3 strategies to recruit creative, nontraditional healthcare executives

At a time when voters seem to prefer presidential candidates who think "outside-the-box," healthcare organizations are also willing to do the same to fill key leadership positions. But that also means hospitals and their recruiters must rethink how they search for and evaluate nontraditional candidates, according to an article in Executive Insight.

Among the strategies outlined for recruiting outside-the-box executives:

  1. Determine where a nontraditional candidate can have the greatest impact: Consider what areas most need innovation, which departments and roles are shifting or realigning, and what change you want to see the new executive deliver.
  2. Figure out which industry sectors are most likely to produce suitable outside-the-box candidates.
  3. Be honest about whether you're ready to hire a candidate without a healthcare background, and how you'll integrate that person into your culture as well as your leadership structure.

Hospitals and healthcare networks typically look for non-traditional candidates to fill positions for chief human resources officers, chief marketing officers, general counsels, chief information security officers, chief financial officers and chief information officers, according to the article.

While hospitals increasingly look outside of healthcare for top executives, those candidates can also be lured away to other industry sectors. CIOs in particular can often find better-paying jobs where they play a more strategic role in the organization, FierceHealthIT previously reported. Healthcare organizations are more likely to keep their top IT talent if they give CIOs more responsibility and ensure they have plenty of say in organizational decisions, recruiters say.

Hospitals also look to make outside-the-box appointments to their boards of directors. Healthcare reform means hospitals use professional recruiters to find board members knowledgeable about disparate business challenges including risk management, finance, technology and insurance, according to reports.

For more:
- read the Executive Insight article