Hire well and your practice reputation, patient outcomes and team dynamics fall into place. Miss the mark, and you are back to square one with another swell of CVs, mountains of phone interviews and lost time and money.
Poor physician retention rates and a less-than-perfect practice fit are to be minimized at all costs. In that pursuit, you’ve exhausted the common questions every physician recruiter employs to weed out those candidates who aren’t good fits.
In addition to pinpointing the candidate’s career motivations, clinical skills and experience, as well as their personal strengths and weaknesses, you’ve delved into his or her interpersonal and problem-solving skills. But is that enough?
Digging deeper
Unlike many of the Fortune 100 companies today that use personality assessments for potential new hires, the medical community hasn’t widely adopted this type of strategy to vet candidates.
However, personality testing is on the rise, growing as much as 20 percent annually, as reported in a 2011 NBC News article. The business advisory company CEB (now Gartner) stated in 2014, and later reported by Forbes, that 62 percent global of human resource professionals use personality assessments in the hiring process. Compare that to less than 50 percent in 2010, as reported by research firm Aberdeen Group.
The reason for the increase is likely based on a threefold need: to ensure recruiters have identified and hired the best person for the job; to reduce human errors that are indirectly associated with personality; and to determine "culture fit" for the group.
Roughly 2,500 different personality assessments are currently on the market, so finding one that best suits the practice needs is no small task. To start, check out three of the most commonly used assessments by Fortune 100 companies today.
The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator
This type of assessment determines a person’s world view and how the individual makes decisions. The assessment can illuminate a candidate’s introversion or extraversion, how they make decisions and how they prefer to deal with the outside world.
The DISC Behavior Inventory
Rather than a broad personality assessment, this inventory allows recruiters to gauge a person’s communication behaviors. The assessment is based around four personality traits that stand for its acronym: Dominance, Inducement, Submission, and Compliance.
Gallup StrengthsFinder
The StrengthsFinder assessment is based on the premise that personality assessments too often concentrate on weaknesses, though strengths are the true indicators of success. With StrengthsFinder, recruiters can obtain powerful insight into a candidate’s five strengths out of the 34 tested within the assessment.
A changing landscape
Though there are advantages to personality assessments, the practice is being weighed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) - so proceed with caution. In June 2018, both Best Buy and Cvs entered into agreements with the EEOC that they would halt personality testing as part of their hiring activities due to questions concerning race and gender discrimination.
MARCIA NOYES
