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[Infographic] AAPPR Survey Results: COVID-19 Impact and Response on Physician Recruitment

Published on: Aug 7, 2020

Within a few months, the pandemic has changed the lives of workers across the globe. In the United States we witnessed several changes that will likely be with us for some time to come: a new classification of employees as “essential workers,” a large scale transition to remote-based work and, within the healthcare sector, the growing trend of telehealth services.

  • What are the emerging trends in the physician workplace?

  • How has the pandemic changed the recruitment process and expenditures?

  • How has the pandemic affected the physician candidate pool?

You can find answers to these questions, along with additional workplace statistics from AAPPR’s latest infographic, sponsored by Elsevier.

Let’s look at some key takeaways from the industry survey:

Telehealth Services

One significant emerging trend from the pandemic is the focus on telehealth services and a reliance on virtual technology. The survey shows that 79.8% of survey participants have increased their facility’s offering of telehealth services. This means that recruiters need to identify physicians with not only a solid clinical background but also proficiency with computer applications. On the flip side, there has been a decrease in the utilization of staffing agencies, placing the full responsibility of identifying candidates on internal recruiters. This is no small task in light of the fact that 29.6% of survey respondents indicated a moderate decrease in the physician candidate pool.

aappr_survey_telehealth

Remote Recruitment

Arising from the stay-at-home mandates across the country, non-essential workers in every profession have ditched their commute for a laptop on the sofa, dining table or patio. The survey showed that 90.1% of recruiting organizations instituted a remote-based work style in response to the pandemic. While it sounds good on paper, the transition to a remote based has come with challenges; How to manage remote based employees? How to set up the technology needed to allow everyone access to important information while maintaining security? How to maintain a team-oriented environment? How and when to transition back to office-based work?

Recruitment Process Changes

The recruitment function itself has gone virtual. We see this with regard to sourcing strategy with increased utilization of virtual career fairs, job boards and social media to promote job openings. Video interviews have taken the place of in-person meetings, in some cases using Chatbots to conduct prescreen. The infographic shows that 77.6% of survey participants now conduct interviews on a virtual basis. Job offers and onboarding have also gone virtual for 35.8% of respondents. In the case of onboarding, electronic signatures have become the norm when signing employment paperwork with pre-packaged virtual orientation sessions sent to new hires.

aappr_survey_virtual interview

Hiring Initiatives

Most medical facilities need to hire nurses and other clinicians at scale post-pandemic due to reductions in staff. The infographic shows that 35% of large and 27% of mid-sized organizations have furloughed, laid off or terminated employees, most likely due to the significant decrease in elective procedures.

Compensation

One bright light is that compensation bands have remained relatively stable with 69.7% of respondents indicating that there has been no change in monetary offers. This is not surprising in light of the severe physician and nursing shortage. It’s challenging enough to find top talent without then offering a subpar compensation package.

Download the full infographic below.

AAPPR survey infographic

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