If talent is the Number One differentiator in the competitive healthcare arena that will either make or break your organization, recruiting top talent should be the mission imperative of every healthcare leader.
Successful recruitment doesn’t happen by chance or by delegation. It needs the attention and engagement of every senior leader in the organization.
Yet recruitment remains a stepchild to other seemingly more important operations.
Be forewarned. Unless an organization rocks and demonstrates that with a thoughtful interview process, talent won’t want to be there. Even so, most organizations dally around with nonexistent or ineffective hiring practices rather than hyperfocus on creating hiring practices that welcome Rockstars into the fold.
Here are some common deadly recruitment sins that need to be retired:
- Your organization lacks a codified understanding of its DNA against which to match candidates for fit.
- Candidate eligibility relies on non-predictive criteria, such as education or years of experience.
- Post and pray is the default recruitment strategy for attracting candidates.
- Irrelevant brainteasers (“If you were a tree, what tree would you be?) are allowed during the interview.
- Hiring decisions are based on interview skill rather than predictive activities such as a working interview or backdoor reference checking to determine who really rocks on the job.
- Hires are made from the gut, supporting affinity bias but not best practices in making a predictive hire.
- Vetting is rushed or steps are skipped.
- References are done too late, after fatal attraction has set in.
- There’s no well-designed onboarding process for the candidate’s first year.
The intentional resolve of hospital leadership to focus on culture, DNA definition, and predictive, supportive hiring practices will set a straight path for dramatically improved hiring success, removing the toll of slothful recruitment from the bottom line.
