Reconsider common staffing misconceptions

When it comes to hiring the best employees for your medical practice, standard wisdom includes a surprising number of meritless wives' tales. A recent piece in Medical Economics provides examples of how breaking a few staffing 'rules' may turn out to benefit your office.

The next time you're hiring office staff, reconsider these common misconceptions:

• Moving around is bad. Many hiring managers automatically jump to pass over a candidate who has held multiple jobs in a short period of time, which in itself isn't a major reason to dismiss a capable individual who simply enjoys change. "It's better to have an A+ worker for a year or two than to endure the services of a C- staff member for his or her whole career," writes Practice Performance Group consultant Judy Bee. Likewise, while staff turnover in your own practice does have undesirable consequences, Bee says it's not the end of the world either. A new employee's fresh perspective is often needed to help an organization progress.
• Experience is everything. While experience doing the job you're looking to fill is certainly important, a person's overall skills, knowledge and potential to succeed in a new area should be considered, as well. For internal candidates, the criteria for advancement should be expected ability to do the new job, not performance in the current job.
• Physicians needn't be involved with training. For nurses, techs, medical assistants and even receptionists, a little time learning directly from the doctors can go a long way toward creating a competent, loyal employee. "Nearly all employees value training by the physician, and it's done so rarely that you will create a solid impression of commitment to the new worker's success," Bee writes.

To learn more:
- read the article in Medical Economics

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