Residency program rebranding Campaign
Objective
Create a strong image of the Residency program to attract the top-ranking candidates to the University Hospitals. By securing the best candidates the program will be able to have the best doctors in training and employ them for faculty positions in the future.
Challenge
The first impression of the program is the Interview day when candidates visit the hospital and are interviewed by faculty members. Most of this time is spent walking through the hospital, listening to PowerPoint presentations, and sitting through stressful interviews - an experience that is standard across all Residency programs nationally and somewhat boring. On average, candidates visit 10 - 15 programs before choosing their Residency program, so it is difficult to be memorable and stand out from the competition.
In addition, the University Hospitals program is located in Cleveland, a city that is not very attractive to candidates because of its cold weather and limited cultural attractions compared to large cities like New York or Chicago.
IDEA
Through surveys and applicant interviews, we have found that the biggest driver for candidates to pick a program is the feeling of belonging. Candidates want to feel like they can be friends with people they will be working with and they want to feel like they fit in. This criterion ranked the highest among all drivers for picking a Residency program, even above the geographic location and salary.
It was clear that in order to create the feeling of belonging applicants were looking for, we needed to transform the program to come across open and friendly. The best way to do this was to highlight the personality of residents in the program and create engaging and transparent content about training at University Hospitals.
execution
Luckily, the Residency program at University Hospitals has great leadership and a friendly tightly-knit community of residents. We needed to make sure we made this unique feeling of camaraderie visible.
In order to create a feeling of belonging among applicants and leave them with a memorable interview experience, a number of changes were introduced to the interview process:
Personal touch always stands out - Before coming to the interview, each applicant received a personal email from a Chief Resident sharing the applicant’s interview day schedule, list of fun things to do in Cleveland as well as short interviews of residents in training so that the applicant could get a sense of personalities he or she would be interacting with. This personal touch also showed applicants that the people in the program were excited to meet them.
The unconventional is memorable - Instead of experiencing the usual hotel stay, applicants were immediately immersed in a hospital environment. On the pillow of their hotel room, each candidate found a goodie bag with relaxing tea to drink before going to bed, a pager that would wake them up on the day of the interview, a power bar they could have as a snack in the middle of the day among other items. Staging this experience through sensory involvement proved to be memorable and goodies that addressed to the applicants’ needs really resonated with them.
Trading facts for fun - During the tour of the hospital, applicants no longer listened to historic facts and statistics, instead storytelling was focused on the experiences of residents who were leading the tour in small groups, memorable stories that took place and fun traditions that residents have. The tour was also conducted in small groups to ensure a closer connection with applicants and highlighted the feeling of close community in the hospital.
Transparency and open feedback in marketing - The program website was expanded to include detailed information on rotations, on-call schedules, research initiatives and opportunities abroad as well as social and recreational activities in Cleveland. This wealth of open information stood out for applicants compared to other hospitals that offered limited resources about resident life and work. In addition, upon completing the interview day, applicants received a detailed survey, responses from the survey were analyzed and noteworthy ideas were implemented right away.
After these initiatives were implemented and interview processes optimized, the Residency program received overwhelmingly positive feedback from applicants. The program improved its admission targets by 19 percent and continues to excel in attracting the best talent to University Hospitals.