October 2006

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Hiring the Right Person

Your Dental Practice is filled with a diverse and highly skilled group of people who are hopefully as committed to teamwork and respect as they are to excellence and results. The challenge in hiring is to select new team members that are the right ‘fit’ for your Practice to ensure things continue to progress in a happy and productive manner.

Selecting new team members is one of the most important tasks you do. Your new hire will interact not only with you, but with every member of your team as well as your patients. A common tendency is to fill the position as quickly as possible. Although it may seem brutal, a good rule of thumb is to ‘Hire Slow, Fire Fast’.

The cost to replace an employee is 1.5 to 2 times times their annual salary (recruiting, training, severance costs). In addition to the financial costs, choosing the wrong candidate can take a huge emotional toll on your team members. The best way to deal with a poor performer is not to hire him or her in the first place.

According to the Right Management Survey, 2006, bad hires lead to lower morale (68%), lower productivity (66%), lost customers (54%), higher training costs (51%), and higher recruiting costs (44%). Seems like it’s worth the effort to do whatever you can to hire right the first time!

Streetwise Tips on Hiring

• Who is the Best Candidate?
  Be careful to hire the best candidate for the job—not merely the most talented job seeker. In other words, just because somebody has a more polished-looking resume or is more articulate at the job interview doesn’t mean that he or she is necessarily a better worker. Some people, for example, become very good at job hunting because they or their employers are never happy about their work!
  
  Typically people that are an asset to your team are a joy to be around, exuding positive energy and a zest for life. They love helping people and are compassionate and kind. They have the courage to make decisions and are accountable for getting the job done in the best way possible. They are resilient and have a keen interest in the health of your Practice. In addition, they will do whatever it takes to become the best they can and then to seek continuous improvement from there.
  
  Great team members also conduct themselves in a mature manner, exercise self-discipline, and are able to handle stress and difficult patients. When good things happen, they share the joy, not taking all the credit for themselves.
  
  
• Trust Your Instincts
  Recruiting and placement agencies report that there is a fairly high percentage of false information presented in resumes and job applications. In fact, 15% to 20% of job applicants try to hide some dark chapter of their lives. For some positions it can be as high as one out of every three resumes. Be leery of putting too much weight on information that doesn’t ‘feel’ quite right.
  
  
• Hire People Who Will Work Well Together
  Building the winning team requires more than just hiring a bunch of talented people. As a leader, it’s up to you to appreciate your team member’s individual differences, working to draw everyone together into a unified and collaborative team. Strive to ensure that diverse perspectives and approaches improve the results in your practice rather than create conflict. Also, understand that based on individual preferences and working styles, different strategies will need to be used to engage each person so they will perform at their maximum potential.
  
  
• Working Interviews
  Hiring is not a simple process. It is highly subjective and based on a good deal of soft information. Candidates often relax and let their guard down somewhat during a working and/or second interview. This will give you a chance to ‘meet’ the real person. It is entirely possible that you will get a different impression of a candidate during this interview.
  
  In addition to offering a different perspective, a working interview will give you some idea as to how compatabile this individual is with your team. Make sure your team is receptive and supportive of the new individual; being new to a fast moving practice can be pretty overwhelming. Encourage positive, informal interaction. If there’s time, pay for your team to take the candidate out to lunch – it’s amazing the things that can be learned out of the office!
  
  
• How Great is Your Self-Awareness?
  According to the Harvard Business School Press, “The more we need to work through others, the better we need to understand ourselves… The greater the hiring manager’s self-awareness, the better the new hire is likely to perform.” Being self-aware allows you to be forthright in describing the intricacies of your Practice, and to select ‘partners’ that will enhance the overall ability of your team to meet its objectives.
  
  
• ‘Just Like Me’
  When building your team, steer clear of the desire to hire people that are ‘just like me’ – individuals that are carbon copies of yourself. The tendency to feel more comfortable around and give preference to people that are similar to ourselves is understandable, but in today’s competitive environment, there is more power in having a team that is comprised of intellectual diversity, different strengths and experiences.
  
  
• Clearly State Job Expectations
  Let the candidate know precisely what their potential role in your office will be to ensure they have what it takes to be successful in the job – and are excited about it! This will help increase hiring success and decrease turnover.
  
  
• Get ‘Em to “Buy In”
  During the hiring process, two people are making the decision. You need to ‘sell’ the dream of your practice. And it must be real, or you won’t have long-term retention. This is not a one-time discussion. You need to constantly remind your team what your Practice stands for and that it does indeed hold a bright future for them!
  
  
• References
  Only one in 200 candidates who are offered a job in Canada have had a background reference check completed. While it takes extra effort, not doing thorough homework to verify critical information may result in problems later. An individual who will twist the facts to get a job will probably twist the rules on the job. It is much better to be carefully safe than carelessly sorry.
  
  While the information gained in reference checks is valuable, it’s important to be aware that accurate information may be difficult to obtain. Be sure you have your antenna up, and are listening to what they may be saying without actually saying it. Some people may give positive references for people they have fired because they fear legal action. Also, the privacy information laws have people nervous about saying too much.

Selecting the Final Candidate

Select the most suitable candidate and alternates. Be sure to choose an individual who will thrive in your environment. Whether someone is the right person for your Practice has more to do with their character traits, innate capabilities, and their fit with the team, rather than with specific knowledge, background or skills. Pre-determine what characteristics you would like your team members to have.

Offer of Employment

Create clearly defined win-win agreements with the candidate regarding their employment in your Practice. This is an exciting time for you and the new employee. Do whatever you can to keep the momentum going and motivation high. Motivation is at the highest and employees are the most open to doing it ‘your way’ during the first three months, so strive to optimize their potential right from the beginning.

It is getting more difficult to hire good people. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Winning the War for Talent” white paper by Authoria, there will be a shortfall of 10 million workers in the age range of 25 to 44 by 2010. The better you run your practice, with a great group of peak performers on board, the more likely you will be to attract the ‘right’ person to your practice, gain their loyalty, and retain them for a good long time. It’s well worth the effort…

Points to Ponder:

• Do you follow a panic hiring process?
  
  
• When you hire, do you focus on skills or attributes? Which do you think will give you the better highly-motivated long-term employee?
  
  
• Do you have your top candidates do a working interview in your Practice?
  

Our next PracticeProsperity newsletter will provide proven tips, tools and tactics on how to orient and train your team members.

About the Author

CoraMarie Clark, BSDH MBA is recognized as a highly effective dental practice strategist. She works with dentists that want to optimize their potential both personally and professionally. Her collaborative approach has helped teams develop dynamic competitive strategies and achieve high impact sustainable results.

If you would like to explore the possibility of having CoraMarie work with your Dental Practice or speak for your Association or Group, contact us today.

CoraMarie Clark
phone 403.686.6136
email coramarie@strategix-ltd.com
web strategix-ltd.com

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