The staff you choose to hire have a major impact on the success of your medical practice. Your employees interact with the patients at multiple points before, during, and after their visit. They may be responsible for everything from scheduling and payment collection to actual patient care. Regardless of your own skills or passion for your field, a business can’t be successful without great employees to help run it. Read on for a few top tips on improving the hiring process for your medical practice.

If your job descriptions and interview questions are vague, the employees you end up hiring likely won’t have the right skill set. The first order of business to improving the hiring process for your medical practice is to focus on these two areas. First, collaborate with existing employees who hold each role, and ask for their input on the job description. Ask them for clarification and details on any points that are too general, and have them add anything that’s missing.

Then, model your interview questions on what you learned. You may even consider asking an existing employee in that role to give their input on the questions, too. At the very least, you can probe them a bit to find out what skills are most useful in their role and which duties take up most of their day-to-day work. Make sure the questions you ask are open-ended and invite the candidate to expand on past experiences. Once you have a clearer picture of the type of person you need, it’s far easier to find the right fit.

Any employee you hire at your medical practice must have certain core competencies for their role. However, you can’t ignore their potential for cultural fit, which simply means how someone’s beliefs, values, and behaviors fit within the existing framework created by current employees. This does not mean avoiding diversity; in fact, a diverse workplace has been shown to boost business success and employee happiness. Cultural fit simply means taking into account how a person would enjoy your workplace on a more personal level. If they’re unhappy with the fit and your staff is unhappy with the fit, productivity will decrease and you’ll likely end up at the start of the hiring process once again.

Once you find great employees, you don’t want to lose them! First, make sure your business offers competitive benefits, like salaries on par with the rest of the industry, healthcare plan options, adequate time off and sick leave, and any other perks that fit your practice and would be attractive to new hires. It’s also important to offer proper training to new employees, so every hire feels comfortable and knows their responsibilities. Making them feel welcome and valued is key to improving employee retention at your medical practice.

At InnovateU, we offer a multitude of services to help you manage your medical practice—including HR. We can help you find the right employees so that your practice can thrive! Contact us today to learn more about how we can assist you, and allow you to return your focus to the medicine and the patients.