ASPR Benchmarking Survey 2016

RPT_CoverPDFASPR is pleased to announce that the 2016 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 2016 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 2016 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 2015. A total of 155 organizations participated providing data for 398 in‐house physician recruiters and 6,515 active searches. Please refer to the full Report and Searchable Results for comprehensive information.

DEMOGRAPHICS

The geographical distribution of participating organizations was relatively balanced again this year, with 31% in the Midwest, 26% in Southern states, 25% in Eastern states, and 19% 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, 29% were located in a Metropolitan area of more than 500,000 people, 49% were in an area with a population ranging from 50,001 to 500,000 people, 15% were from an area with 10,001 to 50,000 people, and 7% were located in an area with 10,000 or fewer people.

As in previous years, the typical* reporting organization is located in a Metropolitan area of 100,001 to 250,000 people, and the most common region is the Midwest, which gives residence to 31% of the responding organizations. A question was added recently regarding the chapters and regional groups to which recruiters belong. The chapter, “Onboarding and Retention (OAR)” – by far the most frequently cited chapter - has members among 28% of responding organizations. Approximately 22% of organizations’ recruiters do not belong to any chapters or regional groups.

The typical responding organization performed 45 active searches during 2015. This continues a pattern of steady increases, spanning from 20 searches in 2012 to 45 in 2015. Respondents employed a median of 2 in-house physician recruiters (4 on average), which has held fairly constant. Following the trends of these two metrics continues to help explain the increases in the typical recruiter’s workload over the past several years. The number of active searches per recruiter has climbed from 13.3 searches in 2010 to 22.4 in 2015.

SEARCHES

The Searches section relays key statistics about 6,515 searches, more than 40% of which was to replace a departing provider. Approximately 54% of active searches were filled by year‐end; 38% remained open; 5% were cancelled; and 3% were put on hold. A majority (78%) of searches were again for practices owned by Hospitals/Integrated Delivery Systems. INTRODUCTION 7

The top five overall searches conducted were Nurse Practitioner (11%), Family Medicine (11%), Urgent Care (9%), Physician Assistant (7%), and Hospital Medicine (6%). The top five physician searches were Family Medicine (11%), Urgent Care (9%), Pediatrics – General and Non-Surgical combined (7%), Hospital Medicine (6%), and Internal Medicine (5%). Nearly 3/4 of responding organizations searched for a Family Medicine provider during 2015. This represents the most common search for an organization, followed by Hospital Medicine (searched by 57%) and Internal Medicine (searched by 54%).

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 93 days, while Specialty Care positions required 128 days. Primary Care and Surgery specialties tended to be filled in 109 and 115 days, respectively.

RECRUITER PROFILE & COMPENSATION

The Profile and Compensation section reports data on 398 in‐house physician recruitment professionals from 143 organizations. As in past studies, the most frequently cited position title was “Physician Recruiter”, followed by “Senior Physician Recruiter”. The typical in-house recruitment professional has 8 years of recruitment experience (average = 9 years) and 84% are female. Approximately 85% of their time is spent on recruitment activities. Twenty-five percent supervise staff, 55% have provider onboarding responsibilities, and 35% have provider retention responsibilities.

Nearly 80% of individuals involved in in-house physician recruiting hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher (27% hold a Master’s degree or higher). Approximately 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 2015 with a median bonus of $2,400. 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 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. Eighty-three organizations provided their expense data for this year’s survey.

The typical organization reported an annual recruitment budget of $388,000 ($668,000 on average). Budgets varied considerably, based on the number of searches the organization conducted, and there were also significant variations based on the geographic regions and surrounding population sizes.

Approximately 80% of 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 average search firm expense of $2,900 per search (search firm fee $20,000 ÷ $2,900). For organizations conducting 50 or more searches per year and having a median of 4 recruiters, the average per search expense was $1,200, indicating a recruitment firm utilization rate of 1 in 17 searches. These data indicate 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.


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