Jo Phillpot shares her advice on how to make finding your next team member a smooth process…
If ‘teamwork makes the dream work’, then recruitment can sometimes be the stuff of nightmares.
A strong team makes a practice run smoothly and efficiently, so when there is a gap to fill it can feel like a stressful process to find the right person.
There can be a temptation to make a quick hire – especially if someone has left without much notice – and make sure the wheels keep turning. However, in the long run this will only bring more headaches.
It is worthwhile spending the time to find people who not only have the right skills and qualifications, but also the right personality and attitude for your practice.
Hiring the wrong person too quickly can actually end up damaging your business as they may well end up leaving – or being asked to leave – and you will be back where you started, with the same vacancy to fill.
Below are three simple ways to avoid this situation and make sure your next hire is the perfect fit for your team:
Don’t just rely on CVs to decide who to interview
CVs are great for creating a shortlist of candidates you think have good potential and want to find out more about. The problem is interviews are time-consuming and so it can be much more efficient to ask your shortlisted applicants to answer some questions over the telephone or email, which just may well help you to shorten the list even further. Create a list of bespoke questions beforehand so you can ensure that you only interview the people who meet your specific needs.
Ask specific questions based on their background
Once you have your CVs and forms, make sure you read them thoroughly before the interview, paying particular attention to employment history, CPD logs and qualifications. Consider their entire career history, not just their last role, and examine how actively they have undertaken training or courses since qualifying. The more information you have about their experience or knowledge, or any gaps there may be in these areas, the more specific questions you can ask and the better discussion you can have at the interview.
Don’t just interview, get to know them informally
Rather than just jumping into the formality of an interview, spend some time in a more relaxed setting which will let you see their ‘real’ personality before they slip into the ‘interviewee’ role. Taking a walk around the practice with them and introducing them to other members of the team beforehand provides the perfect opportunity for this. It will help you to see if they have the right character to blend into your team and gives you a glimpse of how they will interact with patients. Plus, this has the added bonus of making them feel more relaxed for the interview, which should make it easier for all involved.
With these simple steps you can take a more efficient and productive, not to mention less stressful, approach to hiring your next team member and ensure your business continues driving forward.
