Thursday, August 20, 2020

6 Steps to Hiring Your Forever Team


Are you ready to create a team that is going to work hard and stick around for the long haul? Do you want to work with dynamic, hardworking people every day? Have you reevaluated your hiring and retention processes lately? These processes might just be the key to your “dream team”!

If you answered yes to any or all of these questions, it may be time to sit down and revamp how you hire to get the most optimal team together for your company.  Let us help you find your FOREVER team with these 6 considerations!


 1)     Establish Team Structure & Company Culture 

When it comes to hiring your forever team, having company culture and a team structure in place are crucial.  An established team structure ensures there is a hierarchy in place and minimalizes unnecessary problems like power struggles and chain of command confusion.  The team structure also guarantees a cohesive workflow amongst team members where everyone understands their roles and responsibilities.[1] 

Company culture is important for establishing a forever team because it ensures everyone’s core values are inline not only with one another, but with the company as well.  The company culture sets the tone for respect, office norms, and expectations in the workplace.  Key steps to establishing company culture are:

1-     Define or Re-define your company’s mission statement and core values

2-     Understand and embrace diversity

3-     Show care for employees

4-     Consistency in practices

For more tips and explanations on establishing company culture, please check out REVEX’s blog, 5 Ways to Revamp Communication in Your Workplace!


2)     Consider Outsourcing and In-house Options

It is important to contemplate all options when you are beginning to expand your team.  This means considering hiring a third-party company for either staffing your new team or to take on the tasks of the position you need fulfilled.[5]  You must also consider in-house options such as promoting employees to fill positions or combining/distributing the tasks of the position you need filled amongst employees already in the company.[5]   

When it comes to outsourcing, you must consider utilizing a staffing agency depending on the position you need filled.  If you have a position that is high-turnover, this may be a feasible option so your valuable time is not spent on interviews for a position you know you will just continue to refill in the future.  However, high turnover positions are not great for a company when it comes to return on investment, so putting in effort to invest in a long-term employee is well worth it.  Stay tuned for our blog next week on lowering employee turnover where we will expand on this topic!

Outsourcing a third-party company may also be valuable to fill a position due to labor costs, efficiency, and expertise.  For example, if you were to outsource your medical billing needs, rather than hire an on-site biller, you could save money on labor, benefits, turnover, and human error.  Outsourced companies, like REVEX, often have experts on hand and automate many of their processes to lower the room for errors.  There is also opportunity to save money on PTO, benefits, workman’s comp, and so on because the third-party company is managing its own employees.  Check out our blog, In-House or Out-House? …I Mean, Outsource!, for more benefits on both hiring in-house and outsourcing!

 

3)     Establish A Hiring Process

The structure behind a company’s hiring process can make or break how well the hiring committee can read a candidate’s potential fit into a company.  A multi-step interview process that fosters a high-touch rapport, dynamic questions, and multiple people on the hiring committee has proven to be very successful when it comes to hiring a forever employee.[3]

For example, Pro Athlete Inc., is an ecommerce company which sells baseball gear online, with only around 50 or so employees, they compete with big names in the sporting goods industry.  Pro Athlete Inc. employs a 10-step interview process which includes an aptitude test, video interview submission, video-conference interview, in-person interviews, task challenge, hiring committee meeting, and more.  They do this to ensure they get a well-rounded understanding of the person.  With so many different methods of communicating with their candidates, Pro Athlete Inc. makes certain they can recognize the candidates strengths incase they communicate more effectively through various methods.  This is an extremely thorough hiring process and because of it, Pro Athlete Inc. has an extremely low turnover rate and is incredibly competitive in the labor market.

As I was researching the hiring process and best ways to find the optimal employee for a position, there was one point that popped up no matter what article I read.  HIRE FOR ATTITUDE, CHEMISTRY, & POTENTIONAL OVER APTITUDE.[2]  Obviously, some job position are going to require a certain level of knowledge or training, but for the most part, if a person meets the basic requirements, their attitude, chemistry, and potential are going to carry them much further than someone who exceeds the requirements but is not a good personality fit.  An employee who can be a team player, communicate effectively and be coached is extremely valuable to the growth of a company.

There are also some other small things that may help you to get better insight into candidates during interviews such as assigning them a job-related task, asking very open-ended questions, and asking about their passion.  Sometimes questions not directly related to the job position can give understanding to the thought process of the candidate in a more veiled manner.[4]


4)     Know What You Want

Flexibility in the hiring process is a must because as you meet candidates, they may express qualities you find valuable that were not necessarily on your “must-haves” list.  However, it is necessary to understand what you want out of a new employee.  If you have specific qualifications such as experience, education, and characteristics then have a checklist of important qualities as well as deal-breakers.[5]  This will help you to not forget some key elements that may get lost in the interview process, help you keep your candidates straight, and also help you to prioritize what you are looking for in a candidate.  Priorities are important when hiring because you will have different applicants with differing qualities and you need to know which are most important to your team.  You can’t just go into the interview all Willy-Nilly!


5)     Be Fair & Maintain Consistency

Be fair in the job description you are posting.  Many times, employers will try to mislead employees with a job description because they are having are hard time hiring for that position and want it to seem more appealing to applicants.[2]  Although they will get a higher turnout, they will also have higher turnover because the individual hired was misled into a position they did not want.  This also diminishes trust in the employer immediately.

Be sure to post an accurate job description, even though some duties may not seem favorable, in the long run the employee will know what they are getting into from the beginning.[2]  Also, be sure to answer any questions as honest as possible because sugar-coating things will eventually come to light and build frustration within the hired candidate as well. 

Consistency is also important when it comes to the interview and hiring process.  Be sure to maintain the same behavior and attitude in the interview as you do in the office.  The more transparency and consistency present on your end, the more you will see consistencies and discrepancies in the candidate’s behavior as well.  If you are making formal phone calls to follow up with candidates, but sending informal emails, and then a mix of both for in-person interviews, this will confuse the applicant on how to conduct themselves.  They will then be confused on the atmosphere of the office before they even make it into the company.


6)     Transition, Transition, Transition

Transitioning your new employee can make or break their success in their new position.  If there is not a smooth transition, the employee may not ever be fully confident nor comfortable in the workplace.  A smooth transition into a new job entails the supervisor giving them a proper introduction to their coworkers and others in the office.  This will set the tone for their interaction with colleagues for the foreseeable future.  Try to make introductions personal or one-on-one rather than bringing the new employee in front of a large group.  This will help them to remember names and connect personally rather than feel the pressure of an “audience”.[2]

Training is also crucial to transitioning a new employee.  A proper training program is well organized, efficient, and makes the employee comfortable asking questions and for help.  When an employee must constantly second-guess their work and what is expected of them, they are much less likely to stay in a job.  Make sure processes and expectations are clear.  We highly recommend a training manual the employee can take notes in and refer to for help.

 

In conclusion, creating your forever team is a process which does not simply rely on just a good interview and decision, it is an active and lasting effort that must be nurtured through the search, hiring, and retention of employees.  You cannot simply hire a great employee and expect them to stay forever without lasting support from you and your company.

 

Also, don’t forget to subscribe for email updates on the left-hand side of this article!

Thanks so much for reading!



Dani Barry 
Marketing Manager 
REVEX


REVEX is a Medical Billing Service & Software Company serving the Healthcare Industry. 

(Specifically, Skilled Nursing Facilities)

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[1] Dyck, B. (2017, September 18). How To Hire Your 'Forever' Team. Retrieved August 20, 2020, from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2017/09/18/how-to-hire-your-forever-team/#375cf5b01e67

[2] How to Attract Candidates Who Will Become Long-Term Employees: Part II. (2019, October 21). Retrieved August 20, 2020, from https://www.celarity.com/blog/how-to-attract-long-term-employees-part-2/

[3] Ternynck, J. (2014, September 29). Hire for the Long Haul: 6 Tips to Find Candidates Who Will Stay. Retrieved August 20, 2020, from https://www.inc.com/jerome-ternynck/hire-for-the-long-haul-6-tips-to-find-candidates-who-will-stay.html

[4] Wofford, M. (n.d.). Tips to hire employees who'll stay longer, complain less, produce more. Retrieved August 20, 2020, from https://www.reliableplant.com/Read/7231/hire-employees-produce

[5] Zipkin, N. (2019, April 23). Use These Steps to Hire the Best Team Every Time. Retrieved August 20, 2020, from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/332606

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