access to ample opportunities that you may not access let alone find out on your own. For instance, headhunters and recruiters often get notified about a potential opening before it's made public so they can get a head start on their efforts. Their experience and networking give them access that you should be looking to leverage if you want to save time.
This will keep you from dropping your applications at hospitals with no openings and always being on the lookout for opportunities that may never come. Instead, headhunters and recruiters can help you save time and effort by informing you about which job opportunities you should be pursuing, learn about new positions that have recently become available, and more.
2. Allows You To Network on a Larger Scale
Headhunters are still growing their connections by keeping a database of other applicants, hiring organizations, meetups, and calls amongst others. This helps them identify potential candidates in the future without having to do more work, and also enable job seekers to become aware of potential employers that they could potentially network or interact with.
Engaging the services of a headhunter can allow you to leverage their connections and make your job search as effective and efficient as possible. Job seekers and candidates can leverage their pool of potential networking opportunities and increase their chances of landing a job with ease in the healthcare industry.
3. They Will Help You Through the Job Search Process
As the number of healthcare professionals increases because of the massive demand for growth in the healthcare industry, there is increasing competition for the job opportunities that become available. To distinguish between applicants, the job marketplace comes up with best practices and new criteria to evaluate employees.
Headhunters can show you these best-practices and tips to help guide you through your job seeking process to ensure you are in the best position for the job. For those job seekers who haven't conducted a job search in many years or are unfamiliar with all of the rapid changes that the process can be, this is a great way for them to catch up on the changes and ensure they are doing all they can to increase their chances of landing a position.
4. Headhunters Want You To Get The Job
Headhunters often get paid depending on the number of professionals they hire or recommend for hospitals and healthcare facilities. This puts pressure on them to place as many professionals as possible that will last 60 days or 90 days. This means that not only are they looking for candidates, but they are also looking for qualified candidates. Therefore, engaging with them will add another person who is equally or more invested in you eventually getting that job.
This helps job seekers because their job search efforts aren't limited to one person, instead, it becomes a collaborative effort with a recruiter, sometimes multiple recruiters, who are working to help you identify potential job opportunities that align with your skill set and experience.
5. Remaining In Their Database
In as much as headhunters and recruiters must place someone in a hospital or a healthcare facility, the applicants often exceed the opportunities. To combat this, headhunters and recruiters will store the candidates with their applications, resumes, and cover letters in a database to call upon it in the future when new job opportunities become available. Successful applicants or candidates who are exemplary are placed while those that are unsuccessful are placed in a database.
From this database, the headhunters can always come back and put the best applicants in the most convenient hospitals and healthcare facilities whenever an opportunity arises. This helps headhunters and recruiters save money by reducing the amount of money they have to spend in the future when trying to target or attract potential job seekers to apply for the recently opened positions.
6. Access To More Jobs
Even though jobs are often advertised, a significant number of jobs are not placed on job boards. Hospitals and healthcare facilities prefer getting pre-qualified candidates from recognized headhunters and recruiters that know how to source candidates in ways that aren't traditional.
Engaging headhunters or recruiters will not only allow you as a job seeker to access jobs boards but also be open to those opportunities that are not placed on job boards and have been posted elsewhere or yet to be posted anywhere. This will significantly increase your likelihood of getting the job.
7. They Can Help You Better Use Your Specialized Skills
For fields that aren't the healthcare industry, the number of qualified candidates may be less than the available positions. When compared to the healthcare industry, there are plenty of qualified healthcare professionals but they might not be the perfect match for the job. The key is to evaluate which qualified professionals match the perfect job for them.
Headhunters are often aware of the eligible potential employees and can help professionals get into hospitals or healthcare facilities where they can settle in quickly and be productive with their skill set and prior experience.
The headhunters' familiarity with clients needs can be an asset for you to use in your job search.
How To Attract Recruiters
Now that you understand what a recruiter does, and why they are beneficial to potential job seekers, we're going to discuss how you actually go about attracting recruiters.
1. Start Now
While you might not be actively looking for a job at the moment, preparing for the future can be beneficial to you. Building a good reputation amongst headhunters and recruiters can come in handy now or even shortly.
If you are perceived as someone passionate, helpful, enthusiastic and even reliable from this early stage, your impressive reputation can be useful to you when you are looking for a job in the future.
2. Do Your Best In Your Current Situation
Doing the best you can in your current position can earn you a glowing recognition and subsequently, make you attract the interest of top headhunters and recruiters who are looking for qualified professionals.
While you are forgiven for thinking that this might jeopardize your job seeking efforts, focusing on your job will make you deliver noticeable results that might attract the attention of headhunters. For instance, if you're delivering quality results at your current job and accomplishing plenty of fantastic things in your current role, new opportunities will find their way to you from word of mouth.
Remember, hospitals want the best, and if you establish yourself as one of the best in the industry, than headhunters will wish to you to place you in the right place and build their reputation themselves.
3. Put Yourself Out There
It may take you more than doing your best professionally to be noticed by headhunters or recruiters. You may choose to go the extra mile and get your name out there via print media or even attending seminars and conferences to potentially develop additional networking relationships. Try and publish in a field journal or also offer to be part of a delegation of your hospital for industry events.
In addition, another way for you to put yourself out there is to reach out to recruiters in the healthcare industry and let them know that you're currently open to pursuing new opportunities or that you're potentially interested in reviewing options. Another way to do this is to use professional networking websites like LinkedIn where you can set your profile as "Currently Open To Recruiters" or "Currently Open to job Offers".
This will put you out there and make it more likely for you to be noticed by headhunters and recruiters who are always scouting for talented professionals in such places.
4. Build a Presence Online
Online traction has continued to play a crucial indicator of one's reputation. Particularly with the increasing adoption of internet, technology, and social media in the realm of recruitment and hiring. Professional platforms such as LinkedIn are becoming more critical for headhunters and recruiters to scout and identify potential employees.
Ensuring that you have positive traction on such platforms is likely to guarantee that headhunters will come knocking at your door to fill vacant positions that may excite you.
What Recruiters Look for on LinkedIn
Understand what it is that recruiters do and how to attract them is one thing, but the best way to separate yourself from some of the other candidates that you're competing against when pursuing new job opportunities is to understand what recruiters look for on LinkedIn.
1. Available Job Seekers
If any opportunities are available or will be available shortly, headhunters want people who they know are currently available to fill them. Turning the "Open To Opportunities" feature on LinkedIn can help you notify headhunters of your availability.
This is different from adding a "searching for a job" on your title on LinkedIn. LinkedIn allows you to turn this feature on making you visible to specific searches by headhunters that are looking for certain keywords, years of experience, and more. Making yourself available is the first step to understanding what recruiters look for on LinkedIn because they are interested in finding job seekers or candidates that can potentially match roles they have been contracted to fill for employers.
2. Your Career Interests
Thankfully, LinkedIn allows job seekers to customize their accounts such that they are more appealing to headhunters and recruiters. You should leverage the platform to choose industries, locations, and job titles that match your requirements.
This will communicate your tastes and preferences to potential headhunters hence attract the right opportunities for you and also draw the attention of the headhunters. Carefully filling your interests can play a crucial role in understanding what recruiters look for on LinkedIn.
3. Optimize Your LinkedIn Profile
Unfortunately, some professionals are yet to optimize their profiles on LinkedIn. This is costing them as it affects their visibility in search results. LinkedIn allows you to have up to 50 skills, so it is up to you to maximize this feature and have as many skills as possible can on your platform.
Make good use of keywords throughout your LinkedIn profile, as searchers are likely to search for you using those. When you feature them on your profile, you can you show up when people search for someone with your skills or experience.
4. Build Your Professional Network
With LinkedIn, headhunters and recruiters are always on the lookout for stars, so you need to network if you want to increase your likelihood of getting that job you've always dreamed of or have been keeping your eye on.
Joining professional groups and leaving expert comments on relevant subjects will get you noticed and, subsequently, approached. Ask those people ahead of you professionally for insights and reach out to headhunters. One way that you can help others and increase your notoriety on LinkedIn is by offering to be a mentor in their new mentorship program.
This can get you seen. This is a vital step of understanding what recruiters look for on LinkedIn because recruiters and headhunters don't want average employees to represent, they want star-studded and exemplary professionals.
How To Reach Out To Recruiters on LinkedIn
1. Find the Right Person
It is essential that you do your research before even thinking of reaching out to a potential headhunter or recruiter. Failure to do your homework will reflect poorly on you and will often irritate those individuals who you have mistaken them for because you're wasting their time. Find a headhunter or recruiter who specializes in the healthcare industry and works near your location or with organizations around you.
To maximize your efforts, you want to get in touch with those individuals who can actually help you in your job search efforts for the industry and job you're pursuing by reaching out to those individuals who recruit for roles that you're interested in.
2. Send a Personalized Request For Connection
It is essential for you to choose your words before sending a connection. Merely sending the application to connect will not be as effective as one with a personable message. A well crafted personalized message will help you get that acceptance to connect faster, as the person you are requesting to connect with will feel a greater sense of trusting you and developing a relationship with you.
Start the message with a catchy introduction line like a similarity between the two of you. This can be helpful as you try to discover how to reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn and potentially learn how to attract recruiters on LinkedIn.
3. Send Out Your Resume
Once a professional headhunter has accepted your connection request, then it may be time for you to send out your curriculum vitae or resume. You can do this either via the email address available on their contact information or through a LinkedIn message.
Additionally, you can send out a message that ought to describe your qualifications and experience. You should also indicate what you are currently looking for in brief and concise sentences.
Recruiters can be a useful strategy if one wishes to look for a job without undergoing the rigorous traditional process job hunting involves. It is imperative that you know how to attract recruiters on LinkedIn and how to reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn.
Knowing what recruiters look for on the platform can help you secure that opening you've been hoping for if you identify an opportunity and execute a good strategy you learned while knowing how to reach out to recruiters on LinkedIn.
For more information on recruiters, take a look at our blog post on Recruiter and Headhunter secrets: 20 Secrets Healthcare Recruiters Don't Want You To Know.
