subject: Physician recruiters - Why should they be certified? [print this page] Just as in any other healthcare staffing profession, the physician recruiters too have a responsibility to understand the legal, professional, and technical aspects of the physician recruiting industry. When a recruiter begins the search for a new physician, the recruiter should have the skills and the knowledge to represent the medical fraternity properly. In other words the recruiter should have all the latest knowledge related to the medical community. The recruiter needs to match a physician with the proper job requirement and similar to any other profession, manage hiring and retention issues with specialized skills and experience.
While there are many job search recruiters and firms in the physician recruitment industry, physicians and organizations need to make sure that the recruiter they choose is board certified. This is understandable since everyone view certifications as a mark of excellence. Insisting on knowing if a recruiter is certified, stresses the fact that the recruiter has taken time to study the body of knowledge that leaders of the physician recruiting industry, have firmly laid down as tenets for this profession.
When a recruiter is certified, he or she must agree to uphold the National Association of Personnel Services (NAPS) Standards of Ethical Practices and certification program rules. In addition, the recruiter must participate in continuing education programs and re-certify every three years. Secondly these certifications ensure that the recruiter will conduct the recruitment professionally in accordance with the highest professional placement standards. The rigorous laws too lay down that in order to remain certified, physician recruiters must complete 50 contact hours of professional development or training experiences in every three year period after certification. If the required contact hours are not met every three years, the recruiter's certification rights will be revoked until the credits are achieved.
The recent Sarbanes-Oaxley regulations act has ensured that credentials in staffing due to its specialized nature are given more credibility. However there are hiring organizations that do not pay heed to credentials, since their primary target is to recruit physicians. But there are reasons why hiring board-certified recruiters is important.
The first and foremost of these reasons being:
Able to answer the pertinent query posed by anyone are your hiring sources credible'.
Secondly the insurance provider of that organization might question the staffing or recruiting decisions, while the hirers need to justify that they are utilizing skilled certified recruiters.
Lastly using certified recruiters will help the entire staffing industry, by giving access to professionals who have the highest standards.
Physician recruiters - Why should they be certified?
