Practice Management Alert

Organizing your interview process around these strategies can save you money.

Has your practice been hit by the great resignation? According to the Society for Human Resource Management, the average cost per hire is between $4,000 and $5,000, said Colleen Gianatasio, CPC, CPCO, CPC-P, CPMA, CPC-I, CRC, CCS, CCDS-O, in a December 2021 AAPC ELEVATE Conference Session.

And that number can triple for executive-level positions, plus the costs (in both dollars and morale) in situations where your organization completes the hiring process, only to find out that the hire wasn’t the right fit, she said.

Make sure you ground your hiring practices in these five strategies to help secure your dream team.

Know Who Should be Involved

Historically, organizations may have considered interviews to be one-on-one situations with a quick couple of rounds involving only a couple of candidates, but involving more people in the process has several benefits.

“Phone screenings are a great way to save time, especially if you’re hiring for a lot of positions or you’re receiving a really high volume of applicants for your open positions,” Gianatasio said.

In these situations, delegating a phone screening to someone else, like a recruiter or someone in your human resources department, can be better for everyone — and much less time-intensive.

“It’s helpful because it provides additional manpower, but you have to remember they’re not experts in the field,” she said.

If you go this route, make sure you prepare the person performing the phone screenings with some “rule-out” questions and a list of the soft skills you’re looking for in a candidate. For example, if the role you’re hiring for requires a certified professional coder (CPC®) credential, make sure the recruiter asks about that and advances only CPCs to the next round. Soft skills might include being a team player, being an effective verbal communicator, or feeling comfortable presenting information in front of larger audiences.

Be Strategic in Interview Style

Once you move folks onto the next round, you have a few options: a group interview, serial interviews, or even a meal interview. Each has its benefits and drawbacks, from making a candidate potentially feel intimidated to being on one side of a table and being questioned in a rapid-fire manner, versus a drawn-out and time-intensive commitment of meeting with team members individually, versus a potentially more relaxed setting of a meal (which might be ripe with the opportunities for faux pas or awkward moments). In any interview situation, try to lean on empathy as much as possible.

Important: Keep in mind that COVID-19 has rocked the world, including people’s comfort levels around various aspects of the “traditional” interview process, Gianatasio reminded folks. Where a face-to-face visit kicked off by firm handshake might have once been the norm, now, confident, qualified applicants may not feel comfortable or be able to meet in person or risk exposure that comes with shaking hands. This is especially true for positions that can be performed remotely. If you’re conducting interviews remotely, it’s OK to evaluate candidates on their preparedness, she said. For example, if the role involves customer-facing or high-level provider-engaging responsibilities, and the interviewee logs into the interview while lounging on their couch wearing a stained sweatshirt and eating a cupcake, you can consider those preparedness choices when choosing a person who will be representing your organization.