Recruitment and Retention Strategies

The key to a health care organization’s success is the caliber of the health care professionals it attracts. The first step is recruiting talented, conscientious and motivated individuals who seek to provide care to our American Indian and Alaska Native patient population.

Our new Global Recruitment (GR) initiative is streamlining the hiring process by consolidating similar job postings, making it easier for health professionals to find and apply for jobs and allowing hiring officials to fill critical vacancies faster. The initiative so far has focused on Family Practice Physicians, Student Externs and Emergency Medicine Physicians.

The next step is investing in staff by offering continuing education (CE) programs and sharing information about free online training opportunities, such as VHA Train Exit Disclaimer: You Are Leaving www.ihs.gov . We also offer Telehealth websites and webinars. It’s also important to encourage employee feedback and provide an ongoing supportive environment. Research shows that strong retention practices save as much as twice an employee’s salary from lost billable hours, recruitment staff time, new hire costs, relocation expenses and the hiring of part-time employees to fill gaps.

We’ve also launched a national media campaign, developed advertising outreach programs and regularly update the Career Opportunities website and IHS program Facebook pages: IHS Scholarship Program Exit Disclaimer: You Are Leaving www.ihs.gov  and Indian Health Professions Recruitment Exit Disclaimer: You Are Leaving www.ihs.gov , as well as a page on LinkedIn Exit Disclaimer: You Are Leaving www.ihs.gov . Each of these is a fundamental component of our ongoing recruitment efforts. We encourage you to take full advantage of these great resources.