A sort of vibrato video Posted by @americanincome — which allegedly interviews real people in public about their jobs and income levels — went viral after a woman reported making $300,000 a year from her job as a healthcare recruiter.
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The woman explained that she had only three years of experience in healthcare recruiting, with a previous background in PR, and came into her career completely “by accident” after a friend set her up for the job. Her undergraduate degree is also not directly related to her current job — she graduated from the University of Alabama with a degree in journalism.
The video has been widely shared by nurses, recruiters and those looking to enter the profession. But despite its popularity, people wonder: is it true? Can a healthcare recruiter really make $300,000 a year? What about Travel Nurse Recruiters? Nurse Network Below are the answers to these questions.
What is Healthcare Recruiting?
Healthcare Recruiter are professionals who help staffing agencies recruit healthcare professionals to meet the needs of their partner hospitals and healthcare facilities. A hospital in need of temporary staff will call a staffing agency that hires a recruiter, who will then match the hospital’s needs with available healthcare professionals they work with, or contact to find new staff with the desired skills.
Some of the tasks a typical healthcare recruiter will perform include:
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Find healthcare professionals for new roles in hospitals, home care, outpatient clinics, surgery centers and more
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Screening and interviewing candidates
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Serve as a liaison between the company and potential employees
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Help new travel nurses position their roles and establish themselves in their company
Some healthcare recruiters may specialize in a certain field, such as working only with nurses, or some specialize in recruiting NPs, physicians, PTs, and other healthcare professionals. As with any job, there are different personalities and skills that make working with one healthcare recruiter a better fit than others, so the field can vary widely.
How much do healthcare recruiters make?
Healthcare recruiters typically receive a base salary from their company (which is the result of paying the staffing agency for their services by the facility) and then take a commission from each new temp or employee at the facility they hire.
according to hiring personnel, the average annual salary of a healthcare recruiter is $53,000/year. However, actual salaries vary widely depending on where you work, the industry you work in, and the company itself. The site does list the top reported salary for healthcare recruiters as $82,000, which is higher than $53 but still nowhere near the $300,000 mark.
What is the difference between a healthcare recruiter and a travel nurse recruiter?
The mentioned TikTok video was posted on several Travel Nurse Facebook groups. Many travel nurses in the comments wonder if travel nurse recruiters make that much money. It is generally accepted that travel nurse recruiters and healthcare recruiters are two different types of recruiters.
- Job Title “Health Care Recruiter” Usually refers to a recruiter who usually works for a hospital or recruiting firm and recruits a large number of healthcare professionals. They can recruit for allied health professionals, nurses, physicians, surgeons, and even healthcare technology positions. Healthcare recruiters may specialize in recruiting specific healthcare professionals. They are usually paid on a salary or salary + commission structure. If they are paid a commission, they will receive a percentage based on the healthcare professional’s salary amount. For example, if a healthcare recruiter staffs a nurse practitioner with a salary of $150,000, the healthcare recruiter may receive a 10% commission, or $15,000. Therefore, the higher the salary of a healthcare professional, the higher the commission for a healthcare recruiter is likely to be.
- Job Title “Travel Nurse Recruiter” Refers to recruiters who work for traveling nursing agencies and place nurses in temporary contract roles in hospitals around the world. They usually arrange nurses to work temporarily in the hospital for 13 weeks. The hospital pays the travel nursing agency a fee (bill rate) to have the nurses work there. The agency then splits the bill rate between the agency (profits and operating expenses) and the nurses. Travel nurse recruiters may receive a commission — a percentage of the agency’s billing rate. While billing rates have been inflated during the pandemic, each travel nurse typically doesn’t exceed $150/hour. Billing rates vary widely based on location, shift, and the facility with which the hospital “owns” the contract. Keep in mind that this amount is split between the agency, the travel nurse, and usually another agency that contracts with the hospital. Recruiters will only receive a fraction of the commission bill rate.
Top Travel Nurse Recruitment Interviews
Nurse.org interviewed Angelina Walker, a former travel nurse recruiter who worked for 7 years at 4 different travel nurse agencies. According to Angelina, travel nurse recruiters don’t earn anywhere near $300,000, and said the salaries listed in the video are definitely not typical salaries for travel nurse recruiters or healthcare recruiters in general.
How Much Do Travel Nurse Recruiters Actually Make?
“I worked as a traveling nurse recruiter (and hiring manager) for seven years at four different agencies, and I never made more than $70,000,” she notes. “To make $300, it would take hundreds of nurses working with me during that time. It’s pretty much impossible unless you’re literally working non-stop — evenings, weekends, vacations,” Angelina says.
She points out that since travel nurse recruiters are often paid on a commission structure, based on the number of nurses they assign, the only way to earn that kind of income is to recruit very high numbers of nurses — which is both nearly impossible and potentially hypocritical Yes, because the relationship between the recruiter and the nurse can suffer because of this volume.
“Most travel nurse recruiters had a low base salary. Mine never made more than $45,000 a year. The rest of their income came from commissions. Agencies offered various commission structures,” Angelina recalls.
How Much Commission Do Travel Nurse Recruiters Earn?
Travel care agencies have their own unique commission structures. In fact, some don’t even pay commissions at all. Below, Angelina explains some of her travel nurse recruiting commissions:
base salary plus commission
“For example, at one agency, I was paid a base salary of $38,000 per year and received a tiered commission structure based on the agency’s profit margin.”
Below is an excerpt from Angelina’s travel nurse recruiting contract:
“Travel nursing agencies typically take 15%-23% of the bill rate as a cut and pay the nurse the rest. However, the agency doesn’t take all of their cut as profit – they pay staff salaries, overhead, operating Costs and other charges. Typically, only one agency owns the contract with the hospital and all other agencies must contract through the primary agency. Therefore, the agency may also have to pay a portion of the billing rate to the agency that has the hospital contract. My commission is based on agency The bill rate amount the merchant receives after paying the necessary fees. My commissions are never huge—maybe $2,500 a month in a good month. Sometimes less than $800 in a bad month,” says Angelina.
100% commission structure
However, another agency I work for provides There is no base salary. That’s right, I get 100% commission. My commission is $1000 per nurse. That sounds like a great deal at first, until you realize that recruiting travel nurses is a 24 days a day, 365 days a year job. There is a lot of competition. In fact, it usually takes about 3 months to schedule your first travel nurse. I made about $5,000 before I thought it wasn’t worth it.
bonus structure
At another agency, I made a slightly higher base salary of $45,000 per year with quarterly “bonuses” based on a tiered commission structure. The bonus is usually around $500 per quarter.
Travel Nurse Recruiters Demand Strict Timelines
Angelina noted that, as a traveling nurse recruiter, her uncontrollable schedule ultimately drove her to leave the industry altogether.
“Travel nurse recruitment involves a huge time investment, in my case I was technically only working 40 hours a week, but as you can see below I was also asked to work extra hours – my hours were far from Hours more than I asked for,” Angelina said.
“As we discussed, your work schedule will primarily be Monday through Friday from 8:00am to 5:00pm. The schedule may be adjusted for business needs (e.g. per diem),” reads her contract.
Not only do travel nurse recruiters have to be available to the nurses they sign at any time of the day (day shift, night shift, and weekends), but they also have to work non-stop to continue building their pipeline to sign more nurses. They spent a lot of time marketing, following up with previously contracted travel nurses, onboarding new contract nurses, maintaining relationships with hospital clients, and addressing any issues that might arise,” Angelina recalls.
Travel Nurse Recruitment Not for New Moms
Nurse.org asked Angelina why she ended up leaving travel nurse recruiting, she said “The last straw was when I was a new mom with a 3 month old baby. Our recruiters took turns answering the phone overnight. If the call It rang and I had to answer after three rings. Well, I just got back from maternity leave and was asked to take my phone home for the weekend. As you can imagine, as a burnt-out working mother, the wee hours of the morning ringing on me My work wreaks havoc. Home. My mental health is terrible, I work 10+ hours a day and on weekends. No one in my house is sleeping. They try to make me take my phone home. So, I quit.”
TikTok reactions
The TikTok video itself showed a wide range of reactions, with some commenters pointing out that it was quite possible to earn that kind of salary as a healthcare recruiter, while others expressed complete disbelief.
There could be several possible reasons behind the high salaries received by the women in the video. One, she appears to be in a warmer climate, which is probably a higher-income, higher-income area such as California — also known for high pay rates for travel nurses.
Second, if she’s doing this type of salary hiring, she’s likely hiring for highly specialized and higher-level positions, such as a doctor in a specialized position in a hospital setting, which will earn a higher commission than a recruiter who would strictly target a nurse position . Third, it’s possible that the video reflects inflated wages caused by the pandemic, a staffing crisis, or a boutique firm offering big bonuses. But in general, these represent anomalies, not the average for healthcare recruiters.
“While a healthcare recruiter might make $300,000 hiring specialist physicians/hard to fill positions in a hospital setting, or maybe during COVID, that’s definitely not the norm or industry standard,” our former healthcare recruiter explained.
Can a Healthcare Recruiter Make $300,000?
Salary as a healthcare recruiter can be as high as $300,000 a year under key conditions (such as hiring a specialist in a high-paying location), but this is definitely not the norm.
So if you are currently a travel nurse or looking to join a travel nursing agency, don’t worry your recruiter is just making endless money on the job – good recruiters value professional working relationships and make you feel included Value and have a positive experience in your work. Because after all, if you’re not happy with your job, they can’t do their job well either. Don’t be afraid to be open and honest with your potential recruiters, ask tough questions, and find the right recruiter for you.
