This year, Hayes Locums is turning 14! Here’s what we’ve learned during those years in the locums industry.
When we started this business fourteen years ago, we never imagined building one of the largest staffing firms in the country. When you’re first starting out, it’s hard to see the full path ahead of you: all you can do is keep an eye on your values, and keep climbing toward them. But looking back at where we started, I can see a few things that have been key to our success.
1. Doing the Right Thing
While we might not have known exactly where we were headed when we first started Hayes Locums, we knew what we believed in. We wanted to start a locums agency guided by values, not the bottom line. We were committed to doing the right thing, every time, and to working with people who were committed to those same principles.
That means not overpromising to our clients when we know we can’t deliver. That means committing to a rigorous quality assurance and credentialing process, so we know that our hospitals’ patients are in good hands. And that means taking the time to get to know our physicians and APPs so we can find them the right placements where they can truly thrive.
The biggest thing I’ve learned in fourteen years of this work is that there are no shortcuts. The only way we succeed is by finding quality physicians and advanced practice providers, delivering unmatched service, and being trustworthy and reliable partners.
That’s why our business has continued to grow for the past fourteen years––and that’s why our physicians and APPs keep coming back.
2. Finding the Right People
Anyone who has experience in healthcare recruitment knows that this job is not easy. It takes a unique person to keep showing up in the midst of physician shortages and the other challenges facing healthcare professionals, to ensure patients have access to healthcare providers.
We have been lucky at Hayes Locums to consistently find people who are passionate about showing up, working hard, and making an impact. And together, we’ve done just that.
Last year, we placed over a thousand physicians and advanced practice providers in hospitals in need of quality healthcare providers. Our credentialing teams and quality assurance team processed and reviewed all 1,300+ placements to make sure we were creating the best possible matches. Our licensing team processed applications faster than ever, drawing on their deep experience working across a wide range of state medical boards.. And our travel team managed over 4,000 travel requests, delivering a seamless experience from placement to arrival for our physicians and APPs
We never set out to be the largest locums company though we’ve grown more than we could have imagined since we started in 2012. Our goal was simply to be the hardest-working. And I am so thankful that as we’ve grown, we’ve been able to consistently find people who are willing to do whatever it takes to provide quality healthcare to communities that need it, while staying true to our values.
3. Making Every Relationship and Interaction Count
Every year at Hayes Locums, we choose a mantra to function as our rallying cry: to guide our decisions, focus our attention, and help us overcome challenges together.
In 2025, our mantra was: “Every interaction counts.” From the first phone call to the last paycheck, we want to make sure our physicians and APPs feel valued at every stage of the process.
That’s why we never depend on an algorithm to make placements. Instead, we hire and train specialty-specific consultants who know their field backwards and forwards, and who take the time to get to know their physicians and APPs so they can make the right placements. That goes for hospital facilities, too: that’s why we invested in LocumScope, a tool that helps simplify provider management for hospitals, while preserving the kind of direct connections that have made us stand out as a company.
We carry this thinking into everything we do: from the credentialing files we complete, to the timesheets we process, to the airplane tickets we purchase. We do this because we know that when all of those things are running smoothly, our physicians and APPs can perform their best, because they know the logistics are taken care of.
Our differentiator has always been, and will always be, human connection. The trust and teamwork that our company is built on is what sets us apart, and we are committed to carrying that forward into the future.
As we embark on our 15th year, the mantra we’ve chosen is: accelerate. We’re ready to take the momentum we’ve gained from the strong foundation we’ve built, and turn that into even better results for our physician and APPs. For us, acceleration isn’t about doing more things faster. It’s about becoming more efficient and streamlined in doing the right things: because we know that momentum only matters if it leads somewhere.
I’m so grateful to every staff member, physician, advanced practice provider, and hospital recruiter that have been a part of building a strong foundation here at Hayes Locums, and I look forward to continuing to build on that foundation in the coming year!
