Tips for Hiring & Staffing an Urgent Care

Hiring the right talent is crucial to the success of any healthcare facility. This is particularly true in service related industries such as an urgent care. Your staff is the first and last impression a patient will receive, so how they treat others is a direct reflection of your clinic. Ensure you are portraying the best possible impression every day by keeping these best practice tips in mind when hiring employees:

1. Seek out referrals - while posting a job online or going to a career fair may be necessary at times, seeking out your professional network for referrals is often the best way to find top talent. Talk to your current staff, colleagues, and friends to spread the word your clinic is hiring.
2. Personality and Attitude - Hire positive people. Attitude should trump experience in almost every situation. While experience is always a plus, if a candidate understands the value of customer service and is willing to learn, a practice can teach most office related tasks. It is also important to find an individual that can work well with others, is flexible, and who can fit within your office culture. Urgent care practices are face-paced work environments, often with long hours, and limited staff so it is imperative to find personalities that can work well together to provide the best patient experience and keep the office running smoothly.
3. Flexibility - Urgent care clinics very rarely operate with 9-5 hours, which means staff members may need to work different shifts, or longer hours, and may need to perform duties outside of their typical job responsibilities. Ask a candidate if they would be willing to take on additional hours, tasks, or responsibilities if necessary. It is important to know if a person can adapt to different situations. Weekend and holiday shifts should not be voluntary options, and full-time hires should cover all shifts necessary.
4. Effective training and development - once you have found the right people, retaining them and developing their careers is another important hurdle. Highly driven employees need to feel their personal goals and development are being acknowledged by the company. Employees who take initiative should be recognized and encouraged to take on more responsibility. Reward your top achievers. Create a career path based on their goals with a specific plan to monitor progress. Provide effective interactive employee training and promotional options. Encourage staff to continue education and grow knowledge by offering conferences, seminars, or webinars. The key to an engaged workforce is recognizing each individual’s talents and helping them succeed in achieving their goals.

Hiring, training, and retaining the top talent while providing patients with a great experience, is not a simple task. There is significant time, effort, and investment involved. However, the cost of lost patients and employee turnover is a much higher price to pay. By putting forth the initial effort required, patients and referring physicians will take notice and there are few things that can provide such a high return.