CLINICAL
diversify your portfolio
Hiring Staff
Does personality trump experience?
JEFFRY D. GERSON, O.D., F.A.A.O.
Most of us, at one time or another, have had the task of hiring staff. This “hunt” usually starts with an ad that contains the phrase “experience preferred” or “experience required.” Including this phrase makes sense; after all, hiring someone who has experience lessens the employer’s burden of getting him or her up and running in their place of business, right? Not necessarily.
Looking past the resume
A job candidate who has 10 years of experience may look great on paper and further corroborate their know-how during an interview, but did you ask “how” he or she was trained and the type of practices at which this person worked? If you didn’t and you hire this person, you may find that the way this new employee operates is different from how you want them to.
For example, if you are a very progressive practitioner with your equipment and the contact lenses or medical therapies you prescribe, this may be a completely different practice than the new employee may have experienced, rendering his or her experience in other optometry practices of little value.
The value of skill sets
Skill sets can be taught. With personality, however, “What you see is what you get.” For example, you can train someone to perform the technical tasks your office personnel completes, such as operating a lensometer or checking visual acuity, but it is much harder — if not impossible — to teach someone to have positive personality traits, such as diligence and friendliness.
Ever gone to a store and felt great about the experience you had with a sales person, wait staff or somebody else? That is how you want patients to feel when they leave your office, and that staff person doesn’t necessarily need medical experience to be able to do that.
For example, a job applicant who has a history of working as a receptionist in a bank or law office may be the perfect fit as a staff member at your practice.
It may be easy to fake experience in an interview, but true personality is likely to come through, especially by describing possible patient scenarios to see how the job candidate would handle them.
The better choice
So, before you hire that next employee, ask yourself whether it’s better to hire someone who has experience (some of which is likely to be great but also undesirable) or someone who mirrors your practice’s culture, but has little experience and will require training.
True, it takes time and, therefore, money to train a new employee, but this will likely be money well spent and pay dividends with not only happy doctors but also happy patients. Ready to change that job ad? OM
DR. GERSON PRACTICES AT GRIN EYECARE IN OLATHE, KAN. IT IS A FULL-SCOPE, COMBINED O.D./M.D. PRACTICE. E-MAIL HIM AT JGERSON@HOTMAIL.COM. TO COMMENT ON THIS ARTICLE, E-MAIL OPTOMETRICMANAGEMENT@GMAIL.COM.