The challenge

Health New Zealand continues to face ongoing workforce shortages across multiple specialist medical disciplines at a national level, particularly within hard-to-fill clinical roles. Traditionally, attraction strategies relied heavily on active applicants, job advertising, and external media campaigns. While these approaches generated visibility, they primarily reached candidates who were already actively looking for opportunities.

However, many highly experienced international medical professionals are passive candidates. They are often established in their current positions, not actively searching for roles, and therefore unlikely to engage through traditional recruitment channels alone.

Another key limitation of traditional recruitment approach which is passively waiting for applicants is that it is largely reactive, meaning organisations are dependent on who chooses to apply, rather than being able to actively shape and influence the talent pool they engage with. In contrast, proactive direct sourcing allows organisations to deliberately identify and target specific profiles that best match workforce requirements, rather than waiting for suitable candidates to surface organically.

At the same time, proactive international sourcing requires significant time, market knowledge, and specialist expertise. It involves identifying suitable clinicians globally, understanding relocation motivations, engaging candidates through personalised outreach, and nurturing interest over time. Health New Zealand had not previously utilised a dedicated proactive sourcing model or tools such as LinkedIn Recruiter as part of a structured international attraction strategy.

To test whether a more targeted and relationship-led approach could improve hiring outcomes, Health New Zealand partnered with Haines on a proof-of-concept initiative focused on several highly specialised and difficult-to-fill clinical vacancies.

The insight

A key insight from the project was that traditional recruitment methods alone were not sufficient to access the full international talent market for specialist medical roles.

Many qualified clinicians were not actively applying for positions, despite potentially being open to relocation opportunities in the future. Successfully engaging this talent required a different recruitment approach, one focused on direct sourcing, personalised engagement, relationship building, and long-term talent pipelining rather than immediate application conversion.

It became evident that many clinicians who were not initially considering relocation to New Zealand could be positively influenced through targeted engagement. Through structured conversations and tailored messaging, candidates were introduced to New Zealand as a relocation destination, often shifting their perspective once they became aware of the clinical opportunities, lifestyle benefits, and long-term career potential available.

An additional insight was that proactive sourcing also enables a more strategic level of candidate selection at the very early stage of the recruitment process. Rather than relying on inbound interest, sourcing can actively prioritise potential candidates based on criteria such as training background, clinical experience, and alignment with recognised healthcare systems. In this project, for example, emphasis was placed on targeting clinicians trained and practising in countries with comparable healthcare systems to New Zealand, as these candidates are more likely to achieve successful registration outcomes with the Medical Council of New Zealand compared to applicants from non-comparable systems.

Another important insight was that proactive sourcing is fundamentally different from transactional recruitment activity. While internal recruitment teams are often heavily focused on operational delivery, applicant management, and stakeholder coordination, proactive sourcing requires dedicated time, specialist search capability, and ongoing market engagement.

The project also demonstrated that platforms such as LinkedIn Recruiter can be highly effective when used strategically and consistently by experienced sourcing specialists who understand both candidate behaviour and international medical markets.

The strategy

Haines delivered its Talent Supply – Direct Proactive Sourcing solution as an extension of Health New Zealand’s recruitment function.

Together, Haines and Health New Zealand designed a collaborative sourcing and engagement process that aligned with existing recruitment workflows and ensured clear communication between candidates, Haines sourcing specialists, and Health New Zealand recruitment teams.

The sourcing strategy focused on four highly specialised workforce shortage areas:

• Breast Radiology

• Forensic Psychiatry

• General Psychiatry

• Anaesthesiology

The success of the initiative reinforced the value of combining traditional recruitment activity with dedicated proactive sourcing capability, allowing Health New Zealand to access a significantly broader and previously untapped pool of specialist medical talent.