I think one of the most powerful things about owning a business is the ability to leverage making money without performing some or all of the service. This amazing gift requires one monumental thing…a great team. The hiring process can prove to be one of the more difficult tasks when it comes to running a successful business.
Unless you have worked for the government interrogating people it’s not easy to ask the right questions and decipher through a potential good or horrific candidate.
For example the candidate on paper who went to the right school, has a great background, says all the right things in the interview, looks the part, acts the part and then three months down the road they do a “Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde” on you. Your once perfect hire now has their secret wife calling the office because she wants to know when her husband is working and when he gets paid because his three children you knew nothing about are hungry.
Think I’m kidding? If something along these lines has happened to you, you have my condolences if not, well then you have something to look forward too.
To help with this often lengthy, time and money consuming process, I have been experimenting with a “group interview” process to help weed out the good from the bad candidates.
The next time you find yourself in need of a great team member try out my steps below. So far I have tried it in two of my businesses and I have really enjoyed the simplicity and ease it has brought to my life when it comes to hiring.
10 Steps to Creating a Group Interview
- Set a day and a time for your group interview. This does not need to be a convenient day or time for people to come in. It’s preferred during a routine staff meeting. (If you don’t do weekly, biweekly or monthly trainings you may want to strongly consider implementing one.)
- Place your ad. Decide in advance who you are hiring. Is this front desk staff or an associate doctor/independent contractor DC, etc? I recommend great websites like com. Your business’s Facebook or Instagram accounts are good for recruiting too.
- INVITE EVERYONE…really? I can’t possibly hire the milkman to answer the phones.! (Shriek shriek!). How do you know? Remember above?…have you been perfect with hiring in the past? Have you made egregious errors in judgment? If you have, it may be time to try something new. You can always turn the milkman down later. All you do is give everyone a call, invite them to the group interview and print off all the resumes. If they don’t show up, those resumes go directly into the trash. See? Already sorting through the pile.
- The Big Day: Collect everyone’s names and numbers who attends Day 1. The easiest way for me was to check it off on their resumes. If it’s a big group use name tags. Trust me, the more candidates the better.
- Looking Good: You and your current staff should be happy, excited and be dressed to impress for the event. One of the most important concepts of the group interview is to set the tone for what it’s going to be like to work for you. Be sure your current team greets the candidates and interacts with them until the start time.
- Introductions: Start with your current staff and have them introduce themselves and their role in the company. Systematically, have your candidates stand up and introduce themselves to the group and have them answer the question: “Why are you here?”
- Explain your business..what I mean is what are some of the most important areas of your business and what will this particular group of candidates be responsible for? For example, someone applying to work the front desk is going to have a different set of responsibilities than hiring a DC or will they? If you want your potential new doctor to answer the phone, take patients off electrical muscle stimulation, sell packages of visits or put together claims for insurance companies than they need to know up front. I like to make this part as detailed and painful as possible. I have found that honesty of the manager/owner up front saves a lot of time, energy and money. Replacing staff is in fact one of the biggest expenses to any business.
- Dreaded #7… This one I feel like I may get a bit of resistance with but bear with me. What I mean by a script is, let’s say you have had enough with insurance companies and you’re a cash practice and now you are selling packages of visits to your patients. In order to make your life easier, create a script of how that should be presented to patient’s every time. Print off a portion of that script, have your candidates pair up and listen to them as they do the script to each other. That’s right they have to Role Play. Are they resistant to doing it? Did you see eye rolling? Are they boring? Can they interact with other people? The same can be done if you are hiring a front desk person. Make a little script for a phone call and have them do the same thing with the phone call. I’m not even joking how much this little concept (#7) has revolutionized the ease and ability to select a good candidate.
- Role Play Some More: once the initial shock of this wears off, have them switch partners. I switch enough times that everyone meets each other. (There is a reason for this).
- Finisher: Once again, you go around the group and ask them, “Why should I hire you and one other person in this group?” (Do not allow them to cop out, make them pick someone else in the group and why).
Pretty crazy right? Here is the thing. After #10, I already have another day and time set up for a return. I usually do 2-3 days later and when they come back they need to have their resume, the application for employment filled out, availability and the script that they were working on memorized. If they show up for day #2 with all that, that is a well-qualified candidate. Listen to their script, show them around the office and consider setting up a final interview.
If you’re in need of some great new additions to your team, consider the above 10 steps and let me know how it worked for you!
What ideas or tricks do you have when it comes to hiring?
Do you have a favorite question you like to ask or a quality you always look for?
Kassandra Schultz D.C
