Working as a medical professional means you regularly interact with patients who may be sick or emotionally distraught. You possibly can’t care for them all by yourself; the implications of an error may be fatal.
However, having a solid and effective team to support you will allow you to address the needs of your patients better and advance your practice objectives.
Hiring new personnel for your growing practice could be challenging, but it could also be gratifying with the proper approach.
The goal of this article is to provide you with helpful tips you could deploy when hiring.
13 Hiring Tips for Your Growing Physician Practice
There is an increasing need for competent individuals in the medical field, making hiring the correct medical staff even more competitive.
Having the appropriate personnel on board may significantly affect your operations’ efficiency and the quality of care your patients receive.
But how do you go about finding such individuals? Below is a list of how you can go about it.
1. Determine Your Needs and Set Clear Goals
Before hiring, take some time to determine your practice’s unique requirements and establish your goals.
For example, what positions or responsibilities are crucial for developing your medical practice?
What are your objectives and goals for your new employees?
When you have explicit knowledge of what you need, you can focus your search on potential employees who share your practice’s values and goals.
2. Make Your Brand Known
Having a clearly defined mission and culture can significantly aid in hiring qualified staff members for your growing physician practice. Having a quality brand name will set you apart from the pack.
To attract and retain talented people, you should promote your practice so that locals know it is a great place to work and advance in their careers.
Participate in community wellness events, share positive messages on social media, and even use paid advertising. All these will help put your brand out there for people to know.
3. Make Your Job Description Compelling
The job posting is your initial contact with candidates. Make it warm and helpful.
If your job descriptions are too general, you might hire people lacking the necessary expertise.
In addition to attracting qualified applicants, a well-written job description can help set realistic expectations for the position.
4. Assess Cultural Fit
When hiring new staff members, you need to consider how well an individual’s attitudes, values, and actions mesh with the culture of your practice.
According to the MGMA (Medical Group Management Association), character, motivation, work ethic, and flexibility are all aspects of “cultural fit,” which 69% of healthcare administrators cited as the most critical considerations for filling open positions.
Cultural fit should be considered alongside technical abilities when making hires. The goal is to form a team that gels well and works efficiently together.
During the interview, consider an applicant’s ideals, communication style, and eagerness to adopt your practice’s culture.
5. Look Past the Resume
How well a candidate will get along with clinicians, staff, and patients is just as crucial as how well their experience, technical skills, and education match the position you’re looking for.
Similarly, a human resources manager once stated in Plastic Surgical Nursing that aptitude can be taught, but character cannot.
To determine whether or not an applicant possesses these traits, some employ personality tests like the Myers-Briggs, while others depend on interviews and recommendations.
6. Avoid Bland and Generic Interviews
You should look beyond the conventional interview questions to know how a candidate would conduct themselves in real-world scenarios that commonly happen at your practice.
The Hearing Journal featured an article by an audiologist who suggested setting up a role-playing exercise or providing a scenario and having the candidate explain how they would handle the situation.
Both you and the prospect benefit from this interview style since you understand how the candidate would perform in real-world conditions. The candidate can use this information to evaluate their suitability for the position.
7. Use Your Connections
When looking for the best candidates, don’t discount the influence of your personal and professional connections.
Connect with people you know in the industry, friends, and coworkers. Employee referrals from your connections are also excellent for establishing a solid team.
8. Hire People Proficient with Technology
In today’s modern age, being adept with technology should be one of the crucial things to consider when hiring. For example, electronic medical records, electronic documentation tools, and many others are technology-driven.
Hiring people who are experienced with numerous digital tools and platforms essential to your industry makes it easier to train them to use these tools.
New staff members must learn new systems and make their practice more advanced and productive.
Employees comfortable using technology can help streamline operations using tools such as PhraseExpander. It is designed to help doctors document their patients’ medical history and report more easily. With PhraseExpander, you could save up to two hours on documentation per day.
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9. Allow for Variable Work Hours
Hiring could get more challenging if other medical facilities offer better work hours. A flexible work arrangement is another easy method to attract skilled professionals to your team.
Late resumption for parents with school-aged children or the flexibility to take “offs” as needed, shift swapping among colleagues, remote consultation options via telemedicine, educational leave, etc., are ways this may play out in different medical settings.
Studies have found that long work hours for physicians harm the physician and endanger patient safety. Allowing flexible work schedules with your staff is more beneficial for your practice.
10. Promote Diversity and Inclusion
A more diverse team increases the likelihood of providing creative and comprehensive answers to problems. Make hiring a diverse and inclusive workforce a priority. Motivate people from all walks of life to apply by fostering a welcoming environment.
McKinsey, in a series of studies, found that a more diverse workforce (as in gender, age, race, experience, etc.) led to significantly superior financial results across all sectors, including healthcare.
One way to promote diversity and inclusion is to contact job boards, schools, organizations, and training programs catering to various groups to expand your influence.
Also, establish policies against discrimination and harassment among your staff, provide cultural competency training, and promote a culture of inclusion in your team.
11. Provide Market-Relative Pay
Money, as the adage goes, can buy anything. Finding exceptional staff is easy if you give a competitive salary, but it doesn’t have to be dollars and cents.
Consider perks like paid gym memberships, paid time off, quality health insurance, bonuses, employee assistance programs, provision of tools or gadgets relevant to their roles, etc.
Several clinics offer childcare subsidies to help parents get to and from work.
When looking for ways to reward your employees, consider forming partnerships with organizations that provide opportunities for personal growth.
Modern workers place a high value on perks like this and may decide to apply to your clinic instead of others in the area. Research has found that workers’ satisfaction with their pay plays a major role in their performance and motivation for work.
12. Pay attention to Soft Skills
Healthcare providers who excel in their jobs pay a premium for caring for patients. You don’t want to discount the value of soft skills, even though technical skills are essential.
Evaluate candidates for soft skills during hiring to guarantee they can perform well in your practice. Get the right interview questions beforehand to ensure these qualities are present in the candidates.
To determine whether a candidate is up to the task of addressing actual problems, you should include problem-solving tests in the hiring process.
Ask candidates to respond to hypothetical situations related to the job and assess their level of preparedness. You can use this to spot candidates with strong critical thinking and decision-making skills.
13. Use Online Networking Tools
It may seem unusual for a medical practice to leverage social media for recruitment, but it can be a great approach to filling openings with skilled personnel.
Use LinkedIn’s recruitment tools by setting up a profile and constantly updating it with information of interest to medical professionals.
Establish contact with local medical professionals and cultivate professional ties through private communications.
When an opening does arise at your clinic, you’ll already have a prescreened group of applicants from which to choose. Your practice’s social media accounts are great places to advertise open positions.
Sum Up
The success of your physician practice depends on your ability to hire suitable personnel. If you adopt these tips, selecting the right candidate for your team will be much easier, and you’ll have a better chance of success.
Remember to identify your requirements and goals, make the most of your connections, leverage social media, and staff your team with tech-savvy individuals.
With these hiring tips at your fingertips, you’ll be well on your way to developing a thriving practice that meets and surpasses your goals.