5 tips for successful hiring

All healthcare providers worry about attracting and retaining good employees, and with the market increasingly becoming more competitive, that concern is top of mind. Fred Morgeson, PhD, professor at the Eli Broad School of Management at Michigan State University and editor of the annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior and Scientific Advisor to HealthcareSource, offers healthcare employers five tips for successful hiring and employee retention.

1. Recruit people who are likely to be good performers AND who are likely to stay with the organization. Morgeson explained that the traditional focus of hiring has always been to find those individuals who are good performers and are successful at completing the tasks involved with the position. “Of course this is important, but one can also give attention to who is more likely to stay with the organization. By focusing on both factors, you are more likely to hire and retain high performers,” he said.

[See also: Recruiting the entry-level workforce]

As he explained in a keynote address during talent management for healthcare software provider HealthcareSource’s annual Talent Outcomes conference in Boston at the end of October, applicants can be screened for certain behavioral tendencies. “Some people,” he told the audience, “more naturally become embedded in their organization than others.”

2. Treat people with honesty and integrity throughout the hiring process. “People react negatively to poor treatment during the hiring process and are likely to view such poor treatment as a negative indicator of the organization’s culture,” said Morgeson.

Additionally, providing realistic information about a job’s negative features is likely to generate enhanced commitment, a set of realistic expectations and self-selection out of the applicant pool.

“Provide realistic job previews for candidates. Deflate their expectations a little bit. People will self-select out of the process if they hear the downsides of the job that they don’t want. And that works out well because, ultimately, you don’t want to bring those applicants into your organization anyway,” he said during his presentation in Boston. “This will yield lower turnover and higher retention once individuals start work.”

[See also: Recruitment costly for health systems]

3. Hire for fit. “It is essential to hire people who fit with the job (i.e., they possess the competencies needed to do the work), fit with their team (i.e., are able to take on whatever roles are needed within the team), and fit with the organization (i.e., have personal values that are consistent with the organization’s values),” said Morgeson.

4. Validate and standardize the hiring process. Standardized hiring processes are “key to an effective long-term hiring process,” Morgeson said. “You want every candidate to go through the same processes and be treated the same way.”

5. Attend to onboarding and socialization processes. Morgeson said that how people are brought into an organization is critical. “The first months on the job are crucial for setting expectations and making the new employee feel like part of the team. It is also the time that employees become socialized into the organization’s culture,” he said. “Having a formalized onboarding and socialization process helps ease the transition from new employee to experienced and productive employee.”

[See also: Hiring scramble prompts decisions that are quick, bad]