What You Need to Know About Recruiting and Interviewing

Attracting and keeping high quality staff is just as important as attracting and retaining clients.  Your staff is the lifeblood of your practice, particularly in a service based industry. Here are some important pieces to the staffing puzzle.

Description of Position

A key step in the recruiting process is crafting a description of the position.  While this may seem like a simple task, many employers make missteps.  A good description has 4 elements:

1. A clear, relatable title.  Don't "cutesy it up" and advertise for a Director of First Impressions when what you really want is a receptionist.

2. A concise, but inclusive summary of the day-to-day job duties.  It should offer enough information to compel a candidate to apply, but also be skimmable.

3. A description of the role this position plays in the company.

4. What makes your organization unique (a.k.a. why they want to work for you vs. a competitor).

Interview

Once you have a pool of qualified candidates, it is time to interview!  Create a list of questions that will help you assess a candidates hard and soft skills.  Hard skills are job related knowledge and abilities (degree in the field), while soft skills are personal qualities (problem solving, adaptability).  In addition to open ended questions that invite a candidate to expand on an answer, consider asking questions about how they would handle a particular scenario.  For example, "tell me about a time you had to collaborate with a difficult coworker" or "describe a challenge you faced and how you handled it."  These scenario questions give insight into the person's personality and mindset. An employee's soft skills can be as important as their hard skills.  While a technical degree may fill the hard skill requirement, soft skills will tell you if the candidate is someone who will fit in with your team and company culture. In other words, do you have a match?

Tip: If you find yourself with a large pool of candidates to interview, come up with a 5 question screener and schedule quick phone interviews to help narrow down the list of interviewees.  Sometimes a quick chat will tell you if you are interested in moving forward or not, which will save you time further into the process.

If you've made the decision to add staff -- congratulations!  Now make sure you have a clear sense of what you want the employee to do and how the role will fit into your organization.  Next create a list of questions centered around learning about the person's abilities and character.  Some hard work on the front end will save you time, money, and headaches in the long run.   

 If you need help crafting a position description and interview questions, contact Renee Matlock to schedule a complimentary, no-strings-attached, “Talk with Renee” session to discuss your practice, your goals and your dreams. Renee, the owner of The Private Practice Coach shares with clients her knowledge and expertise gained over 30 thirty years of building a profitable, multi-disciplinary private practice.

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