I’m a fan of making things simple and when I read the e-Myth by Michael Gerber, I knew I had found the answer to my problems. Systematise everything so anyone can follow the process and you’ll have a business that can hardly go wrong.

And I will admit this all sounds very good. The best thing a process driven role can do is to map out the processes. If you can eliminate error by having a clear roadmap, you should.

But that is just the process. There is so much more to a business. And you can’t “process map” customer service, marketing, relationship management and sales.

Sure, you can outline the steps, the imperatives and some suggestions of what to do when things go wrong, how to escalate an issue but how to you map the interaction?

The point is you can’t. People are people and they are your biggest problem and also your biggest opportunity. People are your biggest asset or your biggest liability.

The best thing a professional firm can do is outline the guidelines/frameworks for key processes and then train, develop, coach people in their use.

Using recruitment as an example. You can outline all the steps, tools, time frames, but you will get a variation of commitment depending on who is leading the recruitment process. If that person has a laissez-faire attitude, the process will be that way too. If the person is passionate about finding the right person, the process will seem vastly different

The Solution

The solution to all this is in fact, relatively easy: get the right people doing the right things that will add value to your business. That’s it. Get the right people doing the right things. Don’t put a technical person in charge of people management. When I joined an engineering firm I ended up reporting to the Chief Financial Officer. Great, put people management in the hands of a bean counter!

So …

Have the right people lead the recruitment process.

Have the right person lead the charge on customer service.

And have the right person leading these people (i.e. you! )

Is Michael Gerber Really Wrong?

Yes and no. Mapping out processes is vital. You must do it. But don’t over do it. Allow your team to bring themselves to work and be the difference you need in the industry.

If one of the biggest challenges of being in business is about defining a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)? How will you do that if you over process everything and be “just like the others”.

If you lose the ability to be different, then why should any client choose you over another?

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:

1. they are likely under enough pressure just being interviewed
2. 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.

• I don’t want to live pay check to pay check

It may be be more:

• I have enough money to pay all my bills and keep some for saving

1. Wife/Spouse
2. Children
3. Friends
4. Finances
5. Investments
6. Health and wellness
7. Work/profession

If I can answer the question “How are you doing?” with “Very well!” when asked about these areas, then, within my world, I’m doing okay!

(Ask me about my fitness tomorrow after a 14k run I signed up for! )

A Caution and two VIPs (Very Important Points!)

Okay this is important. What is being measured is important but we need to be accountable (hence the network and fan club) but there is another very important point to be made here. Who are we doing this for?

Caution - If you are living very well for others then your measures are going to be defined by others. And that just isn’t going to work. The measures must be set by you … for you. Not to be selfish and self absorbed (we’ll talk about that later) but simply so you can enjoy life and as a result others will benefit. As I said there will be more on that later (as in another post).

Two Very Important Points we need to finish on today:

VIP1 – the question (how are you doing in an area) should be asked often!

VIP2 – the “asker” should be you … asking yourself and set against the picture you want in that area.

1. The picture – what does “very well” look like to you?
2. The skills – what do you need to be able to actually do? Do you do your job “very well”? Do you handle stress “very well”? Can you relax when it’s time to relax “very well”?
3. The resources – no man is an island. You may want to but you can’t do this on your own.
4. The tools – what tools do you have and use well, use poorly, or don’t have that you need.
5. The network - who do you know. Even with technology and the web where anyone can get on line in 5 minutes, the successful ones are all part of a network. How big and effective is yours.
6. The fan club – these are those people who just love you for being you. They want you to try and will support you when maybe no-one else will (spouses, kids, long term friends, people who see something in you that they believe needs to be fanned into a flame)

1. Rate each item above out of 10 (10 means you have everything you need, 1 means you have zero)
2. Depending on the score, brainstorm (quickly write down) what you believe is currently missing at each point
3. Lastly, write down initial thoughts on where/how you might be able to fill the gap.

For now, just keep the list and allow your mind to dwell on it a little. As things come to mind have a notepad handy to write down the ideas and thoughts. You’re not trying to do anything at the moment, you’re just trying to get ideas.

Next time we’ll look at Point 1 – The picture of what you want and we’ll discuss how we can make that picture more vivid, more achievable and begin to take steps to make it happen.

What you can do now is begin to list those in the “fan club” and how they might be able to help.