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Can Recruiting and Hiring Staff Be Simple?by Sherry Harrison, QPS General Manager Most doctors and practice managers would give a resounding “never” to that question, but we’re here to tell you that the process can go smoothly with a little planning and structure to your hiring process. The planning process will require a bit of time, but remember, since finding the right person can take you away from your core practice duties or caring for patients, you will want to make sure you don’t have to hire new employees very often. The cost of recruiting, hiring and training a new employee can be significant but it is an investment. Each new individual added to your practice team is the equivalent of an investment in your office, equipment, licensure and insurance. All play a huge role in the success of your practice. First, begin with the end in mind: Get clear on the position you want to fill, the skills needed to do the job well, and the personality and work-style that will fit well with your practice team. Broadcast the Need: Leverage relationships with your best employees, referring physicians, key patients, neighbors and networking contacts get the word out about the type of person you need in your practice. Referrals tend to be some of the best hires. The key is to be discerning between a quality referral and a favor to a friend. When placing an ad, take into consideration the audience who reads, watches or listens to the media where you are advertising. If you want a computer-savvy office manger, the classified ads in your local paper, may not be the best solution. In this case, you would want to advertise through the internet and request the resume be sent via email in a Word document. Just meeting those simple requirements will weed out quite a few of the unqualified. When the Need is a Secret: When you want to replace an existing employee and stay under the radar, confide in a few trusted contacts to get the word out, use a recruiting agency or send applicants to a private phone number, fax, email or postal address for responses. Create an Evaluation/Interview Process: As applications or resumes start to funnel into your office, you will want to have good way to weed through the applicants, select individuals for interviews, conduct the interviews, check references, etc. If you don’t make those decisions before-hand, you may find your time being consumed by this process, or even worse, hastily hiring the wrong employees. Here are a few suggestions or an effective evaluation process: 1. Rank the resumes: You can delegate this step to a knowledgeable administrative staff person, or your clinical coordinator. Be sure that they know what is most important from the list of skills, background and personal characteristics you determined in your planning process. Have them highlight keywords in the resumes that fit with your criteria, then give the applicant a score of 1-5 (1 being the perfect fit, and 5 as not fit at all). Depending on the number of applications you receive, you may determine that you will interview the 1’s and 2’s only. 2. Schedule the interviews: If you have a large number of applicants or open positions, you may want to consider a first telephone interview. These should be scheduled in 15 minute increments to make the most of the hiring manager’s time. Recruits who make the cut, will go onto an “in-person” interview. Regardless of whether you start with telephone interviews or go straight to the personal interview, make sure you schedule them back-to-back in non-peak hours so that you can devote your full attention and energy to the evaluation process. Comparing “apples to apples” is imperative, so create a list of questions beforehand. Think of specific situations in your office with patients, staff, insurance claims, etc. and ask how the applicant would handle those situations. |
For questions about retaining employees in your practice, email “The Practice Doc” at doc@qualityphysiciansvcs.com
3. Conduct the Interviews: During the interview, give the candidate a small amount of information about the position you have available in the beginning of your conversation. You don’t want to give up too much information or lead them into answering questions based on the job description. Leave the job details until the end of the interview and then ask if they think they would be a good fit for the position. Take notes and spend 5 minutes between interviews recording your impressions and other information about the candidate that you did not write down during the interview. Score the applicant right then before starting the next interview. For example, you may want indicate their level of professionalism, strength of clinical skills, years of experience with your particular specialty, interest in the job and your practice, etc. You will always get the “cream of the crop” references from a candidate, so when checking with them, the longer you stay in conversation with the reference, the more likely they are to tell you something negative about the prospective employee. A background check is always a good idea, especially if the new employee will be working with finances. 4. Send out the Offer Letter or Employment Contract: You will want to use a template offer letter or employment contract with a cover letter that includes a summary of the job you are hiring them for, start date, who to report to and what to bring the first day. This will help solidify everything in writing for you, give your employee and confidence about his or her job.
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