2013 ASPR In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmark

2013 ASPR In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmarking Report — Executive Summary

The Association of Staff Physician Recruiters (ASPR) is Minisite_RPT_FullPDFpleased to announce that the 2013 ASPR In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmarking Report is now available. The published Report is an annual survey conducted by the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters, a professional organization exclusively for in-house physician recruitment professionals. ASPR is the leading authority on physician recruitment and retention. ASPR is comprised of approximately 1,300 in-house physician recruitment professionals employed directly by hospitals, clinics, physician practices, academic medical centers, and managed care organizations from across the United States and Canada.

The goal of the ASPR In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmarking Report is to provide accurate and timely metrics that help in-house physician recruitment professionals better understand their industry and enable them to quantify and codify recruitment expectations with relation to organization size and type, population, geography, and other factors that impact recruitment results. New this year is a Departmental Expense section, which provides a broader overview of recruitment expenses to improve decision making in budgeting for the full scope of recruitment activities — candidate expenses, marketing, search firm fees, and departmental expenses/overhead.

The 2013 ASPR In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmarking Report provides a detailed analysis of key statistics on provider recruitment searches conducted by in-house physician recruiters during the 2012 calendar year. A total of 154 organizations participated providing data for 366 in-house physician recruiters and 4,719 active searches.

Please refer to the full Report and Searchable Results for comprehensive information.

Demographics
The geographical distribution of participating organizations was relatively balanced with 31.2% in the Midwest, 27.9% in Eastern states, 23.4% in Southern states, and 17.5% in Western states. Regarding population size of the organization’s primary location, 35.3% of reporting organization’s primary location was in a metropolitan area of 100,001 to 250,000 people, 25.3% were located in a metropolitan area of more than 500,000 people, 17% were located in an area with a population of 50,001 to 100,000 people, 19% were located in an area with a population of 10,001 to 50,000, and 3.9% were located in an area with 10,000 or less people.

The typical responding organization performed 20 active searches during 2012 and employed one in-house physician recruiter. The number of searches conducted per in-house physician recruiter varies by geography, population size, and total number of searches conducted by the organization. The median number of searches conducted per recruiter overall was 15.

Searches
The Searches section relays key statistics about 4,719 searches, nearly 45% of which was to replace a departing provider. Approximately 58% of active searches were filled by year-end; 33% remained open; 6% were cancelled; and 4% were put on hold. Approximately 8% of all active searches in 2012 used Locum Tenens. This percentage has remained nearly unchanged over the past 3 years. Approximately 72% of the reported searches were for multispecialty practices.

Primary Care continues to be in high demand both for physicians and advanced practice providers. The specialties for which physician searches were most frequently performed during 2012 included Family Medicine, Hospital Medicine, Internal Medicine, General Pediatrics, and Emergency Medicine. Nearly 70% of responding organizations searched for a Family Medicine provider. More than 17% of all searches were for advanced practice providers. Approximately 38% of Nurse Practitioner searches and 43% of Physician Assistant searches were specifically for Primary Care.

In an effort to further examine the days to fill data, searches were grouped into four divisions: Advanced Practice, Primary Care, Specialty Care, and Surgery. Of these divisions, Advanced Practice searches were filled in 90 days, while surgical specialties required 184 days. Primary Care and Specialty Care positions were typically filled in 131 and 148 days, respectively.

Recruiter Profile and Compensation
The Profile and Compensation section reports data on 366 in-house physician recruitment professionals from 152 organizations. As in past studies, the most frequently cited position title was “Physician Recruiter,” the typical respondent has seven years of recruitment experience and 84% are female. Ninety percent (90%) or more of respondent’s time is generally spent recruiting. Approximately 27% supervise staff and 60% have provider onboarding responsibilities. In addition to a physician recruiter, 24% of organizations also employ a “Physician Recruitment Coordinator/Assistant.”

As reported in previous studies, 75% of individuals involved in in-house physician recruiting hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher (21% hold a Master’s degree or higher). Nearly 30% of in-house physician recruiters are certified as a Fellow of ASPR (FASPR) or have obtained designations towards certification.

All compensation values were reported by a member of the organization’s Human Resources department.

The median recruiter’s total compensation was $70,000, which has steadily increased from $67,066 in 2010. Approximately 1/3 of all in-house physician recruiters were eligible to receive a bonus in 2012. The median bonus received was approximately $6,000. Those with higher titles were more likely to receive bonuses.

As expected, a correlation exists between years of experience and total compensation. The highest income earners are more likely to have ASPR certification/ designation, advanced degrees, responsibilities for supervising staff, and more years of experience.

The median total compensation for a FASPR was approximately $34,000 more than those who have not attained any ASPR Fellowship designation or certification (not controlled for years of experience or title).

Expenses
The Expenses section has been revised this year to better reflect the cost of operating a full-service recruitment program. Data was captured within four categories: Candidate Expenses, Search Firm Fees, Marketing Expenses, and Departmental Expenses. Ninety-three (93) organizations provided their expense data for this year’s survey.

The typical organization reported an annual recruitment budget of $245,000 ($462,000 on average). Budgets varied based on the number of searches the organization conducted. The median range spanned from $115,000 for those with fewer than 10 searches to $700,000 for those with more than 50 searches. Reported budgets also show variation based on geographic region and population size.

When evaluating costs per search for all organizations, candidate expenses were typically $2,000 per search, search firm fees were $2,800 per search, marketing expenses were $1,500 per search, and organizations reported $540 in departmental expenses per search. Seemingly due to efficiencies and economies of scale, the various costs per search fell considerably for larger organizations. If an organization that conducted 10 searches per year were to apply this data to their organization, they should expect to spend approximately $20,000 on candidate expenses, $28,000 on search firm fees, $15,000 on marketing expenses, and $5,400 on general departmental expenses per year. To more accurately forecast the costs for a recruitment program it is advised that the expense tables related to number of searches and size of community, available in the full Report, be consulted for more accurate projections.

Seventy-one percent (71%) of participating organizations paid fees to a search firm during the year. Of those reporting search firm expenses, larger organizations were somewhat more likely to have incurred search firm fees than were smaller organizations; however utilization as a percentage of total searches appears to be much lower. If search firm fees are estimated at $20,000, the median fee for all organizations ($2,803) would indicate approximately 1 in every 7 searches utilizes a search firm. Departments with more than 50 searches reported a median fee of only $934 placing utilization at 1 in every 21 searches.

Access the Full Report and Searchable Data
Access to the full Report and Searchable Data may be obtained at aspr.org/benchmarking. Survey participants receive free access to the Report and Searchable Data as well as an Organizational Benchmarking Report that compares their data to national data. Those that did not participate in the survey may purchase access to the Report and Searchable Data. Discounts are available to purchase prior year’s Reports as well. ■