Understanding Cohorts: A New Look at Physician Recruiting

By Bob Eskridge, President

Effective physician recruiting requires the professional to understand different age groups, characteristics, and values, as a means to successfully placing doctors in the best role. The time period in which an individual comes of age greatly impacts how an individual perceives work and how he or she will typically perform as an employee. A group of people reaching adulthood at a particular time, called a group of cohorts, tend to have similar characteristics. Eric Berkowitz PhD of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst has conducted extensive research in relationships of these cohorts and how it relates to physician recruiting. By understanding a cohort’s characteristics, a recruiter can more effectively place an individual, and an employer can manage the professional to the greatest benefit for both the company and the employee.

Cohorts are bound together by the events and ideas that play out at the time they come of age. Major events such as wars, political happenings, technological advances and philosophical and social changes affect the group’s perception of the world and lead to characteristic behaviors. Because the group of individuals forms their values and beliefs as they mature, the significant events of the day have a huge impact on the group’s value sets, which tend to remain with the group for a lifetime. Interestingly, these value sets are not generally impacted by other major factors, such as race, class, and gender.

Cohorts and generations are two different concepts, though the names of these groups are often interchangeable. While cohorts refer to the time that a group comes of age, a generation refers to the time in which a group was born, usually a 20-22 year period. It is important to note that no general statement can apply to all members of a group, but rather describe characteristics that are commonly found within the group. The cohort groups of the last 100 years include the following:

• Depression
• World War II
• Post-War
• Baby Boomers
• Generation X
• N Gen or Generation Y
• Millenials

To illustrate a cohort group, many of us might remember members of the Depression Era, a cohort group born between 1912-1921, who came of age during the Great Depression. If you remember a cohort from this group, it is likely that you remember the person was thrifty to an extreme, perhaps stockpiling food, making do without luxuries, and focusing on financial security. Their experiences during times of great economic stress changed them permanently.

The Baby Boomers are the oldest cohort of workers currently recruited and employed on a large scale. They came of age between 1963 to 1983, experiencing significant events such as the Kennedy assassinations, the Moon landings, the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights and Women’s Lib movements. These circumstances led to a highly-educated group of people who are idealistic workaholics, who tend to put career before family, who can be very individualistic and self-focused, and who feel both a responsibility and a sense of accomplishment in changing the world. This group is the largest cohort population in the United States, and they have driven lifestyle trends ever since their conception. The majority of Boomers will reach retirement age within the next ten years.

The Generation X group matured between 1984 and 1994, and comprises 22% of the population. This cohort was marked as the largest generation of children of divorce, who often grew up as latch-key kids. Defining events included recessions, the energy crisis, nuclear and environmental disasters such as Three Mile Island, the Gulf War, and the leading edge of the Information Age. This group has little hope of attaining the lifestyle of their parents, and view idealism with suspicion. The defining events in their lives have produced a cohort that is pragmatic, self-reliant, informal, casual, and technologically savvy. They tend to build a sense of family among friends and look for balance in their lives. Though this group has often been called a generation of “slackers”, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that, in fact, they work almost 4 hours per week more than the average.

N-Gen or Generation Y cohorts are those who came of age between 1995-2005. The events that shaped this group include the Internet, terrorism acts such as the Oklahoma City bombing and the September 11 attacks, diversity initiatives, social changes such as the fall of Communism, the release of freedom fighters such as Nelson Mandela, and the AIDS epidemic. This group has characteristics that are polar opposite to Generation X; they tend to be positive, idealistic team players who place great value on diversity and civic duty.

The Millenials came of age after 2005, in a world of increasing respect for diversity, leaving no one behind, pervasive technology, continual terrorism attacks, and a high sense of achievement and their own worth. For Millenials, multi-tasking is a way of life and staying connected 24x7 through the Internet, text messaging, instant messaging, cell phones, and email are of high value. Because technology can alter reality in many ways, this group no longer depends on a sense of absolute reality.

Knowing how to communicate to each cohort group is a skill worth developing. For example, Baby Boomers appreciate organized, detailed information, and a tactful communication style that recognizes the individual’s authority. Gen X’ers and Gen Y’ers don’t just want to be on the receiving end of a message, but also want to interact with and help craft the message. Millenials,

more than any other cohort, receive communications from diverse sources, and they appreciate communication that makes them feel special. These communication preferences can be used by the savvy communicator as a tool to reaching the individual.

Each of these groups has assets that can be used to great advantage when recruiting; each group also has challenges that can be overcome by savvy approaches and perceptive managers. Learning to identify the characteristics that an individual possesses, as part of their cohort group, can provide a recruiter with tremendous opportunities to coach a candidate and place him or her in the best position. The following table offers a perspective on the strengths and weaknesses of each cohort, as well as information on how to work with them to the best advantage.

Cohort	Assets	Challenges	Motivators
Baby Boomer	- Career oriented - Driven - Want to please - Experienced	- Not naturally “budget-minded” - Overly sensitive to feedback - Judgmental - Self-Centered	- Personal appeal - Public recognition - Name recognition - Reward hours and effort - Coach with sensitivity - Value experience
Gen X’er	- Goal oriented - Adaptable - Technologically savvy - Independent - Unintimidated by authority - Creative - Pragmatic	- Cynical - Focused on work/life balance - Can be overly casual - Less company loyalty	- Self-development - Opportunities for advancement - A fun, relaxed atmosphere - Hands-off supervision - Good technology - A family environment
N Gen	- Team oriented - Optimistic - Tenacious - Technologically savvy	- Less sense of absolute right and wrong - Impatient - Overly focused on individualism	- Self-designated work teams - Flexible work hours - Virtual work teams - Reverse mentoring programs - Show opportunities for advancement - Straightforward feedback
Millennial	- Service oriented - Multitasking - Technologically savvy - Positive attitude - Collaborative	- Distaste for menial work - Have few skills to deal with difficult people - Impatient - Inexperienced - Overconfident	- Exceptional teamwork - Continual stimulation and challenge - A structured environment - Honesty - Ability to provide input

Knowing the best ways to motivate, communicate, and work with each of these groups can impact the satisfactory placement, work behavior, and job satisfaction for each individual. The motivating factors for a cohort can mean the difference between an engaged, hard-working workforce and one that performs poorly. A recruiter should identify each candidate’s cohort group and then determine how to communicate opportunities to the individual. By focusing on a candidate’s motivating factors, a recruiter has the greatest likelihood of placement in a mutually satisfying position.

Bob Eskridge (bob@eskridge-associates.com) is the President of Eskridge & Associates (www.eskridge-associates.com) which specializes in the placement of physicians in both locum tenens and permanent opportunities nationwide.

© Eskridge & Associates, 2007