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Customer story: DoctorConnect
The DoctorConnect effect: retaining doctors for healthcare
Recruiting doctors is one thing. Truly understanding doctors and their careers is another. DoctorConnect has built a reputation for this over the past few years. Together with UP, the organization is now taking the next step: more visibility, stronger branding, and smart RMA.
Most recruitment organizations start with the vacancy. DoctorConnect does not. When Edmée van Montfort, co-founder of DoctorConnect, and her partner Claudia Huls started their organization in 2017, they decided to do things radically differently. 'The doctor's career is our starting point,' says Van Montfort. 'Not a client's vacancy.'
More than a mediator
Based on that philosophy, DoctorConnect grew organically: from a founding duo to a full team, from recruitment to also providing reintegration services, and from guidance to coaching and prevention. In doing so, DoctorConnect is not tied to a single mediation model, such as secondment or recruitment and selection. 'We always look at the needs of a doctor. When you walk alongside someone in their career, you encounter everything,' says Van Montfort. 'That is how, for example, the reintegration services came our way. There was no other party doing that for doctors.'
DoctorConnect therefore also supports doctors who have been absent due to long-term illness. 'Many doctors think at such a moment that they have to leave healthcare because they can no longer or do not want to practice their own profession,' says Claudia Huls, co-founder of DoctorConnect. 'But ultimately, it often turns out that the specialty is not the problem, but the circumstances in which they work—the system.'
DoctorConnect's mission is clear: to retain doctors in healthcare by placing them in the right positions, through recruitment or reintegration. And they almost always succeed. 'Of all the doctors we have guided through those reintegration processes, ultimately none ended up outside of healthcare,' says Van Montfort. 'They simply applied their knowledge and experience in a different way. Consider a surgeon who can no longer operate due to rheumatism, but who does find a valuable role in policy, education, or consultancy. If someone regains enjoyment in their work and continues to contribute to healthcare, that is the best result for us.'
RMA as the driving force behind visibility
DoctorConnect grew steadily for years; word-of-mouth advertising did its job. And yet: brand awareness was not high enough. Huls: 'We often heard from people that they wished they had heard of us sooner. Then we realized that everyone actually should know us.'
Since early 2025, DoctorConnect has therefore been collaborating with UP. The request to UP: more visibility, stronger branding, and a clear positioning as a knowledge organization in the healthcare labor market. 'UP told us right away that we are far too modest. We should show much more of who we are and what we can do,' says Van Montfort.
UP started by setting up RMA (recruitment marketing automation). This made it possible to share content in a structured and targeted manner with two very different target groups: doctors and healthcare organizations. This content ranges from personal stories and practical career tips to analyses of developments in the healthcare labor market. And it is distributed via LinkedIn, newsletters, and other channels.
A concrete showpiece of the collaboration is the quarterly report that DoctorConnect now publishes. "Clients regularly asked us what we actually saw happening in the market," says Huls. "We then developed a periodic report with UP. They subsequently managed to translate that idea very well into a format that shows exactly what we have to offer."
A great illustration of how the collaboration works: DoctorConnect provides the knowledge and content, UP translates this into form, channel, and timing.
Activating the latent target group
This approach aligns with a broader trend within recruitment: reaching the latent target audience. After all, many doctors are not actively looking for a new job at all. However, they are open to information, insights, or inspiration regarding their careers. This is precisely where content plays a crucial role.
"We want to show them what we know and what we do," says Van Montfort. "So that doctors and organizations understand what we stand for." And it works. DoctorConnect's reintegration branch is growing rapidly, with large healthcare institutions consciously choosing them.
According to Huls, that is also where the real value of the collaboration lies. 'UP has mainly helped us to be less modest. And to make visible how much knowledge we have actually built up. What we do, with our very enthusiastic team, can really make a difference for many doctors.' But then you also have to ensure that people know how to find you. 'We are convinced that if you, as a doctor, have a question about your career, we are the best organization in the Netherlands you can turn to. We say that without modesty by now. We don't need to become the biggest, but we do want to remain the best.'
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A great illustration of how the collaboration works: DoctorConnect provides the knowledge and content, UP translates this into form, channel, and timing.
Claudia Huls
Managing Partner and Founder of DoctorConnect
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