Why You Can’t Afford to Get Physician Hiring Wrong

The High Cost & Rising Risk of a Failed Physician Hire

Aside from financial loss from criminal behavior, one of the greatest fears for most businesses is probably a failed hire. In any enterprise, the costs of recruiting, interviewing, hiring, onboarding, and training are significant.

In healthcare, those costs are nothing short of astronomical, particularly when applied to the hiring of a physician who doesn’t work out.

“All told, the cost of hiring a physician who doesn’t fit and then leaves can easily exceed $1 million when you consider the expense of recruiting, onboarding, and yet another vacancy and hiring situation,” writes Jackson Physician Search President Tony Stajduhar in NEJM Career Center.

While hospitals and health centers may stumble after taking such a financial hit, smaller operations in the same scenario could end up in an existential crisis.

For provider organizations, the risk is exacerbated by a prolonged clinician shortage that shows no signs of abating. Emerging from the COVID pandemic in 2024, America’s physician shortage stood at roughly 64,000; that number is projected to reach 86,000 by 2036.

“Approximately 35% of physician respondents indicate they are likely to leave their current roles in the next five years, of which roughly 60% say they are likely to leave clinical practice entirely,” says a 2024 McKinsey report.

All things remaining equal, hiring physicians will remain a somewhat risky but unavoidable endeavor in the foreseeable future.

Strategies to Improve Physician Hiring Outcomes

What can healthcare organizations do to accurately identify physician candidates who are a good fit for the organization? This McKinsey article on a physician survey identifies a few priorities hiring organizations can embrace.

Build Competitive & Purpose-Driven Compensation Plans

Offering an attractive compensation package remains essential to recruiting top physician talent in a competitive landscape. While compensation alone may not land the ideal candidate, it still plays a critical role in recruitment decisions. In a climate of tighter budgets and rising dissatisfaction, compensation is often the deciding factor for top physician talent. Organizations should align incentives with strategic goals to improve recruitment and retention and ensure physicians clearly understand how performance impacts their compensation.

Support Work-Life Balance and Physician Well-Being

Yes, physicians want to be compensated fairly, but survey respondents said that work-life balance and attention to family needs were just as important as salary. Beyond offering competitive pay, organizations can improve retention by providing flexible schedules, virtual care options, and building a culture that prioritizes mental health, positivity, and belonging through wellness programs and peer support.

Involve Physicians in Key Decisions

Increasingly, physicians feel “unheard or unsupported” at work because they are not included in decisions that impact the work they do. In fact, many cite a lack of voice and control as reasons for leaving. Organizations can improve retention by involving physicians in key operational decisions. Physicians who feel heard are more likely to become invested in the organization and stay for the long term.

Strengthen Care Teams with the Right Support Staff

In too many healthcare organizations, physicians or other clinicians end up doing administrative tasks that create dissatisfaction. Organizations that work with physicians to create clear workflows, define team roles, and hire appropriate support staff are those that have the least turnover and enjoy the most stability.

Turn Your Physician Hiring Strategy into Results with Smarter Tools

Even the strongest recruitment strategies can fall short without the right tools to support them. Success depends on more than just intention. Recruitment requires consistency, collaboration, and clear communication across every step of the hiring process. That’s where Marketware comes in. Our Physician Recruitment platform helps healthcare organizations streamline workflows, enhance candidate visibility, and keep the entire team aligned around a unified, effective recruitment strategy.

Build a Strategic Foundation with Templated Recruitment Workflows

Hiring the right physician starts with the right process. Marketware’s templated recruitment workflows help healthcare organizations turn strategy into action, ensuring every stage is intentional, efficient, and aligned with your goals.

Customizable workflows help recruitment teams align hiring performance with compensation goals and streamline tasks across departments. From sourcing to onboarding, teams can follow a consistent process with clear expectations. They can also manage and track key milestones like screening, site visits, and contracting. This improves the candidate experience and reinforces your commitment to work-life balance.

Built-in collaboration tools ensure physicians are involved early. By capturing feedback, clarifying roles, and mapping each stage, teams stay organized while giving physicians a voice in the process.

Understand What Matters Most with Smarter Candidate Profiles

Effective recruitment isn’t just about data, it’s about understanding the person behind the profile. Marketware’s customizable candidate records let you capture what really matters when assessing fit.

Your team can track certifications, FTE status, hometown ties, personal preferences, and onboarding readiness with flexible custom options. These insights help align offers with candidate priorities and highlight areas of strong cultural fit. They also help you design roles that support long-term physician well-being and retention.

More than a checklist, Marketware profiles offer a full picture of your candidates, helping your team build stronger connections, support better decisions, and drive recruitment strategies forward.

Gain Clarity & Confidence with Real-Time Dashboards

Every recruitment strategy benefits from better visibility. Marketware’s interactive dashboards give teams a real-time view of key metrics like time-to-fill, candidate engagement, sourcing performance, and recruiting costs so you can lead with data, not guesswork.

Use cost-per-hire and source effectiveness data to align recruitment spend with compensation goals. Track time-in-stage metrics to improve candidate experience and reduce friction. Monitor drop-off trends to identify where candidates disengage and adjust strategies to better involve physicians in the process. And use role-based dashboards to assess workload, forecast staffing needs, and ensure your team has the support they need to succeed.

Whether you’re refining workflows or reallocating resources, Marketware’s dashboards help you measure what matters and act with confidence.

Keep Teams Aligned with Marketware’s Activities Feature

Physician recruitment is a team effort, and staying in sync matters. Marketware’s Activities feature brings structure to your recruitment and onboarding workflows by making it easy to assign, track, and manage tasks across departments.

From scheduling interviews to planning site visits and coordinating onboarding steps, teams can log every interaction and action in one shared space. Custom activity types, tags, and file attachments make it easy to tailor processes to your organization’s needs. Built-in calendars, comment threads, and notifications help keep communication clear, organized, and timely.

These shared tools streamline task management and align team actions with your recruitment strategy. They help meet compensation milestones, deliver a thoughtful candidate experience, capture feedback, and coordinate internal support from day one.

Marketware’s Activities feature keeps every detail visible and every team member aligned.

Strengthen Your Organization One Hire at a Time

Ultimately, a successful physician hire does more than fill a role — it drives long-term organizational success. In today’s high-stakes environment, teams must align recruitment strategies with clear goals, collaborative tools, and defined processes. Building a vibrant, inclusive healthcare organization takes time, energy, and a commitment to shared values. That’s why Marketware provides the structure and tools needed to recruit top talent and support their long-term success. With Marketware, your team can attract the right physicians and build a stronger, more balanced care team.