Issue 8 - June 2003

How to hire your dream employee
By Ivan Delman, DC

Have you ever heard a colleague complain, “I have more staff turnover than pancakes at a flapjack festival”? Perhaps that is your experience.

Turnover is expensive. You have to take time to recruit, interview, hire and train. And then you have to be patient while the newcomer gets up to speed. All of this makes a case for looking for and hiring staff that stays.

The first step in achieving this is to understand that you and the applicants you interview have slightly different employment goals: They want to be hired. You want to hire the right person — your dream employee.

Hiring your dream employee requires doing three things:

• Preparing for the interview;
• Interviewing in depth;
• Making an informed hiring decision.

Preparing for the interview
Don’t decide one day you need to hire someone and then start talking to applicants the next day without preparing for the employment interview! Here are basic steps to take to prepare for interviewing job applicants:

• Visualize your dream employee. What is your dream employee? How would you recognize him if walked in the door?

You have your own “dream” — but few people would disagree that an ideal employee is someone who is reasonable, has good self-worth and shows an excellent work ethic. All of these characteristics impact on job performance, including how the new employee will affect patient recruitment and retention.

• Write a job description. You can’t know if you have a good match unless you know what you are matching! Write down a clear description of what the job is all about and your expectations for it.

• Consider qualifications. Once you have listed dream characteristics and the actual job responsibilities, make a list of the skills, knowledge, abilities and experience that the dream employee would have.

• Establish job parameters. What is the pay range for this job? Hours and days involved in a normal workweek? Possibility of overtime? Promotional opportunities? Special requirements — such as uniforms or seminar travel? Put all of these items on a checklist to discuss with each applicant.

In-depth interviewing
The idea behind in-depth interviewing is to go beyond “normal” questions and get answers to questions that will tell you if the candidate matches the characteristics, skills, knowledge and experience of your dream employee.

Don’t misunderstand me: You still need to ask those “normal” questions about work history, experience, education and training — the information standard employment applications touch on.

But realize that your “normal” questions will result “normal,” practiced responses.

Your task is to get underneath that facade and find out who’s best for the job.

• ‘Reasonableness.’ Steer away from sleep-inducing questions such as, “Did you get along well with fellow employees at your last job?” or “Are you always on time?” or, “What do you think about chiropractic?” (Yawn). In fact, stay away from any “yes” or “no” questions. You’ll only get a “yes” (or a “no”) and will not find out anything about the applicant.

Instead, try asking, “If you continued to work for Dr. Smith (Prior employer), what would you be doing?”

This question gives you clues as to why the applicant is leaving his current position. If he is no longer employed then ask, “What would you have been doing had you stayed?”

If he says, “My old job was terrific! I was even due for a raise,” a bell should loudly ring. It’s signaling you to dig for the real reason the applicant left his prior position.

If he tells you, “There was no room for promotion. Everyone in the practice had been there 35 years.” That’s a reasonable answer. Your applicant shows ambition.

Of course, you’ll want to ask additional questions to check for reasonableness.

• Self worth. If you believe an ideal employee should have good self worth, then you need to ask questions that assess this characteristic.

For example, ask, “Tell me what traits you have that will make you valuable to my practice.” The answer to this question provides a clue about the applicant’s level of self-esteem.

Most people hate to blow their own horn. However, if they have solid sense of self, they’ll be able to give you an indication of their personal strengths. If they hem and haw while mumbling unintelligible words and start looking around the room in a panic, that person could be a future weak link in your practice.

Conversely, be leery if you get a 30-minute, self-serving sales pitch of why the universe revolves around your applicant. This type of person could throw sand into the gears of your clinic’s operations by not being a team player.

• Work ethic. Dream employees have a good work ethic. Ask questions to evaluate each candidate’s orientation to work. For example, ask: “How many hours a day do you need to get your work done?” Their answer will give you a sense of your applicant’s work ethic.

Your follow-up question could be, “If we’re overloaded or have to process new patients, what is your availability to work extra hours?”

Your goal is to weed out clock punchers. You want someone who’ll try to get his or her work done within normal hours. You’ll also want an employee flexible enough help you when necessary.

• Make an informed decision. Early in my career, after a sad string of hiring failures, I happened to read the results of a personnel management study. It stated, “Over 90 percent of employers decide whether or not to hire an applicant within the first 10 minutes of an interview. The rest of the interview time is spent justifying that snap decision.”

Well, that certainly shoved me into a large unwanted group. I was guilty and vowed to change that bad habit.

Here’s how to make better decisions when hiring personnel:

1. Place yourself in a frame of mind that pays focused attention to all the responses from your applicant.

2. Make no promises to any candidate when the interview is over.

3. When all the interviews have been completed, hold off your decision for at least 48 hours.

Last thought: “Beware of applicants who set low personal standards then consistently fail to achieve them. They’ll drag your practice down to their level.”

Dr. Ivan Delman is the author of The Business of Chiropractic: How to Prosper AFTER Startup (2nd Edition). He has degrees in both business and chiropractic. He can be contacted at van@BusinessofChiropractic.com or at his Web site, http://BusinessofChiropractic.com.