Unless the healthcare executive is willing and ready to relocate, convincing them to move for a new job is one of the toughest tasks any HR manager or recruiter will ever undertake. It can be an uphill battle with many forces conspiring against your success, including the fact that almost 90 percent of Americans have never relocated for a job opportunity. To top that sobering statistic, CBS News says fewer Americans are relocating to take on a new job than ever before.
Fortunately, in the healthcare field, there are both traveling nurses and locum tenens doctors to help with specific geographic needs. But these are two niche areas; what about the top healthcare roles? What would entice a top-level healthcare executive to uproot their lives and move to a new career and new community?
Here are three tips to entice talent into a specific market.
Why Relocation?
Think about why a top-level healthcare executive would consider a big move that includes uprooting their family and starting over somewhere else. One survey listed the following reasons for relocation:
- Career advancement
- Increased salary
- To be closer to family, such as a child that’s enrolled in college, or an elderly parent
- Or an internal company transfer to another location
Once you understand the motivations behind why a candidate might move, it’s time to consider options for enticing them to take the next steps. Three options include:
- Tackling the money issue. Since we know most candidates move when a higher salary is involved, this is a technique that may hold sway with your target audience. While budget constraints may stymie this effort, offering a relocation budget is normally a part of this discussion. Relocation packages can be quite extensive, offering everything from reimbursement for the trip to find the candidate’s dream home to temporary housing and moving assistance. However, studies show the primary reason candidates move is for an increase in salary. Other studies suggest the benefits package is also a highly motivating factor when considering relocation.
- Selling the career advancement. The same study showed that career advancement was the second-biggest selling point to entice a candidate to relocate. Here is where understanding the real benefits of the position will help in your candidate negotiation process. Will the new role offer the healthcare executive increased responsibilities? Will it provide a more intangible satisfaction stemming from the ability to serve people who need help? How could the organizational culture be a better fit for your candidate? Finally, will it provide them with new challenges that will engage them in the role?
- Support the family. When a healthcare executive relocates, there is often their family to consider. While relocation support in the form of reimbursement money is important, what tools do you have available to support the spouse and family of the healthcare executive you’re trying to recruit. Will the spouse be looking for a job – and can you help? Can you provide the candidate with more details on the local school systems for the children? Share details on the city or community to entice the family and help them feel less nervous about the opportunity.
Some hopeful news for the future includes the fact that the latest polling finds millennial workers believe the ability to stay mobile will be an important requirement for the job of the future.
To guarantee your success in finding a healthcare executive to relocate, why not partner with healthcare’s leading FQHC staffing firm, UHC Solutions? Contact our recruiters today to help with all your local and national staffing needs.
