What Is A Hiring Practice?
You want the best employee, and you know that the best hiring practices are the key to landing them….but what are those hiring practices? And how do you implement them?
We’re going to get into that. But before we do, let’s discuss a little bit about what a hiring practice is and is not…
You often hear these words thrown around together—hiring + practice. What do they mean?
I was reading this article on the best hiring practices from the Department of Health and Human Services. What really stood out to me is how complicated they made everything seem, and from my experience, that’s just not true…
If you’ve read a few blogs about hiring practices, they often make it more complicated than it actually is…
But here’s the secret…
It’s not as complicated as they make it out to be!
I’m going to break down what you actually need to know.
Let’s start with the hiring process that is commonly composed of three main categories.
The Planning Stage.
This is where all of the behind-the-scenes work occurs. This is composed of :
- Understanding how many vacancies, to potential vacancies, need to be filled.
- Compiling all of their respective positions, descriptions, responsibilities, and quantities.
- Setting objectives within this stage, such as the number of qualified candidates is that you are willing to interview, a deadline for applications, and the start date chosen for the potential new hire(s).
The Recruitment Stage.
During this stage, most front-facing work is done. Such as:
- Job postings are sent out.
- Applicants can be reviewed on a rolling basis until the application deadline.
- Job postings are being sponsored,
- Community outreach is occurring to ensure maximum exposure.
The Employee Selection Stage.
This stage can be considered one of the most self-explanatory. In this stage:
- Interviews are being scheduled and conducted.
- The entirety of applicants being considered and reviewed.
- Applicants that do not qualify or proceeded with are cut.
This stage ends with the hiring and onboarding of a newly hired employee.
The 5 Best Hiring Practices:
Trusting Your Gut
Have you ever been considering a position or decision, and you get a knot in your stomach telling you it’s not a good choice? You should trust that.
- Trust your gut when it comes to asking follow-up questions in an interview.
Use your checklist of questions as a guide instead of a rubric, and don’t shy away from branching off of it to ask questions that you want to know the answer to.
However, it is still important that you cover the mandatory questions that pertain to the position and company.
It is important to interview to determine one’s technical skills and abilities and emotional intelligence.
Remember To Be Human
It is important to remember that throughout our lives, we have all sat on the other side of the table.
Whether that is the new virtual table of applying and interviewing online or a physical one in a conference room, understanding the process from both sides gives the employer the ability to culture that connection and humanity in an interview.
Here are some questions to ask yourself to help be human when approaching an interview and hiring.
- How many companies did I never hear anything from, and how did that make me feel?
- Would I want to work for a company that doesn’t seem to care about me?
- How can we be transparent and honest with a new-hire?
Create A Consistent And Standardized Hiring Process
There is nothing harder than comparing two different interviewees when they have gone through two completely different hiring processes.
Although it is possible, this makes it difficult to eliminate bias to the best of your ability and see things objectively.
Let’s take an example of two potential hires that have gone through the interview process.
- Employee one’s application was reviewed and then had a preliminary phone interview. The employer then discussed the take-away’s from the phone interview with their hiring team before bringing them into an interview with the whole hiring team. After this, the hiring team discussed their opinions and thoughts on the potential candidate.
- Employee two’s application was reviewed and then had a preliminary phone interview. After a beneficial discussion, they brought them in for an interview with just the hiring manager that conducted the phone interview. They then compared this potential new hiring with other potential new hires that they had interviewed.
While either of these processes would be appropriate if it was the set standard, the issue develops due to two completely separate processes were conducted.
With employee one being considered by the hiring team and forming a decision based on a consensus and discussion, employee two is being considered based on an individual’s decisions and opinions.
Therefore, they had not gone through the same standard hiring process, which may lead to inconsistent decisions.
End Yes Or No Questions
When asking these questions on an application, you will likely get little to no elaboration unless this is provoked and asked for.
However, there are some instances where this is still applicable, such as asking if someone posses a certain form of certification.
You could ask it as a yes or no, or you could ask it in a stronger way. It would be a stronger question to ask if someone possesses that certification and how have they put it to use in their experience.
Small additions such as this can help learn more information about a question that you were going to already have to ask in the future.
As it pertains to the interview process, nothing ends the flow of a conversation faster than asking a yes or no question. An interview is supposed to be a conversation and not an interrogation. In order to maintain and keep
Ensure Your Job Description Lists All Responsibilities
The last thing that anyone wants when accepting a position is to start doing more than what was in their job description.
Although this may sound cliche, it can be very aggravating for an employee.
If you are considering that the applicant may assist with some things that are outside of their main responsibilities, ensure that these are still included in the job description. Otherwise, the employee may feel as if scope creeping is occurring.
Scope creeping is commonly explained as:
- When an individual is hired or contracted to conduct certain duties, and additional duties are assigned to them that are outside of their position’s responsibilities without further compensation.
If it is being asked of the potential employee to be transparent and honest about their expectations, then it would only be right for the employer to be equally transparent about the position and what it entails.
Doing this will ensure a positive working relationship that is both founded on trust but also a commitment to each other’s success.
Dental Hiring Best Practices
When moving towards hiring dental professionals, all the above that we have previously reviewed is still applicable. However, there are some more specifics regarding the dental field.
Specific Job Descriptions
We spoke about this concept before in our general best hiring practices; however, this is even more crucial when it comes to dental hiring. Within these job descriptions, it needs to:
- Be specific in what credentials are required.
- Be specific in what skills are required to perform the duties of the job.
- Assume nothing regarding someone’s ability and skill to perform a task.
No interviewer or interviewee wants to go through the entire hiring process only to realize near the end that they do not possess the necessary credentials.
You can view our full breakdown of how to write the best dental job descriptions here.
Remember The Basics, Phone Interview And Pre-Screen
We know how exciting it is to want to job right into an in-person interview and get the individual working, but hiring someone and bringing them into your company is a big deal.
It is important to conduct phone interviews first, if possible, about any important factors such as wage, mandatory certifications, or any other high-ranking factors to the position.
Respect Their Time, And Yours
If you schedule a time for an interview virtually, on the phone, or in person, it is expected that both the interviewer and interviewee arrive on time and prepared.
We all have busy lives, so it is important to stay within the time frame that you both have agreed upon for the interview. Is it scheduled to be a 20-minute initial phone call interview? Then there should be an aim not to go over that time frame and, if it does occur, to apologize respectively.
An employer showing up late to their own interview sets a negative standard and perception to the candidate of either disorganization or lack of respect for their time. Neither of these are beginning the relationship on a positive note.
Remember that the employer is interviewing the potential new hire as much as the new hire is interviewing the employer and company. First impressions are key.
Next Steps
Taking all of these into account, you will build a fantastic team, but how do you keep them? We know good employees are hard to find, and one’s that stay are even harder.
Luckily, we break that down for you too! You can see our five strategies for retaining your team!
If you’re still a little unsure and need some more tips, we have you covered there as well with our five tips for interviewing potential dental employees.
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