A 3 Step Process on How to Hire Top Employees for Your Practice

Are you hiring? Here’s a 3 step hiring process to make sure you attract the right person. 

Job postings for medical office personnel are a dime a dozen. Pull up Indeed, LinkedIn or any other job search engine and you’ll find a listing for every position within every niche in medicine. 

And for every job posting they are easily a 100 people looking for that position. So how do you set up your job postings to attract the person that you want and that would work best within your practice? Are you even sure you know what kind of person that you want?

In this week’s blog I’m going to show you why having a well crafted job listing, a firm idea of who you’re looking for, and how to interview them will help you limit unnecessary interviews with the wrong people and save you tons of time.

Those 3 steps are:

1. Identifying your direction & vision as a business
2. Who are you looking for vs what
3. Using group interviews in your hiring process 

First Thing is First:  What is your vision & direction?

How can you possibly know who it is you’re looking to hire if you haven’t established values and standards for your practice? Do you have a vision for your practice? A direction? A guide that says, “These are the people that we hire whom we want to help us achieve our goals.” 

Imagine this: you and I are going to go on a road trip, but we have no idea where we are going or how long it will take us to get there. We’re just going to get in the car and hope for the best. Sound fun? Not so much.

You must know exactly where your practice is going or at least have an idea of what it is you desire to build. For example, the practice I co founded desires to treat 150 people/year with regenerative medicine techniques for orthopedic and spine issues and open 2 more locations in the next 5 years. 

This is a real direction and any one we hire must have the desire to go with us on that journey. After all, if they aren’t bought in, what is the point in hiring them? I don’t want people who just want a paycheck and have experience working in a medical practice. 

WHO not WHAT

So many of us as healthcare providers are looking to hire people with experience working in other healthcare offices. We write things in our job listings like:

•  2 years experience preferred
•  Prior experience in a similar setting required
•  Experience with insurance billing required

Why do we do this? Instead of talking to people about WHAT, talk to them about WHO.  Skills can be taught, but the vast majority of people are who they are. Can you change someone’s personality?

 Why not hire the type of person that fits your values, vision & direction THEN teach them your system or the necessary skills they need to perform the job?

 Start structuring your job posting to discuss who you would like to hire FIRST. What kind of personality should they possess? Im a proponent for the phrase, “Positivity required, experience not necessary.” 

 I have 2 people on my staff (predominantly cash pay practice) who have zero experience in healthcare. They posses the necessary personality traits and work ethics we want in order to achieve our vision. We taught them about insurance, EMR, regenerative medicine, etc.

 Please don’t tell me that you don’t have time to do that. Yes, you do. Because it will take as much, if not more time, when you have to hire and fire, rinse and repeat, until you find the right person because you hired them for a skill set instead.

**Yes, I understand some people must possess a degree or have prior training such as an MA, CNP, PA, etc. I am speaking more of your support office staff in this blog.**

 Group Interviews

I’m a big fan of group interviews for the first in person interview. Why? Because people can put on whatever show they want in 1 on 1 interview or phone interview in order to convince you they are right for the job. 

In a group interview, you inspire a little bit of [healthy] competition and its really easy to spot who is buying in and who isn’t. 

In the group interview put 4-5 people in the same room, talk about your vision and direction for your practice then simply ask, “Who has questions?” 

The people who are really interested in working with you will have the right questions and you will be able to understand who is identifying with YOUR vision because it aligns with them.

After you have let others ask their questions, you must ask each individual why they would want to work for your type of practice. Listen to their answers - the one that states, "This aligns with my purpose and my vision," will be the one for you. Invite them back for a 1 on 1 interview via an email or phone call following the group email. 

When they show up for the 1 on 1 interview, you can then share more about your processes and systems they will need to learn. 

Final Thoughts 

Restructuring your process with this simple 3 step process will save you a ton of time, energy, and money because you will have hired someone with the right personality and values for your company. When people are aligned with that, they will work tirelessly to learn your systems and implement as you desire. 

This is so much easier than bringing someone in with experience who doesn't fit your values as a business. These people will bring with them the ideas from the last practice they worked in and talk about how much different it was and how they don't understand why you're doing it this way and blah blah blah.

Ever had someone just do something because it was the way they were taught somewhere else, but you thought, "Who told them to do it that way?" That's a tough place to be and ultimately makes you as the owner question if they belong in your practice or not.

Save yourself and your potential employees some heart ache by changing the way you hire.