UO Magazine > Six Secrets to Hiring Great Employees

Those two words can strike dread into the heart of a physician running a busy practice. Finding, hiring, and retaining good staff can be a real challenge for physicians already swamped with all the details of operating a successful practice. And the tight health-care job market in many parts of the country makes it even tougher.

“Doctors have to take care of all the aspects of running a business, including hiring, and of course they have to be out there treating patients—it’s not easy,” says Chris Forman, the president and CEO of AIRS, an employee training and consulting firm in Wilder, Vermont. “The reality is, many doctors are not professional managers. One of the things that happens in the health-care environment is you have an individual doctor or a group of people forced into being small business owners.”

Forman knows the challenges firsthand. His wife is a physician and a partner in a family practice. Yet he also believes it is possible to hire and keep great employees. Forman, along with other human resource specialists and successful physicians, says the key is to use fresh tactics that deliver better results than placing traditional help-wanted ads in the newspaper. These six strategies can help you attract—and keep—staffers that will be an asset to your practice.

A rich resource for finding good employees is already in your office—your existing staff. Physicians looking to grow their practice should make employees aware that they can play a key role in finding new talent.

“You should create the mindset that everyone is always recruiting,” says Forman. “Let employees know that you want them always to be looking for good people who might add value to the organization.”

Your employees probably know other people working in the same field and will most likely only recommend friends or acquaintances who will be solid performers. In addition, your current staff will likely share with potential candidates an honest assessment of what it is like working there. That helps weed out the people who might not be a good fit before you put the time and effort into the interviewing process.

The most successful employee referral programs offer cash bonuses to employees for a referring someone who gets hired. Depending on the market and the complexity of the job being filled, referral bonuses typically range between $200 and $1,000.

Charles E. Crutchfield III, MD, a dermatologist and an associate professor of dermatology at the University of Minnesota Medical School, has grown his practice from a handful of employees five years ago to 42 full- and part-time employees today. Crutchfield has made several key hires through employee referrals. He offers his staff a $500 bonus for a referral that results in a hire that lasts at least one year. One hundred dollars is paid at the time of hire, followed by $200 after six months and the remaining $200 at the end of the year.

“It’s been a successful way to motivate our existing staff to recommend someone they know who might be a good fit with our practice,” says Crutchfield, who is the sole physician working at the practice. “No one knows your office as well as your employees, so it takes a lot of the guesswork out of the hire.”

Yet, Chris Carmon, the CEO of the Carmon Group, a search firm in Cleveland, cautions that employee referrals can sometimes be problematic.

“You have to be careful that an employee doesn’t become too focused on making side money from referrals,” Carmon says. “And if someone makes a referral that is rejected they could cop an attitude. Employee referral programs are great, but it needs to be defined up front that simply making a referral doesn’t necessarily mean the person will be hired.”

Large hospitals and corporations are constantly focused on their “corporate culture.” Physicians running a practice should follow that lead and define what type of atmosphere and culture exists in their office. That makes it easier to look for people who might be a good fit.

“There is nothing a small practice can do on the advertising side to compete with the big hospitals,” Forman says. “The one thing they have to play on is how they practice and the atmosphere they have created in the office that might be attractive to some health-care professionals. There are plenty of RNs who don’t want to work in ICU anymore. They want to do community outreach or work in a family-oriented practice.”

Neil Baum, MD, a urologist working in New Orleans, has worked to create a family-like atmosphere in his office. He gets to know his employees personally, and he publicly recognizes their achievements. He sponsors fun activities outside working hours as well. After Hurricane Katrina hit, many of his loyal employees returned to work for him.

“I treat them like family,” says Baum. “Whenever they have a medical problem, I help them solve it. If they’ve had blood work done, I call and get the results right way. You have to ask yourself this question: ‘Would you want to work in your own practice?’ You should be able to answer ‘yes’ to that.”

An interest in the practice’s focus or mission sorts the field of applicants for some employers. Boris Volshteyn, MD, a plastic surgeon in Reno, Nevada, looks for employees who have a keen interest in cosmetic surgery and are close to the same demographic of many of the patients coming through the door.

“You need to look for staff that can bond with your patients,” Volshteyn says. “As a physician, you have to sit down and ask yourself, ‘What is my demographic and who will relate to my patients the best?’

“I try to get people who are really interested in what we’re doing. If they are not interested in fashion, and not interested in beauty and cosmetic surgery, they are probably not interested in working in a plastic surgeon’s office.”

Also when you’re looking to fill a position, think about someone who might already know the culture in your practice—former employees. Good employees can leave for a range of reasons, but it’s important to let them know clearly that you would welcome them back at a later time. When you hire a former employee, you get a known entity who will require less training.

“We’ve had several employees come back to us after learning the grass wasn’t greener on the other side of the fence,” Crutchfield says. “When they come back they have a better appreciation for what we do here.”

Baum is always on the lookout for potential employees. And he looks beyond the health-care field. If Baum encounters an employee who smiles through a hectic morning at a checkout counter at an airport, he leaves his card. He also tells that person to contact him if he is interested in a career change. One of his best hires was initiated when he was eating dinner at a restaurant one night.

“She was a nice waitress with a great smile and I noticed she never wrote anything down even though she was taking orders for six people,” Baum says. “We got to talking and ultimately she came in for an interview. The only thing she knew about working in a doctor’s office was that she had been a patient. We trained her, and she developed a tremendous amount of knowledge about insurance, working with patients, and other issues. She was a great employee.

“I can teach people the skills they need to work in the office. I can’t teach them to be nice. I can’t teach them to be gentle and caring and all the things that I look for in someone on my staff. Pay attention to the person who takes your ticket, smiles, and says, ‘Have a nice flight.’ That’s different than the person who takes your ticket and says, ‘Next.’”

Crutchfield takes a more direct approach to identifying potential candidates in the health-care field. A couple of times each year he offers a lecture to nurses or nursing students. He delivers the lecture at one of the “nicest restaurants in the twin cities.” He buys dinner for the nurses and their spouses, and also delivers a brief lecture in which he shares some information about his practice.