Improving the Hiring Process in Healthcare | E. 73

The Healthcare Leadership Experience

The ongoing staffing shortage is one of the biggest challenges facing the healthcare sector. Meri Halilovich and Henry Lang share their strategies for creating an effective hiring process with Jim Cagliostro.

Episode Introduction

Meri and Henry explore how a repetitive application process can deter candidates at the first hurdle, why the resume is only a starting point for hiring managers and offer vital interview tips for job applicants. They also explore the importance of understanding culture, highlight the ‘’revolving door’’ of staff retention and share why diversity and inclusion are vital to attracting and retaining talent.

Show Topics

• Healthcare’s hiring process has to be more creative

• Fixing a complex application process

• The role of the resume in hiring

• Beyond the resume: interview tips for candidates

• Why culture matters in successful hiring

• Understanding why your employees leave

• How regular one-on-ones enhance the workplace

• The importance of diversity in healthcare

02:12 Healthcare’s hiring process has to be more creative

Henry said the current staffing shortage means HR must utilize social media and other creative ideas to attract applicants.

‘’Well, you have your historical approach. You have an applicant presented to HR. HR goes out and does traditional recruiting methods, job fairs, put it on a website, and put it on your hospital website. Have maybe some type of incentive program for people to pull people in. And that has been the traditional or the old school method for bringing clinical and administrative and backend staff into the healthcare environment. But with the demand for healthcare employees right now, the shortage of healthcare employees, things have had to become a lot more creative when it comes to candidate searches. Extra efforts are needed to be made. Our organization got involved in healthcare recruiting because of that, because of the amount of time and energy that is required for organizations to find talent. Things that are in place today. You have to have a presence in LinkedIn. You have to have a presence on social media. You have to use creative ways to get the attention of the small pool of applicants that are there to fill these positions. The tools that people traditionally run from, the locums and travel. Well, those are tools that you should look at positively to let people come in and experience your culture and then even provide opportunities for permanent staffing.’’

07:36 Fixing a complicated application process

Henry said the repetitive nature of the application process can deter candidates.

‘’If we're talking even a lot of managerial and administrative roles require a level of certification, they require a lot of background checks. Anything that organizations or successful organizations do to go ahead and implement someone to streamline that process. There's nothing more frustrating when you go to apply for a healthcare position and you fill out... You need your remote practice insurance, you need the billing stuff, you need just a normal application. So when you filled out the application, I gave you references, I gave you all of my information, I gave you my licenses, I gave you all of this information. Then I go to fill out another link and it's asking for the exact same information again. And anyone who can help go through, what are we asking people and how many times are we asking the same information and is there any way that we can streamline this so that they ask, we fill out this one form and it goes to all the different sources… But a lot of those places are all asking for the same information. And a lot of people stay in jobs that they don't like because they just don't want to go through it again.’’

11:07 The role of the resume in hiring

Meri said the resume is only the starting point for hiring managers.

‘’Any great hiring manager will know that a resume is essential, but it's absolutely not the only thing they should look into. A resume is just a document that represents candidates' professional achievements, and it is essential since oftentimes it's the only thing the hiring authority has in front of them. And based on that, they're deciding if they are going to invite this person to interview or not. Basically at this stage, a hiring manager is just screening the resume and making sure the applicant has necessary certifications or license or years of experience or anything else that might be required for that job. So absolutely essential at that stage. But now there are different many sublevels and levels actually that will play at exactly the same level of importance of bringing in this person as an employee to the organization. One of them will be in-person interview, and this is something that I see candidates being a little bit, I would say, unsuccessful if you will. It might not be the perfect word for it. When a candidate comes into interview, they strongly rely what their resume says about them and that's all they want to talk about. When in reality they don't understand their resume screening, it's done and approved, that's why they brought you in. Right?’’

12:32 Beyond the resume: Interview tips for candidates

Meri provided helpful insights for candidates, including the importance of asking questions.

‘’Exactly. This is the time when candidates should wow their manager, the hiring manager. They should walk into that interview knowing and representing themselves like they are the one, they are that perfect person they are about to hire and all they should do is act that way. What I mean by that is they should display, they are a great team player, they should talk about how they envision themselves as a part of this company, what they would like to do and achieve as well as deliver as a new hire, they should show enthusiasm, knowledge, and interest about the company and how amazing the delivery is going to be. That's when they create this picture and vision for the person that is listening, the hiring authority, "Well, wow, they are actually the one. Already have a great resume and now I'm hearing what I want to hear from them." That would be one tip that I would give to a potential candidate who might be listening to this. Another thing is that candidates often during the interview avoid asking questions. I highly recommend, inquire about more information besides what job description provides. And this way a candidate might display and in some way manifest the idea that they are already part of the organization. And as I said already, going into an interview, applicants should represent that idea. They are the one, the perfect person that employer is looking for. So asking more, learning more, that absolutely helps them.’’

17:56 Why culture matters in successful hiring

Meri explained why successful hiring isn’t only about the applicant.

‘’Obviously, time and experience takes all the hiring managers to the next level and they develop the skills. They're firmly connected with emotional intelligence and ability to evaluate character. When you think about it, Jim, it's in a short conversation, hiring manager needs to evaluate so many different things in order to decide if this applicant should be moved to the next round or not. I would say an essential part of this task is how well this hiring authority knows the organization or actually people in the organization, I should say, analyzing who and how a new hire will fit with a team, who they will report to, who will report to them, might also play a crucial role in decision making. Here we're opening the door to this multi-level process where a million little things play a role if the answer is going to be yes or no to the next round. And as you can tell by my last statement, sometimes it's not actually the applicant itself, but who they're going to be around with. And they should definitely coordinate with their teammates who might attend that meeting as well. Plan the time and agenda and sharpen their skills when it comes to selling their company. What do I mean by selling their company? When they end this interview with a great candidate who has amazing resume, he or she is providing great answers to their questions, it's time to step up or the hiring manager to step up and do the right thing and save that candidate.’’

28:32 Understanding why your employees leave

Henry said employers need to go the extra mile to take care of their new hires (and all employees).

‘’.. We talked about the skills and tools of the decision maker and once they select the ideal perfect candidate, it doesn't happen that things work out perfectly for various reasons. It could have absolutely nothing to do with the culture. It would be the shift they're on or the hours or the commute or the spouse's job or the childcare issue. There are so many factors. But the organization needs to go the extra mile and always put time and energy into ensuring staff are taken care of. And you may have ultimate goals for your organization in terms of patient care and safety, but those things are going to happen if the employees are taken care of. And one of the efficient ways is to do one-on-ones. Everyone has probably experienced some type of exit interview and that's the time that you get to really let it all out and say the things that you wish had happened and the problems. Imagine having that interview while you still work there. People are like, "I wish you would've asked me these questions before I was leaving." And back to the point of that transparency, to really work with people to let them understand what the challenges you face. People know, they understand the challenges we face. We have X amount of people, we have to cover X amount of rooms, we have this many resources to take care of this, to treat people with respect, to let them know what's going on and then be open to hear their feedback. Because the feedback that you get, especially if you don't wait for the exit interview to get the feedback, you may find some solutions to your problems that are literally right there amongst your team if they feel a part of the organization. They all are sharing references with each other and getting ready to go.’’

31:11 How regular one-on-ones can enhance the working environment

Meri said the human touch ensures your employees feel valued.

‘’There are a lot of organizations out there that do, if not weekly, then they have monthly sit downs one-on-one, very quick 15 minutes, "Hey, how are you doing? What's going on with X, Y, and Z? I know you mentioned last time we spoke," and go from there. That way they connect better on a human level. They understand why perhaps that employee might be a little off at work if they are. "Oh, okay, their child is sick," for example, or something like that. And then that gives the opportunity to employee to go, "Hey, I really love X, Y, and Z, but A, B, and C are really killing me. What can we do to improve? How can we"... you know what I'm saying here? It definitely impacts not only productivity but happiness and that feeling of being valued in the work environment. This is definitely an example that does not touch healthcare, but in my personal experience, the company that I worked for, we had morning five-minute huddle where it was like, "Hey, good morning, did you get your coffee? What do you have going on today? How can I help you? Do you need longer lunch today because you need to run errands?" It was literally like that. Nobody ever needed anything from that manager, but just them telling you that in the morning made you feel so empowered that you went twice hard at work that day. That feeling valued, being human to one another, I think it's essential in this example.’’

33:17 The importance of diversity in healthcare

Henry explained why diversity is essential to attract quality talent and reduce turnover.

‘’Let's start with the facts. PricewaterhouseCoopers, 85% of CEOs report that applying a diversity and inclusiveness strategy has increased their earnings. Also, the same workplaces report that their employees are happier and more productive. Now, this leads us to the reason for this podcast. Happy and productive employees boost the ability to attract quality talent while reducing turnover. And if you ignore diversity and inclusion, you can harm the organization in so many ways. Just here's a couple. Unintentionally generate a culture where discrimination is present. You don't have any diversity. You create this environment because of lack of diversity. Employees' similar backgrounds do have similar viewpoints about the work you do, which then drives the workforce to do groupthink where new ideas and opposing opinions in a group of people are suppressed. And diversity is everything. It's not just racial diversity. There's age diversity. Young people, young generations are more diverse, so if the organization does not embrace diversity and inclusion, you're missing out on some excellent younger employees that can provide new point of views and help you prep the future as well as help you grow your organization.’’

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Connect with Jim Cagliostro on LinkedIn

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Check out VIE Healthcare and SpendMend

You’ll also hear:

Post-Covid changes in the job search; how rural hospitals can offer the opportunities that other health systems can’t. ‘’It's just a matter of packaging all of that in such a way that it shows the beauty of maybe going to some of these places, the ability to buy a home, or the ability to practice to the full extent of your license because you're in a place that you're allowed to do so.’’

Why there’s no quick fix to successful hiring. ‘’I just see small little chunks of it getting addressed and improved. And while we are doing that, we might over-complicate the next section of the process.’’

Why every candidate should be ‘’humble but confident’’ during an interview.

The interview process has a critical impact on retention. ‘’Because the reality of about, we're talking about the hiring process, the problem we're struggling with is the revolving door of retention and the interview process is critical to your retention.’’

Advice for leadership: Developing a culture of positive relationships, and ‘’Being a good human, bottom line, it takes you to the next level.’’

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