It’s a sobering fact: One bad hire can cost a company an average of 30 percent of the new employee’s first-year earnings, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. There’s a loss in productivity as the new employee acclimates to a new working environment, not to mention the costs involved with training.
Sherman Oaks, Cali.,-based De Vore Recruiting — where healthcare recruiting specialists seek out passive job seekers to fill skilled, typically director-level positions for healthcare facilities — shoulders the burdensome weight of the challenging hiring process.
“We try to eliminate falloff, which is a big deal,” De Vore’s president Sean De Vore said recently.
One bad hire in the nursing field can be detrimental to a healthcare facility’s score in Medicare’s 5-star quality rating system. Negative surveys regarding a new hire can affect the score, which is visible for consumers’ benefit. Facilities also can be fined by their respective state as a result of a poor survey.
“When we try to find people, we make sure that those people are going to help that survey process,” De Vore said.
To minimize the pitfalls involved in hiring, De Vore’s healthcare staffing agency thoroughly vets candidates, focusing often on their soft skills. Making sure a company and a potential new employee are the right match, or entering into the “right marriage” together, as De Vore puts it, is of utmost importance.
“We’re like a matchmaker in that sense,” said De Vore, whose company searches for the best match, not the most available-right-now. “We shake the leaves out of the tree instead of shake (just for) something to come loose.”
When finding the right candidates for those challenging job openings within the healthcare industry, De Vore attempts to:
-Make sure the candidate is going to stick, which is important for all parties involved. “So what we do is we talk to them about their goals,” De Vore said. “Everyone says they’re looking for a long-term job, but are they willing to make at least a 1- to 2-year — hopefully 2 years, at least — commitment? So we talk about stability and why it’s important.”
-Match personalities between the company and future employee. Many times, the employer doesn’t have time to explore the personalities of their clients to ensure compatibility within the facility’s work culture. As a third party, De Vore Recruiting is able to delve into the other side of each candidate in addition to their skill set and experience.
-Determine where each potential new hire is at in her or his career, and how that relates to the needs of an open management position. “We really want to figure out what the candidate is comfortable doing. I don’t want them to go beyond their reach,” De Vore said.
While a lot of companies, no matter the industry, prefer pleasant and outgoing hires, De Vore said his healthcare recruiters make sure to listen closely to each facility’s particular requirements.
“Different facilities have different needs,” De Vore said. “We look for the right personality.”
