2015 ASPR In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmarking Report

RPT_CoverPDFASPR is pleased to announce that the 2015 ASPR In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmarking Report is now available. The newly published Report is an annual survey conducted by the Association of Staff Physician Recruiters (ASPR), a professional organization exclusively for in-house physician recruitment professionals. ASPR is the leading authority on physician recruitment, onboarding, and retention. ASPR is comprised of approximately 1,500 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 2015 ASPR In-House Physician Recruitment Benchmarking Report is designed to provide easy-to-comprehend statistics in order to help in-house physician recruitment professionals compare their recruitment data against industry norms. Benchmarks are critical for our industry as we constantly strive for improved processes and results within our organizations to meet the healthcare needs within our communities. The purpose of the survey is to collect and distribute credible industry data that may be utilized to meet these objectives.

The 2015 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 calendar year 2014. A total of 126 organizations participated providing data for 345 in-house physician recruiters and 4,926 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 35.7% in in the Midwest, 31.8% in Eastern states, 19.8% in Southern states, and 12.7% in Western states. Regarding population size of the organization’s primary location, 37.6% of reporting organization’s primary location was in a Metropolitan area of 100,001 to 250,000 people, 28.0% were located in a Metropolitan area of more than 500,000 people, 9.6% were located in an area with a population of 50,001 to 100,000 people, 16% were located in an area with a population of 10,001 to 50,000 and 8.8% were located in an area with 10,000 or less people.

As in previous years, the typical* reporting organization is located in a Metropolitan area of 100,000 to 250,000 people, and the most common region is the Midwest, which gives residence to 36% of the responding organizations. A new question was added this year regarding the chapters and regional groups to which recruiters belong. The chapter, “Onboarding and Retention (OAR)” reportedly has members among 30% of responding organizations. Approximately 83% of organizations’ recruiters belong to one or more chapters or regional groups.
 
The typical responding organization performed 35 active searches during 2014. This is an increase from the 26 searches that were reported for 2013, and it continues a trend of increases in recent years, spanning from 20 during 2012 to 26 in 2013 and now 35 during 2014. Respondents employed a median of 2 in-house physician recruiters (3 on average), which was essentially unchanged from 2013. The number of active searches per recruiter has climbed from 13.3 in 2010 to 19.5 in 2014. Following the trends of these metrics helps explain the increase in the typical recruiter’s workload over the past several years.


Searches
The Searches section relays key statistics about 4,926 searches, more than 40% of which was to replace a departing provider. Approximately 52% of active searches were filled by year-end; 39% remained open; 6% were cancelled; and 3% were put on hold. Approximately 8% of all active searches in 2014 used Locum Tenens. This percentage has remained nearly unchanged over the past 4 years. Approximately 85% of the reported searches were for practices owned by Hospitals/Integrated Delivery Systems and 7% were for practices owned by physicians.

The top five overall searches conducted were Family Medicine (12%), Nurse Practitioner (10%), Hospital Medicine (8%), Physician Assistant (7%), and Internal Medicine (6%). The top five physician searches were Family Medicine (12%), Hospital Medicine (7%), Pediatrics — General and Non-Surgical combined (7%), Internal Medicine (6%), and Emergency Medicine (4%). Nearly 70% of responding organizations searched for a Family Medicine provider. This represents the most common search for an organization, followed by Hospital Medicine (searched by 54%) and Internal Medicine (searched by 53%). All of these findings are very consistent with search statistics of recent years.

In an effort to further examine the days to fill results, specialties were again grouped into four main divisions: Advanced Practice, Primary Care, Specialty Care, and Surgery. Of these divisions, Advanced Practice searches were filled in 95 days, while Surgery specialties required 163 days. Primary Care and Specialty Care positions tended to be filled in 124 and 150 days, respectively.

Recruiter Profile & Compensation
The Profile and Compensation section reports data on 345 in-house physician recruitment professionals from 109 organizations. As in past studies, the most frequently cited position title was “Physician Recruiter”. In addition to a physician recruiter, 26% of organizations also employ a “Physician Recruitment Coordinator/Assistant.” The typical recruiter has 8 years of recruitment experience and spends 90% or more of their time on recruitment activities. Approximately 24% supervise staff, 47% have provider onboarding responsibilities, and 32% have provider retention responsibilities.

As similarly reported in previous studies, 79% of individuals involved in in-house physician recruiting hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher (24% hold a Master’s degree or higher). More than one third of in-house physician recruiters are certified as a Fellow of ASPR or have obtained designations towards certification.

All compensation values were reported and validated directly by a member of the organization’s Human Resources department. Compensation varies by title with the title of Director of Physician Recruitment being the most highly compensated. Nearly half of all in-house physician recruiters were eligible to receive a bonus in 2014 with a median bonus of $9,000. 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.

Expenses
The Expenses section captures data within four categories: Candidate Expenses, Search Firm Fees, Marketing Expenses, and Departmental Expenses. Seventy-six organizations provided their expense data for this year’s survey.

The typical organization reported an annual recruitment budget of $410,000 ($620,000 on average). Budgets varied considerably, based on the number of searches the organization conducted. This range spanned from $100,000 for those with fewer than 10 searches to $862,000 for those with more than 50 searches. Budgets also showed significant variations based on the geographic regions and surrounding population sizes.

Approximately 2/3 of participating organizations paid fees to a search firm during the year. Use of external search firms by in-house recruiters appears to be limited to roughly 1 in 7 searches based on a reported median search firm expense of $2,986 per search (search firm fee $20,000 ÷ $2,986). For organizations conducting 50 or more searches per year and having a median of 5 recruiters, the average per search expense was $726 indicating a recruitment firm utilization rate of 1 in 28 searches. This data indicates less reliance on search firms for organizations with additional staffing and potential efficiencies of larger departments.


Access The Full Report And Searchable Data
Access to the full Report and Searchable Data may be obtained at www.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.

*Throughout this report, the term “typical” indicates the median response.