Health Chaos

One of the most difficult tasks that I have had as a manager is hiring and firing staff. I would like to share a few tips.

 Hiring: trust your instincts at the interview. Have a second interview. Try to avoid phone interviews. We all make such different presentations in person.  Don’t ask all the questions. Keep the forum open and encourage questions and comments. It is not even worth your time to contact references, but if you do, the only question worth asking is “would you hire this person again?” Be wary of letters of inquiry that say “I am the perfect person for your position”. Nobody knows this but you! Walk them through the work area;  introduce them to the current staff; show an applicant  the potential work area.

 Seriously consider the employee’s orientation. Make it thorough. Meaning, introduce a new employee, or an applicant,  to staff. Give them a packet that you created with the agency’s (of whomever) history, needs, current situation, mission, goals, funding sources. Include a list of staff with phone numbers and email addresses. Include a detailed, long list of acronyms. Tell them where to park, where to get lunch. Tell them the good and bad (yes; the bad things too) that they should be aware of. Make it clear that you have an open door…any time…

 And as I have said before, have the workspace CLEAN AND PREPARED. Have flowers. Be welcoming. Have the keys ready.

 Firing is much more complicated. One may have to go through all the union rules, and civil service rules first. One must document and document and document, while mentoring and trying very hard to save the employee. And it is best, when the day comes, to make it as pleasant and supportive as possible. I would suggest forgetting an exit interview, unless you really plan to listen intently and be willing to make changes in how you hire, supervise, manage. I would also suggest that you offer to be supportive, provide a reference that you feel that you can comfortably provide, and make suggestions that  will be helpful, not critical. I have had employees, upon firing, who cried and thanked me. Be prepared for this possible scenario too.

 Good luck

I just recalled a horrible memory from a recent interview . “Do you have blahdy blah certification?” and I said no I do not. But what I wanted to say is I do not need any certifications. I already have 3 professional degrees and 38 years of experience. But she said that if I was hired ( which I won’t be) that I would need to take 70 class hours (at my expense) to get some nonsensical certification, within the year. Well I am not getting the job anyway; no fear. So here goes my next blog entry into HEALTH CHAOS.

So having degrees from major universities is not enough now. Because now some entrepreneurs have figured out how to provide special certifications to nurses, for lots of $. (yes; make money; that is the object). Anyone who has a degree from approved universities, big name places like the ones I went to, don’t need more certifications. That education (required for certification) is inherent in a professional degree program. This recent concept of certification is a scam.

As most of us have all heard, keep a resume to one page; you can send a more comprehensive cv (curriculum vitae) as well, depending on your background and profession. Some employers want to see both.

Now the corollary!

More and more I see “job descriptions” that do not follow the same rule that they expect applicants to follow. They tend to be “run on” documents that talk about the organization (why? You can look at their web site if you are that interested), they talk about their values (why? Wouldn’t you expect a health or social service agency to have some altruistic values?).

I would like to see a description of a position that could succinctly tell me what they would expect of me; not a laundry list of all the things I might get asked to do in a pinch, like clean the kitchen sink. So I guess this has gotten me to refine, more and more, what I want to ask when I interview the folks that are interviewing me, when we get to the point of “do you have any questions for us?”  “yes; as a matter of fact, I do”.

• Tell me, in a few words, what you expect the person in this position to be responsible for?
• Is this a clinical position, or is it a supervisory, managerial, administrative position?
• What is your management style? Please be specific. They probably already asked you what kind of management style you do well with. I know that I do not appreciate a demeaning micro manager. Please trust me to do my job already.
• Tell me, right up front, the idiosyncrasies of your agency, so that I don’t spend my first year second guessing. What is great here? What are the problems here?
• And, in the case of community health, which is my specialty area, “what are your relationships in the community? What do you want to accomplish?” “which community based organizations to you interface with?”
• And since I love to recruit and mentor students, I would need to ask “how open, interested are you in recruiting and mentoring students in related health and social service professions? Do you encourage and support this?”

If you have the sense that the interviewers are interested in you, ALWAYS  ask for a walk through to see your potential working area and meet some of the staff. That will give you a lot of clues about whether this is a good fit for you. Can you sit in a tiny cubicle? Is there a window? Is everyone disgruntled, or happy? Can you were sandals in the summer? Are you attached to a head phone and facing a computer screen all day? (I cannot / will not / could not do that ever again!).

To be a productive employee, you need to be respected. You need a supervisor who doesn’t just give orders, but has your professional growth at heart, whether in the agency, or helping you to move on to your career goals.

I am in a frenzied madness of looking for employment. There are two concerns that I would like to share: how to share your resumes (and/or cvs aka curriculum vitaes) and how to read these crazy job descriptions.

Everything one applies for requests a resume. They seem to not care about a cover letter and/or a cv. I feel it is very important to send an individualized cover letter with every job application that states your qualities and interests. I submit my “short resume” which is two pages long, as well as my ten page curriculum vitae which some employers appreciate and request.

On the other hand, I am really disappointed by the quality of the job perspectives I find on some job search engines (not their fault). These job descriptions are sometimes lengthy, disorganized, want you to do everything. I find these job descriptions to be so unprofessional, that I have to bite my cheek and apply anyway. These descriptions include everything in addition to cleaning the kitchen sink. Why don’t they describe the half dozen activities that they truly require? If they cannot do that, the employers do not really know what/who they are looking for and create a junk basket of words. Which means if you accept the position, it will be awhile before it is clear what is really expected, which frustrates the employer, and does not bode well for your initial evaluation.

Even though all the recruitment folks recommend that you submit a brief resume, my experience is this: if you have had a long professional career, submit a lot of information, but make it interesting and readable, in small doses i.e. cover letter, short resume, and your lengthier cv (curriculum vitae).

Best wishes.

[tags]looking for employment,curriculum vitaes,recruitment,evaluation[/tags]