Recruiting MDs by lifestyle

Medical recruiting agencies, like many others, typically focus on the nuts and bolts of the job when attempting to match up doctors and positions. Missing from that model, however, are many of the factors that can have just as big an effect on the success of the match—lifestyle factors like the surrounding culture, the availability of family-oriented services and activities, and the types of sports and recreation on hand nearby, all of which contribute to a doctor’s ultimate happiness with the position. MedRecruit aims to pick up where other recruiting efforts leave off by explicitly including lifestyle in the process of matching doctors with positions. Doctors who sign up for the free service, which currently serves just New Zealand and Australia, specify not just the details of their medical specialty and grade; they also tell MedRecruit what type of location they want and what sorts of family, cultural and recreational opportunities–skiing or surfing, for example. MedRecruit then helps find a good match among the hospitals and medical organizations it represents. Watchlists are available, as is 24-hour assistance, and MedRecruit facilitates all travel and accommodations. It even pays a 4 percent bonus to doctors who work exclusively through MedRecruit. Ultimately, the company says, the result is happier doctors and higher retention rates for the hospitals that hire them. With thousands of jobs available at hundreds of hospitals across New Zealand and Australia, MedRecruit was founded last year by Sam Hazledine, a doctor and skiing champion who wanted to create better balance between doctors’ work and personal lives. The same principle could well be applied to virtually every other profession, too. As everyone knows, happier employees translate into better performance all around—who’s going to argue with that? (Related: Jobs for working moms.) Spotted by: Natalie Ferguson