I don’t know a single doctor, administrator, or mid-level manager who looks forward to recruiting new employees, yet hiring is one of the most important responsibilities of practice management.

On the tall ladder to practice success, hiring is the first rung: Quality employees lead to superb patient care, excellent customer service, strong financial performance, practice sustainability, and a great working environment for all.

Despite these powerful incentives to get it right, few managers look forward to the recruitment and onboarding process. Despite the best of efforts and many years of experience, it’s easy to falter and make hiring mistakes.

Don’t feel discouraged! Here are five steps for recruiting top-quality staff.

1. Define your goals.

In a fast-changing practice environment, with ever-higher standards, what worked last time you recruited for a position may no longer fit your current needs. So, even if you have already created the position description, revise it … again and again, with lots of team input. Often overlooked or trivialized, a sharply crafted position description will help you precisely determine who you need to bring aboard and establish what you want them to accomplish.

As you create or revise the description, be very specific when listing the required duties. For example, if a staffer needs to work independently and with little direction or training from the outset, include it so you can make sure your finalist has previously done this same job successfully. If hours need to be highly flexible, specify that, rather than springing it on your new employee in the second week on the job.

Then, think about what specific personality and attitude the new employee will need to accomplish this highly specific list of goals. For example, a community outreach director with a permanent smile, cheerful demeanor, and seemingly high energy will be more successful than a sometimes gloomy, low energy, kind of quiet personality.

2. Boost the candidate pool.

A generation ago, recruiting was simple and primitive: Call the local medical staffing vendor, buy a few classifieds in the local newspaper, and sift through resumes. Today, the process is less primitive, but high demand in health care means you’re fighting others for the best candidates, so you have to cast the widest possible net.

Naturally, where you choose to advertise can depend on the position for which you are recruiting. Use industry-specific job boards, journals, and newsletters, comb social media outlets, and broadcast your needs through generalized recruiting websites (Career Builders, Monster, Craig’s List, etc.). Also, posting available positions on a “Join our Team” page on your own practice website can be helpful to keep the applicant pipeline flowing, even when you are not specifically in recruitment mode.

3. Find candidates who are employed.

Over the past few years, we’ve watched the job market strengthen. Practices hire faster than ever despite fears of looming cuts. Candidates have more choices. Employees are less fearful to switch to new positions, opening up the opportunity to recruit new people who have several years of related experience. Research shows that top candidates are often the ones already holding positions, but you can recruit them away for better jobs and more flexible working conditions.

How do you find these top candidates that have a job and are not necessarily looking for another? Utilize your current employees to help you recruit. One popular method is to establish an employee referral program that pays an incentive for referring a successful new hire. In my consulting practice, I’ve seen this range from $250 to $5,000 (paid once the new employee works successfully for 90 days). Happy employees who are proud to work in your practice generally like the opportunity to help recruit their own co-workers. And, if they’ve previously worked with a potential recruit, they know the recruits’ work ethic, strengths, and weaknesses.

4. Respond to applicants promptly.

Nowadays, an applicant can submit her resume to multiple organizations with just a few clicks. Your responsiveness is key to successfully hiring the best applicants. The hiring process moves fast, and you have to stay ahead of your competitors to catch the strongest candidate.

Don’t delay the resume review process until “all of the applicants have replied to our ad.” Review CVs as they arrive, and contact the top applicants within 24 hours of receiving the CV.

5. Map your interview strategy.

Unless you are a HR specialist, you spend most of your working time doing something other than hiring. For administrators, managers, and doctors, this means that creating an interview strategy is very important.

Here are the steps to developing an effective strategy:

1. Assemble an interview team. Teams will differ depending on the level of position for which you are recruiting. For example, one or two interviewers can screen adequately for a front-desk receptionist candidate, while hiring a doctor or administrator would require an expanded team.
2. Review interview tactics with each team. Inexperienced interviewers tend to talk more than listen, ask questions not permitted by the department of labor, and fill in any silence that occurs between questions rather than letting the candidate do so.
3. Create a question set. Some of the questions should be general, with topics such as work ethic and the whole practice culture, while some should be specific to job categories. (See “Effective interview questions,” page 24.)
4. Rank the questions and answers. Score each question you ask from 1-5, based on how impressed (or not) you were with the answer. Tally the scores and use this measurement as one way to rank the candidates. This provides a comparison ranking for the interview team to discuss. Ask the same question set to all candidates for the same position.
5. Note each candidate’s displayed energy level and general communication skills. Would they like to work with that person? Do they think other people would like them, too?
6. Focus on attitude and communication skills as much as specific experience. Skill sets can be taught. A smiling or relaxed presentation cannot.

Conclusion

Tuning up the practice’s collective recruitment and interviewing skills is important in the quest to find the most qualified candidates. Although experienced recruiters teach us that interviewing and hiring is as much an art as a science, a balanced and purposeful approach will help lead you to success. OP

Corinne Z. Wohl, MHSA, COE, is president of C. Wohl & Associates, Inc., a practice management consulting firm. Corinne earned her Masters of Health Services Administration degree at The George Washington University and has 30 years of hospital and physician practice management experience. She can be reached at czwohl@gmail.com or 609-410-2932.