Hiring your staff

Even before you open your doors and welcome your first patient, we suggest strongly that you hire your first staff person. We know that you don’t have a lot of money to pay an employee, but if you hire the right person, he or she will be able to help you build the practice much more quickly.

Hiring is a skill, and the only way to learn is to do. You will make mistakes, but you’ll quickly learn a process that works for you. Here is a suggested process to help you through those first few hires:

1. Write a job description. Define the job as completely as possible, including:

• Tasks,
• Skills,
• Previous experience,
• Chiropractic knowledge,
• Education,
• Hours.

The more specific you can be, the easier your interview and hiring process will be. If, for example, you don’t specify a minimum educational level, you will get lots of people who are very willing but who may not be able to handle the higher-level skills you require. Include all of the job duties you expect this person to perform and put them in priority order. If, for example, you have bookkeeping as a top priority and marketing as a lesser priority, you may find a great bookkeeper, you might have to hire someone else to do your marketing.

You need to decide whether you want someone with a background in chiropractic and knowledge of chiropractic, or someone with great skills that you can train in chiropractic. If you find someone who has the technical skills and a positive personality, you can probably train this person to be a chiropractic advocate.

2. Advertise the position. After you’ve settled on your job requirements, it’s time to write an advertisement for the local newspaper. Include specifics so you can begin to “weed out” those who really don’t qualify. We suggest you advertise in the online edition and that you require the person to send in a resume by e-mail. You want employees who are comfortable with using the Internet, and this is one way to screen out those who don’t know how to e-mail files. You may also be able to find people by word of mouth, but require all to submit a resume.

Here’s the most important thing to remember about hiring: At the end of the process, you want only one great person. You don’t need to interview 12 people to get this one person.

3. Sort the applications. As you read resumes, put them into three piles:

Pile 1: No Way.

Pile 2: Really want to talk to.

Pile 3: Maybe want to talk to.

Start with Pile #2 and make phone calls. You are looking for two things:

1. People who clearly are positive and friendly and whose smile comes across on the phone.

2. People who are clearly unqualified, can’t work the hours you need, or who are not interested in working for the amount you can pay. Screen these out. A short phone interview should give you this information and narrow down your prospects.

Choose no more than four people to interview.

4. Ask the right questions. When you bring each person in for an interview, dispense with the typical interview questions, such as, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?”

Most people these days have heard these questions and have the answers you want to hear. Instead, ask questions about how they responded or dealt with situations that parallel those you might encounter in the office. Some examples:

“Have you ever dealt with a difficult person, who wouldn’t take no for an answer? How did you handle this person?”

“Have you ever had to call someone to ask for money? How did you do this? What did you say?”

“How would you describe chiropractic to someone? Why should everyone be under chiropractic care?”

5. Do your homework. Don’t be afraid to test people. If the person will be doing correspondence, ask him to prepare a memo. If she will be doing physicals, ask her to do one on you.

Some doctors also ask potential employees to take intelligence tests or personality tests. You can do this as long as you test all of your top candidates, not just one. Ask each applicant to spend time in the office, doing routine tasks. If you have patients coming in, you might want to ask the person to interact with them.

If, after you have interviewed your top candidates you still don’t feel comfortable that you have the right person, go back to Pile #3 and see if there’s anyone you might want to call. Sometimes another reading of the application brings up additional points that you missed, or sometimes after interviewing other applicants, you find a quality that becomes more important.

Before you make a final offer, check references. Ask for professional references, especially previous employers, not just a minister or friend. Call and chat with the references; they may or may not give you useful information, but you never know what they might say.

In addition, before you make an offer, you’ll need to put together an employee manual that describes terms of employment, office policies, benefits, and other information that employees will need. (See the Resources section for references to help you put this document together.) You will need to have prepared this document ahead of time, and you should always have an attorney review these documents before presenting them.

6. Follow up. Finally, be sure to write a “thanks but no thanks” letter to all other applicants, including those you didn’t bring in for an interview. Not only is this a common courtesy, but these people may turn out to be potential patients.

As we stated in the beginning, you will find that your hiring skills will improve with experience. You may still make mistakes and hire the wrong person, but the more you do it, the better you’ll get at it.

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