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Behind the Curtain: Confessions of a Healthcare Recruiter

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My name is Luke Long, I am a travel therapy recruiter for Cirrus Allied, a national rehab-specific travel division. I have close to 7 years experience in recruiting healthcare professionals, with a majority of that time being my career in travel rehab therapy.
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Top 5 Red Flags When Choosing a Travel Company

b95ba7478192304e827fd1856ee90efb-mega-redflagsblog.jpgAt the time of this post, there are hundreds of companies in the US offering assignments for a wide variety of healthcare travelers. Some are long-standing nurse firms, some are locum firms for physicians, some are therapy, and some do a little bit of everything. As a traveler, one of the most important decisions you will make getting started with travel (or moving to another company) is which company will best represent you. Here are some red flags to think about as you interview a potential company and recruiter for your next assignment search:
 
 

5.)  Your recruiter seems to work with everything and everyone he or she can

What does your company staff? If you are a physical therapist, you’ll be much better off working with a company or division that works exclusively with rehab. If your recruiter is working with therapists, nurses, physicians, and other medical professionals, how confident can you be in their knowledge of your profession? Is the company looking for the easiest way to make fast placements, or are they dedicated to a marketplace they know and understand?
 
With the decline in nurse staffing over the past two years, there have been a lot of nurse staffing firms trying their hand at rehab therapy and physician staffing….some are good, some are not so good. Be sure you understand what your company focuses on, and how dedicated they are to what you do. If the marketplace you’re in suddenly experiences a brief decline, will you still be supported, or will your company move to the ‘next hot market?’   The old adage “jack of all trades, master of none” is very important to keep in mind when working with a recruiter.
 
4.) Promises, high pay, and unbelievable offers

Before I open this proverbial can of worms, let me get something out of the way. For every ‘bad’ company you will come in contact with, there are other great companies that put a lot of emphasis on integrity and professional conduct. There are also a lot of companies that stay true to their word, and they strive to keep the marketplace and the business of recruiting healthcare travelers legitimate. This red flag is not for those companies, but for the ones that give us recruiters and staffing agencies a bad name.
 
A lot of the tactics we see companies using come straight out of a high-pressure sales environment. It’s not a big surprise that a lot of the ‘fly-by-night’ companies jumping into this market are hiring recruiters that formerly worked in mortgage underwriting, auto sales, retail sales, or debt collection. While there’s nothing wrong with how one chooses to make their money, the tactics used to ‘close a deal’ on a showroom floor have no place in a professional placement environment. Sometimes you will have a company guarantee the highest rate, but once you hear 4 different companies all guaranteeing the best possible rate for you, who do you believe? Keep in mind that there are some differences in offers from agencies, but it has to stop somewhere. At the end of the day, we all work with a lot of the same clients, and the market dictates the rates offered to medical professionals…..not the agencies.
 
 3.) Bait and switch

Another tactic is the ‘bait and switch.’ This tactic is a dirty retail trick that is making its way into other businesses….especially travel. A company calls you with a great position in an awesome location (San Diego, CA, Hawaii, Miami, FL, Aspen, CO) knowing that a lot of people would LOVE to take a job there.  Once you send your information to that company to grab this great opportunity, you get a call back with some bad news – the job is closed, BUT, we have a great job in xxxx…. Sound familiar? Retail companies have had to deal with lawsuits due to this tactic - they advertise a great deal on a product, only to tell you they are sold out of the discounted product when you get there. Coincidentally, they have plenty of a similar product in stock that is not on sale.
 
Granted, these “dream jobs” do open up from time to time, but they’re more of the exception than the rule. Companies look to bring on travelers because they have an unexpected vacancy in their full-time staff….this could either be someone unexpectedly leaving, a lack of PRN coverage, or a staff member going on leave for any number of reasons. In a popular destination, it is not hard for these companies to find professionals directly to fill these needs. In a large city with a large population of healthcare professionals, these facilities usually have a healthy PRN pool that they can pull from to get them through their needs.  Be sure to find out why the client in this location has a need, if your agency is communicating with them directly, and how soon you could expect to hear back from the facility once you agree to submit your info. If the agency can’t answer these questions, this should be cause for proceeding with caution.
 
How do you separate an honest mistake from a sales tactic? Jobs open and close on  a daily basis, and it's hard for a company to keep every single order up to date. Mistakes do happen, and sometimes you will be a day late.

This is one area where you, the traveler, have to do a little homework. How long have you worked with this company? How often does the company tell you about great jobs, only to pitch something miles (or even several states) away once they get you on the phone? Does your company seem to constantly tell you they have jobs that ‘no other agency’ has? A lot of agencies work with a lot of the same clients, so you will see a very similar list of openings from one company to the next, however, there are some exclusive contracts out there that agencies will have. Be sure to proceed with caution, and remember, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

If your company makes a habit of this, talk to another agency to get the scoop from another perspective. The healthcare professional is what drives this industry, and the choices you make on which company to work with has long-lasting effects on the marketplace and what practices are acceptable. If a company employs this tactic and sees a negative response, the industry as a whole will see a decline in those practices over time.  I personally would stop eating at a restaurant if every time I ordered a hamburger they said “sorry, we just ran out, but we have this GREAT hot dog!”
 
2.) Your recruiter is also your ….

What happens after you sign the contract and decide to head out to your assignment? Who is handling your housing? Who is handling your employment paperwork? Who is working with you to get your license in that state? If the answer to all of these questions is “my recruiter,” you could be heading for problems on the horizon.
 
Recruiters are, at their core, salespeople. While working on an assignment for you, they could also be working on several other submissions and interviews with other healthcare professionals. If your recruiter is juggling the responsibilities of managing several job searches simultaneously, while at the same time taking on the responsibilities of assisting with the back office tasks, housing, and paperwork requirements, you are bound to have some issues leading up to your assignments. If the company you work with has one person handling all of these tasks, you’re counting on one human being to handle a large amount of information. Always ask your recruiter if they have dedicated credentialing/compliance employees, and dedicated housing employees. I could not imagine finding apartments, assisting with licensure, and making sure we are joint commission compliant with every professional I place...dedicated resources for these aspects of your assignment are a MUST. If one person is handling it all, something will eventually slip through the cracks. Be sure you’re confident in your agency’s support system, and that your recruiter can focus on what he or she does best – finding the right job for you!
 
1.) Your recruiter is desperate, inexperienced, or from another industry

There’s an old saying I like to use when training new recruiters – “if desperate worked, we’d all be millionaires.” If your recruiter NEEDS to place you right now, right here, and as quickly as possible, how confident can you be in his or her ability to find a good match for your skills? Desperate recruiters will cut corners in order to bring more professionals on staff with them, and sometimes this can be bad news for the professionals they hire. If your recruiter is pushy, aggressive, and focused on ‘the next deal,’ be very cautious moving forward. There’s nothing wrong with a sense of urgency in this marketplace, facilities need help to take care of their patients…It’s too much urgency and too little understanding on the recruiter’s side that will give you more trouble than it’s worth.
 
Like I was saying in red flag number four, I have seen a lot of former IT recruiters, former mortgage brokers, former car salesmen, and other sales professionals enter this marketplace. I’m not saying that all of these people are going to be bad recruiters, or that people can’t make a career move, I’m saying that you want to make sure your recruiter is doing what he or she does because of a genuine interest in this industry. Does your recruiter like his or her job? Does your recruiter take the time to understand what motivates you? Are you comfortable on the phone with him or her? Lastly, one of the biggest questions…..if the market changed tomorrow, or if another ‘hot industry’ started getting notice, would he or she stick with you, or chase another ‘hot market?’ The best recruiters in this industry have stuck with this job through thick and thin, have seen trends come and go, and have taken their share of ups and downs in this marketplace over the years. If your recruiter has enough experience to really understand your particular market, you can feel confident that you will have an advocate that will stick with you in good times and bad.
Posted by lukerawks on Sep 1, 2010 3:27 PM CDT

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