Managing a medical practice is no easy feat. So when you hire a new person to run your office, you must make sure he or she doesn't just look good on paper, but actually has what it takes to help your practice succeed.
To increase the odds that you'll hire the best candidate for the job, follow these three expert tips about interviewing and testing candidates, before you write that offer letter:
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Administer competency tests. "Most people inflate their resumes," Keith Borglum, a medical practice consultant with Professional Management & Marketing in Santa Rosa, California, recently told Physicians Practice. Rather than taking the information on faith, prescreen candidates to ensure they have the skills they need to perform the job. Consider testing candidates on math, data analysis, software literacy, conflict resolution and even written communication.
In addition to written tests, which you can create yourself or purchase from a vendor, ask candidates to explain how they would handle specific scenarios in your practice, recommends Elizabeth Woodcock, principal of consultancy at Woodcock & Associates in Virginia.
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Use personality tests. Tools that help identify candidates' basic personality profiles were strongly recommended by several expert speakers at this year's Medical Group Management Association's 2015 conference. People who score highly in the traits of dominance and extroversion, in particular, tend to make great practice administrators, says Leigh Olson, of Master Series Seminars, LLC.
However, be sure to select a tool that is approved by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and administer it to all--not just selected--candidates and employees, warns Judith Holmes, president of Compliance Clinic, LLC, in Colorado.
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Decide as a group. Peer interviewing is an effective way to find out whether a candidate will gel with your team, Bo Snyder, a practice management consultant in Kalamazoo, Michigan, told Physicians Practice.
Soliciting your existing employees' input into hiring decisions can also boost morale, he said. Some groups go so far as to make all hiring decisions by committee, FiercePracticeManagement reported previously.
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