While the goal of any recruiting function is to entice top candidates into the role, creating a less than transparent portrait of the position will negatively affect the hiring process. Perhaps even worse, a lack of transparency in executive recruiting could lead to a negative reputation for your organization and the recruiting team. While you may not be able to share all of the information upfront, transparency is an important requirement throughout the sourcing, interviewing, negotiating, and hiring process.
Creating Transparency in the Executive Hiring Process
As knowledge workers, healthcare executives are trained in systematic and thorough decision making. Failing to disclose important details at the proper time during the hiring process will leave these high-level candidates frustrated, dismayed, and potentially seeking a new opportunity to pursue.
Recruiters and hiring teams have several important areas they should broach with candidates to create a more transparent process. For example:
- Discuss organizational culture, which is so important to employee engagement, whether you are in the c-suite or a frontline healthcare worker. Even if the recruiter is working as part of an external staffing team, they should have a very good sense of organizational values, expectations, philosophies, and mission. Hiring teams must first look for candidates that fit the culture. This will increase employee retention and job satisfaction. It will also ensure that any healthcare candidate you hire is rowing in the same direction as his or her peers.
- Discuss organizational structure with the candidate. Understand the reporting structures of the facility and what the job will entail. What are the typical workflows for the role? Will they have budgetary responsibilities in addition to overseeing staff? What are their clinical or administrative responsibilities each day that will affect the position? How will this role contribute to the overall mission and values of the organization?
- Share what kinds of key process drivers set the organization up for success. How is the organization changing or expected to evolve in the coming years? To adequately create a vision of where the executive candidate will exist in the healthcare facility, the recruiter should understand the key initiatives the organization is focusing on moving forward.
- Share the vision for organizational growth with the candidate. Paint a realistic portrait of the fiscal or organizational challenges as well as the positive opportunities that will create a rewarding future in the role.
While executive recruiters cannot share confidential information, it is important that they set realistic expectations for what the candidate should expect on the job. However, when healthcare organizations leverage outside resources such as staffing agencies to fill these roles, they must work to build a relationship with that hiring team to ensure they have enough information to create this kind of transparency.
Healthcare executive recruiting should be a true partnership between the hiring entity and their staffing team. UHC Solutions specializes in building these partnerships. Together we work to find top executive talent, then ensure that each candidate is carefully vetted in a transparent process that builds trust and represents your organization in a positive light. Find out why our approach is different. Contact us today.
