Sometimes there is no way to avoid bad news that impacts your company and your staff. No matter the nature of the information, it is important to share it as soon as possible with your employees. How you go about doing it ultimately affects your organization’s ability to properly react and recovery.

Let’s take a look at some ideas on the right way to share bad news with the team at your office.

Never Delay the Delivery of Bad News

It is important not to put off the delivery of bad news. Maybe you think things will improve or the situation will simply go away? Don’t fall into that trap, as your employees might react in a worse manner if they realize your company delayed letting them know the truth — no matter how bad.

Always be Upfront and never hide the Truth

Never be less than upfront when relaying bad news to your staff. Don’t hide any bit of information, unless there are extenuating circumstances requiring you to keep some things under wraps. Once again, expect your staff to have a worse reaction if they ever realize you weren’t completely upfront with them.

Leverage both Verbal and Written Forms of Communication

You need to let your employees know any adverse news in person during a company meeting. Also make it a point to issue an internal press release so that same information is documented in writing. This gives your staff something to refer to if they have any questions, as well as providing legal cover depending on the nature of the issue.

Always treat your Employees with Respect

Ultimately, no matter the level of bad news, you need to treat your staff in a professional manner while delivering it. Simply sending an email with no face-to-face meeting won’t suffice. Give your staff the respect they deserve and your company morale will stay strong despite the news.

If you need any additional insight on building a winning team in the medical industry, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top healthcare staffing agencies in the country, we can help your organization’s ultimate success. Schedule a meeting with us today!

Whatever the reason, there are times you might want to look for a new job in a discreet fashion. Maybe your current position isn’t challenging enough, but you don’t want to risk anyone finding out you are looking, as you still need a regular paycheck. Don’t fret, as your situation isn’t unique, but it takes some work considering the social-media driven nature of today’s job search.

Here are a few tips on how to search for a new position while keeping your current bosses in the dark.

Keep Everything a Secret at your Current Office

Once you’ve begun a new job search, it is vital not to tell anyone at your current office about your plans, unless they are absolutely trustworthy. “Loose lips sink ships” is the old cliché, but it definitely applies in this case. No matter your wishes, expect word about your clandestine activities to get around and that your bosses will end up finding out.

Watch your Social Media Activity

When on a secret quest for a job, you need to pay close attention to your social media activity. Obviously, advertising your availability for a new position on your LinkedIn account isn’t the wisest action to take, but make sure you don’t inadvertently spill the beans on Facebook or Twitter. Facebook, especially with its confusing array of security settings bears watching, as one of your bosses might be a “friend of a friend” and possibly see your posts.

Schedule Interviews during the Evening

Make it a point to schedule any interviews during the evening or maybe on your lunch hour, although the latter period doesn’t give you too much time. Showing up for work fully arrayed in a professional dress code might blow your cover, so to speak.

Use References from earlier in your Career

Another obvious point, perhaps, but make sure your references are from earlier in your career. If there is a trustworthy colleague in your current office, use them, but older references will probably have to suffice.

If you need any additional advice on your job search, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the nation’s top healthcare industry staffing agencies, we can help further your career. Schedule some time with us today!

So you just graduated from school and are hoping to find a worthwhile position in the medical industry. The job market can be tough for a new graduate, especially since your professional network has yet to take shape. Don’t fret, because even in a challenging hiring scene, the previous graduates from your school are a useful resource to make your search an easier task.

With that in mind, here are three tips for leveraging alumni to help you land a great healthcare job soon after graduation.

Leverage the Alumni Database at your School’s Career Center

Most good colleges or medical technical schools provide a career center to assist new graduates in their job search. Take advantage of these resources! There is probably an online alumni database full of potential resources willing to help you on your quest.

Use the database to create your own spreadsheet of contact information. Send polite introductory notes explaining your situation while asking for advice on your search. Most alumni are quite happy to provide you information and potentially other professional contacts.

Use LinkedIn to help build your Professional Network

One of the first things you should do after graduation is create your own LinkedIn profile. The preeminent social network for professionals, LinkedIn also provides another method for reaching out to alumni from your school. Peruse their connections to see if there are any contacts working in the medical industry in your area.

Join your School’s Alumni Association

While it seems like an obvious step, make it a point to become an active member of your school’s alumni association. This is another great way to grow your professional network with people that share a common alma mater. Most alumni associations also offer job search assistance to help you throughout your career.

A partnership with a top notch staffing agency also helps your fledgling medical career. As one of the top healthcare staffing agencies in the country, Pinnacle Workforce can make sure your résumé and cover letter template are ready for the job market. Schedule some time with us at your earliest convenience.

The onboarding process takes valuable time and resources from any organization’s HR staff, especially considering the extremely busy nature of the healthcare industry. On the other hand, it is vital to get new hires up and running as quickly as possible so they can start making a positive difference for the team.

This is one area of human resources role that stands to benefit from streamlining procedures. For example, it makes sense for your HR team to provide a standardized new hire packet ready to go on an employee’s first day. With that in mind, here are four must-have documents for a new employee’s welcome packet.

Employee Information Form

It’s a good idea to provide a new hire with an employee data form to collect any relevant information like their address, home and mobile phone numbers, emergency contact data, and their birth date. An electronic version of this form delivered over the company intranet also suffices.

Tax and Direct Deposit Forms

An obvious requirement is any federal tax forms, including the W-4 used to set an employee’s tax withholding allowance. Additionally, include the I-9 form that verifies an employee’s eligibility to work in the United States. Finally, make sure any direct deposit forms to help set up the employee’s payroll deposit info are part of the packet.

Don’t forget the Employee Handbook

Your organization needs to author a robust employee handbook detailing all rules and procedures as well as information for accessing the intranet, company email, and other relevant software applications. Have someone in HR take the time to review the handbook with the new hire, and have them sign a sheet acknowledging they’ve reviewed the content.

Insurance Information is a Must

Finally, include application forms for the company’s health, life, and any other insurance offered in the corporate benefits package. This includes beneficiary information for life insurance, as well as the data for any partner and dependents that are to be covered by the organization’s heath insurance provider.

If your organization needs any additional input on developing an easily managed onboarding process, talk to the staffing experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the nation’s top healthcare staffing agencies, we offer the business insight and the quality candidates to help ensure your organization’s success. Schedule some time with us today!

In the medical industry, there is no underestimating the need for empathy from your staff. With patient care as a prime directive, employees in healthcare need to provide a sense of care and understanding to what are essentially their customers. But how do you know whether or not a job candidate boasts empathy as a soft skill?

What follows are a few strategies for detecting an empathic nature within the candidates for a position in the healthcare industry.

Finding Empathy on a Résumé can be Difficult

Finding candidates with empathy by perusing the résumés sent in for a job posting isn’t an obvious process. A simple keyword search will find any job applicants that mention it on their CV, but additional verification during an interview is still a good idea. Any recommendations or endorsements from a candidate’s references that mention exemplary patient care is a good bet, so make sure to follow up on that question with those references when you contact them directly.

The Interview is the Best Place to screen for Empathy

Ultimately, you will need to use the interview to truly verify the level of empathy of your job candidates. The résumé screening process will narrow down the number of applicants, but it is vital to earmark one or more interview questions for finding out more about a candidate’s empathy. Pay close attention to how they answer these questions.

A good question for this purpose can leverage a real word patient care scenario to see how the candidate would react when placed in that situation. If an applicant is fresh out of school, frame a similar question around a family situation. Additionally, questions about working in a collaborative environment also help to verify their empathic nature.

If multiple staff members are involved in the interview process, collect opinions from all of them regarding the empathy of the candidates before making that final hiring decision.

If your organization needs additional staffing assistance, look no further than Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the nation’s top healthcare employment agencies, our knowledgeable staff can help your medical business with a robust supply of quality, empathic, candidates. Make it a point to meet with us as soon as possible.

There’s no argument that the interview remains the most important part of your job search. It is your chance to expound on the contents of your résumé, while explaining how you’ll make a positive difference for the healthcare company with which you are interviewing. You stand a better chance of earning a second interview and hopefully a job offer by successfully connecting with the interviewer.

What follows are three strategies suitable for connecting with an interviewer to help your chances of landing the position of your dreams.

Eye Contact. Eye Contact. Eye Contact.

Did we mention eye contact? It might seem a bit too obvious, but it is vital that you make natural eye contact with your interviewer throughout your face to face meeting. If you are taking part in a group interview where you are the only candidate, spread the eye contact around between all the interviewers.

Follow this same principle when asking questions during the interview. Eye contact definitely helps build a connection and a sense of trust between you and the interview team.

Don’t forget to Listen!

It is important to pay attention during the interview — listen closely to the interviewer and observe their mannerisms. Leverage your listening skills to ask meaningful questions throughout the interview; don’t necessarily wait to be called upon. Of course, pay extra close attention to their answers to your questions and use that information to form follow-up questions.

This interaction is part of the give and take process that helps you truly connect with the interviewer.

Be Personable and show Gratitude

It is important to remain personable, yet professional, throughout the interview. Consider taking an attitude that you are reconnecting with an old business colleague. Be sure to thank the interviewer for the opportunity to talk with them, and that you can’t wait for the chance to make a difference for their organization.

If you need further advice on interview preparation, talk to the knowledgeable recruiters at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top staffing agencies in the U.S. healthcare industry, we can help you take your medical career to the next level. Schedule some time with us at your earliest convenience.

There’s no denying that the Internet plays a large role in today’s job search process. Everything from online job sites to professional social networks like LinkedIn has become part of finding a new position in healthcare or any other industry sector. While you leverage the Internet for researching a company with an open position, you can also be sure that the hiring manager from that company will return the favor once you become a candidate.

Around 75 percent of hiring managers use the Internet to search for information about a candidate. So what will potential employers find when they search for you on Google? Are you worried? Let’s take a closer look at managing your online reputation.

Understand your Social Media Network Privacy Settings — especially on Facebook

When looking at the management of your online reputation, it is important that you fully understand Facebook’s privacy settings — which seemingly change on a weekly basis. A good policy is to assume everyone can see what you post or who tags you in a post, so don’t allow any embarrassing material to appear on any social network — including Twitter, Google+, in addition to Facebook.

Beyond that, ensure that you don’t mark anything shared on Facebook as “Public.” Keep your privacy settings to “Friends Only”. Additionally, watch who tries to add you as a friend, in case they may be a hiring manager.

Don’t Forget about Comments you Post

Any comments you post on Amazon or many other websites are searchable. So be sure to watch your online etiquette. It is reasonable to think that most companies aren’t looking to hire Internet trolls.

It is a good idea to regularly Google your own name to see what appears in the search results. If you have a common name, add additional keywords like your city in the search text. In today’s age, online reputation is almost as important as a well-written cover letter to ensure you get a shot at an interview and a job offer.

If you need additional advice on managing your online reputation, talk to the recruiters at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top healthcare staffing agencies in the country, we can help take your career to the next level. Schedule some time with us today!

Empathy is one of the most important attributes for any medical professional. The best healthcare employees put patient care and happiness at the forefront of their thoughts when they are working. On the other hand, disengaged members of your team, providing less than quality care, run the risk of ruining your organization’s hard-earned reputation.

How should you handle members of your medical staff that are disengaged? Let’s take a closer look at some ways to deal with this important issue.

Take Steps to reduce Stress and Increase Employee Happiness

If your staff feel overworked and overstressed it may impact their patient care. Make it a point to ensure each employee isn’t working too many hours each week or even an extra long shift. If an employee has accrued vacation time, make sure they take it, as it will help them recharge and reengage with the patients under their supervision.

Consider hosting a team lunch or an after work event to help improve employee morale. In many cases, poor worker morale leads to disengagement, so it is better to nip any issues in the bud before patient care begins to suffer.

Communicate Regularly with your Staff

It is vital that you and your managerial team regularly communicate with your employees. This could be formally within the context of the workday, but also casually during the team events mentioned earlier. Employees need to be reminded of their daily expectations on the job, and also that they are valued members of your staff.

Champion Employee Development

A key factor is employee engagement is their personal career development. Offering tuition reimbursement and a robust training program helps to keep your staff engaged in both their career as well as their daily duties at the office. Once again, this ties into the simple fact that employees need to know that they are valued.

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

Quality patient care is the prime directive for the healthcare industry. Of course, dealing with unhappy patients is a daily occurrence for many medical professionals. Finding ways to make these disgruntled patients less distressed benefits both the patient and the caregiver.

What follows is a look at a few strategies aimed at converting unhappy patients into those that are happy.

Empathy is Always a Good Policy

Empathy is one of the most important attributes your employees need to possess, and dealing with unhappy patients — your customers, essentially — is where it really comes into play. In short, your staff needs to put themselves in their patients’ shoes, so they can better understand their condition and needs. This is an essential first step in making patients happier.

Listening is a Vital Part of Empathy

You can’t be empathic without being a good listener. Your medical staff needs to truly listen to a patient’s needs — not merely “hear” them. They need to use good body language to help truly make a connection with the patient. This facilitates the fixing of any situations, giving patients a more positive outlook.

Help them to Fully Understand All Aspects of their Treatment

Many times patients become angry when they feel their care providers aren’t being honest with them or are treating them like a child. It is important to clearly explain everything about their treatment — new medications, healing times, etc. — so their lack of understanding doesn’t lead to a lack of trust.

A Good, Caring Disposition always Helps

Make sure your staff understands that they need to present a caring disposition when interacting with their patients. They need support and reassure those receiving care, all while ensuring their needs are being met by your entire staff — from doctors to nurses. The bottom line is that anyone in the healthcare profession must commit to quality patient care.

If you need additional insight on building a winning medical staff that puts patient care above all, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top staffing agencies in the healthcare industry, we can ensure your business is a successful one. Schedule some time with us at your earliest convenience.

In the competitive modern business world, it is important for your company to consistently attract the top candidates, and the healthcare industry isn’t an exception to this rule. Sure, a competitive salary and a generous benefits package help in convincing the top talent to work for your firm. In many cases, however, corporate culture plays a large role in determining where the best go to work, especially when compensation packages are equal.

With that in mind, what steps can your organization take to ensure its company culture is the envy of the competition? Let’s take a closer look.

Offer Employees a Chance to Grow Professionally

The best talent needs to know that they will thrive as an employee with your firm. This means offering them a good supply of interesting project work, inspiring bosses and coworkers, as well as the opportunity for professional growth and advancement. If all they perceive is a dead-end position, chances are the top candidates will look elsewhere to further their career.

A Flexible Work Environment gives a Good Work/Life Balance

Your company’s work environment needs to be flexible to attract top candidates, especially those from the millennial generation. Don’t strictly enforce a 9 to 5 schedule. Instead, offer flex time and judge employees more on the quality of their project work as opposed to merely looking at whether or not they are at their desk at exactly 9AM everyday.

Remember that Word about your Company Culture gets Around

You can be sure that your current workers keep their friends and colleagues informed about what it’s like at your organization. Give your workers a chance to grow, a flexible work/life balance, and a fun and active office environment, and watch how your company culture becomes the envy of the competitors in your area. Do all this and watch the résumés from top candidates arrive in droves!

If your organization needs additional input on developing a winning corporate culture, talk to the experts at Pinnacle Workforce. As one of the top staffing agencies in the healthcare industry, we can supply your firm with great business insight and top candidates. Schedule a meeting with us today!