Are Traditional Recruiting Fees Artificially Inflated?

There was a time when quality healthcare recruiting meant hundreds, even thousands, of cold calls to potential candidates. Expensive ads needed to be purchased in association newsletters, medical journals, and local newspapers. Job fairs and trade shows were another great way to get in front of candidates - but, again, would incur costs for attendance, booth materials, travel, and lodging. If you wanted to send a mass mailing, you were forced to spend thousands of dollars on printing, envelopes, and postage.

With all of these expenses, it made sense that recruiting companies charged 20-30% percent of a candidate’s first year salary for their fee, which would often amount to more than $30,000 for a qualified provider.

But the bulk of these expenses have drastically decreased, even disappeared, with the advent of the internet and advances in technology. No more flying candidates out for initial face-to-face interviews - now we use video calls at a fraction of the cost. Mass mailings are done via email, online job boards have replaced job fairs, and cold calls are a thing of the past.

So, why then, are traditional healthcare recruiting companies like Merritt Hawkins still charging $18,000 - $30,000 for physician placement fees?

At CHS Recruiting, we embrace technology and have streamlined our business processes so that we only spend money where it’s needed, passing those savings onto our clients.

By doing this, we have been able to present candidates within 30 days to more than 90% of our clients - all while charging only $8,000 for a full-time physician assistant or nurse practitioner and $10,000 for a full-time physician.

We’re proof that there are high-quality, low-cost options for staffing solutions and you don’t need to pay over-inflated recruiting fees just because traditional firms would like you to believe that’s still the “standard”.