Healthcare recruiting operations

By Ben Argeband, Founder & CEO of Heartbeat.ai — No MBA fluff; templates and scorecards.

If your team says you have a “sourcing problem,” you usually have an ops problem: tracking, follow-up, and refresh. Healthcare recruiting operations is how you reduce wasted touches, protect deliverability, and shorten time-to-conversation—without relying on recruiter heroics.

This hub is built for recruiting leaders and sourcers who want repeatable systems (not heroics): a baseline measurement week, a weekly scorecard, and clear pathways to fix the constraint that’s slowing placements.

Who this is for

This is for Recruiting leaders and sourcers who need repeatable systems (not heroics)—especially if you’re accountable for speed-to-submittal, connectability, deliverability, and gross margin.

• Heads of TA / Recruiting Managers: you need a weekly operating rhythm and a scorecard that surfaces bottlenecks fast.
• Agency owners: you need predictable throughput and fewer wasted touches so margin doesn’t leak.
• Sourcers / full-desk recruiters: you need a workflow that tells you what to do next, not “try harder.”

Quick Answer

Core Answer

Healthcare recruiting operations is the system that measures and improves outreach throughput—tracking contacts, follow-up, deliverability, connect rate, opt-outs, and ROI so placements don’t depend on heroics.

Key Statistic

Heartbeat observed typicals: connect rate ~10%; outreach attempts 100–200 per placement; include “baseline measurement week.” (Varies by specialty, geography, and call windows.)

Best For

Recruiting leaders and sourcers who need repeatable systems (not heroics).

Compliance & Safety

This method is for legitimate recruiting outreach only. Always respect candidate privacy, opt-out requests, and local data laws. Heartbeat does not provide medical advice or legal counsel.

Quick navigation

• Start here: Framework (Ops Flywheel)
• Implement: Step-by-step method (baseline week → fix one lever)
• Pick a focus: Choose your path (ROI, suppression/opt-out, replies, call blocks, reactivation)
• Run weekly: OPS_SCORECARD (in How to improve results)
• Execute: Next steps (what to do this week)

Framework: The Ops Flywheel: Track → Learn → Fix → Repeat

Most teams skip “Track” and jump straight to “Fix.” That’s how you end up arguing about list quality, recruiter effort, or “market conditions” with no proof. The Ops Flywheel keeps you honest:

• Track: instrument the funnel from “attempted touch” to “conversation” to “submission” to “placement.”
• Learn: identify the constraint (deliverability, connectability, reply, follow-up latency, or suppression hygiene).
• Fix: change one lever at a time (sequence, call blocks, verification, suppression rules, routing).
• Repeat: run a weekly cadence so improvements stick when volume spikes.

The trade-off is… you’ll spend less time “sourcing” and more time operating a measurable system. That’s exactly what improves speed and margin.

Tooling map (so ops doesn’t fall between systems)

• CRM/ATS: source of truth for stage, owner, last touch, next-touch date, and notes.
• Dialer/phone system: source of truth for dials, connected calls, and human answers.
• Email system: source of truth for sent, delivered, bounces, and replies.
• Suppression source of truth: one place that enforces opt-out and do-not-contact across tools.

Step-by-step method

Step 1: Run a baseline measurement week (before you change anything)

Pick one segment (one specialty, one geography, or one role type) and run your current process for five business days—while tracking the same fields for every touch. This becomes your baseline so you can prove what actually moved.

Capture timestamps from your CRM, dialer logs, and email logs so follow-up latency is measurable (not a vibe).

• Inputs: prospects added, total dials, emails sent, follow-ups sent, opt-outs captured.
• Outputs: connected calls, human answers, delivered emails, bounces, replies, booked screens, submissions.

Metric definitions (use these consistently):

• Connect Rate = connected calls / total dials (per 100 dials).
• Answer Rate = human answers / connected calls (per 100 connected calls).
• Deliverability Rate = delivered emails / sent emails (per 100 sent emails).
• Bounce Rate = bounced emails / sent emails (per 100 sent emails).
• Reply Rate = replies / delivered emails (per 100 delivered emails).
• ROI = (incremental gross profit attributable to the change − incremental cost) / incremental cost.

Step 2: Standardize your contact record so ops doesn’t collapse

Every candidate record should carry the minimum fields needed to run the flywheel:

• Identity: name, specialty, location preference, role type.
• Channels: phone(s), email(s), and which one was last used successfully.
• Status: active, nurture, do-not-contact (with reason), wrong person.
• Suppression & opt-out: timestamp, channel, and scope (email only vs all channels).
• Last touch + next touch date: so follow-up is scheduled, not “when I remember.”

Step 3: Build a sequence that matches healthcare reality

Healthcare candidates are busy, often in clinic, and frequently screen unknown numbers. Your sequence should assume you need multiple attempts and multiple channels.

• Day 1: call + short email (one clear ask).
• Day 2–3: call block + reply-to-the-same-thread email.
• Day 5–7: value-forward follow-up (schedule options, comp model clarity, location constraints).
• Week 2: reactivation angle if no response (new role detail, new schedule, new location).

When you’re using Heartbeat.ai, you can prioritize outreach using ranked mobile numbers by answer probability so your best call blocks hit the most likely answers first.

Step 4: Put suppression and opt-out into the workflow (not a spreadsheet)

Suppression is ops hygiene that protects deliverability and prevents re-touching people who said “stop.”

• Centralize suppression rules (global vs recruiter-level).
• Record opt-out by channel and apply it automatically to future sequences.
• Audit weekly: new opt-outs, repeated touches after opt-out, and “wrong person” flags.

Go deeper: suppression lists and opt-out management for recruiting ops.

Step 5: Fix the constraint, not the symptom

Use your baseline week to identify the bottleneck:

• Low deliverability rate / high bounce rate: your email channel is leaking. Fix verification, sending practices, and suppression hygiene.
• Low connect rate: your phone channel is leaking. Fix call blocks, number quality, and routing.
• Low reply rate with good deliverability: your message and offer clarity are leaking.
• Good replies but slow submissions: your handoff and scheduling ops are leaking.

Go deeper: why physicians don’t reply (and what to change).

Step 6: Prove ROI with a simple before/after

Don’t argue about “better.” Prove it with incremental outcomes tied to cost. If you change one lever (like verification, suppression rules, or call block planning), compare baseline week vs week 2–3 after the change.

Go deeper: how to measure contact data ROI in recruiting ops.

Choose your path (hub pathways)

• If you need to defend spend: measure contact data ROI and tie changes to incremental gross profit.
• If you’re getting complaints or repeat touches: suppression lists & opt-out management.
• If connects are low: call block math for physician recruiting.
• If replies are low: why physicians don’t reply.
• If you have a stale bench: reactivating physician candidates.

Diagnostic Table:

Use this to diagnose where your healthcare recruiting operations are breaking. Start at the top and stop when you find the first “red” metric.

Weighted Checklist:

Use this to prioritize fixes that improve throughput and protect margin. Score each item 0–2 (0 = not in place, 1 = partial, 2 = consistent). Multiply by weight. Highest total impact first.

Outreach Templates:

These are operational templates—short, scannable, and easy to test. Customize the bracketed fields and keep the ask simple.

Template 1: First-touch email (clear ask)

Subject: Quick question about your next move

Hi [First Name] — I’m recruiting for a [Specialty] role with [Facility/Group] in [Location].

Two quick checks: are you open to [perm/locums] and would [Schedule detail] work for you?

If yes, reply with a good time for a 7-minute call this week (or send your availability). If not, I can stop reaching out—just tell me.

— [Your Name], [Title]

Template 2: Voicemail + follow-up email (same thread)

Voicemail: “Hi [First Name], this is [Name]. I’m calling about a [Specialty] opportunity in [Location]. I’ll send a short email—reply with a good time for a quick call.”

Email follow-up: “Just left you a voicemail. If you’re open to a quick chat, what’s the best time window this week?”

Template 3: Reactivation (new info, not guilt)

Hi [First Name] — circling back because the role changed: [one concrete change: schedule, comp model, call, location flexibility].

Worth a 7-minute check-in, or should I close the loop and suppress future outreach?

— [Your Name]

Go deeper: reactivating physician candidates without burning the relationship.

Common pitfalls

• Calling it “sourcing” when it’s really ops: if follow-up isn’t scheduled and measured, volume won’t save you.
• Measuring only activity, not outcomes: dials and emails are inputs. You need connect rate, deliverability rate, and reply rate to see where the leak is.
• Ignoring suppression until you get complaints: suppression and opt-out should be part of the workflow, not a cleanup project.
• Changing five things at once: you can’t attribute ROI if you change data source, sequence, and call windows simultaneously.
• Letting “unknown” statuses pile up: every record needs a next-touch date or a suppression reason.

How to improve results

Measure this by… running the same scorecard every week and forcing a single “constraint decision” (one fix) based on the data.

OPS_SCORECARD (uniqueness hook): the Monday scorecard that prevents heroics

This is the minimum viable ops scorecard for healthcare recruiting operations. It’s designed to answer one question: Where is the constraint this week?

How to run this in a real team: assign an owner per row, set a due date for the “Fix to test,” and review outcomes the next Monday before you pick a new lever.

What good looks like (Week 1 to Week 4)

• Week 1 (baseline): you can produce a scorecard without arguing about definitions, and every record has a next-touch date or a suppression reason.
• Week 2 (first fix): you test one lever (call blocks, verification, suppression rule, or message) and can show before/after movement in the relevant rate.
• Week 3 (stability): opt-outs are captured consistently, and repeated touches after opt-out are treated as an ops defect.
• Week 4 (repeatable): the team can predict weekly conversation volume from planned activity because the constraint is known and managed.

Measurement instructions (operational)

• Cadence: run the scorecard weekly (same day/time). Don’t skip weeks when you’re busy—that’s when ops breaks.
• Attribution rule: change one lever per week (sequence, call window, verification, suppression rule, routing). Log the change in the scorecard.
• Segment rule: measure by segment (specialty, geography, role type). Aggregates hide constraints.
• Quality control: spot-check a sample of records for correct status, next-touch date, and suppression flags.

Legal and ethical use

This hub is about operational discipline, not loopholes. Use legitimate recruiting outreach, honor opt-outs quickly, and keep suppression consistent across systems.

• Phone/SMS: follow applicable rules and internal policies for outreach and consent.
• Email: include clear identification and a working opt-out process; don’t keep emailing people who opted out.
• Data handling: store only what you need, restrict access, and document suppression decisions.

Heartbeat does not provide legal advice. If you need a definitive interpretation for your situation, involve counsel.

Evidence and trust notes

We publish how we think about data quality, verification, and responsible use here: Heartbeat trust methodology. Our approach is measurement-first: define the rates, enforce suppression hygiene, and validate changes with a baseline week before scaling.

Baseline compliance references (not legal advice):

• FCC overview of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA)
• FTC CAN-SPAM compliance guide

FAQs

What does healthcare recruiting operations include day-to-day?

It includes measurement (connect rate, deliverability rate, reply rate), follow-up scheduling, suppression/opt-out handling, sequence management, and weekly reviews that pick one constraint to fix.

What metrics should I track first?

Start with connect rate (connected calls / total dials per 100 dials) and deliverability rate (delivered emails / sent emails per 100 sent). Those two tell you if your channels are even reaching humans.

How do I keep opt-outs from getting missed?

Make opt-out capture part of the workflow: log it at the moment it happens, apply suppression rules across tools, and audit weekly for violations and repeated touches.

How many outreach attempts should we plan for?

Plan for multiple attempts across channels and measure your actual attempts-to-conversation and attempts-to-submission during a baseline measurement week. Use that to set realistic weekly activity targets.

Where should I start if physicians aren’t replying?

Confirm deliverability first (delivered vs bounced), then review reply rate (replies / delivered emails per 100 delivered). If deliverability is fine, tighten the ask and role clarity. Use: why physicians don’t reply.

Next steps

• Pick one segment and run a baseline measurement week using the OPS_SCORECARD table above.
• Choose your path:
  • Measure contact data ROI
  • Suppression lists & opt-out management
  • Call block planning
  • Reactivating physician candidates
• If you want to operationalize this with better reach and cleaner workflows, start free search & preview data.

About the Author

Ben Argeband is the Founder and CEO of Swordfish.ai and Heartbeat.ai. With deep expertise in data and SaaS, he has built two successful platforms trusted by over 50,000 sales and recruitment professionals. Ben’s mission is to help teams find direct contact information for hard-to-reach professionals and decision-makers, providing the shortest route to their next win. Connect with Ben on LinkedIn.