I have touched briefly on internal marketing and receptionists as the practice’s public relations individual. When hiring employees, especially for front desk staff, it’s hard to decipher sometimes who will be a good fit in the medical practice. With the right selection tools and a few tips, your practice will have higher odds of hiring a great employee.
The first thing you should do is make a list of the desired employee’s capacities, attitude, personality and skills, with capacities being most important and skills least important. You should hire for attitude and train for skills. Skills don’t mitigate a bad attitude or disruptive personality.
During the interview process, ask questions outside of the typical resume questions. You will find out a lot about a person’s character this way. Ask open-ended or situational questions.
Five important questions to ask during the interview:
Tell me about the first job you ever had. This question is typically not posed to the interviewee and you will get an honest, unrehearsed answer.
Tell me about the achievements in your life you’re most proud of and the obstables or problems you had to oercome. The answer indicates what motivates applicants.
Tell me about your last performance appraisal.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rank yourself as a (insert relevant title)? Then ask what it will take to get to the next number.
What one question would you like to ask me? After answering, ask, “Why, of all the questions you could have asked, did you choose that one?
Hiring an employee that fits in with the rest of the staff, and has a great attitude goes a long way in displaying the practice’s environment to the patients. Patients want to enter an office and feel welcome.
