When You Need to Hire
Hiring for any position is darn near impossible it seems right now. I’ve talked with folks all across the country who are having a hard time finding hygienists, assistants and managers. As it happens, my office manager quit recently to move back closer to family, and so I had to go through the hiring process again.
I hate hiring….I feel it’s always a gamble. You can interview, check references, and do all your homework, and still only be 50% successful. (However, if you do none of those things you’ll be even less successful.)
Recently I went through a few processes that we have in DSN to make sure I’m hiring the best possible people.
Here’s my initial steps prior to hiring:
- Confirm that ownership & management agree on the need for this position.
- Verify job descriptions for new description or consider merging positions prior to putting out job ad.
- Confirm the business business overhead is at a range conducive to hiring another person for this position.
- Consider if the duties for this job can be outsourced to a 3rd party or if technology can replace the duties entirely.
If all those boxes are checked and then you can move on with the process.
Hiring Process
Prepare a Job Ad
- Check out similar ads in your area or see example ad in Operations Manual
- Verify appropriate pay rate on payscale.com
Place Job Ad on Appropriate Sites
- Where to place it?
- Facebook (private groups and company page)
- Indeed
- Glass Door
- ZipRecruiter
- Craigslist
- Local job boards
- Dental specific job websites?
- Other ways:
- Personal connections
- Spread word in the community
Inform Team of New Position Going Out for Hire
- Ask if anyone would like to submit their resume for this position
Start Accepting and Screening Applications
- Some will think they are a lock for your position, remember to always portray this as an interview process
What and Where
One of the things our members have ran into recently are ABSURD pay levels. To arrive at what you’ll need to offer, you will need to check both Payscale.com as well as other job ads for similar positions. If all the ads for hygienists are $50+ an hour then you’re probably going to at least need to include that in your range.
In different areas of the country it’s also interesting to see where people respond to job ads. Some larger markets its only Facebook, whereas others use Indeed or Craigslist more often. If you’re not getting much traction, make sure to try some of the other site and see if you can get more applicants.
Finding Your Match
As you move through the process…there are always places where a candidate can prove that they’re either a ‘fit’ for your organization, or not. One thing to do at each stage is promote your core values and make sure that ‘anyone who doesn’t fit these values is going to have a difficult time in our organization’. Hounding this might seem odd, but it has saved me more times than not.
As you go through the hiring process, you will come to the point where you need some tests to help identify if they will be a good match. Here’s what many of us on DSN use for pre-employment testing. (We even have a Pre-Employment Associate Doctor Test that helps identify great DDS candidates!) Even though some of these services are expensive, avoiding making a bad hire is worth the money spent. In more cases than I can tell, I’ve avoided making a bad hire because of some test results.
Pre-Employment Testing
- HireSelect Pre-Employment Tests- Personality and Skills Testing ($$)
- Employee Personality Profile
- Attention Skills Test
- Typing Test
- Emotify
- Cognitive Aptitude Test
- Computer Literacy and Internet Knowledge Test
- www.16personalities.com for FREE tests
I hope these notes on hiring has helped. After you hire them…the race has only begun. Now it’s your job to train them up. If they’re for front office or assisting, you might want to consider the Rookie 2 Rockstar courses on Front Office Academy. (I’m using them right now to train up a Manager from scratch.)