Finding employees in today's market can be a challenge. You may end up paying more for an employee so it's important to make sure it's the right fit. Ask current employees if they have friends that would be a good fit for your organization.
Dr. deb shares tips to hiring in an employee's marketplace. You want to be clear and keep your culture true.
Do not miss these highlights:
02:23 Have your core values, ideas, and where you want your company to go, be dialed in to bring on people that can help you grow and expand your business.
04:13 Enthusiasm and positivity attracts not only employees but also attracts clients.
05:46 You've got to stand out from the crowd, especially as we're in a competitive market - Have a competitive resume.
07:14 The best place to start spreading the word that you’re hiring - Referrals from your team.
08:55 Filter out people that you don't want to work for your company - Before you do that first interview, do some pre-work for yourself.
11:27 Creating a clear job posting is important to find the right person - Be clear - Know your marketplace.
14:25 Protect your culture - Be clear on what your hiring process is and follow it. Don't be afraid to fire quickly.
16:01 Don't play that game of where you're going to match their salary and hope it comes on the back end.
19:57 Retaining process is all about your onboarding process - Successful onboarding process ideas.
22:12 Don't be afraid to give your employees honest and constructive feedback.
22:55 Compensation - How to pay them competitively
Resources Mentioned
Join Us in the FMBI Mastermind Group on Facebook. You can find the Group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/5461914567153276/
Transcript of #27:
0:00
Welcome to FMBI podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Deb and today we're going to talk about all things hiring and firing. Yes, it's a challenging topic I know but it's so desperately needed right now. And I'm here to help you navigate through the weeds of exactly how to do this.
0:44
At FMBI we understand how it feels created by medical professionals for medical professionals, are you racing from one patient to the next, skipping lunch and not sure how you're going to show up to your kids events? Not quite sure what that p&l sheet really means to your practice? And are you struggling to find the right partners in your business? Our program is based on the values of efficiency organization and prioritization. The FM bi 15k a day program will help you discover how to run an efficient operation and introduce health generating therapies for more income. Our business roadmap will help you scale your functional medicine practice using proven business approaches. We would like to invite you today to book a free discovery call with our founder Dr. Deb, simply go to our website at functional mba.com/book-free-call and schedule your time today.
1:48
So welcome back, we're going to talk about how difficult is it to really find great employees these days, it is a challenge for sure. Half of this problem is solved by being a fantastic company. You want to live and breathe every day about your business. This will help you attract and retain team members. Now we're all aware of the employee shortage that's in our country today. We hear it on the news all day long. And it gets a little frustrating, I have to say. But when we're talking about recruiting and retaining, it's important now than ever before, to really have our process dialed in, to have our core values dialed in to have our idea of where we want our company to go and what we're doing to be dialed in so that we can bring on people that can help us grow and expand our business, not just bring on an employee that's going to be deadweight for you. Now, there are certainly different issues when we're dealing with a team of 50 versus a team of 1000. It isn't any easier when you're dealing with 50 or 1000 people to be a company that someone wants to work for means that you have a great company. When I meet with business owners who are not excited about their practice or their business, this already tells me we're in trouble with their core values, we're in trouble with their culture in their business. And if they have the potential for a new recruit, that person isn't going to be excited about working for them any more than this employer is excited to bring on a new employee. It really runs over into the potential recruit and creates a lot of turmoil and a lot of frustration for that recruit, they're going to feel like they wasted their time, they're going to feel like this isn't a business they can grow within. And they're going to be frustrated. You know, back in the day when I first started interviewing people. And now this was 20 plus years ago, I would explain so much about the practice and really focus on our struggles in the practice and not our threat, our strengths. I was so negative it was a wonder that anyone would want to work for me.
4:13
And you've got to you've got to recognize where you're spending that attention. You've got to wake up every morning enthusiastic to get to work excited about growing and learning new things. This is how we attract not only employees, but this is how we attract clients as well. And if everyday we're waking up to the negativity of our practice the negativity of not having enough clients not bringing in enough money having employees that don't show up or don't care. That's the message that we're gonna send off to other people, other team members, other clients, other colleagues, and they are not going to want to be around us because if all we're doing is focusing on the negative, we're never focusing on the good things that are happening to us. The people We're getting to heal the people we're getting to help, and all the positivity that happens within our business. And that can leave us in a pretty ugly state of affairs. And it can be very difficult for us to get out of that. Not only if that's what you're projecting out into the environment out into your work culture, that's what you're going to get back from your employees as well. They're going to feel like they don't need to be there that nobody cares, they're going to give poor quality care, they're going to answer your phone in a negative fashion. And they're going to totally think it's okay. And it's acceptable, because that's how you show up every day. And getting out of that mess is huge to turn your business around. Now, especially when we're in a competitive market, like we are right now, we've got to stand out from the crowd. We as employers, and we as employees. So if you're listening to this and you're looking for a job, you want to make sure that what you're putting out there is going to stand out when I'm perusing resumes, I want that first thing to really grab me. And if you don't have something that grabs me on to the next resume already. Also, if you have misspelled words, in your first couple of sentences, that's a turn off. The other thing to me that's a turn off is when people don't even take the time to write their cover letter to my business specifically. When you send me a resume that's already tailored to someone else's business, because you were too lazy to change it, it immediately goes in the garbage for me. So if you're out there looking for a position, these are just a couple of tips that will help you get your resume past that first look and review. And you can change it for each employer. And I would encourage you to change your resume for every single employer, find the things go to their website, look at their website, learn a little bit about the company before you apply. Don't just apply because you have to apply apply, because you might actually get hired, you might actually get offered that position. Now the second thing that I want to talk about finding employees is where do we start spreading the word that we're looking for a hire. I'm not talking about LinkedIn and face Facebook, or indeed I'm talking about within our own team, letting your own team know that you're growing, and say we're going to hire two to three providers. This year, we're going we need to have support staff, we need two or three support staff. And this is what that position is going to look like. Go to your tribe of people go to your clients reach out to them, let them know you're looking tired. It's okay to let your clients know that you're looking for fantastic people to come and serve them better. And there's nothing they'd rather do than refer friends or family to a place where they've had a fantastic quality experience that have treated them like VIP clients, they want to be part of that they will share your information. And they know a lot of people trust me more than probably what we know, and better quality clients than we can find on indeed or Facebook or LinkedIn even. Now the third thing I want to say for referrals from the team is this can get a little tricky because sometimes I think we overestimate the volume of people that we're going to need to come in for as referrals from our team. But the quality of people that you're going to get from these referrals from your team is going to be so good. It has to be a place where we're looking at high quality people that are going to strengthen our team and make us a better company. Now the best people to interview and filter out people that you don't want to work for your company. Make sure you're telling your your team that if they're referring people to you, friends or family, we want you to refer people that you want to work with every day that you think would be a great fit for the company. And before you do that first interview, you want to make sure you do some pre work for yourself. So look through the person's social media page. Do a little digging on this person asked some questions of the family and friend member that refer them if you can get to know a little bit about them. Our best team members are typically referrals from over the years. And I've done a lot of indeed hiring and no disgrace to indeed but it usually doesn't work out for me. The best success that I've had is with referrals or clients that I've worked with over the years that have now decided that they want to leave the big corporate medicine facilities and they want to work in a smaller office. So, if we can vet our employees before we get to them, it's that much better for us to have a successful hire. And you don't have to spend 1000s of dollars on recruiting people this way. Either you're dealing or pulling from your pool of people that you know, that you like, and you care about. And that's super important.
10:29
Now, we do ask all of our team members to help us keep crazy people out. Now, we've all had those crazy friends that need a job, right. And we're counting on our team to care enough about our company, that when their crazy friend needs a job, that they'll let us know, hey, they're really not a good fit. They're really not hard workers. They're really not into what we do here. They just need a paycheck. And so your team can help you find great people, and they can help avoid crazy, crazy people in your business is not going to work. People who don't show up that constantly have problems that just have a lot of things going on in their life. typically do not make good employees in a in a functional medicine practice. So it's really important to vet your people before you hire them.
11:26
Creating a clear job posting is important to finding the right person as well. Knowing your marketplace right now is so important. I've been in business for over 20 years, and I've never seen an employee employment market like we have today. The environment we're in today is crazy, right now. You can type into indeed your name, what you do, and whether you want to work in a particular location, or you want to work remotely. And I'm not exaggerating, you will see hundreds of positions that match that description. It is an employee's marketplace like never before, and companies are hiring faster than they have ever done. They're offering more money than they ever have before. And you've got to make that first impression of, of at least being clear as possible about what your company does, what you stand for, and what you need in that position. It will help you eliminate making poor hiring choices, if you can be extremely clear. Now when the job postings are passive. And you're just kind of hoping people find you and stumble upon this. But for small business owners out there, this is not going to be good for you, you're not getting a lot of applications, you're not getting a lot of people landing on your website and what you want to point to right now is that clear, concise job posting. Every business whether you're a single entrepreneur, or whether you're a larger team, every company has a sort of what I what I would call a natural organic flow of people that are interested in working with your company. It's typically smaller if you're a small company, but you want to get to those people, you want to know what that organic flow is. And you want to know whether or not it's more people than what you need or fewer people than what you need. So if you're a small practice, and you've got five team members, you may only add one person a year right now. And that's getting through enough applications without doing a lot of work to find that one person a year as long as you're working at it doesn't necessarily have to change your decision about finding that person or interviewing more people. It's about finding that quality team member that's going to bring you up in your your practice that's going to grow your practice, grow your client numbers and deliver high quality care. That is the ultimate goal of what we're looking for right now. I really like networking. I think networking is a great place to find providers. If you're looking to add new providers, reaching out to those that you know and Masterminds organizations or colleagues is key to finding that right person that's going to fit into your ecosystem.
14:24
Be clear on what your hiring process is and follow it. Don't create a hiring process and then you don't follow through with it. If you hire quickly, don't be afraid to fire quickly. Protect your culture, evaluate that new hire skill set from day one. Find it in the team to grow their skill set if they're lacking something. And if they're really good at something. Don't waste your time beating a dead horse on teaching them that skill set. You have to treat your employees at the same high level of standard that you want to deliver care as your clients. And you want that employee to deliver that care exactly the same way that you do with integrity, with high elevation of knowledge, and with a way to explain it to people so that they clearly understand what's going on. Now, if you're losing good candidates, because you're taking too long to decide on a candidate, this is a problem. And right now in this market, it's a bigger problem than what we've ever seen before. Now, for some positions, it may be worth losing that candidate, say you're looking for a CEO, you really want to take your time. And if that CEO takes another job, you just dodged a bullet. But if you're looking for somebody to clean the toilets, or answer your phone, or something like that, it should not be a six month hiring process. It should be a relatively shorter hiring process with a really great training process built in for them.
16:00
Now, right now, we're reading a lot about other companies and how they spend a lot of time in vetting their employees, but they're also paying their employees a ton of money right now. For instance, in my area, we have the Aurora health care system, which is a very huge conglomerate system, Frater, it is another big system. And they are offering salaries that are just beyond a small practices ability to compete with their salary, and there's a compensation package. So it makes it very hard for us to stand out and to attract those type of employees. But our job is to up our own game, it's not to compete with salaries that we can't compete with. And then we take a Profit Loss, that's not good for anybody. And the only person that loses is the owner in that practice, because the finances come from their salary. And over time, you'll become bitter and angry and a very miserable employer to work for, and you'll lose those employees anyway. So don't play that game, where you're going to match their salary and hope it comes on the back end. If you're going to match their salary, you better have a plan on the front end, to get that salary out of that person in some way or fashion in the practice by billing. Now, these large hospitals have learned a lot over the last couple of years, they've lost a lot of employees due to vaccine mandates. And now that they don't have a lot of employees coming back to work, and they didn't expect to lose as many as they did they're hiring these people back. And not only are they hiring them back, but they're hiring them with large sign on bonuses in some of these employees are willing to go back to work for that organization, despite their culture issues. And some are saying no, I'm done with that large conglomerate conglomerate, I don't like the culture, they would have fired me yesterday. They're hiring me today. And the person that standing next to me that didn't work for them before is getting a $20,000 sign on bonus, and I'm getting nothing to come back to work. So there are issues, but we don't want to go with those kinds of issues. We want to keep our culture as high as we possibly can with integrity, and with care and respect, not only for our employees, but also for our clients that we take care of as well. So this is a huge problem, especially as we're working into the millennials and the Gen z's. They are not going to be part of our culture. For 20 or 30 years, like our parents did go back in our parents and grandparents day, their goal was to find somebody to hire them. And then they would stay there for 20 to 30 years, they would collect a pension and they would be done with work. And that was their goal. today. It's not like that. Millennials and Gen Z's are always looking at the next rung in the ladder. Where can they climb that corporate ladder? Where can they make more money? How can they improve things? Where are they going? Am I going to get promoted across country? Am I going to stay here? Am I going to work from home? That is what's on their mind. That is not typically what's on our mind. So if you think that you're going to hire somebody that's going to stay with you for 20 years, think again, that's probably not going to happen. If it does, it's great, but most likely, it's not going to happen.
19:24
Now, what we do need to do is look at our company and say I am not here to compete with this large conglomerate. I can't compete with Rupa health, maybe I can't compete with the auroras and the freighter to the world. I can only continue to look at my business and level up each year each month with my business do the best that I can do next. take that next step and keep working at creating that value that we have in our practice. So retention is a huge thing. Oh Our retaining process is all about your onboarding process. And 20 years ago, when I on boarded a person it was, here's the phone, here's the computer, here's your login, be nice to the patient when they come in, and someone else will show you the ropes. And let me be honest with you, that does not work very well don't copy that kind of onboarding process. I assumed that when I hired people, they knew how to triage, they knew how to answer the phone, they knew how to be nice. But the reality is, they don't always know that and they don't know how to do it the way you want them to do it. So today, our onboarding process looks very different. It's a two day process of them, watching videos, learning things, hearing me talk about culture, why we do the things that we do, my staff trains them, they get immersed in everything that we do, if they're a provider, they work closely with each of my senior providers, including myself and one other person. And we will train them one on one. I also like to map out what our expectation for them is at the 30 day, 60 day and 90 day period, I want to know they've reached their landmarks, if they're struggling along the way, I want to know that. And I want to help them be successful. So I want to continue to level them up. When we do our review process, we actually prepare something for them. And we show them the things that they're doing great. And we show them the things that we'd like to improve upon. Now back in the day, my process was you're doing a great job, I have no concerns, here's your 3% Raise, see later, that doesn't encourage people at all, it doesn't make them stronger, it doesn't commit them to growth, it doesn't give them a reason to want to stay with you. So treating an employee like this means that you really don't know them, you don't know what they're doing, and you don't care. You just want them to go back to work and make you more money. And that is not the kind of relationship we want to have with our employees. I heard Dave Ramsey say to be unclear is to be unkind. And so the more clarity that your team has, the more they feel like you care about their growth as a person and as a team member, and they know where they stand with you. People want honest, candid feedback, including the critical feedback of what to do better. Sometimes they want that the most, how can I improve? They don't mind if it's difficult, and they don't mind if they're not there yet. But they do want to know, how will I know when I get there? And how do I know how far away I am from that. So don't be afraid to give them honest, constructive feedback.
22:55
Now, the last thing I want to talk about today is compensation. Because compensation is a big issue right now with inflation rising. And you can do a search in your area for a job that you're trying to fill. You can go to indeed or salary.com. And it will tell you what the broad salary range is. And this will give you the knowledge needed to be competitive in today's market. And I'll tell you salary ranges are not what they were two years ago. If you're not paying them competitively, you'll eventually lose them to somebody who will. So for small business owners and leaders out there listening that maybe can can't spend a ton more on hiring and recruiting. How can they still attract the talent that you need to have the impact that you want to have? Well, my best advice here would be to consider all the things we've just talked about. But even though it's what we would call an employee's market today, I don't want you to do these following mistakes. So don't make bad decisions because you feel like you can't win. Don't hire people that aren't a fit for your culture, or for your mission. Don't play the benefits game and offer to cut people's grass and let them bring in their pet to work and all these other crazy things that we can agree to. Don't lose the soul of who your company is trying to keep up with what everyone else out there is doing. And don't be so focused on profit that you put people last, be the company that you want to work for. And then you will attract that person. Don't lose your soul trying to chase a new graduate that's has unrealistic expectations of what the workplace ought to be. At the end of your career, you will have made yourself and your customers proud of the work that you've done and you'll look back and say it was good, it was worth it. So keep that integrity high Keep your plans high. That is what will make you win in the long run with hiring.
25:05
Thank you everybody. You've been listening to the FMBI podcast. I hope this has been helpful for you. Go out there and really grow your organization and grow your practice to be a legacy in the future. Your listening to the functional medicine business podcast, featuring Dr. Deb, one of the most creative functional medicine business practitioners in her industry. She shares the wisdom and knowledge that she has gained over 25 years of functional medicine, a pioneer in functional medicine, scheduling, leadership and Practice Management. Dr. Devin has a wealth of knowledge and he's eager to share to help functional medicine become more productive, and for the practitioners and patients to live better lives. Our podcast shares the good and the bad of our industry because Dr. Deb knows the pain you live every day building a functional medicine practice with practical tools of how to manage money, taxes and patient care. She will discuss it all with you