Hiring new staff members is not one of my favorite things to do. Why? Because it costs money (lots of it), and if you make a wrong hiring choice you have lost time and more money for the organization. But recently because of growth we have found our practice in need of hiring two new assistants. So this means putting on my managers hat and really being prepared during the interview process to find good candidates.
During this hiring time I found a few really good candidates, which really made me happy. I wanted to share a couple of things that pleasantly surprised me during my interviews.
As my coworker and I were nearing the close of one interview I asked the candidate if she had any questions for us. She replied, “Why, yes I do.” Which was a pleasant surprise in itself as most candidates reply, “no” to that question. Her question was, “How will you track my training progress and how will I be informed of how I am doing?”
What a great question! She wanted to know how would she know if she is doing well at learning her new job tasks. To tell you the truth in 22 years of being a manager I have never been asked that. The process is usually discussed once a candidate has been hired. I told her that I was pleased with her question and wanted to know what made her ask it. She replied that she has had positions before and she never knew if she was meeting the job expectations or not until there was a 90 day review and sometimes that was too late and a decision was already made to be let go without any further training.
She felt that if she was to be learning new tasks that she should have regular check ins to make sure that she was doing them correctly and if not that she would be able to receive additional training to make sure that she is successful. I assured her that our organization gave daily input, reviews and continued training and that I did not believe in letting new hires figure it out on their own.
My next surprise was a couple of days later when I offered this young woman a job that before she gave me an answer she had a few more questions on training, expectations and job task duties. The one thing that really stood out to me was that she was interviewing me and our organization’s standards and protocols as much as we were interviewing her. She was not in a hurry even though she needed the job, she wanted to make sure that it was the right fit for her.
This was very impressive for someone who has not been out of school and in the workforce that long. She did accept our job offer and I am sure I will be learning a lot from this young woman as we onboard her to our medical practice.
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