Certification Process

Only U.S.-based certified ethical recruiters (CERs) that adhere to the Voluntary Code of Conduct for the Ethical Recruitment of Foreign-Educated Health Professionals to the United States (Code) truly demonstrate industry leadership by participating in external monitoring and becoming an early adopter of transparent, ethical recruitment practices.

CERs have established that they are in compliance with the standards set forth in the Code, have agreed to be monitored by the Alliance, and agreed to participate in mediation and remediation processes as necessary. The following is a list of benefits enjoyed by companies that are certified by the Alliance as ethical recruiters.

Raising the bar

While individual companies have their own codes of conduct, this initiative provides independent third party verification of compliance with ethical standards that have been jointly negotiated with a range of stakeholders. These standards represent an operationalization of principles put forth in the World Health Organization’s Global Code of Practice on the International Recruitment of Health Personnel and have been agreed to by 193 WHO Member States, including the United States.

Redefining “clients”

CERs recognize that their clients are both the migrant professionals being recruited and the employer organization. Optimally, the health professional client is actively engaged and takes responsibility in the recruitment process. In the meantime, the external monitoring process provides CERs with data and information on the firsthand experiences of recruited health professionals, best practices, and ways to further improve business performance.

Innovating partnerships

CERs enter into a partnership with the Alliance that facilitates the transparent exchange of feedback, insights, and expertise that benefits the lives of the health workers they recruit, the quality of care those health professionals provide to patients, and the impact health professional migration has had on source countries. The Alliance values the feedback received by CER’s and uses this information to develop and test programs, policies, and procedures.