In our December 11th blog, which you can access here, Some Ideas on What to do with a Problematic Staff Member Part 1 I presented the first part of my response to a doctor that had written to us through our “Ask A Consultant” feature of Silkin Management Group’s website. This doctor was asking for help with a problem staff member. The first part of my response had to do with having proper and adequate job descriptions and office policies in place. This is something we at Silkin work very diligently on with our clients. In fact we have a 400 plus page Office Policy and Job Description manual that we provide our clients with that can easily be adapted to their office.

Below is the second part of my response which had to do with hiring and training the right employees. I hope you find it informative and useful.

“The other underlying issue I see here is having the right people in the first place and having them properly trained. There are three key steps in this process.

1. How to attract the right kind of employees
2. How to determine who to hire
3. How to train them to do their job properly after you’ve hired them

When you are looking to fill a new position, the wording of your ad/listing is key. Where to advertise is also key. Utilizing employment agencies that pre-screen applicants to YOUR qualifications can greatly increase the quality of candidates you see, weeding out the lower quality people ahead of time.

Determining who to hire is often a “shot in the dark” for most doctors. A doctor might just read a resume, conduct an interview and then take a shot on that person as they have no other means to evaluate the applicant. No one ever writes on their resume that they are chronically late, don’t take direction and can’t get along well with others. What you see on a resume is only what the applicant wants you to see. Similarly, all you hear in an interview is what they want you to hear. They say the right things or at the very least what they think YOU want to hear in order to get the job.

After a person is hired they usually stay on their best behavior until they get comfortable and then they become themselves. Only then do you know who you’ve hired.

We believe you need a more objective way to screen and hire people so that you have a better idea of who they are, what kind of personality they have, their responsibility level, their aptitude and their work ethic. Corporations have been hiring people this way for years. Small businesses suffer through much higher turnover rates due to their lack of successful hiring techniques.

We teach doctors to test applicants. Personality tests, IQ tests, Aptitude tests are all implemented to get a feel for who a person is and how they will fit in to your practice and interact with the staff and more importantly your patients. Doing all of this as part of your “weeding out” process during hiring greatly increases the odds of you bringing on a good staff member.

Once you have hired the right person, you then need to make sure you train them properly. This is where detailed and up to date job descriptions and office policies come into play. It is vital that you equip your new employee with the proper tools to do their job rather than throw them to the wolves and hope they pick up the proper way to do things as they go.”

As mentioned above, Silkin Management Group provides its clients, as part of our overall management training and consulting program, an Office Policy and Job Description Manual with detailed job descriptions for nearly every position in an office, including the often overlooked job description for the owner of the practice.

If you would like any help with any aspect of your practice, call us at 800-695-0257 or email us at info@silkinmanagementgroup.com. You can also visit our website at silkinmanagementgroup.com/offers/ask.html and ask questions via our “Ask a Consultant” feature on the website.

Ken DeRouchie
Silkin Management Group’s “Ask A Consultant”

Please see our other blog at: practicemanagementblog