Opting for a Much Improved “Skill Assessment”

In my last blog post I posed the suggestion to do away with the traditional not-so-effective “Working Interview” that has become such an intricate segment of the hiring process within the dental profession. To reiterate my concerns, the structure for the day is generally non-existent with the job seeker coming in for the day or a few hours and is rarely given any guidelines as to where things are, little or no information on the operation and culture of the practice, no support materials to reference, and usually there is no one within the practice to answer their questions due to the fact that everyone is busy handling their personal assigned chores and duties.

Then there is always the issue regarding compensation.  How much is appropriate?  Must we pay them at all? Should we set them up as a hire, gathering all the necessary paperwork whether we hire them or not? And what about the fact that we are often exposing them to personal patient information (social security numbers, addresses, etc.).

My vast experience keeps telling me it is time for a change.  A change to safeguard these issues, along with giving us a much better picture of the candidate’s skill sets (or lack thereof) so that we have more substantial evidence in order to move forward and secure this hire or continue to search for additional candidates.

What I propose is to take an extra hour or two on a day without patients, perhaps a Friday if the office is closed, a weekend or even an evening if that is better. Having this event afterhours enables the doctor to pay close attention and observe the knowledge and ability of the job seeker. There is no need for concern over the confidential information that truly should not be shared at this point. With this planned extension of the hiring process, I recommend that you have a team member join you during this evaluation.  It would make the most sense to have your dental assistant present if you are seeking another assistant, your hygienist there to fill a hygiene position and someone from your business office if it is an administrative position.

You would pay the team member their regular hourly wage for the hour or two they are there, but you can also have your Employee Manual reflect this day and set a slightly different pay scale JUST for this particular segment of the process.  I’d much prefer that a current team member not only participate in this evaluation, but that THEY are paid for their time, in that this process should deliver much more valuable information than the old traditional “Working Interview”.

I would suggest that for whatever position you are looking to fill, you create a specific overview so that you are able to judge the ability they have for manual and hands-on dexterity, math skills, the writing and penmanship skills, as well as giving scenarios to assess how well they think on their feet and solve what could be difficult problems.

I encourage team involvement as much as possible when it comes to changing to new materials, new systems, new equipment and especially when it involves a new team hire.  Incorporating this additional step to the hiring process should not only assure you of a better chance for the right hire, it should also give you a much clearer picture of the capability of your candidate. Besides, I like the fact that your team member is not only involved in helping to make a more educated hiring decision, but that “they” will be the one to receive compensation for their time.  The evaluation is conducted during off hours and would be considered an extension of the hiring process so you are no longer at risk, nor is there any confusion regarding the job candidate’s compensation.

With this, I strongly recommend that you make sure to include reference (in writing) to a 30 day trial period so that you and the team are able to observe their interaction with all the team members, vendors and of course the patients.

Why not consider this new approach to hiring?  I’d be happy to guide those of you that might have additional questions.