Make hiring top staff enjoyable, with these five easy tips

The healthcare job market is an increasingly competitive space – for practices as much as the candidates seeking to work in them. Hiring and keeping good people has become a sales and marketing exercise similar to promoting your practice’s services to prospective patients. This is how you find the right staff to build the best team and workplace culture.

But where do you start?

1. Know your organisational structure and identify capacity gaps 

When there are not enough people in the organisation to do the work, and you can’t automate that work, then you need someone else to do it – this is your capacity gap.

To see what gaps need filling, map out your practice’s organisational chart, a diagram showing your hierarchy of roles and how each role relates to others. Once you’ve identified your capacity gap, you can create a role around it and add it to your organisational chart.

List all the capabilities they need to address your gaps – this then determines the duties you’ll include in the position description, job ad and employment contract.

2. Think about why someone would want to work at your practice

Once you have a position description and know the type of person you need, it’s time to think about how you’ll attract them. Job seekers have a lot of choices these days and your practice may be competing with others to attract talented, committed people.

How will you stand out? Make a list of things that would attract someone to your business:

• What is your practice’s purpose and mission Communicating this helps you attract people aligned with your practice’s philosophy and goals.
• What culture and benefits do you offer? Social events, team building, etc.
• How do you keep staff engaged and help them feel valued?
• What growth opportunities and professional development do you offer?
• Do you offer flexible hours or arrangements, such as working from home?

Be aware that if you include working from home as a benefit, you need a firm policy behind it, which needs to include:

• A code of conduct
• Privacy and confidentiality issues – especially if staff take confidential patient calls while working at home
• Work Health and Safety assessment.

3. Create a job ad with impact that complies with your legal obligations

Now it’s time to sell your business and the role itself, this is where your sales and marketing strategy comes in. Here are some tips:

• Write your ad talking directly to your ideal candidate, in a voice that reflects your business culture – i.e. the voice you use in marketing your practice to potential patients.
• Be gender neutral in your wording – from job ad to position description and contract.
• Be clear about salary, work availability and conditions, and the duties they will perform. There are penalties for posting misleading job ads.
• Be mindful of various discrimination issues, including: race, sex, age, disability, religion, or marital status.
• State if the candidate is expected to comply with an employment check (e.g. police check, working with children check, vaccination status).

4. Take time to interview candidates

If you’ve been inundated with applications, you need to create a shortlist of around five to ten candidates. So, make a list of red flags or deal breakers to rule people out. For example, excluding someone who lives too far away to make travel practical.

Think of the job interview as a two-way sales pitch – the candidate selling themselves and their skills to you/you selling the practice and role to them. This helps you keep a positive mindset when preparing and conducting your interview.

Allow time to get to know your candidate’s personality and assess cultural fit, as well as time to cover their technical skills. Look for attributes such as attitude, behaviour and work ethic – you can train soft skills but you can’t train personality traits.

Be mindful of not asking potentially discriminatory questions about religion, race and cultural habits, political leanings or pregnancy status. Be sure to keep a record of your questions, a summary of the candidate’s answers, and how you responded.

Consider doing a second and third interview. This gives you both a chance to reflect on the first interview, cover any further questions and explore cultural fit more deeply.

5. Document your hiring processes

Creating simple, accessible processes are key to running a better-quality healthcare practice. It’s also key to making staff recruitment an easier, more enjoyable experience.

Documenting the steps involved in role creation, advertising, interviewing, selecting and onboarding staff provides consistency, and covers you in the event of any disputes or grievances.

Online practice management platform, PracticeHub makes it easier to document, store and share your:

• mission statements and purpose
• organisational chart
• position descriptions
• processes and checklists for onboarding, inducting and supporting staff.

It’s also a selling point in itself; assuring potential staff that induction will be a seamless experience, with PracticeHub’s user-friendly interface, learning modules and features that improve communication and collaboration. As well as its high-quality policy and procedure templates, PracticeHub includes standardised position descriptions for different roles that you simply customise to suit your practice’s needs, saving you time.  

Using PracticeHub to improve your hiring processes lets you focus on attracting the best fit for your workplace, someone who will stay with you and contribute to your business success.

Discover how PracticeHub simplifies your recruitment processes, phone us on 1300 469 866 or book a meeting with one of our helpful consultants.

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