Fox Rehabilitation's Innovative Approach to Overcoming Recruitment Challenges in Healthcare

In today's healthcare landscape, finding specialized talent isn't just challenging — it's a critical bottleneck that directly impacts patient care. For Fox Rehabilitation, whose mission centers on combating ageism by providing outpatient services for older adults in their communities, this challenge was particularly acute.

During Phenom AI Day, Christy McCaffery, Director of Recruitment at Fox, shared their story. "Our biggest challenge is the supply," she explained. "We are limited in the number of physical therapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists available to us, and that demand far exceeds the supply."

Recognizing that traditional recruitment methods weren't enough, Fox developed a comprehensive AI strategy focused on four key areas:

Getting in front of the right candidates
Creating personalized experiences
Accelerating the hiring process
Rediscovering talent in their database

Watch their entire story here or read on for the highlights!

Creating an Engaging Digital Experience

The transformation began with their career site, where an AI-powered chatbot became the cornerstone of candidate engagement. "When you go to our site, a chatbot automatically pops up and introduces themselves," McCaffery shared. "Based on what they're looking for, they can get all the answers right then and there through our career site, through the chatbot, through AI."

To further enhance engagement, Fox added employee-generated video content to their job descriptions (check out an example here!), bringing their opportunities to life. "We're finding people want information fast, and they want to be able to relate to it," McCaffery noted. "What better way than having a job description showcasing the people that are working in that region telling you about why they love Fox?"

And their efforts are paying off. According to McCaffery, they’re seeing a conversion of 4% on those pages, which is great, she revealed. The other benefits? This immersive candidate experience with authentic day-in-the-life stories continues to build a compelling employer brand and simultaneously helps engage employees.

Need compelling employee stories? Check out how Phenom Video Hub can help!

Revolutionizing the Application Process

Perhaps the most dramatic improvement came from reimagining the application process itself using Phenom High-Volume Hiring, which they leverage for ‘high-value hiring’. "Through high-value hiring, we've taken a process that was taking seven minutes and reduced it to less than one minute," McCaffery explained. "It's amazing — you interact with the chatbot, answer a few screening questions, and boom, you're directly scheduled with a recruiter."

Similar to other Phenom customers leveraging a combination of AI-powered solutions with automated screening, scheduling, and hiring workflows, the impact of these changes has been transformative:

< 1 minute apply process
295% increase in job applications
Approximately 800 hours saved in recruiter time in < 5 months
Significant improvement in candidate conversion rates, with video job descriptions driving a 4% increase in apply rates
Enhanced ability to rediscover and engage past candidates with their Phenom Talent CRM

Future Initiatives

Looking ahead, Fox continues to refine their AI implementation, particularly focusing on candidate rediscovery using their CRM. "The discovery of these candidates has been a game changer for us," McCaffery reflected. "Having spotlights on potential candidates has made a huge impact on our hiring and allows our recruiters to spend time with the candidates we feel we will get the most from."

Fox’s innovative approach to recruitment demonstrates how AI technology, when thoughtfully implemented, can transform healthcare hiring from a challenge into a strategic advantage. By creating a faster, more personalized candidate experience while saving hundreds of recruiter hours, Fox isn't just filling positions — they're building a sustainable pipeline of talented healthcare professionals committed to their mission of combating ageism and enhancing the lives of older adults.