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MHA
Service Corporation Professional Search Services, Stephen O’Connor,
Senior Director . . . . . . . . . . . . . .February
2008 |
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Pose
These Questions to Improve Your Hiring Process
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To zero in on the skills, attitudes, and personality types needed for each position in your organization, ask current employees for guidance, suggests Carol Clymer and Laura Wyckoff in “Here to Stay: Tips and Tools to Hire, Retain and Advance Hourly-Wage Workers.” The study includes this list of questions for current employees, the answers to which should aid your retention efforts as well.
“Draw on this information to develop accurate job descriptions, job announcements, and interview questions,” the authors recommend. “Examining their job duties creates consensus and team building among current employees and promotes coworker buy-in and ‘ownership’ of new hires.” To order the full report from Public/Private Ventures, a Philadelphia based public policy and research organization, go to www. ppv.org. |
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If you want to find more employees who will perform like the best on your staff, perhaps you should solicit the help of the best on your staff. Come up with a list of top producers and explain that you’d like them to become part of the recruiting and hiring process. Ask them to help write employment ads, to staff the booths at job fairs, to participate in campus recruiting drives, and to take part in interviewing prospective hires. Adapted from Finding & Keeping Great Employees, by Jim Harris and Joan Brannick (AMACOM)
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by Stephen O'Connor At
age 18, I worked at a McDonald's restaurant in southern California.
I was new to the area
This program consisted of a series of humiliations for the new kid and included assigning me to several of the more unpleasant tasks in the back of the restaurant. Of course, no adolescent training effort would be complete without the obligatory practical joke. My assistant manager explained to me that the supply of potatoes were kept in the basement and that the stock room employees who worked down there were responsible for bringing up more supplies whenever we needed them. All we had to do was call them on the intercom. “Intercom?” I was further informed that the intercom microphone was on a retractable cord on the countertop, right next to the sink. I was told to grasp the microphone by its stainless steel top and squeeze the handle. I could then communicate with the guys in the basement. Made sense to me. It was kind of a funny looking microphone, but hey, this was California, everything looked a little funny to me.
I was completely oblivious to the other employee’s snickers and to their anticipation of my first stock order from the basement. It didn't take long. “O’Connor, we’re out of potatoes. Call down to the basement and get more.” Well, of course, there was no basement, no stock room employees and this thing was not a microphone. As I reached for the shiny, steel device, with the black pressure handle, there should have been a little voice in my head crying, “No, don’t do it.” But there was no voice inside my head and apparently nothing else inside my head either. I grabbed the handle, yanked the cord from its countertop resting place, positioned it squarely in front of my face and squeezed. I’m not sure what I was aware of first, the gush of high pressure water that smacked me in the face or the howling laughter of my fellow employees watching this gullible putz from Michigan make a fool of himself. This is not how a new employee orientation program should go. Establishing a solid orientation program for new employees should be based on benchmarking what works well in other organizations and listening to feedback from your current employees. Identifying similar employers that have a low turnover and reported high morale is a good way to get started. HR Magazine, in its November 1996 issue, references how the National Semiconductor Corporation used benchmarking. It looked to the Walt Disney Corporation as a model and incorporated many of its factors into their program. Another employer was the University of Minnesota. The university’s focus is to both train supervisors and to request feedback from employees. Supervisors are trained about the purpose and process of the orientation. It uses focus groups to elicit suggestions from employees. One of the things to come out of these focus groups was a set of questions that most new employees want to know. (See sidebar.) Many of these questions can be applied to almost any employment situation. Using these tested methods to improve your new employee orientation program will help your new hires be better informed and more focused on the priorities you want them focused on. It will also ensure that your new people don’t feel the orientation program is all wet. This article originally appeared in Michigan Health & Hospitals magazine and is being used with permission. |
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Once a team has gelled into a cohesive unit, it’s important that you don’t do anything to disrupt the chemistry. And what could be more disruptive than throwing a new person into the mix? Keep drama and disruption to a minimum by bringing the rest of the team into the interview process. Give team members the chance to ask questions and get a feel for potential hires — and to have genuine input on your selection. Adapted from The Unofficial Guide to Hiring and Firing People, by Alan S. Horowitz (Macmillan USA
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Hiring? A few minutes can meanthe difference between a good hire, a great one — or a disaster. Just spend a little extra time on these fundamentals:
Adapted from “How to Hire a Great Employee Instead of a Good Employee,” by Terri Robinson, on the Recruit2Hire Web Sit |
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Steve
O'Connor, SPHR, |
Professional Search Services
When you need a healthcare management recruiter, call Steve O’Connor at the Michigan Health and Hospital Association in Lansing, MI at (517) 663-5755. He’s the search consultant who produces this monthly newsletter and has hundreds of management candidates currently registered with his service. Most are open to relocation. You are also invited to browse his web site for more information on Professional Search Services at www.mhaservicecorp.com. Available positions may include: CEO/CFO/COO/VP • Facilities Management • Finance • Food Service • Fund Development • Health Information Management • Home Health Care • Human Resources • Information Systems • Managed Care • Management Engineering • Marketing/Public Relations • Materials Management • Nursing Administration • Physician Practice Administrators • Planning• Rehabilitation Management • Social Work • Training and Development • Utilization Review For more information contact: Stephen
O’Connor, SPHR, Senior Director Corporate Office:
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Professional
Search Services
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Management
Recruiting for the Health Care Community |
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Stephen
O’Connor, SPHR, Senior Director
Full Service Background Screening Sales Department |
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