Your company has a hiring need and is spending the time and resources to bring in a new employee or two. After a few weeks of publicizing the open position, the number of résumés received by your human resources team remains paltry. If you are encountering difficulty in finding enough quality candidates, maybe your job postings aren’t truly effective?

With that in mind, here are a few tips to help improve your company’s job postings.

Clear Job Titles are a Must

Clearly state the job title at the top of the job posting. Additionally, stay away from clichés like “Rock Star.” Healthcare workers looking for a job probably won’t use “rock star” in a search string.

Leverage Bullet Points to make your Posting easier to Read

If your job postings only include paragraphs, some potential candidates might simply skip them. Be sure to use bullet points with clear, quick-hitting phrases so a reader can see if the job is right for them at a quick glance. Highlight the job requirements, roles, and your company’s benefit package using bullet points.

On the other hand, don’t write the entire job posting using this style. A mix between bullets and paragraphs works best.

State “Must Have” Abilities

Be sure to state all the must have abilities in a bullet point in the job listing. Include the amount of necessary experience as well. This helps to narrow down the number of résumés from unqualified candidates.

Don’t forget the Graphics and Company Logo

HR industry statistics show that job postings with a company logo or other graphics receive around 20 percent more applications compared to postings with only text. Be sure to add your company logo to any job posting — online or print. Consider video as well for online postings; they boast a 34 percent higher application rate.

Use Search Keywords in your Post

Quality search keywords are a must for online job postings. Perform keyword research before authoring the job ad, and make sure you include them in the post. It is important to put yourself in the shoes of a job seeker and use any keywords they would search for.

If your organization needs additional help in finding the top healthcare industry talent, reach out to Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the nation’s top medical staffing agencies, we offer the vetted candidates able to make a difference for your firm. Schedule some time with us today!

Your company went through the hiring process, perused hundreds of résumés, interviewed the best candidates, and thought you made the right hiring decision. After a few months, your new employee doesn’t appear to be working out. Maybe it’s absenteeism, a bad attitude, poor performance, or some other issue?

Let’s take a closer look at the typical kinds of bad hires and what your organization can do to ensure it makes the right choice when interviewing for a new position.

Some Typical Poor New Employees

A myriad reasons factor into the poor performance of a new hire. Maybe the person feels their job is only a stepping-stone to a better position elsewhere? Some new hires arrive with their own prima donna complex, making them difficult to work with in the team environment vital in the healthcare industry.

Other bad hires exhibit different and disturbing sides of their personality your HR team never saw when interviewing them. These kinds of employees are simply bad for any medical organization. Other more inflexible workers won’t take any advice or suggestions to improve their performance.

The bottom line is poor hires are bad in any industry, but especially so in healthcare. There has to be a better way to spot them during interviewing before the hiring decision gets made.

Your company went through the hiring process, perused hundreds of résumés, interviewed the best candidates, and thought you made the right hiring decision. After a few months, your new employee doesn’t appear to be working out. Maybe it’s absenteeism, a bad attitude, poor performance, or some other issue?

Let’s take a closer look at the typical kinds of bad hires and what your organization can do to ensure it makes the right choice when interviewing for a new position.

Some Typical Poor New Employees

A myriad reasons factor into the poor performance of a new hire. Maybe the person feels their job is only a stepping-stone to a better position elsewhere? Some new hires arrive with their own prima donna complex, making them difficult to work with in the team environment vital in the healthcare industry.

Other bad hires exhibit different and disturbing sides of their personality your HR team never saw when interviewing them. These kinds of employees are simply bad for any medical organization. Other more inflexible workers won’t take any advice or suggestions to improve their performance.

The bottom line is poor hires are bad in any industry, but especially so in healthcare. There has to be a better way to spot them during interviewing before the hiring decision gets made.

Improving the Decision Process to filter out Bad Hires

Even when your company has an urgent need for a new employee, it is vital not to rush the hiring process. Make sure to dig deeply into the work history of every candidate. Check references and research their social media history to get a better reading on their potential performance on your team.

Make sure you look closely at the job responsibilities of your open position and question any candidate whether they performed similar duties in their career. This is another topic worthy of a deep discussion with their references. Don’t assume a candidate can do a task they’ve never done previously.

Personality inventories are a useful tool to truly find out what makes a candidate tick. Consider leveraging them during interviews and when the final decision arrives. Ultimately, you need to ensure the candidate is a good fit for the position no matter the urgent nature of your staffing need.

If your healthcare organization needs help in growing a top notch team, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. One of the top medical staffing agencies in the country, we provide the vetted candidates able to get the job done. Meet with us at your earliest convenience.

Improving the Decision Process to filter out Bad Hires

Even when your company has an urgent need for a new employee, it is vital not to rush the hiring process. Make sure to dig deeply into the work history of every candidate. Check references and research their social media history to get a better reading on their potential performance on your team.

Make sure you look closely at the job responsibilities of your open position and question any candidate whether they performed similar duties in their career. This is another topic worthy of a deep discussion with their references. Don’t assume a candidate can do a task they’ve never done previously.

Personality inventories are a useful tool to truly find out what makes a candidate tick. Consider leveraging them during interviews and when the final decision arrives. Ultimately, you need to ensure the candidate is a good fit for the position no matter the urgent nature of your staffing need.

If your healthcare organization needs help in growing a top notch team, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. One of the top medical staffing agencies in the country, we provide the vetted candidates able to get the job done. Meet with us at your earliest convenience.

Considering the cost of both the hiring process and onboarding new employees, it is vital to make the right decision when it comes to candidates in the medical industry. On the other hand, if your firm strongly feels it picked the right candidate in the first place, does any failure indicate a problem with training or management? The operational efficiency of any medical company depends on new employees quickly making a positive impact.

With trying to prevent this kind of mistake in mind, here are a few reasons why new medical employees fail unrelated to their own capabilities.

Recruitment didn’t match Needs of the Organization

In some cases, the hiring process moves too quickly, without enough communication between the team with the staffing need and the HR personnel responsible for placing the ad for an open position. The new employee arrives with a different set of abilities than what is needed by the company. Before the end of their probationary period, it is obvious a mismatch happened.

Poor (or Non-existent) Training Program

Inadequate training is another common reason for the failure of new employees. Medical organizations need training programs to be tailored for each position in the office. This includes valuable time spent on software applications and newer medical technology.

Encouraging your employees to become certified in the variety of technologies used in the office helps to mitigate any skills gap at your firm, while helping new hires come up to speed as quickly as possible.

Confusing Reporting Lines and Communication

Some new employees fail simply because the reporting lines at their company were unclear. A new worker trying to deal with different managers each focused on their own priorities becomes frustrated quickly. It is important to develop (and enforce) a clear management structure, and ensure new workers report to only one manager.

No Encouragement or Constructive Criticism

If, after a few weeks, a new employee is struggling to carry their weight around the office, they need to be encouraged and receive a measure of constructive criticism. Simply terminating a worker at this point wastes the entire hiring process to date. Once again, a training program is a vital aspect of any new employee’s probationary period.

If your company needs assistance building a top notch team, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top medical staffing agencies in the country, we offer the vetted candidates able to make a positive difference for your company. Speak with us at your earliest convenience.

Considering the increasing complexity of the medical industry — advancements in technology and patient care being two obvious examples — hospitals and doctors offices want nurses with a higher level of clinical expertise. Clinical ladder programs are helping nurses improve their skills by becoming more involved in aspects of healthcare normally reserved for those professionals in a leadership role.

These types of programs are a great way to improve the quality of care at your medical establishment. Let’s take a closer look at some ideas to make clinical ladder programs successful and how they help nurses — and their employers — advance the practice of healthcare.

Let your Nurses run Educational In-Service Programs

If any of your nurses recently received relevant training, have them host an in-service program where they present that material to the rest of your staff. The other nurses benefit from exposure to the content, while the presenting nurse gains additional experience in public speaking and preparing the course material.

Make it a point to hold these in-services regularly, while letting any interested nurse present their own topic of interest. This is great way to improve the overall knowledge base at your hospital or office.

Encourage your Staff to acquire Certifications

Achieving a national certification in a specialty helps a nurse’s career as well as the level of patient care your team provides. This also nicely ties into previous point about in-service programs. Encourage recently certified nurses to mentor their coworkers and host in-services so all your staff are also able to earn certifications.

Project Improvement Initiatives are a Plus

Continuous process improvement is a goal of nearly all companies in the business world. The medical industry should be no different. Create a quarterly project improvement initiative at your medical establishment and let your nursing staff play a key role in its development, implementation, and after the fact analysis.

Creating a clinical ladder program and leveraging these three ideas as part of the program helps your nurses do a better job, and more importantly, patient care improves as a result.

If your medical organization needs additional insight on building a winning team focused on quality patient care, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the nation’s top healthcare staffing agencies, we offer the vetted candidates able to contribute to your team. Schedule a meeting with us at your earliest convenience.

Patient care needs to be the prime focus of nearly all healthcare or medical organizations. Many hospitals, doctors’ offices, and urgent care facilities develop Safe Patient Handling programs (SPH) to facilitate the safe transportation of patients within a hospital or even as they are admitted and discharged. Your medical organization’s frontline workers need the right training and equipment to help ensure patient safety — as well as their own — whenever patients must be moved during their treatment.

Patient care and your own workers’ well-being benefit from a thorough safe patient handling program. With that in mind, here are a few tips for building a SPH program at your healthcare organization.

Start Off the Process with a Gap Analysis

Before determining what items need to be part of a SPH program, your organization needs to analyze the current patient handling situation compared to the ideal. This is called a Gap analysis, a widely used business planning tool, and it helps your team build a roadmap for how to develop and implement your own SPH procedures.

This Gap analysis identifies any weaknesses in your current approach, and when combined with input from your current staff, helps determine the steps to fix any issues as part of the new program.

The Right SPH Training and Equipment are a Must

Once you and your team develop the new SPH program, it is important for your staff to receive the right amount of training to ensure its proper implementation. Tailor training programs to the specific medical professionals involved with patient interaction. For example, a physical therapist has different training needs when compared to a nurse.

The right equipment needed for safe patient transportation and handling is another vital part of any SPH program. Once again, proper training programs on using this equipment need to be emphasized. Consider making a certification test on this equipment a part of your SPH program.

Proper development and implementation of a SPH program ensures patient safety remains paramount at your medical organization. Additionally, your own employees’ safety also benefits from the use of SPH procedures.

If your healthcare company needs additional insight or a supply of excellent candidates, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the nation’s top medical staffing agencies, we can help ensure your overall success. Schedule a meeting with us at your earliest convenience.

If you are looking for a new job in the healthcare industry, it is important to understand what attributes your potential employers want in their staff. Possessing these desired traits gives you a better shot at earning an interview, and hopefully a job offer down the road. Knowing what employers want gives you a chance to further develop those nursing skills currently in demand.

With that in mind, here is a look at some of the top nursing skills the healthcare industry needs.

All Nurses must be Empathic

Empathy is arguably the most important trait for any nurse — actually anyone in the healthcare industry needs to be empathic. Patient care is the raison d’être for the entire world of medicine, so being able to honestly show understanding and concern for the condition, needs, and moods of each patient is vital. Make it a point to stress your caring nature on your résum24é, cover letter, and during each interview in the hiring process.

Technical Skills are in Demand in the Healthcare Industry

The technology advancements in the healthcare industry continue unabated. Because of this, employers want nurses who fully understand computers and the advanced equipment currently used in hospitals. Additionally, the growth in electronic medical records usage in the industry also makes the need more acute for nurses possessing strong technical ability.

As Every Day in a Hospital is Different, Adaptability is a Must

Hospitals and healthcare companies want to employ nurses who are adaptable and are able to think on their feet. It is difficult to predict what may happen during any day in the healthcare industry, so nurses who are able to roll with the changes remain highly in demand. Take whatever steps you need to become a more adaptable person — in both your work life and your personal life. Flexibility is an important attribute!

If you want additional advice on the hiring process in the medical industry, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce.

We are one of the nation’s leading healthcare staffing agencies, so we can help place you in the nursing position of your dreams. Schedule some time with us as soon as you can!

The competition for the top talent in the healthcare industry sometimes gets fierce, but does that mean your company should consider hiring someone fired from another company? Dismissing a worthy candidate out of hand because they were fired or laid-off from a previous job isn’t smart without looking more closely at the situation. The person in question might have been an exemplary employee stuck working in an untenable position.

With that in mind, here is a look at three reasons you should consider hiring someone who’s previously been fired.

The Candidate offers a Skill Set needed by your Company

A skills gap at any firm operating in the medical industry doesn’t bode well for its future profitability. If a candidate with a state of the art skill set had been fired previously in their career, find out the reasons behind their dismissal. Remember that a personality conflict with management leads to many employees receiving a pink slip.

Ultimately, this candidate might become a difference maker for your company. The smart call is to give them a chance to prove it.

They’ve learned a Lesson after being Fired Early in their Career

Look at a candidate’s complete work history. Someone fired early in their career, but with a subsequent success at other firms, probably learned a lesson from being dismissed. Once again, it is important to find out the truth behind any firing or adverse event on a résumé. Checking their references in this case makes perfect sense.

Your Company boasts a Superior Corporate Culture

If your organization’s corporate culture is the envy of the other healthcare companies in your area, chances are good you’ll be able to support an employee with great skills who was fired from a previous job. If you trust your HR staff and managers along with your company’s procedures already in place, this candidate will be able to thrive and become a valuable member of your team.

If your company needs any additional insight on building a winning staff, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top staffing agencies in the American healthcare industry, we can help your organization’s ultimate success. Schedule a meeting with us at your earliest convenience.

This basic fact still holds true — the job interview gives your company the best chance of truly evaluating candidates before extending an offer to those who make the best fit for your company. The healthcare industry provides no exception to this rule; your HR staff and managers need to be well-honed on the proper interviewing techniques. Making a mistake in this part of the hiring process can cost your firm in the long run.

With the hope of hiring top candidates that grow into valuable employees, let’s take a look at a few ideas on how to interview medical assistants.

The Interview Questions must relate to the Work Performed at your Office

Work with the managerial staff at your office to create a script of interview questions that match the type of work your office performs on a daily basis. While the candidate’s résumé probably mentions whether or not they are certified as a medical assistant, it makes sense to delve deeper into their actual work experience. Certifications add a measure of trust the candidate would make a skilled addition to your team, but your interview questions need to find out more about the candidate.

What is the candidate’s comfort level with computers and technology, which are vital skills for the 21st Century medical office? Is the person experienced in working with medical records software like Medent? Have they held responsibility for medical billing or even medical transcription earlier in their career?

Check into their experience with HIPPA regulations. If there is OSHA training listed on their résumé, find out more about how they’ve used those skills at their other jobs.

Are they Empathic and a Good Cultural Fit?

Empathy is vital trait for anyone working in the medical industry. Frame a few questions to find out the candidate’s feeling towards patient care. Finally, probe into whether or not the person makes a good cultural fit at your office. This is especially important if you want to build a winning staff with minimal turnover.

Pay close attention to the candidate’s comfort level when answering these questions. Do they seem honest and forthright, or are they struggling to explain their role with any previous employers? Get the interview team together, allowing everyone to share their opinion on who deserves an offer of employment.

If you need any additional insight on interviewing medical professionals, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce.

As one of the country’s leading healthcare staffing agencies, we can help your company succeed. Schedule a meeting with us at your earliest convenience.

If you currently enjoy the lifestyle of a traveling healthcare professional, interviews tend to be a regular part of your career, considering its freelance and contract-based nature. Most assignments generally cover a few months at the most, so expect to interview for a new assignment a few times a year. Naturally, many of these interviews take place over the phone or even on video chat services like Skype.

Here are a few tips for making sure you are ready for the typical set of questions used in healthcare position phone interviews.

Employers are looking for a Cultural Fit from their Traveling Professionals

Of course, healthcare companies want to know your professional abilities are top notch and a portion of any interview will focus on your educational background — and more importantly, your work history. These firms also understand that temporary or traveling employees generally offer exemplary work skills, as one wouldn’t last long as a traveling healthcare professional if they consistently performed poorly.

Healthcare employers need to know that you will make a good cultural fit on their team and be able to hit the ground running on your first day. With that in mind, expect them to tailor questions during a phone interview to better get a feel for your personality and how you’ll fit in at their office.

Typical Questions to determine the Cultural Fit of a Healthcare Employee

Expect any interview questions to determine your personality or cultural fit to probe about your inspiration beyond a professional life — hobbies, favorite books, music, or movies, etc. Questions about any charitable work and community service you provide are also good bets. Considering the importance of empathy in the healthcare industry, there will probably a question or two on that subject.

Ultimately, make sure you take each interview seriously as far as any prep work; phone interviews are as important as the in-person version. Research the company in question and be sure to ask some meaningful questions of your own.

If you need additional advice on interview preparation for traveling healthcare professionals, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top medical staffing agencies in the country, we can make a difference for your career. Meet with us at your earliest convenience.

Anyone in a managerial or leadership role in business needs to be constantly questioning — themselves, their direct reports, maybe even the executives that manage the manager. Any answers to the most meaningful questions offer hope to significantly transform the organization or team in a positive manner. With that in mind, here is a look at five leadership questions every manager needs to learn.

How do you analyze Both Internal and External Environments?

You need to spend time analyzing both the environment inside your office in addition to the external marketplace where your company competes. Focusing too much on either area gives short shrift to the other. A successful company fully understands the inner workings of the office as well as its business sector — local or otherwise.

Are your Employees receiving All the Training needed for Success?

After doing the appropriate internal analysis of your team’s abilities, question whether or not your company’s training programs are up to snuff. A significant investment in employee development programs remains a hallmark of the top companies, especially in the healthcare industry.

Does your Company have the Plans to achieve its Strategic Goals?

Sure, having a set of worthwhile goals for your company is one thing, but do you also place enough emphasis on planning to achieve those goals? Make sure to spend significant developing both the strategies and tactics to allow your firm reach those goals and beyond.

Do you accurately measure your Company’s Operational Efficiency?

All the planning in the world won’t help if your company can’t execute the plan. Make sure you put the right metrics in place to measure your firm’s operational efficiency, and pay attention to what those statistics tell you.

Does your Company boast a Positive Corporate Culture?

If your firm is finding it difficult to hire and retain the top medical industry talent, maybe there is an issue with your company culture? These cultural issues need to be part of any analysis of your internal office workings.

If your organization needs any additional advice on growing a top notch medical company, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top staffing agencies in the healthcare industry, we offer the business insight and vetted candidates to help ensure your firm’s success. Schedule a meeting with us today!