“As a 30-year expert in the field of recruitment, staffing, and sales, I am seeing a dynamic change in the way my clients and our South Florida community on the whole are looking at their employees and hiring practices. Let’s look at the numbers that lead me to say this. In a recent survey done by our medical society, out of 8 choices, team/workflow and employment advice came in last with only 3.5% of respondents reporting that was important compared to billing/documentation and other financial issues.

I find this surprising, because in my opinion, that’s like the captain of a cruise ship being concerned with the destination, the food, and the weather as opposed to concern for the crew in the engine room, the chefs in the kitchen, and the crew members at the helm steering the ship around the storm. How does this happen? It’s quite easy, actually. As leaders it is our responsibility to look to the future to see what events could have an effect on our services, but by doing so our teammates around us become invisible. This issue becomes even more apparent in times of high stress or turmoil such as what COVID-19 has thrust upon the world. What is important to remember in the example above is these crew members keep the engine running, cook the 5-star meals and help navigate the ship, and truly have the biggest impact on financial issues.

So, what can we do to change this in our office? First of all, we need to evaluate our offices and make a clear determination as to who is revenue-producing and who is not, and who may play a combination role toward the goal of revenue production. An example could be your front office person. Is she or he revenue-producing? Maybe not directly, from a 10,000-foot view, however do they help the flow of patients through your office? Do they help with insurance verification? Do they help schedule patients and ensure they are called the day before to decrease no-show patients? If the answer to any of those questions is yes then, yes, they are revenue-producing and those activities should be increased. Likewise, let’s look at your Medical Assistant. Obviously, this position is a revenue-producing position and each time they room a patient, take vitals, assist the physician and have other patient interactions they become part of that visit bill and therefore are revenue-producing. What about when they are filling out lab slips, contacting pharmacies, cleaning out the Doctor’s voicemail and other tertiary duties? In those cases, they are no longer revenue-producing and those duties should be passed to the lowest paid non-revenue-producing person in the office. By eliminating the busy work of a revenue-producing person you will make them more profitable, and that increased income certainly outweighs the cost of your other employee.

How does this translate into your hiring practices? Prior to COVID-19, if your office manager, who may be the most important player when it comes to revenue production in your office, ran an ad for an open position they would probably receive upward of one hundred resumes. Today, with unemployment above 12%, they will receive five hundred resumes. That translates into almost 16 hours before the first in-person interview takes place (average 2 minutes per resume = 1000 minutes / 60). Then add another 10 – 15 hours for interviews and paperwork before an offer is made and that is if you only run one ad for one week. The question you need to ask is how much revenue did my office manager not produce to fill the lowest paid position in my office? I know the numbers and it is far less than you would spend by using an agency to assist you.” John Dalton, Owner Optimum RTS, West Palm Beach, Florida..

Without using a staffing agency, the average time frame from search to start date for a new hire is 10-12 weeks according to an article on monster.com. Including companies using staffing agencies, LinkedIn’s 2017 Global Survey says the average is 6-8 weeks. To be clear, that’s the nationwide average across all industries. The reality is less concrete than survey statistics. Each industry, job requirement, company culture/reputation, etc affects the length of time it takes to bring on a new hire.

Let’s say you own a private practice and you speak to a friend in the restaurant industry that easily hires multiple wait staff every week. Let’s say they exaggerate and it’s multiple hires every month. Many of the candidates apply simply by seeing the “now hiring” sign on the door. Sounds easy, right?

If you’ve been in the industry for any amount of time you know how very incorrect that assumption is, especially for the healthcare industry. So how can you get that many candidates in that fast? 

The right candidate is worth multiple convenient hires even for positions that do not require specialized skills. In most cases it takes time to find the right candidate. In a past blog I wrote about how it takes a few weeks to go through resumes, a few weeks to conduct interviews, and if your candidate is otherwise employed it takes an additional two weeks notice in most cases. Six weeks of waiting to fill an empty position. 

That six weeks is based on the search starting immediately. You didn’t try to save money and make it work with one person down. That’s also assuming you don’t hold a company meeting to discuss the need to bring another person on board, or find a time to meet with the busiest person in the office prior to coming on board. 

So how can business owners speed up this process?

1. Spend time thinking about where your ideal candidate searches for a position. Then focus your efforts in that area. This will require some research on job seekers in your industry.
2. Branding. Know your reputation on and off social media. Do you know what your company’s social media footprint looks like? It’s common practice for HR to review potential candidate social media pages. So it only makes sense that candidates would also review companies. If you’re maintaining your social media pages well, leverage them all to get the word out that you’re hiring. I’m sure you know or have at least heard about the importance of branding. Example: I’ve heard Disney World is a great place to work. However, logically I know providing service to a mass of excited/exhausted children and parents waiting in lines for hours can not possibly be as great of an experience as the rumors.
3. Figure out what you really need out of the candidate. Often our idea of the perfect candidate and the actual perfect candidate are different. Here at Optimum RTS we talk to our clients about their job, their company, the entire picture in order to make a job description. Often, our clients send us a job descriptions that include many concrete tasks but the description still lacks the actual position. We make it our job to understand your job so we can find the perfect candidate for it.
4. Keep an open mind. When deciding on the position requirements, consider similar/complimentary skills to leave room for pleasantly unexpected candidates. We often see clients choose these unexpected candidates even over candidates that seem to meet their checklist of requirements. Aside from positions that require credentials, many times candidates have most but not all of the items listed on the job description.
5. Be willing to train. Many times the difference between an immediate fill candidate and months of searching for the right candidate is the willingness to train. Often clients come to us having searched for weeks for the perfect candidate, unwilling to train quality candidates because they don’t have time. However, when a position sits empty for months, how much time and productivity is lost? I would argue you don’t have time to waste on an unfilled position.
6. Referrals from current employees. I will caution that current employees do not always make good referral sources. There are times we have seen a cliquish environment form from this practice, or personal life drama spilling into and poisoning an otherwise harmonious office environment. It can work, but still do your due diligence on all potential candidates. (Did I mention we do background checks?)
7. Use a Staffing Company. This is definitely a fast and easy way to fill a position with a professional. I wrote an entire blog about this a few months ago if you have questions. (https://optimumrts.com/hr-corner-by-suzanne-february-2019/)

As always if you want more information on any HR/Training/Sales/Recruiting (and more!) topics, contact us!

Suzanne is the glue that holds Team Optimum RTS together. She wears many hats in our office and her organizational skills are OUTSTANDING! 

Please contact us if you are interested in interviewing one of our hot employee candidates!!

Hope is a very personable person with over 30 years of experience in Radiology and has managed most areas of Radiology. She is currently the Manager of an Oncology department. She has an MBA and a Masters in Healthcare Administration. She works with finance and budgets, personnel, and new technologies.

Jackel is a Bilingual Spanish RMA. She is experienced with MD Vita, ECW, EKG phlebotomy, front and back office, answering phones, scheduling appointments, and verifying insurance to name just a few of her qualifications! A well-rounded candidate for any Doctor’s office!

Jamie has extensive experience answering phones, scheduling appointments, using Outlook, Word, Excel, Mac, Payroll, QuickBooks, opening and closing, hiring and firing, and marketing. She is extremely organized with glowing references. They stated she is incredibly outgoing, friendly, works hard and stays on track, is detailed, and clients and coworkers enjoy working with her.

Luz is Bilingual in Spanish, with four years’ experience as a Human Resource Supervisor and additional experience as a Director of Business Operations. Luz is looking for a good company that offers long-term growth and stability.

Michahala is a people person and likes to get things done. She has been a medical assistant and knows how to work a front desk. She recently graduated as a biller and coder and is ready to get to work! She has a great personality for billing and coding; she’s assertive and can go after the insurance companies!

Rillia has a great attitude and has experience with Inside Sales Consulting in a B2B capacity. She is dynamic in her understanding of process creation, following trends and adjusting accordingly. She has run call centers and developed scripts for salespeople. She is energetic, a self-starter, honest and professional.

PLEASE REVIEW OUR OPEN JOB ORDERS ON OUR WEB SITE JOBS.OPTIMUMRTS.COM

John Dalton, Owner of Optimum RTS would like you to join him and James F Bowers, Security & Compliance Architect, at the UCaaS “Communications for Better Patient Care and HIPPA Management” Complimentary Luncheon and Conversation Event! Looking for a clean bill of health regarding HIPAA? Are you interested in improving your patient’s experience while making communication easier and cheaper? Join RingCentral and Input Output at the Marriott in West Palm Beach for lunch and a conversation about the salutary benefits of UCaaS for the healthcare industry.

While you’re there, you’ll be entered in our raffle, with a chance to win a $200, $300 or $500 Visa gift card!

Spots are limited! PLEASE REGISTER TODAY!

By understanding exactly where you’ve come from and where you want to go, we’ll help you find a job that’s just right for you. We do this by listening to your employment history, reviewing your qualifications, evaluating your resume and suggesting edits where necessary. Lastly, we will help guide you through proven interview techniques that will allow you to stay true to yourself while focusing on the information that needs to be shared or conveyed.

Established by John Dalton more than 22 years ago, Optimum RTS provides advanced medical staffing services for top tier candidates. The company has also been responsible for propelling many local, regional and national healthcare companies to prominence and is guaranteed to help put you firmly on your path to success.

With thousands of jobs on our books, we’ve got a wide variety of medical office staff positions available, including:

• certified medical assistant jobs (1000)
• front desk jobs (3 600)
• medical administrative assistant jobs (1 500)
• medical assistant jobs (21 000)
• medical assistant jobs near me (1 600)
• medical billing and coding jobs (8 000)
• medical billing jobs (3 600)
• receptionist jobs (16 000)

Optimum RTS specializes in recruiting for medical practices in Florida, with a specific focus on the following counties:

• Brevard
• Indian River
• Saint Lucie
• Martin
• Palm Beach
• Broward
• Miami-Dade

So, if you’re looking to make a move, then apply today or contact us to find out more about how we can help you take the next step in your career!

Written by: Melanie Scherr

Written by: Melanie Scherr