MightyRecruiterRunning a medical or dental practice is a challenge for many doctors and dentists. While they can be highly educated and skilled health care practitioners, they may not possess the same level of skill when it comes to managing a business. Unfortunately, business administration isn’t stressed as part of a medical or dental degree program, so it is up to doctors and dentists to hire staff to help keep their practices running smoothly. Finding the right people can be a challenge on its own, but if you learn how to hire office staff for a medical or dental practice, you can head in the right direction.
Take Your Time
Whether you are establishing a new practice or filling an open position, you should give some thought into what makes a front office worker valuable. Think about the skills they need to possess and what makes a person right for your office. If you rush into hiring someone just to fill a position, you might not get the caliber of staff you need to keep your office functioning well. It would be better in the long run to search out qualified candidates than just hiring the first person you meet. A bad fit is worse than an open position because you have to start the hiring process over again.
What Makes a Good Fit
Before you post a job opening, make a list the skills you need for that position. Put some effort into your ad to make sure you are getting qualified candidates. Your front office staff makes the first impression for your patients, and you want it to be a good one. Front office staff should have excellent interpersonal skills in addition to office skills. You can always train a new employee on your phone system or software, but you may not be able to help someone develop people-oriented skills. Are there certain factors that would be valuable in your specific region of the country, such as being bilingual or having a bit of Southern hospitality? You should consider all of these when thinking of how to hire office staff for a medical or dental practice.
Go Beyond the Interview
Interviews are no doubt an important part of selecting a candidate for your medical or dental practice, but you need to look beyond the Q and A. Get a sense of why someone wants to work in the medical or dental field as opposed to a more traditional office setting. Are the candidates looking for a change in career or already familiar with health care businesses? Can they handle organizing and prioritizing tasks or switching from one responsibility to another without getting flustered?
Have You Found the Right One
If you’ve gone through resumes and interviewed and narrowed down candidates, now what? When you need to know how to hire office staff for a medical or dental practice, you need someone that is up to the job since it can involve more than a traditional office position. Ask for references, and then contact them. Consider background checks as part of the screening process. Make sure your candidate is interested in working as part of a team. Staff tends to be small for medical and dental practices, so you need staff that can work together well and support each other and you. As a medical provider, you want to spend your time providing care to your patients and not resolving staff conflicts.
In it for the Long Haul
As you approach how to hire office staff for your medical or dental practice, aim for job candidates who will be with you for a while. Whenever you have to devote hours to interviewing, hiring, and training new staff members, you won’t have as much time to see patients. It’s an exhausting process for both employers and candidates, and certainly not one you want to do repeatedly. If a potential employee does not indicate that they are looking for long-term employment or if they have a relatively lengthy work experience for a short period of time, you should note those details. Having high staff turnover isn’t helpful for your patients either. They want to see familiar friendly faces to put them at ease when they seek health care, but they also want professionalism. Frequent new employees can send the message that your practice isn’t working as well as it could, and that is not one you want to present to your patients. If you need more information on how to hire office staff for your medical or dental practice, use the resources at Mighty Recruiter for tips to make it easier.