Hiring a great, effective and competent staff is no easy feat. That’s why there are several businesses across the nation dedicated to recruiting and screening healthcare professionals. Of course, it is possible to make smart hiring decisions in-house—it just takes some preparation and practice. Here are three great ways you can improve and enhance your hiring process:
1. Engage Managers & Team Members to Create Accurate Job Descriptions
Plain and simple, if the job description is vague, screening and interview questions will not be effective. To ensure you have a detailed and accurate job description, involve the hiring manager and senior staff members to help write job descriptions. Go through each bullet point with those individuals. Keep a special focus on what may be perceived as unattractive or tedious parts of the job. Although you definitely want a high volume of quality candidates, you do want to ensure that every aspect of the job is described to help ensure complete visibility into the position. This will ultimately help you find the best person for the job.
2. Discover Behavioral Patterns in Addition to Skill Sets
Make sure you focus on behavioral traits, which will help shed light on how a candidate truly feels about their profession. For example, to evaluate whether an applicant genuinely enjoys their job and is caring and compassionate, you can asks questions like: “What was your most rewarding experience helping others? What exactly did you do? What motivated you to do this?”
Behavioral questions like these allow candidates to describe in detail they acted in previous relevant situations, and they enable you to determine the level of excitement and dedication they offer. Past behavior questions should ultimately help you predict how the candidate will act in the future.
3. Always Be Aware of Common Hiring Mistakes
Before the interview process begins, make a conscious effort to remind yourself of these common mistakes:
Hiring based on a ‘gut’ feeling. Your personal impression is important and shouldn’t be completely ignored, but evaluating on core competencies and criteria should be your primary guide.
Mistaking passion as a skill. A passionate candidate is a tremendous plus, but passion is not a substitute for competent, skilled healthcare professionals. Just remember that the field needs patient-focused individuals who also have the competencies to succeed. If you have a passionate and skilled healthcare professional, congratulations!
Talking too much. Don’t spend more time speaking than the candidate—you won’t get a good idea of their qualifications if you don’t give them ample time to talk.
Making smart and effective hiring decisions is possible. Be sure you keep the tips just covered in mind and you will be one step closer towards hiring employees that will fit in at your organization, have a positive work ethic, and show compassion towards patients.
“The only source of knowledge is experience.”
—Albert Einstein