WHEN AND WHO TO HIRE—ESTABLISHING THE PROCESS
Prior to advertising a position, interviewing, or making a selection, the manager must consider several key aspects of the open position and the right person they will seek to fill that position opening.
CONSIDER THE JOB
Any employee selection process must take place within the context of the whole agency. An open position is an invitation to make positive changes in workforce structure.
• Does the job need to be created, or filled?
• Does it need to be reorganized?
• Does the job require a creative, adaptive person, to make something happen?
These are questions that should be considered before beginning the hiring process. First, consider the position itself. Prior to the employee hiring process, agency owners/managers should determine what tasks need to be addressed by the specific team alongside whom the hired person will work, along with the necessary workflows. Then the agency manager must gauge how many people will be needed to accomplish that series of tasks. Focus on the job, not the person. Make sure you consider the ideal functions and responsibilities of the job itself, not the person or persons who last held the position. At this point, it is beneficial to think through and thoughtfully compose a job description and a job specification.
• The job description lists the duties and responsibilities of the job, and can include a ranking of the importance of each of these tasks.
• A job specification includes a listing of critical skills—those skills that are necessary for an individual to perform the job effectively.
• The job description and specification are tools which can not only aid the home health agency in finding the appropriate person to fill a job opening, but can also help guide the employee during his or her time with the business.
If the job exists and has been adequately defined, there is still opportunity to make changes to the position. Intelligent agencies consider whether the position in mind needs to be restructured.
• Are you asking that the job encompass too much responsibility?
• Are you asking too little?
Agency owners might also want to consider whether the tasks associated with a position can be incorporated into one or more already existing positions. Often, it is not necessary to hire another employee, but only to re-evaluate present positions and re-design the work flow.
* It is at this exact point where sharp and skilled agency owners make certain their agency is operating at the most efficient and effective level in terms of software platform is concerned. Resulting from over 10 years of home health consulting experience, the Axxess Agencycore platform will optimize the workflows of the home health agency and maximize the effectiveness and productivity of each employee.
CONSIDER THE CANDIDATE – THE PERSON YOU ARE TARGETING
After making sure that the position is thoroughly defined, consider the person that you want to fill the position, by following the job specification.
• What skills, personal traits, and knowledge (experience in HHA industry, software platform, computer skills) will allow someone to successfully perform these tasks?
• Should the candidate have an advanced degree? (Associate, Baccalaureate, R.N., M.S.N.)
• What kind of personality would complement the team?
By consulting the critical skills in the job description, the agency owner or hiring manager will be able to get a solid idea of the type of candidate who will be most likely to successfully meet the challenges of the position. Use your imagination. A hiring manager should be careful, however, that they not become unduly idealistic in determining employment criteria. Few agencies have the luxury of biding their time until the perfect prospective employee comes along. A would-be employee may not embody every single desirable trait on an agencies’ wish list, yet still provide a fundamentally sound performance. Ultimately, each agency owner needs to determine for him or herself whether a prospect’s positives are sufficient to outweigh any negatives (in lack of experience, personality, or training) that they may carry with them.
RECRUITING
When creating a bank of candidates for the position, agency owners can look either within or without the agency. There are advantages and disadvantages to both methods.
A. HIRING FROM WITHIN
The advantages to hiring employees from within the agency are a greater agency working knowledge base, cultural continuity, and improved morale. An employee already in a role in an agency is likely to know more about it’s needs and will be able to approach a new position with the added perspective of his or her previous position. Hiring from within also brings continuity to a company—the talent of the individuals remains within the company, and therefore is “re-invested.” Finally, employees generally feel good about their agency when it promotes from within. It signals a agency’s belief in their people and in the quality of work that they do, and provides them with tangible evidence that their own efforts can bring about career advancement. The disadvantage of hiring from the existing employee base is that it means a limited pool of qualified candidates. Within the current employee bank, especially if that bank is relatively small, there may not be a person qualified to fill the position, or there may not be a person who wants to fill the position.
B. HIRING FROM OUTSIDE
Ultimately, every employee comes from outside the company at some time. Agencies with significant growth in their patient base or market cannot hire from within—the existing work teams are already over taxed. There is more work than there are workers to get it accomplish within normal work cycles. Sometimes, bringing someone in from outside of the agency workplace is difficult because of the relatively high learning curve. Often, though, external sources are necessary and desirable. People within the organization may not have a specialized skill or a specific level of education or experience necessary for a position’s demands. Moreover, when hiring from within is practiced to exclusion, any company runs the risk of growing stagnant in its ideas and methods. Sometimes, a fresh outlook can bring new vitality to an enterprise. Your agency may be “hitting on all cylinders”, and so this doesn’t apply to you, but many of us need to infuse our teams with new talent and new approaches.
METHODS OF RECRUITING
A home health agency can turn to several different methods of recruiting to secure external applicants.
• Online job boards such as Monster.com or yahoojobs.com may attract some applicants.
• Newspaper advertising is still the most popular and well-known of these “help wanted” type methods.
• A well-written advertisement can bring in many candidates. Generally, the more specific the advertisement about the job and qualifications sought, the better qualified the applicants will be.
But as Peggy Isaacson, a Florida-based human resources consultant remarked,
“Employers can’t just place a help-wanted ad in the newspaper and expect to be flooded with top-notch candidates. While advertising has its place in the hiring process, it’s not enough. In this market, good people won’t just come to you; you have to aggressively look for them.”
In recognition of this reality, there are a few recommendations I’d suggest that agencies consider as methods of recruitment:
• Give regular and systematic attention to the culture of your agency’s workplace. As the owner or manager of the home health agency, make it your job to encourage, train and maintain strong communication links with all your employees. Do things, and plan activities that make working at your agency FUN. Happy employees generally don’t leave and seek employment elsewhere.
• Maintain an eye on the market, and assure yourself that your agency is paying ‘top of the market competitive’ compensation packages – turnover is very expensive. Pay your clinicians and billers well. They are worth it.
• Utilize personal and professional networks—Spread the net wide! This can encompass everything from your agency’s employees’ neighbors to fellow community/business association members.
• Your agency has employees who came from other agencies. Ask them who might be particularly skilled and qualified for the position.
• Establish an agency employee referral program—Agencies that offer cash bonuses for referrals that result in hiring sometimes enjoy real success with these programs.
• Utilize school placement offices, if applicable. This can be a good place to find future champion home health nurses!
• Establish a presence at job fairs, especially at community colleges that train RN’s and LVN’s.
• Establish a relationship with the community college training center director.
• Place help wanted ads at nursing schools.
• Contact area employment agencies—don’t forget this. Lots of folks use these employment agencies.
• Post job openings with job banks—Many professional associations maintain job banks for their members
• And, do all you can to maintain a positive culture in the workplace. Instill a positive, attractive work environment
• Any or all of these methods may be used simultaneously to draw the best selection of applicants
You’ve come this far, now it is time to make the Right Choice!
SELECTION OF THE RIGHT CANDIDATE
Once you’ve worked your process, and a bank of qualified, screened potential candidates is established, the manager must get decisive, select the most attractive and qualified candidates and begin the interview process. Try and group the interviews in a relatively short amount of time, preferably over the course of a week. When conducting the interview, make sure your list of job specifications and the job description is in front of you, as well as the candidate’s resume.
CHECKING REFERENCES
Checking references, though time consuming, is a very important step in the hiring process. Prospective employees will often provide professional references, if not on the resume itself, then at least on request. A manager may choose to check references before the interview with a candidate if they are provided, or may opt to check references between a first and second interview. In any event, an agency manager should always request references and make the calls.
“Good trappers always check their traps” You need to try and discover as much as possible about the candidate before they become your employee. If you neglect to follow through with this step, you will regret it. This is best done before an offer is made, so you have an opportunity to avoid taking on another agency’s problem employee.
EXPAND THE REFERENCES TO FOLKS WHO ARE NOT IN HUMAN RESOURCES, THE CANDIDATES DIRECT SUPERVISOR, NOR ARE OWNERS
Chances are good that a previous employer will not provide more information about the employee than their name, the dates of employment and the positions the person held. This is because a company, or any person within a company, which provides false information can be held legally liable for that misinformation. This potential liability does not, however, prevent an agency hiring manager from asking about the employee’s work habits, performance or attitude. Investigate. It is possible that someone may comment further on the employee, especially if the person is not a member of the Human Resources Department, but is a former manager. If this kind of additional information about the employee is made available, never discuss it with the employee directly. Rather, use it as a guide for probing questions about the person’s previous work experience with that company.
EMPLOYMENT TESTING
Thousands of companies use employment testing of some kind to evaluate candidates prior to employment. Employment testing is an area fraught with legal pitfalls, however, so it is best to seek the advice of a professional employment testing service or an attorney experienced in labor law before implementing such requirements. Watch out for this kind of problem.
MAKING A DECISION AND AN OFFER
After the interviewing process has taken place, it is not always easy to come to a final hiring decision. Sometimes your agency may have to make a “gut” call, and may be forced to choose among a number of highly qualified, attractive applicants. This is the best of all problems in hiring. Conversely, on other occasions agencies may undertake a time-consuming search, only to find themselves with candidates who are notably flawed in one respect or another. In such instances, the company leadership needs to determine whether the business can afford to extend the search, or whether business realities require that they fill the position with the best of the candidates before them. Hiring recent vocational school graduates might not be a bad notion. At least you can train them and not have to ‘un-train’ someone who has some experience.
IDEAS REGARDING THE OFFER
The agency’s hiring manager should personally extend an offer of employment to the selected candidate as soon as possible after the interview. This begins the employee/manager relationship. Define the amount of time the candidate has to consider the offer—a few days to one week is usually enough. The offer can be extended in person or over the phone. It is important to note that an offer, even verbal, may be construed as a contract between the employee and the company. Therefore, it is very important to construct the offer carefully. An offer should include the following:
• Confirmation that you are speaking with the right person
• Offer of the position, including title and reporting relationship
• Starting salary for the position, try to refer to a monthly rate. Annualized salaries may actually infer a year of employment at a time, and lead to confusion, especially when the new hire runs into insurmountable problems, and may need to be terminated.
• A suggested date for the candidate’s response
• Proposed starting date for the position
• Indicate necessary follow through by you with the candidate
BE CAREFUL ABOUT THE WAY YOU DESCRIBE THE PAY GRADE
An agency manager should note that the position itself may dictate how to offer the starting salary. If the person is being offered an exempt (salaried) position, consider offering the salary in terms of bi-weekly earnings, or the smallest possible increment in which they are paid. If you are offering a person a non-exempt (hourly) position, you might offer the salary as an hourly wage. This could be important because the offer may be construed as a contractual agreement. If a yearly salary is offered, this may imply employment for one year. If the person is employed for a shorter period of time they could conceivably sue for the full, offered salary. By offering the salary in smaller increments, you avoid the possibility of any misunderstanding.
BE OPEN TO NEGOTIATE TERMS
Every candidate offered a position has the option to either accept or reject the job offer and may want to negotiate terms, usually salary or benefits. Though the agency may not be able to consider alternate terms of employment, it is often wise to hear a candidate’s proposal. If the candidate is truly the best qualified person for the job, there may be some room for compromise on both the part of the candidate and on the part of the agency. Listening to a candidate’s proposal also establishes the agency manager’s willingness to hear out other suggestions, a practice which is well received by any candidate. BE AWARE! Look around you – are you hiring the right people? Is your agency culture one that nurtures championship performance? Is working at your agency considered “fun”? Are employees and clinicians eager and content in serving their patient population, and are they adequately trained and compensated for doing so? I genuinely love to hear about highly effective home health agencies. If you follow these practices and processes, you will definitely experience higher levels of performance and success. I would enjoy hearing your stories about your hiring experiences, and moreover, we look forward to being introduced to your home health agency champions!
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
- “It really does start here-The Right People Make all the Difference”, Mayeaux, 10/7/2010, http:// ffbscn.wordpress.com
- “Employee hiring“, http://answers.com/topic/employee-hiring
