Everything you need to know about attracting millennial physicians

Millennial physicians are starkly discouraged by current medical practices, and they want to change the way practices and hospitals operate. Read about what improvements to medical practices millennials want to see and how to recruit and retain them.

You likely have read articles about how millennials are transforming the job market and are experiencing its impact on your practice. Here’s everything you need to know about appealing to millennial physicians.

Tailoring physician recruitment for millennials

As older physicians retire, the demand for millennial physicians rises. But recruiters continue to use traditional methods to attract these younger physicians, overlooking millennials’ fundamental desire to change the status quo of medical practice.

To meet recruiting challenges in this shifting landscape, physician groups need to renovate their practices from the ground up. Recruiters should adopt new incentives to attract young innovation, untapped talent, and passionate dedication. Benefits and the work environment must address not only work-life balance but also include patient-focused, value-based practices — which often outshine salary as major enticements.

To stand out from competitors, your practice needs to stand for something and deliver value in all aspects of your organization. We’ve identified five essential approaches that will give you an edge in millennial recruitment.

1. Standardize transparency and authenticity

Your recruitment strategy should include a message of transparency. Millennials are more likely to choose practices that provide ample resources and value-adding opportunities.

Collaborations with senior physicians, for example, allow young physicians to solve real problems while learning best practices. Applying their talents beyond patient care adds value and contributes to their professional growth. These opportunities can even improve performance and drive efficiencies in their primary roles. Potential hires will be turned off if they feel access to information will be constricted.

Recruits also want exposure to external success metrics. More than 50% of millennials think hospitals should post pricing online for inpatient treatment and procedures. This allows patients to compare hospitals for complex surgeries or long-term care. Most also support creating channels for online patient reviews.

2. Offer advancement opportunities — not just in rank

Millennials have grown up as digital natives, with nearly unlimited access to information. They also prioritize learning opportunities in career environments and the flexibility to act upon what they learn. They are motivated by growth, including learning while doing and receiving regular coaching and feedback.

Millennial physicians favor practices that add value and drive results in a consistent way. Many want to be involved in cross-disciplinary care teams encompassing experts in each of their fields. They may want time to pursue quality improvement, research, leadership, and other opportunities. They are also often the first to adopt the latest technologies.

One key to connecting with recruits is to focus on how your practice’s resources drive better methods for patient care. Create a culture in which all physicians have ease of access to a wide network of resources. It also helps to highlight all collegial aspects of your work environment.

3. Show that you are helping communities

Today, 80% of health spending goes to the sick care system, which drives only 20% of health outcomes. Millennials desire value-based systems that extend beyond hospital walls and into community wellness.

Focus on your wellness and community outreach programs as growth areas. Demonstrate how these efforts have produced real results. Millennials seek rewarding experiences with visible value creation and opportunities to improve on stagnant practices. By telling recruits, “We need doctors who can transform our wellness programs,” you can deliver a powerful call to action.

4. Emphasize the value of relationships

Relationships have different meanings for different generations. Millennials most often cite the value of personal relationships. A study by Becker's Hospital Review reports that work/life balance is the #1 priority (85%) in younger physicians’ job search. In contrast, baby boomers are more willing to sacrifice their personal time, viewing long hours as part of a typical workday.

Professionally, millennials prioritize teamwork for solving problems. They seek a company culture that values collaboration, innovation, and an investment in professional development and the employee experience.

5. Adopt a physician engagement strategy

Effective engagement starts with creating personas for your ideal physicians. Identify their key traits and incorporate these tips into a strategy that works for your recruitment team. Then consider your needs in terms of placement, specialty, and long-term staff development.

Millennials choose jobs based on a different set of criteria than older generations. They rank organizations based on their success with patient care. They want strict boundaries between their personal lives and work. They also want their ideas and suggestions to be valued. These are the key talking points to incorporate as you develop your recruiting messaging.

Several unique issues should also factor into your strategy. For example, millennials may be willing to take less pay for jobs that are a better fit for them. They are also more likely than other generations to prioritize location and hospital reputation. For you, being competitive depends on using highly targeted recruitment strategies that stress a variety of value propositions, rather than relying on higher salary offers.

Also be sure to face millennials through the channels they use to find jobs. Most new physicians receive 100 or more job solicitations before completing their medical training. Millennials search using recruiters and hospital websites, and they respond especially favorably to recruitment ads affiliated with their specialty’s leading journals.

Millennials rely heavily on medical research journals as a key source of information and engagement within their specialty, as evidenced by the proliferation of journal clubs. Members of these formal discussion groups — typically physicians in training during their med school and resident years — meet several times a month to read and discuss research published in top journals in their field, which are accessible online via email and more traditional means. Each of these engagement points offers a high-impact way for recruitment advertisers to reach and attract millennials with recruitment messages.

Harmonizing your practice with the goals of millennial physicians

As doctors, millennials have many of the same goals as other generations. They simply prioritize some more than others. If you show potential hires that you foster an environment of growth, collaboration, transparency, and results, your recruitment efforts are more likely to succeed.