The best employees will share your practice's values

Practice Pointers. By Karen S. Schechter, AMNews contributor. May 21, 2007.

PRACTICE POINTERS

Answers to questions about the business side of your practice

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Question: We are in the process of hiring some additional staff members to assist in several areas of our practice -- front desk, billing and collections, and clinical. We have advertised in the local newspaper and on Web sites. We say that we will consider only applicants who have five or more years of experience, depending on the position. Nonetheless, the majority of resumes that we receive come from people who have less experience. What can we do to attract more experienced candidates?

Answer: Across the board, physicians and their office managers agree that it is difficult to find good employees. Of course, everyone has a different definition of what they consider to be a good employee. We would suggest that a universal definition would be an employee who supports the practice's mission and lives its supporting values every day.

If this is the premise of a good employee, then there are two questions that need to be answered before looking for additional and/or replacement staff members. What is the mission/value proposition of your practice? What qualities are you looking for in an employee who will support that proposition?

The answers to these questions will help you identify the specific qualifications you are looking for in a candidate for a certain job position, and will assist you in the recruitment process, whether you do it internally or hire a placement agency.