Last time I looked at the importance of hiring a great receptionist or front office manager. How they are the face of the business and often the first impression of you! But once you have the candidate list how do you know which one is the right one?
As a health professional it’s not your background to be a great recruiter. However, if you know something about people and you know how you want your clients to be treated you are in a great position to know who to hire.
Things to keep in mind as you interview candidates:
- eventually this person will be running the admin side of your office
- this person is the face of the business
- you want them to be in sync with how you want the business to progress (I like the analogy of Radar from M*A*S*H)
So the above 3 factors infer the following personal qualities:
- maturity (honesty, trust)
- attention to detail
- interested in people
- support for you
- wants to see the business grow (as opposed to “just a job to pay the bills!”)
Looking through the resumes you will begin to see these things coming to light: where they have worked, what roles they have worked in, who they may have reported to.
Perhaps you can now see that the more detail you put in up front will help you choose who to talk to.
Phone Screening
Once you have narrowed the list down to 3 – 7, it is a great time saver and good practice to call them all and have a 5 – 10 minute talk on the phone. Some people think a call is unnecessary but you get a good perspective from the phone call as to how the person will work. What is their phone manner? How do they sound on the phone?
Remember, as a receptionist, this is a large part of their job. Do you enjoy the call yourself? Put yourself in your clients shoes for a moment and determine whether this is what you want them to hear.
Simple questions to ask are why they want the job, how they think they can add value to the business, if successful, when could they start?
Once you have selected the best 3 from the phone screening, invite them for an interview.
Interview Style
Some people like to put interviewees under pressure when talking with them. I suggest you don’t do that. For two reasons:
- they are likely under enough pressure just being interviewed
- you need them relaxed as much as possible to fully answer your questions to help you select the right candidate.
Offer them a glass of water, give them time to gather their thoughts. One professional I know of takes them on a tour of the facilities prior to beginning to give each person a chance for some light conversation.
Question Styles
The style of questioning is also important once you start the interview. There is a style called Behavioural Description Interviewing (or, BDI) which is based on asking people to talk about their experiences. Rather than asking what they think they might do in a situation, you ask them what they have done. The assumption being what they have done in the past they will do again. If what they do is good, they will repeat it when working for you.
For example asking someone how they have dealt with customer conflict might be a good question as it will indicate how they deal with difficult situations at work. If they can easily talk about a good example from their recent past, it is likely that is how they will deal with a difficult situation working for you.
I have included some questions on the Recruitment page.
How Many Questions Should I Ask?
Of course it depends but you need to be comfortable with the responses. I suggest 2 questions per area of interest. One as a back up if you think the person has missed the point and may need a follow up question.
What is important for you is that you are comfortable that each person answers the questions as well as they can. Then you can get a good feel for who is the best candidate.
Allow plenty of time for the interview so that neither you or the candidate are rushed. That won’t benefit you in the long run.
Scoring?
It is also useful to score each candidate on each question. Nothing scientific, just a scale of 5 will do. 5 being a great answer, 1 meaning they missed the point of the question or just didn’t give you confidence.
Scoring adds a great benefit to the selection process. It will support your gut feel most of the time. And where 2 or 3 candidates score closely, it will help you decide who to choose. It won’t always be to the one with the highest score. It may in fact help you decide on another candidate but force to you to justify why.
Check the Recruitment page for a simple scoring sheet.
Okay that’s a lot to cover but at the end of the day, the new receptionist should be your right hand person, the person you and the office depend upon to make the business run smoother. It is very worthwhile taking the time to find the best candidate.
