Find MFA and ZFA
Are you looking for (dental) medical specialists? We are happy to help
It feels like every medical or dental practice is currently looking for practice staff. Hardly a week goes by without an existing or new client asking us to support them in their search for an MFA or ZFA. At this point, clients have often already tried many things themselves (in vain) to recruit staff - often at great expense.
The problem: The market for available MFAs and ZFAs is empty. Suitable employees are usually already in permanent employment and are not actively looking for new employers. In short: practices, clinics and care facilities nowadays have to apply for and interview practice staff themselves - and do so proactively.
From many successful recruitment projects, we know how to find available dental nurses or medical assistants despite difficult circumstances.
Success stories of our customers
We have recently been able to successfully fill the following MFA / ZFA positions
Find a ZFA or MFA: What you should look out for
1) Check current reputation as an employer
On kununu.com employees can rate their employer. Unfortunately, this channel is not only used in a constructive sense, but often also to "kick back" if there have been disagreements or a dismissal. The larger the organisation, clinic or practice, the more likely it is that reviews are already available.
Before you launch large job campaigns or place adverts for a lot of money, you should definitely take a look at the portal in advance and check how your reputation as an employer is doing. If your rating is problematic, you should first take countermeasures. Untruths or false factual claims can be removed in the course of a deletion request.
2. define and communicate convincing conditions
Before you start the actual recruitment process, you should analyse how and with what you could convince potential candidates. Remember: The primary aim will be to recruit people who are already in permanent employment. The conditions of the vacant job should therefore be better than those of the current employer in order to arouse the candidate's interest.
Of course, this will primarily affect salary and holiday arrangements. Many employers in the care and health sector are therefore very open about how high the salary would be and how many days' holiday are granted.
Employers can also bring other factors into play that make a job more attractive:
- Exchange premiums
- Support with removals
- Tax-free benefits in kind, e.g. via the givve® Card
- Measures for occupational health care (e.g. gym membership)
- Company training
- Company pension scheme
- Flexible working hours
- Flexitime
- Jobbike
- Job ticket
- Company mobile phone
- Company car
- Free drinks
- Free parking spaces
3. offer perspectives
Why should an unseasoned MFA or ZFA apply to you if the career prospects are hardly any different from the current position? A slightly higher salary can certainly be an incentive, but if you are basically happy in your current job and the team harmonises, a slightly higher salary is hardly an incentive to take on something uncertain.
You have a better chance of recruiting if you guarantee a firmly agreed perspective directly in the job advertisement - for example, further development from dental assistant to dental hygienist, dental assistant or dental hygienist. Or from MFA to billing manager.
Internal responsibilities that go beyond the usual field of activity (e.g. QM officer, social media officer, etc.) can also make your job offer more attractive.
4. identify and select suitable channels for the job advert
Important note: Please do not regard the order of the list as a judgement, but as a purely informative compilation of possible channels for job applications. Trainees naturally need to be approached differently and via different channels than senior nursing staff. As a practice marketing agency, we will be happy to advise you on the choice of the right channels and the design of your job advert or job campaign.
Daily and weekly newspapers
- A well-crafted and professionally designed advert in a newspaper is still a certain "statement" and signals the standing of the practice.
- According to a ZMG reader study (Zeitungsmarktforschung Gesellschaft der deutschen Zeitungen mbh), daily newspapers in Germany reach half of all citizens aged 14 and over. But even if the potential candidates are not among the readers: Friends and relatives often discover the job advert in the newspaper and pass on the information.
- Usually high costs if the job advert needs to be a little more eye-catching and larger.
- Short-lived effect, as the next newspaper edition is published the following day.
- It may be "lost" alongside other adverts (especially in the current situation).
- An additional step is required to trigger an application (e.g. typing in the provider's website address)
Classic job portals
- Unlike in newspapers, the job adverts are present for longer (depending on the duration you choose).
- The application can be initiated directly in the portal; the portals often offer standardised application forms.
- Depending on the portal, the job offer is also "picked up" by other partner portals and published further.
- You only reach people who are actively looking for a job and searching in these portals.
- The costs are not insignificant if you want to achieve a certain reach.
- Depending on the portal, the visual design is often standardised and it is difficult to stand out from the rest.
Specialised job portals (see appendix)
- Usually comparatively low costs, in some cases free switching is also possible.
- Very targeted approach of suitable candidates.
- Unlike in newspapers, the job adverts are present for longer (depending on the duration you choose).
- Depending on the portal, the application can be triggered directly there.
- You only reach people who are actively looking for a job and searching in these portals.
- Depending on how well-known the portal is, the target group may be somewhat smaller, especially if the portals do not achieve high visibility on Google.
Facebook and Instagram
- Very wide range at low cost.
- Diverse and interactive design options for job adverts.
- The application process can be made very simple for interested parties.
- Proactively approaching suitable candidates who are not actively looking for a job but could be convinced by an impressive job offer.
- Defining target groups, which was previously a major advantage of the social networks Facebook and Instagram, is becoming increasingly difficult for various reasons (data protection, anti-discrimination measures). For example, it is now no longer possible to specify the age of the target group. Of course, it makes little sense for a job advert for trainees to be shown to everyone between the ages of 18 and 65 (or rather, it MUST be shown).
- You can assume that you will be confronted with stupid comments. For example, on the subject of vaccination or payment.
LinkedIn or XING
- Ads that are only displayed within the networks (= only visible to people who are active with a profile) almost only reach people in permanent employment (= professionally up-to-date) and in exactly the profession they are looking for (depending on the definition of the target group)
- People who are active there with a profile most likely have a certain career orientation and are open to "the next step".
- Depending on the job offer and the regional focus, the target group may not be represented quite as frequently there (more career-orientated people, fewer "clerks").
Own website
- Wide range of design options in the style of the facility/clinic/practice.
- You can apply with one click or directly on the job offer page.
- Target group already knows the institution/clinic/practice or has a personal connection to it.
- No costs and no time limit on visibility.
- Can also be found via Google search through search engine optimisation.
- The target group is limited to visitors to your own website and will generally be very small.
More channels
Of course, this list does not claim to be exhaustive and there are other channels for recruiting staff for nursing and medical practices, for example:
- Regional or national job and training fairs
- Large-scale advertising media (e.g. vehicle stickers, billboards, advertising pillars)
- Job flyers that are displayed within a facility/clinic/practice
- TV and/or radio adverts
- Job adverts in magazines (such as city or district magazines)
- Notices in schools and universities
- Notices in your own clinic or practice rooms
- Online job portals of universities (job offers for graduates)
The decision as to which advertising medium or channel should be used for personnel recruitment naturally always depends on the type of job on offer and also on the regional circumstances.
Spoilt for choice: We will be happy to advise you and give you tips on how best to reach your target group (Image: www.giphy.com)
5. retain new (and permanent) staff in the long term
A lack of appreciation from superiors, internal disagreements within the team and/or permanent overwork are unfortunately widespread in the care sector or in healthcare professions. Of course, not every imponderable in healthcare professions can be controlled or positively influenced. However, things such as appreciation or respectful behaviour within the team can.
Everyone, whether boss, superior or simply a colleague, should realise this: The overall situation will only get worse if you don't respect and value each other. Any employee who decides to resign may, in the worst case, not be replaced at all or not be replaced for a very long time. And if new staff, who may have been acquired at great expense in advance (job adverts, transfer bonuses, etc.), were to leave promptly due to these problems, that would of course be doubly bad.
Appendix: Specialised job portals and Facebook groups
Specialised in MFAs
- Medical jobs
- Jobs Medicine & Nursing
- Vacancies for medical professionals Mainz/Wiesbaden/Frankfurt
- MFA Medical Assistant Job Market
- MFA & ZFA - Vacancies / Job applications / mfa-mal-anderes.de
- Medical assistants / medical assistants
- Job exchange - MFA concrete
- Medical assistant jobs MFA
- Job exchange for doctors, MFA, ZFA & dentists - job offers & exchange
Specialised in ZFAs
- Zahn um Zahn - Your exchange for dental professions and practice succession
- Dental Practice Jobs Job Search & Offers - Career
- MFA & ZFA - Vacancies / Job applications / mfa-mal-anderes.de
- Job exchange for doctors, MFA, ZFA & dentists - job offers & exchange
- Dental Practice Jobs Job Search & Offers - Career
- Dental jobs ZFA ZAH ZMF
- ZFA ZMF job exchange
