AAPPR’s 2020–2021 Physician and Provider Job Satisfaction and Search Report

RPT_CoverPDFThe Association for Advancing Physician and Provider Recruitment (AAPPR) is a professional organization exclusively for health care professionals who influence the recruitment to retention continuum and are committed to quality health care for their communities. AAPPR is the leading authority on physician and provider recruitment, onboarding, and retention, and is dedicated to transforming healthcare by empowering industry experts through education, research, and engagement.

AAPPR is composed of nearly 2,000 professionals employed directly by hospitals, clinics, physician practices, medical groups, telehealth providers, academic medical centers, retail health clinics, and managed care organizations.

OBJECTIVES
This survey was completed by US physicians and advanced practice provider professionals.

The purpose of the survey was to assess preferences of healthcare providers in job searching, interviewing, and placement during a highly virtual COVID-19 environment.

METHODOLOGY
An online survey was distributed by M3 Global Research to US healthcare providers with responses collected from 2,627 candidates.

Topics covered include:

  • Early retirement decisions
  • Desire for employer change
  • Feedback on job search process and tools
  • Satisfaction with recruitment staff
  • Awareness surrounding upcoming CMS changes

SUMMARY
2020 was a difficult year in healthcare. Survey respondent trends include:

  • Propensity for early retirement as a direct result of the impacts of COVID-19
    • Burnout, increasingly difficult technology and administrative workload, and financial markets were primary causes for early retirement
  •  Over half of survey respondents considered or completed an employer change
    • Burnout, lack of care delivery support and organizational financial status were primary reasons for employer change
  • Employer websites, network referrals, search aggregator sites, and association career centers were predominant tools for job searching
  • Over 90% of respondents said virtual interviewing was at least somewhat effective and over half of respondents would accept a job with only a virtual interview
  • Respondents prefer to negotiate directly with hiring organizations for compensation and benefits
    • Top 5 important benefits included
      • Combined compensation and benefits
      • Relocation coverage
      • Reduced or negligible on-call time
      • Ability to serve in a leadership role
      • Schedule flexibility
  • Respondents were generally satisfied with recruitment staff
    • Respondents prefer to work with in house recruiters, recruitment firms, and physician leaders
    • More than 25% considered or took an opportunity presented through a recruitment firm in the last 12 months
  • Roughly 75% of physicians are aware of upcoming CMS changes and how this impacts compensation opportunity

SOME HIGHLIGHTS

In the last 12 months, it was common for respondents to consider changing employers. Over half of respondents, 56.72% are considering or considered changing employers.

There was minor variance between duration in practice for respondents considering changing employers. Those who did consider changing employers in the last 12 months had a mean of 13.76 years in practice and a median of 10 years. Those who did not consider a change had a mean of 13.36 years and a median of 10 years in practice.

There were many reasons respondents considered a change in employer with burnout and lack of support as the top two reasons.

For the full report, visit https://aappr.org/research/surveys-reports.