Winning the Recruitment Race — Christy Bray on 2026’s New Rules
Download MP3Well, hi, everyone. I'm Daniel Williams, senior editor at MGMA, host of the MGMA Podcast Network. And as we turn the page to this new year, 2026, we are gonna have an immediate focus in the month of January on, the workforce, recruitment, retention, culture, a lot of onboarding, different things of that nature. And we are so glad and so lucky to have Christy Bray joining us today. Christy has her MHA.
Daniel Williams:She has something I want to ask her about, a CPRPDEI. We're going to talk about that. And she's Chief Customer Officer at PracticeLink. And I would be remiss to not say that Christy has decades of experience. We were debating this offline, like how many years of experience, but decades of experience in physician and provider recruitment and staffing.
Daniel Williams:She's also the host of a very popular Workforce Wisdom with Christy Bray podcast. So Christy Bray, welcome to the show.
Christy Bray:Thank you for having me, Danielle. I really appreciate the opportunity.
Daniel Williams:Yeah, this is so cool. I told you offline, I was doing research and I did a search on healthcare workforce trends recruiting. Your name came up at the very top. So Google and you are good friends right now. So that's kind of neat to know that, right?
Christy Bray:It really is. It's outstanding. Hope that I can leave your listeners with at least some tidbits and feedback. Super glad that MGMA is focusing on those core topics for 2026, because as you know, you can't run a clinic or operate a hospital without that workforce being in place. So kudos to you guys for choosing that as a platform for next year.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. So let's get to know you a little bit better. I gave a little bit of your background, but what other highlights? What would you like to share with us about your role and your career path in that provider recruitment?
Christy Bray:Sure. Yeah, my path to healthcare started way, way back, actually in high school, with just being exposed to orthopedic practice and sports medicine, definitely in college, where I served as an athletic trainer at the University of Oklahoma, really just always been involved with healthcare in some aspect, either sports medicine, working in clinics, and then transitioning into hospital health system leadership. So really kind of recruitment finds you. I think you don't necessarily find it. We joke in the recruitment world that nobody goes to recruiter school.
Christy Bray:It may be marketing or journalism or sales. It's a roundabout path to get there. So I've been blessed to serve with many multi state national organizations, either as a recruiter or as a team member, and then as a leader. So, you know, really just the passion to ensure that the communities we serve have the providers they need in order to save lives. That's really kind of my, that's my whole being.
Christy Bray:And the reason I wake up every morning super excited to be able to help our PracticeLink customers and then those within the recruitment industry.
Daniel Williams:Yeah, that is such a great story. And I want to ask you, because you said you've been at this for decades. We have seen incredible changes in technology over the last few decades. What has been the biggest change or not a change at all in that physician provider recruitment?
Christy Bray:I think you have to start with the shortage, right? Just basic supply demand. I think as the new generations are graduating from residency fellowship, coming out into the workforce, you're seeing them consume information in a different way, either from the beginning of their job search or even on a resource side and what they're being educated about. So it's really kind of adjusting your model for the type of provider you're looking for, and then being able to meet them where they are within their career path, their career journey, we started to see a shift where residents and fellows started looking very early on in their job search. So when I came into this, maybe it was six months, and then it pushed to twelve and 18.
Christy Bray:And now you're seeing health systems and then the the medical students be open to signing agreements on match day. Like, day they match, they know. So that cuts out a lot of the recruiters, the traditional recruitment that are hoping to catch those kids while they're still training in residency or fellowship. That's becoming more common. So I think things are moving faster and folks are willing to commit a lot earlier in their career journey and their training journey.
Daniel Williams:Okay. What a neat thing. We could have a separate show just talking about that. That is real for an early careerist type episode. That'd be so cool.
Daniel Williams:Tell us about PracticeLink. And I want to add one tidbit there. When I went out there to research you, I went to LinkedIn because that's what people do now to get to know, and you had the little ring that said hiring. So tell us about PracticeLink. And then if you don't mind following up, what opportunities are there?
Daniel Williams:Maybe some of our listeners are looking for a new opportunity and may be interested in what y'all are offering at PracticeLink.
Christy Bray:Sure. I think what really drew me to PracticeLink and stepping into that chief customer role and out of a traditional in house recruitment role was the opportunity to provide positive impact across the country to the recruiters that we're blessed to call customers. And then those organizations that really trust us to bring them high quality candidates in a quicker pace. Recruitment is a very much a long game, but to be able to make those connections for them. So PracticeLink about over thirty one years ago, our founder established PracticeLink as one of the first physician focused job boards.
Christy Bray:Additionally, we have candidate database access. So where recruiters or sourcing teams are able to go in and reach out to folks who meet the qualifications or meet some of the criteria they're looking for. A couple of different ways they can go about that. But I think our goal is really to provide that connection point for those seeking workforce. And then for those providers also to be that resource in return, if it's student loans or maybe they're international medical graduate, and we can provide some level of support and education.
Christy Bray:What we find definitely during their training, they are not getting financial advice. Even, you know, many times they're not understanding the terms of their contracts. So we have partnered with a lot of people in our resource center to bring that information forward. We host webinars, you know, a lot of different events to try and get that messaging out there. But PracticeLink really for thirty plus years has stood alongside the recruitment community, physician recruitment community, really helping to build those strong relationships and partner in those placements, being more than just a job board.
Daniel Williams:Okay. And then my follow-up to that again, the hiring part, what kind of roles are y'all looking to fill at PracticeLink?
Christy Bray:Yeah, I think it's probably a little bit of a misnomer because, you know, as a recruiter, you're always hiring. You always wanna be on, and you want that on your LinkedIn page.
Daniel Williams:Oh, okay.
Christy Bray:PracticeLink is actually a fairly small company. Mhmm. For despite its growth and the impact that we have had in in recruitment, we're looking all the time for talent that can bring something to us. A lot of our focus now is in the tech and dev space to go fast and to make changes and move the platform forward. So that's where we see a lot of our growth in our company.
Christy Bray:Probably largest segment to support that resource center and that education aspect actually is our marketing and content team. Not sure if that's what you have at MGMA, but you need a workforce of people beyond that, behind you to push the message out there. So that's one of the teams that I just really enjoy working with at PracticeLink. And we can continue to leverage and grow that talent so we can provide really good content to folks.
Daniel Williams:That is so cool. Let me talk about that. You really caught my attention at the matchmaking part of that. Where do people I'm trying to think of where's the disconnect there? Or how can you help people make sure they're making the right connection, the right match?
Daniel Williams:What are some of the questions that those people who are being hired need to ask? What are some of the questions those practices need to ask that maybe you're noticing there's a gap and they're not asking those right questions?
Christy Bray:I think a lot of times, if you look back to the sourcing, so you still do need to post your jobs well beyond post and prey, but you do have to have your jobs posted. And when I say that, I mean all of your jobs. The recruitment cycle or kind of that marketing cycle to catch up to folks laying eyes on your jobs is at least ninety days. So I would start way back and say, post your jobs. They need to be open.
Christy Bray:They need to be active. They need to communicate what the job is, which sounds super basic, but you've gotta have some keywords in there that not only you mentioned it, like Google is picking up, or now we're seeing AI really help people with their job search. So you've gotta have some keywords in there as well as something that might be exciting or enticing within your community, the opportunity. Maybe you have a certain piece of equipment or there's research that's being done. You would really wanna highlight those pieces of the job.
Christy Bray:And then beyond that, when you're doing your outreach, make sure it's focused. We refer to it like, don't do a shotgun approach. This isn't messaging 10,000 people because what you'll get is a lot of unsubscribes, which, you know, it's a holiday season. That is what happens all the time right now to companies is that unsubscribe. So you wanna make sure you're curating a large enough but qualified and highly focused group of candidates when you're doing that outreach.
Christy Bray:The messaging should be very clear. Make sure there's a call to action, right? So a click through rate. So when you're looking at your metrics, you're always going back to monitor how many people did it go to, how many opened it, was click through, was there a phone number they could text? You kind of build upon all of those things that recruitment is very much marketing.
Christy Bray:And as you can lean into those marketing tactics from almost a sales perspective, that's what you're doing is selling your opportunity. I think as it gets harder and harder because the talent pool is shrinking rapidly, and we are on the very front end of that shrinkage, to be prepared. These jobs will be open for longer. If you need coverage so the doors stay open, you're gonna need to look at a locums or some other temporary staff to support you. So, you know, don't let the dollars of that hold you back from serving your community because recruitment, again, is a long game.
Christy Bray:It is going to take a lot longer than you anticipated. It's it's probably like building a house. You're usually gonna be over budget and over your timeline. It's very much the same thing.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. You've already touched on a lot of the trends, a lot of the changes that have happened in this space. But looking at it through your lens, what are the trends you're seeing in 2026 as we move into 2026 here? What are the trends you're seeing in provider recruitment, retention, anything else that you're really focused on right now?
Christy Bray:With a lot of uncertainty with funding coming out of CMS or the ACA with the payer side, a lot of health systems are watching their budgets closely. And so they wanna make sure the dollar they spend with PracticeLink or another tool is being spent at the highest level. They're getting that return back. So I would encourage folks to take a look at those things and see what's working for you. If there's another way to leverage some of those relationships, something that maybe the technology could help you do differently as a recruitment team.
Christy Bray:The other thing would be these teams are stretched. Some of them have been affected by reduction in workforce. They've been affected by whole departments being dismantled. So it's tough right now for some of it. And folks that are in the job market know that, even the general job market beyond physicians, it's a very tough place right now for work and finding those pipelines.
Christy Bray:So I really think as you're going to either specialty conferences or doing some additional advertising, you've gotta take advantage of some of those key things. They may not cost the whole budget, but find some of those key things that really can communicate your message and your value to a broad landscape. We do a lot of geo targeting. And then people know those as you open your Yahoo and suddenly you're getting ads for St. Louis, but you live in Asheville.
Christy Bray:Well, it's because your phone pinged, right, in St. Louis. It's following you back. So those types of things, geo targeting is actually very inexpensive, highly effective.
Daniel Williams:Wow. Okay.
Christy Bray:Because we all see it. Right? You see it on your socials. You see it on your email you're logging into. People have their phones with them all the time.
Christy Bray:So think differently, like a little bit outside of the box where I would still do a postcard mailer campaign, but I'd also geotarget. You know? So a little bit of the old and the new kind of worked into your recruitment strategy. And I can't emphasize enough, start early with your strategic plan. There are amazing partners out there that can help you if you don't understand what you need or where you need to go or how you should serve your community.
Christy Bray:But start early so that you're not caught off guard. And unfortunately none of us can grow or produce a physician. This is about a thirty two year process. So make sure you've given yourself enough runway so that you're ready and you can support your community.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. A strategic plan, we could build out an entire three hour seminar together and host that. Maybe we'll do that. That's maybe not a bad idea. But for the purposes of this episode, what's kind of a building block?
Daniel Williams:When we're talking strategic plans, sometimes people just get a little paralyzed. You're thinking, Oh my gosh, how do we stop and build out a plan here? Where's that starting point? Or what are some of the key aspects of a strategic plan that you're talking about that our listeners should focus on?
Christy Bray:I think just kind of like taking inventory of your pantry before you go to the grocery store. So know what you have, know what you have up shelf, right?
Daniel Williams:Yeah.
Christy Bray:You know you have X number of cardiologists, you know how many people you're serving in your community, go into procedure volumes. And you do have to pull some of that information out, either your EMR or some other, maybe your billing system. But start there, start who you have, look at how old they are, because that is a big thing right now, just the amount of people retiring from the workforce. So you really have to take a hard lens to that, have some tough conversations. Are you looking to slow down?
Christy Bray:Are you gonna keep up at this pace? We know a lot of the retiring generation is serving at a one and a half, a two, a two and a half FTE. So you have to be able to adjust some of that volume to say, okay, maybe some of that could be supported by an APP, a nurse practitioner or a PA that could backfill a little bit of that FTE. Well, they can't do some of the procedural work that has to be done. So you still need that physician, but knowing what you have on your bench and how long you're gonna have it, that's the first place to start.
Christy Bray:And then going back, as you look towards growth models of where you wanna be in the next three, five, ten years, that really helps to determine how you set those goals. I supported a health system with some practices and hospitals in New Mexico. New Mexico is very tough, very tough licensure, medical malpractice. A lot of things are tough in New Mexico. We knew we needed a net 30 primary care providers within this community, but we knew we couldn't get to that in one year.
Christy Bray:So we sliced it apart in a three year increment where, and again, a net 10 means nobody's leaving. So you're really probably trying to bring in about 18 to get to your net 10 so that you can offset that balance. So you have to just, it's easy math for those things, but that's what you have to look at is when you go through that you will have some attrition, and you will probably have some of those emergencies where you'll need additional workforce from, you know, from somewhere, if it's a temp status or bringing in some type of contract worker to help support you.
Daniel Williams:Thanks for that, Christy. And I want to go back to something that you brought up earlier that I thought was so interesting, and I want to know more about it. You talked about the job board, and there's also, in researching your organization, a recruitment management system. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about how it works.
Daniel Williams:And for our listeners, these practice administrators, practice leaders, perhaps even we do have some physicians that listen as well, How do they interact with that? What are some of the top level things you could tell us about that job board and the other tools?
Christy Bray:Sure. Yeah, so at PracticeLink, and I would say this is pretty standard for most of the recruitment tools out there. You start with the job board. As I mentioned, you have to have that visibility on I'm hiring. You have to have your job board out there.
Christy Bray:Then you layer on top of that, what I talked about is the candidate sourcing and make sure you're intentional about the groups that you're reaching out to, the folks you're contacting, email, text, carrier pigeon, however you're doing that. That becomes some of the recruitment management system. There are a lot of tools that have a set it and forget it email function. So that's something we call at PracticeLink dynamic email campaigns. So you have a new search that opens, cardiology in New Mexico.
Christy Bray:The system knows that intuitively. And as candidates come in or register, they are automatically sent information about your job. So it becomes you're you're again, you're leveraging technology in a way that you got this new search and there's a thousand things to do to get it open. This is one thing that you could remove and automate and let the technology run for you. Additionally, on top of that, a lot of what recruiters need is some tools to help them organize their day.
Christy Bray:So applicant tracking systems, additionally, people will have, you know, more of that CRM. We think of those as sales platforms, but they can serve to manage your candidate workflow through their recruitment journey. Those are very, very key things to have. Not only can you get key metrics out of them so that your leaders, you can show those to your leaders when you need support for additional staff, additional resource, whatever it might be. But there are still a lot of recruitment teams living on spreadsheets.
Christy Bray:Would totally love to help them get into something that's easier and then just brings that information again to the forefront. So it's transparent for their leaders they report to, which is your practice folks, as you mentioned, so that they really have that insight into what's happening day to day within the physician recruitment team and then other resources that the organization is invested in.
Daniel Williams:Okay. Switching gears, I brought this up earlier that you are the host of a very popular podcast in this space. Because again, when I did a Google search and I was talking about healthcare workforce trends, those were some of my key words, your show Workforce Wisdom is what popped up. So that's how I got to know you. Tell us about the show, what its focus is.
Daniel Williams:I'll let you have the floor here. Tell us about it.
Christy Bray:Yeah, absolutely. I think it's been a vision of our founder to launch this type of education and outreach for a while. So blessed with the opportunity. Started recording over a year ago. And as you know, you record, you have things ready and produced to go.
Christy Bray:We launched initially in March. So it's not even been a year.
Daniel Williams:Wow.
Christy Bray:The show definitely has taken off. It's a very small space, workforce and healthcare workforce. But it's been great to have a variety of hosts. We have a second podcast that's really focused on that physician side, surviving and thriving residency, and that one is equally doing well. So I think probably, Danielle, it says the market wanted some information.
Christy Bray:And so just blessed to be the person that gets to bring some of that message forward really to inform and educate all of our audiences. So this was just another avenue. Actually fairly inexpensive to do a podcast. It's actually not that hard, but being able to find those respective experts in different fields so that we can bring that messaging forward. Again, if it's a recruiter, a CEO, or a physician, we just want to be able to bring some of that insight forward to the talent that might be listening.
Daniel Williams:Okay. We'll be sure and put links to the show in the episode show notes, both of the shows, we'll put those out there. I'm guessing, assuming, that you find it wherever you find podcasts. Is that right? Yes.
Daniel Williams:Okay. Have you had a favorite episode? I know that might be like picking children or pets or something, but is there one, like if our listeners went, I want to dig into this, what's one where you think it has the most meat to it? Maybe it's not even your favorite, but it's the one that has the tool or that one tip that might get people interested in listening, a gateway to the rest of the show.
Christy Bray:Man, that is tough. Will say because have selfishly I've been able to record with several friends and colleagues. So that one's tough. I will say there's episodes related to telehealth or different aspects of care and workforce that I think are important for people to explore. Like don't dismiss alternative paths of providing care because the workforce of people being there, you know, where you can look them in the eye, like right there with you in person is changing a lot.
Christy Bray:And so I really hope to inspire organizations to just, we gotta do everything. Everything is out on the table. How can we serve our communities? Start with that and then bring in the tools and resources you need to do that. So I'm not gonna say a favorite episode.
Christy Bray:Charlie's podcast, Surviving and Thriving in Residency, there are some very good ones there because they do talk to these medical students and residents and fellows. I think hearing their message of what they're looking for in a job would be very key for your listeners to understand, oh, right, nobody wants eight to five Monday through Friday with three nights of call. No, I don't know why, but nobody wants that anymore. So how do you adjust your clinic schedule, the hospital schedule? How do you adjust to still cover what needs to be covered, but also have that flexibility?
Christy Bray:Because that is the biggest thing that we hear from new grads coming out of school, that that flexibility is key to any opportunity that they look at.
Daniel Williams:I love that. Okay, well, I'm going to make sure we get that information out to our listeners so they can have yet another podcast to listen to, and one that can help them with their jobs and filling those physician roles at their organizations. I said I was going to ask you about the DEI letters after your name, so I'm going to do that. How is that integral to your mission as someone who's trying to make those matches? Talk about that focus and where that is in your job that you have.
Christy Bray:Sure. So the CPRPDEI certification is from the AAPPR Association. So it is the National Association for Physician and Provider Recruiters. So I've been involved with that from day one of being in the physician recruitment space. But a few years ago, worked on establishing this credential with the association, but really it's a certified physician recruitment professional.
Christy Bray:That's the CPRP. And then we added that DEI component is that really became, gosh, it's probably been six years ago, at least since the association added that. I think it really helps for recruiters to you know, as they're going through their candidate sourcing and the pieces that they're doing that they're finding folks who are reflective of the communities they serve. So it makes a huge difference. You know, we know the access to care is limited if somebody doesn't speak your same language, maybe somebody doesn't look like you.
Christy Bray:So that's where we really want to be able to say, you know, provide that diversity, be inclusive, and really understand what that looks like in your community. And it can be tough because recruiters will say, that's great, but I just need a body, a body with a heartbeat. Well, the body with the heartbeat can only last for so long. What you wanna do is make sure that you retain them because when they turn over, it's an exponential factor on how much revenue that you're losing. And so you really wanna work hard to make sure, again, that there are a lot of components within that onboarding process and making sure that they have the tools that they need to be successful.
Christy Bray:And then again, that you're supporting that community that you're serving, you know, being inclusive to what you see out there in those communities.
Daniel Williams:Okay. Final question then, as we're turning the page to twenty twenty six. Are you somebody who makes goals, resolutions, objectives, anything? What do you call it? 2026, is this your year?
Daniel Williams:What are you looking to do or accomplish or even slow down in 2026? I don't know. What are you thinking about this year?
Christy Bray:Yeah. Well, 2025 was milestone birthday for me. So as I look towards this second half of my life, I just think that, you know, there's a lot of great movement and conversation, which anytime that we are talking about issues and these struggles and lack of workforce or time it takes to fill jobs, it just helps all of us get better. This year, PracticeLink, I worked with an internal group to establish our innovation council. So that is our representative customer group that we brought together for virtual sessions and then in person sessions.
Christy Bray:I'm really excited to continue that forward into 2026. So you're getting that voice of customer. So either the real time user or the leader of a group of a recruitment team. And so I'm excited because that's where we learn a lot. So just being able to listen and then maybe do some drawings or say, Was this what you meant?
Christy Bray:Because as we look to develop new technology, we wanna make sure it's meeting the needs of those folks, both our provider consumers and then our customers that are trusting us with their jobs. So that's probably what I'm looking forward to the most is new technology, listening to folks for input, and then equally just how rapid some these things can come about. I don't know that we're at a faster speed. If you think back to when the internet first came online.
Daniel Williams:I remember.
Christy Bray:A little while ago. When you got your first email back then. Yeah. You know? And from then to now
Daniel Williams:Yeah.
Christy Bray:And how quickly and I think AI will just heavily influence just how fast things move in the next year to two to five, it will look a lot different, very quickly. And I'm glad. I think it will look different in a good way.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. Well, Christy Bray, chief customer officer at PracticeLink, host of Work force Wisdom Podcast. Thank you for being on the show.
Christy Bray:Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Daniel.
Daniel Williams:Yeah. It's been a real pleasure. And everybody, we are gonna put those links to both Workforce Wisdom and to PracticeLink. And we'll even throw in the job board, at least a link to it. You may have to sign up for something, but we're going to connect you to Christy and that team.
Daniel Williams:So until then, thank you all for being MGMA podcast listeners.
