While a broad spectrum of challenges are facing healthcare, hiring candidates with a persistent drive to get results affects every aspect of patient care and profitability. In our Core Competency series, we outline critical sets of behaviors that contribute to success in specific industries – and how to hire and develop them within your teams. Clearly work ethic and drive transcends all industries, but this article will focus on hiring people with a strong drive for success in healthcare.
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As the healthcare industry continues to move from a volume to a value-based reimbursement model, hiring people who are driven to reach your key performance indicators and make a meaningful difference is essential. With frontline employees, this may mean a dedication to providing service-oriented and efficient care that meets your expectations for patient wait times, while reducing mistakes in care and charting errors. For physicians and clinical staff, this could mean consistently communicating across care providers, providing clear direction and training, and enacting strategies to improve patient satisfaction, engagement, and loyalty.
Hiring and Assessing for Drive for Results
The behaviors and tasks that relate to a drive for results will vary depending on your business, goals, and model for care, but hiring for this competency allows you to build teams you can trust to perform. Because many healthcare organizations operate in multiple locations and employees often function with minimal supervision, strategic, intentional hiring practices ensure employees are hired to the same standards, build a consistent patient experience, and reduce risks.
Your ability to accurately identify candidates with the drive to aggressively set and achieve goals, lays the groundwork for consistently delivering quality care. Our work with healthcare organizations finds that top performers share a passion for providing care and achieving results. Traits linked to this drive include:
- Eagerness to derive a sense of meaning and purpose from work
- Passion for caring for patients and serving others
- Empathy and compassion
- Work ethic and tenacity
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Hiring assessments and structured interviews can measure these traits, resulting in teams who will power through obstacles, adapt to change, and be committed to helping you achieve a reputation for being best in class.
In our work within the healthcare industry, hiring for these traits has led to:
- 26% lower turnover in the first year of consistently using the assessments
- 15% lower labor costs
- 13 times greater supervisor ratings for dependability
- 12 times greater supervisor ratings for empathy, compassion, and hospitality
In addition to hiring people with the essential personality traits linked to driving results, identifying candidates with a connection to your unique culture and vision can increase the success of your hiring process. New hires, across levels and positions, will need the values, skills, and personality traits that are aligned with your operations and goals. As an example, if your organization is committed to communicating with patients more than the competition, then hiring people who also value this commitment, and have the personal traits and ability to execute on consistent communication, will go far in helping you reach this goal.
Hiring assessments can not only identify those with a drive for results, but also provide you with targeted interview questions and provide helpful evidence-based insights guiding you in supporting their success on the job.
Next steps for hiring teams driven to deliver quality care?
You can achieve the greatest results when you couple your hiring process with development and engagement strategies focused on building your intended results. Hiring results-driven people is the first step and should be combined with communicating and training to the same behaviors and standards that allow you to achieve your goals. In an upcoming blog we will talk about strategies for developing results-driven engagement and development initiatives.
Featured image photo by Nappy on Unsplash
