This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
8 Effective Hiring Questions
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
Technical skills and job experience are important considerations when you're interviewing for new staff, but as a colleague once said to me, "You can't train for 'nice.'" In other words, there are some characteristics a candidate either has or doesn’t. Determining these entails you to go beyond simply asking about key tasks on the job description.
Here are eight questions that can help you understand a candidate's grit, curiosity, problem solving and comfort with failure.
1. What can you tell me about our practice/organization?
This is a good, general opening question and the answers give you a lot of insight. First, you'll quickly learn if the candidate did any research before showing up for the interview, indicating preparation and curiosity. Second, you'll get a sense of the candidate's honesty and integrity. If they try to pretend they've read about you, but haven't, you'll see right through their answers. And third, assuming they do know a bit about your practice, this question is a conversation starter. Most people appreciate being asked their opinion and telling you what they know.
2. Our office doesn't have a formal software training program. Give me some examples of how you've successfully taught yourself a practice management system or electronic health record in another job.
These two technologies are ubiquitous in physician offices and essential to employee productivity. As few practices provide formal software training to new employees, your new hires are going to sink or swim when it comes to using software. Responses to this question will give insight into whether a candidate has the skills to swim or whether they will require additional training.
3. If I asked your last boss which three adjectives describe you best, what would he or she say?
Getting the candidate to move out of first person and into the mind of their previous boss provides an interesting perspective. The candor of responses may surprise you. After providing adjectives their boss would use, ask how their coworkers would describe them.
4. Tell me about a project that frustrated you. How did you persevere and what was the outcome?
In any role, there are ups and downs when it comes to workload, projects and coworker interactions. That's just life. What's important is how a person handles it. Responses to this question can indicate a person's grit. Will they endure until they succeed or will they quit? Will they pivot the issue to something that can be solved? Will they confront the issues and prevail? Listen for these results in candidate responses.
5. Explain your process for prioritizing and managing your workload.
Effective prioritization skills are essential. You'll learn a lot by hearing which tasks or projects a candidate chooses to tackle first. For example, if it's reviewing the A/R report, identifying the highest balances in the 60-day old column and contacting payors to find out what they aren't paid — that's a positive sign.
A follow-up question is asking what the candidate does when his or her to-do list gets out of control. Understanding how people "manage the pile" gives insight about their ability to deal with stress and overwhelming situations.
6. Tell me about a time when you identified an issue and came up with a way to solve it or do it better, or when you succeeded at something by not following the rules.
This one identifies the candidates who are bold enough to spot a problem and do something about it. As examples are explained, ask for details about how the change or improvement was implemented. Millennials, in particular, will like this question. Generally, they seek different and more efficient ways of doing things, which often leads to them changing habits or solving problems in a way that doesn't follow traditional rules. This can lead to fresh ways of thinking in the practice.
7. What have you tried, in a job or any other part of life, that didn't work out? What did you learn?
The response to this question can provide insight into how comfortable people are when they fail or take a wrong turn. Effective people know how to take corrective action after making a mistake, then emerge from a misstep a bit wiser and stronger. Pay particular attention to candidates’ body language as they describe their experience, as well as what they learned.
8. What do you like to do for fun?
This a lighter question you might ask at the end of the interview, and it's one that the candidate can't get "wrong." You'll often see their body posture or facial muscles relax as they tell you about their interests or the things they are passionate about. Why is this important? In the end, you are hiring a person with whom you will work day after day, week after week. Understanding the candidate's "human-ness” can help you assess whether he or she would be a good fit with the rest of the practice team.
Cheryl Toth, MBA, is the director of marketing for KarenZupko & Associates Inc., a consulting and education firm that has advised physicians to succeed for more than 30 years. Based in Tucson, Arizona, she is a former consultant for the firm.