Top 5 Red Flags in Physician CV’s
These Red Flags in Candidate CVs Can Pose a Threat to Your Recruitment Efforts
It’s Monday morning and one of your physicians has just turned in their notice. The pressure is on to hire a replacement before call schedules, patient schedules, or worse – potential revenue – are negatively affected. While it’s important to minimize the amount of time the departing provider’s position is vacant, it’s even more important to make sure that whatever candidate you hire is the right fit for your organization.
Key to making sure that a potential candidate will be an asset to your group is being able to spot and address critical red flags in a candidate’s CV and candidacy. Below are five (5) of the biggest red flags:
1. The Training Gap
B) Changed Residency Specialties: This is usually due to a resident being unable to find another residency in their previous specialty after being terminated from the program. Alternately, a resident may have realized they truly wish to pursue a different specialty.
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2. Locum Tenens Work
The excitement, variety, high pay, and flexibility offered by locum tenens work tends to be a draw for many providers. But for other physicians it can become a convenient way to cover a gap in employment after being let go from a previous position. Additionally, it could be an indication that the candidate is difficult to work with, and has trouble maintaining relationships with coworkers over long stretches of time. In these situations it is important to address the reason for leaving the previous permanent position and the candidate’s motivations behind choosing locum tenens work.
3. Only Peer References
References from peers and advanced practice providers can provide valuable insight into a candidate’s character and work ethic. However, the references should not only be from peers. A candidate’s reluctance to provide a supervisor as a reference could indicate a problem with authority or another indescretion that he or she would like to remain hidden from a new potential employer.
4. Late or No Board Certification
A candidate who has spent much of his/her time in private practice may not have had need to obtain board certification. However, there are instances in which a candidate’s delay in obtaining or complete lack of board certification can be a red flag. This situation can be a symptom of a candidate’s late graduation from a training program or failure of the first pass at the exam. In both situations, this could indicate that a candidate’s clinical and/or professional skills may be lacking.
5. Drifter Syndrom
During training, a physician often uproots their lives and moves elsewhere to attend a program. Sometimes, this trend continues as the individual begins to practice, resulting in a physician who picks up and moves every couple of years to begin anew in another area. This can be concerning in that you would hope a physician would settle into the community where your organization is based and stay long term. If they have a habit of picking up and leaving every year or two, you may find yourself in the position to conduct additional healthcare recruitment interviews much sooner than you would like.
Just like no two candidates or opportunities are the same, it is important to note that no two situations are the same. The red flag that causes one candidate to be a wholely inappropriate choice for your organization may not have the same causes or reasons as that of a candidate who would be a perfect fit. It is vital that in recruiting new team members that you utilize all the healthcare staffing resources at your disposal to ensure that your organization doesn’t make a hire that they will soon regret.
Source: MDR HealthCare Search