Anyone have any great questions they ask the group to tease out the good ones during the group interview. DCM says to give your 3-5 min chiro speech and then explain the application process and leave. Why not use the time to ask a few Qs to tease out the real winners. What do you think?
Group Interview for Chiropractic Tech
(24 posts) (8 voices)-
Anonymous
UnregisteredPosted 1 year ago # -
The questions that tease out the possibilities are the three questions on that go with the Employment application. Why do you need this job?, etc. They are quite telling. Other than that taking in the people's body language is the key to the group interviews. Who is being attentive, who is staring at the ceiling, who was put off by this group interview because it was beneath them, who makes eye contact and who does not, who is smiling and who is frowning, who's face do you want you patients to be staring at, friendly are rough looking? That is the magic of the group interview. So be a visual observer and use it for what it is, a weeding process. The second round is where it is at and I rarely struggle with too many people for the second round, I am usually happy to get 3 out of 50 that I even want to spend more time exploring. This is why it is important to have a tech at the interview as well so that they can get a read on people. I typically don't show myself unless I am adjusting patients until it is showtime so that the attendees can interact with the staff a bit and typically have their guard down. The mildly rude to the "help" but all aglow when the doctor appears. And so on. So keep the group interviews about you giving further information and you take in what you can. I ask if anyone has questions at the end of my part, but I am thinking about dropping that. The point of the whole hiring process is to make it take less time. One thing I do that Dr. Thackeray told me about, especially if it is a large group where it is not really possible to get a read on everyone is to have them turn in their forms to you personally at the end. That way you can shake there hand and say high and get a feel for their comfort with people. They need to be able to look at you and a smile would be nice too. And I do this from behind my front desk so that I can staple them as they come and I place them in three piles "yes", "maybe", and "ahhh no". That way I can organize them and have sifted through as I went. If the personal interaction was not good then I don't care what they wrote. If their "desired hourly wage" is not in your range, next. And in the end if you have one or two in your "yes" pile that you also like what they wrote. VICTORY!!! Remember youonly need one, usually :). So don't try to force a round peg in a square whole. Have your target range and stick to it. That was more than what you asked for but it is fresh. Just finished my second second round interviews. But with the group interview, realize you are wasting most people's time but it is also the opportunity to "sell" your position to a good prospect that might know little about your position. Fine line but like adjusting times, more time does not mean better.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredDr Perron, you're a master. This was very helpful. I guess I didn't want to feel like i was wasting their time by coming up here for a 20 minute meeting. But if they feel that way, they aren't right for the job.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Oh Boy...I can feel Dr. Perron's head getting bigger as we speak!
Posted 1 year ago # -
I echo Dr. Perron, I was unable to log on earlier, otherwise I would have said the same. Great mood, face, body language watching. Gives a great insight to who is tasking and who is extroverted. Make sure you have someone (other staff member or spouse) also watching and making notes to who is watching you adjust, what their facial expression is while you are adjusting, who didn't watch, how they were dressed, did they look at the other people or patients, did they speak to others, patients or applicants. All fun stuff, I love it. Just started my new person today, after 2 weeks of interviewing her and others, looks good to start, if not...NEXT!
Posted 1 year ago # -
I echo Dr. Perron's thoughts on using the group interview to filter out potential candidates. We use a slightly different process that leads to much smaller group interviews. We list in our ad to bring their resume to our office address during business hours. Our techs will let the person know when they bring in their resume that the doctor will look over the resumes and call those he is interested in for an interview (takes 5 seconds, and as always, patients first:). This gives us an idea about who is serious and will make the effort to come in. It also allows us to quickly filter those we know we would never hire. Look for presentation, eye contact, smile, etc. We're looking for high "I's". If someone shows any remote potential of being a good candiate, we have them come to the group interview. We use the same format that Dr. Perron described above. Here is the layout of our questions, keeping in mind we generally have filtered down to 10-15 people for a group interview.
-Welcome to our office
-Can I have a show of hands how many people have been to a chiropractor before?
-Have candidates introduce themselves, where they're from, and what their first job was (have fun and watch reactions)
-Ask candidates why they are interested in THIS job
-Tell about the office, chiropractic, technique (very brief)
-Tell about the job (hours, wage, benefits, expectations)
-Tell inspirational story of chiropractic in your office
-Thank them for coming in, and let them know you will be calling those you select for follow-up individual interviews.After the candiates have left, I ask the techs to write down two or three names of people they thought might show potential based off what they saw. The names rarely differ. We also have the techs fill out a seating chart of the people and take notes on responses and observations. Hope this helps Dr. Bartemus. Have fun, and remember this is a great time to practice public speaking and being contactable in the safety and comfort of your office.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredThese are all really great pointers for doing a successful group interview. Similar to Dr. Perron I'm really looking at their body language in the group interview. It's such a wonderful opportunity to see how a person handles being in a group of people. We generally ask them to arrive at a time that would land them in the middle of my last cluster so that the office is full of patients so that my staff can observe how they handle the "busy factor" of the office. Do they come up to the front desk and introduce themselves? Are they shy and sitting in the corner looking at their shoes? Probably not the best fit... Are they chatting up the person next to them, but telling them their life story of negative garbage... again probably not the right energy. Do they get all pissy because the Doctor is still seeing patients? Seriously??? Did they introduce themselves to the person next to them and "engage" with the staff or patients? Now that may be a good possibility...
There are two other things that we also do which does seem to help with the "weeding out" process. When they call the office to set up an interview appointment, my front tech arranges the time and asks them to bring their resume, a clip board, and red and blue pen with them (it doesn't really matter what you ask them to bring... just as long as they bring it). We do this for two reasons. One to measure "tone or attitude" on the phone... you wouldn't believe the responses our front tech has gotten from this one. And second, to see how good they are at following instructions. Do they actually bring the clip board, etc with them to the interview? And then after the group interview is complete, I ask them to complete the interview questionnaire by writing their name in red and the answers to the three questions in blue. Just a simple test to again look at their ability to follow instructions.
I also like to do what Dr. Perron was referencing with the shaking of the hands at the end... one last chance to connect one on one. Can I really see this person being the first and last impression of my office?
One more thing (and then I'm done... I promise :) ). This has more to do with the individual interview. When the person arrives I introduce the candidate to each one of my techs by first name and have them come over and shake their hand. At the end of the interview I ask them if they remember any of the chiropractic tech's names. Remembering names is a pretty important part of the job and a great candidate will always be great with names. :)
Good luck with the hiring process!!!Posted 1 year ago # -
As you can tell there is alot of ways you can play with this. A couple of other things I thought of that have been helpful is that when I place the ad I make it clear to only call between 1:00 and 2:00. The office does not need to be flooded with calls during patient time or morning paper time for that matter. Quite distracting. It also sets the tone for "we have guidlines". When someone calls outside of that hour my staff tells them that we are seeing patients right now so please call back between 1 and 2 as the ad requested. Thank you. Babye. I try to restrict the amount of time and energy given to the interview process. I have let it take over my focus in the past and that is not a good thing. This time I have compartmentalized as much as ever and other than two 30 minute blocks of time for two group interviews and a one - two hour block for the second round each week. I don't think about it and neither does my staff other than the lunch hour.
Although 10-15 people is good, as Dr. Hassig mentioned, I prefer as many warm bodies as possible. I know most of the people coming won't work and so does my staff since they can barely speak English, but whatever. I like it packed! I like running out of seats and people finding a place to squeeze in standing. I have also found that the larger the audience the more "on" I am. It can be alot of fun. But what kind of feeling does someone have when they are at your office with 30 other people and someone asks "How many positions are you hiring for?" And you get to say "one". And you feel the hush fall over the room and that is when you get to say and we had another one of these group interviews last night with another 40 people. Ouch! You just became a more desirable place to work. :) A good candidate will find a job in any market so having a little extra competitive vibe to your position never hurts. Also we give them our website to find directions instead of my staff being stuck on the phone giving a full address and more. Here is the website, done. Much faster. Last one thing I like to do is come out at exactly the start time and I walk over and lock the door. I stick my head outside just to make sure some one is not literally wakling up but then I lock the door. As I lock the door I tell them all with a smile "I am not locking you in. If you want to run I won't stop you. But you all just passed the first part of the interview process by being on time and I thank you for that. We tell our patients that someone is here at 9:00 in the morning, so if they have been up since 2:00 with excruciating pain counting the minutes till someone is here and they call at 9:00, they are not going to be so happy if no one answers. Keeping commitments is an important part of gaining and keeping a patients trust so we take that very seriously." And inevitably someone will come up and knock and whatever and I don't open it. I simply say that I am not being rude to that person I am being respectful to all of you. And continue on. You better believe that that sets a tone. I am very nice about it all but I am show that we are serious about our work ethic.
Hope some of that might help too. Especially the call in times. That one was such a lift off the staff so that they still had paper time AND none of the patient time focus was affected.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredLove the lock the door bit! I am totally doing that next time!! :)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredGreat info! I love the lock the door bit too! Let's see how serious they are about getting a job. Dr. Hassig, thank you for the summary of the interview, I will use that. All very enlightening, thanks for sharing your wisdom everyone. This forum is amazing.
Posted 1 year ago # -
One additional tip for the second round and beyond. Make sure that you use DISC assessments and the motivators assessments!!! Certainly don't waste your money on anyone you are not wanting to potentially hire but they are a great piece of insight not to be overlooked. I have them fill out these forms at the second interview so I have them and I only fax in the one(s) that I am looking to offer the job to based on what I have determined so far. Then call the coaches to discuss the results. These assessments are great for helping to find a good fit for the position as well as insight as to how to approach them from managerial standpoint if you do hire them. No different than communicating with patients through DISC, this just takes it to another level to up the odds of a lasting happy relationship.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Okay, so you opened a can of worms. Another thing that might go with the second round is to leverage your potential strengths. Many of us have a spouse that work in the office. Karen, my wife, used to but is understanding of the DCM systems. She is very good intuitive about people and can really put them at ease conversationally which often translates to loose lips. So I have my chat and she has her own and then we debrief our experiences. I am blown away by some of the information that people give to her. And yet I am certainly looking from my knowledge base as well. But it is rare that we have disagreed on who to hire and who not to hire. I might come out and tell her that I really liked so and so and then she fills me in on her conversation and once in awhile you would think that we talked to different people. Anyway, we all have different strengths to leverage and Karen is quite instrumental in our hiring process. I am more of the nuts and bolts, analytical and she can become their best friend in minutes. The interviewees know that I will be their boss but I simply introduce her for who she is, co-owner and my wife. She has a "friendly" chat with each of them and it provides more insight than I would have gathered by myself. It is our personal dynamic but I figured it might apply for others.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredDr Perron, great idea and point to have the wife involved. After all, "Every business is a family businesss" was the main tenet of chapter 1 in Emyth Chiropractor. I will bring her in on the second part. Do you have them meet at the same time that you interview them one on one? How do you coordinate that? Do you speak to them first, or does your wife?
Posted 1 year ago # -
One other aspect that gives you a lot of information...FACEBOOK. It is amazing what people will put out there. Can give you a lot of information about who your potentials REALLY are.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredYes, but don't you have to be able to see their page? Unless you're their "friend" then you can't see their world. Now if you're talking about after they're hired and they "like" your business's page, then you can see their world. That actually is interesting but you already have them hired.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Dr. Bartemus, the spouse is not meant to make it a group interview. In fact just the opposite. If Karen brought nothing different than myself then I would not waste her time. It is only because she comes out with "the scoop" and it is often very insightful and useful in making a decision. DO NOT bring your wife in simply because she is your wife. That would not be a good idea. Karen ran our office from a managerial standpoint for about eight years leading up to and then for a while with DCM so she has alot of first hand experience in this, grasps the DCM point of view, and most of all just has a natural talent for this. That is why she is so valuable in this regard, not simply because she is my wife and it is a "family business". So if there is a strength to be leveraged, like what Karen has, utilize it. If this is not something that is an existing skillset, don't do it. The reference to a "family business" does not mean a hobby. It means that how we run our businesses will affect our family. From how many hours we work to how much income we bring home to what kind of mood we bring home. Not that the entire family needs to directly participate directly in the business. On the flip side the more things that a spouse may take care of at home so that they are not on your plate frees you up to do a better job and so it cycles back and forth on itself. Team work. But the interviews are separate conversations to gain different points of view.
Posted 1 year ago # -
In regards to FB, unless their profile is "private" you can usually check it out.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Excellent discussion gang! Dr. Bartemus, this is also a process that you will refine and get better at over time as you improve your understanding of DISC and go through the process a few times. During our last hiring, we had nearly 40 applicants from which we interviewed 4. They were selected based on my wife's and my observations of them during the group interview. Of the 4, we chose to send in 3 of their DISC profiles for scoring. All three of them were at or very near the benchmark for the position. It is amazing to think that, with some practice, you can get very good at ID'ing the best candidates for your positions based on observing them for approximately 10-20 minutes.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredHey everyone. Group interview went great last night and was a blast. 10 of 12 showed up and I have 3 solid one on one candidates. I can't thank the group enough for sharing all your wisdom. Now pray that I pick the best one!
Posted 1 year ago # -
Awesome. Just keep following the hiring system for round two as well. I have "liked" many people I have not hired. And I have hired people that I "liked" and fired them shortly thereafter. Obviously you should like the person but we all have our biases as to who we like and it is usually someone like us. Speaking for myself, I do not hit the benchmark for being a tech. Use the coaches and use the DISC and motivator assessments. Keep having fun. 10 out of 12 is an impressive showing. We averaged 50% before the economy tanked and now it is about 60-70%. So if your next group interview does not have such a high percentage, that would be more typical. Remember, you only need one.
Posted 1 year ago # -
Great work Dr. Bartemus. As was mentioned previously, continue to observe everything you can during the one on one interviews: arrival time, body language, presence, length of time to fill out forms, etc... We have candidates fill out both the DISC and workplace motivators(values) forms, then fax them both to Ellen (make sure all questions are filled out completely before they leave). Ask her to run the DISC on the ones you are serious about, and if it's what you are looking for(high "I"), have her run the values (test costs about twice what DISC does, but gives info on why they do what they do). Consult with the coaches about the test results; Dr. Thackeray is a ninja with assessment of DISC and values. Use the follow-up skills test interview to allow candidates to observe a cluster, and envision them in the office. You can also ask any further questions( I love asking how someone felt after a very busy day at the job they listed they liked the most; we want folks that thrive on that "good" tired you get at the end of a slammin day and want to push themselves to achieve new personal bests).
Best of luck, and let us know how it turns out! Remember, you're hiring you're next "ex" employee, so you don't have to make the perfect hire:)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredGreat advice Dr Perron and Hassig. I am forcing myself to follow the steps and not just hire the first high I that I like. She is the one that sticks out most to me, but I am a high I so I'm attracted to hear naturally. I want to trust the process and go through the 2nd interview with the other 2 candidates that are not as high I as she is and see what happens.
Posted 1 year ago # -
That is funny Dr. Bartemus. As a high I you should especially try and stick to the system because you are the style that is most wanting to say "good enough" screw the rest of the rules. Round two is big. I remember a few years ago sending in the assessment tests on a young lady that we loved and thought would be perfect. Cathy was debriefing the results with me at the time and about a minute or two into it as I was coming up with all the rationale as to why I would want to hire her any way. Dr. Frank hopped on the line and he said, "Two words: Paris Hilton." That was one of those sticking with you lessons for me and my appreciation for these assessments went way up. As he said, think about it. Charming, fun, stands out, probably can be bright enough to be quite conversational, but what about the first time there is a conflict of any kind? So we kept looking. ;)
Posted 1 year ago # -
Anonymous
UnregisteredHahaha nice. Yes, I do have the tendency sometimes to say "good enough". But I'm trying to do things right and explode the practice, so I'm going to follow the rules. Thank you. No Paris here please.
Posted 1 year ago #
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