Hiring Based on Core Values
Many of us dread the hiring process.
I’ve interviewed hundreds of potential employees in my 10+ years as an office manager, and it took me until late last year to figure out some important things and make a few great hires. The process was more interesting than I could imagine, and I learned some things that became invaluable to me and will be used every time from here on out when I have to add an employee.
The great thing about my learning experience is that not only did it help me narrow down and attract great people to our office, but it helped the management team and me focus on what’s important to the team. What kind of employees do we want? How much do our core values impact our office?
The management team learned that our core values are alive and well and mean the world to us.
I’ll tell everyone that we have the best dental coaches around.
Why do we need a dental coach, you ask?
I’ve always told people you should “surround yourselves with people who know more than you,” as that can only help you grow. Our entire team, as well as the management team, has grown so much in the past two years, and we owe it to our desire to become the best version of ourselves and have some great coaches to help pave the way and keep us aligned.
Know Your Purpose and Values
One of the first things we did with our coaching team was to zone in on our core purpose and values. What ideas, behaviors, or concepts were truly what we were all about?
We needed to identify who we were and what we stood for.
This wasn’t a quick process by any means. We in the leadership team wrote our ideas and thoughts down, came up with what each of us thought was necessary, and then shared our ideas. It was interesting to see that we were all trying to say the same thing and that our core values were all pretty much the same, just stated differently.
The next step was to narrow it down to our four core values. Our office is known for being a light-hearted, happy place with plenty of laughs heard throughout the building. How could we take these core values and make them fun to read or catch our patient’s attention? We put them into fun sayings, like “Just make Lemonade.”
After plenty of revisions, our core values were now set in stone, and we, as a clinic, promised that every decision we made and action we took would reflect our core values.
These values became my guide for hiring, and it’s been incredible so far!
Crafting a Hiring Ad
When I crafted my employment ad, I didn’t give it the typical wording you find for most open positions. I didn’t even list what position I was hiring for!
I penned an ad by taking the time to highlight what type of person I was looking for. I needed to let those thinking about applying to know that we were looking for the “right” person for our culture. They needed to be a perfect fit with what we thought, how we acted, and how we wanted to carry on with our dental lives.
They needed to feel how strongly we felt about our culture and core values, and it was an all-or-nothing ad; you either were utterly intrigued by the ad and wanted to know more, or you knew that this seemed too much for someone who just wanted a position. That’s exactly what I was hoping for!
Screening Phone Interviews
I love to do a quick phone interview with potential applicants. There’s so much that can be learned from a simple 20-minute call, and that helps me quickly weed out the ones just looking for a stepping stone or a temporary job.
Asking a simple question such as “What did you find most interesting about our website?” tells me many things. Did they want this position enough to check out who we are, what we stand for, or even where we’re located?
Asking them open-ended questions about why they were attracted to our ad would also yield great and not-so-great responses. The applicants who connected with my ad would sail through these phone questions.
Choosing on Values
The next thing I did made this hiring effort even more worthwhile: I took our four core values, reworded them just a bit, and then added eight core values common to most businesses. I reworked our application to include all 12 core values and asked each applicant to select their top five core values.
When I received those applications back, I first checked out the core values section and saw how they compared to our core values. It was such a happy moment when I saw a trend- the people who had made the final interviews all had at least three of our core values circled!
I also found in these interviews that I made it a point to stress how near and dear to us these values were correct in the beginning by crafting my ad to reflect this, and those that applied also took the idea of having solid core values to heart!
This remains one of my proudest moments because we had five applicants to whom I would have felt thrilled to be awarded the position. They all had passion, great work ethics, and a genuine desire to become part of our dental family.
We ended up hiring not one but two spectacular team members and couldn’t be happier with them! I look back to our coaching team and remember them telling us how important these core values could and would become, and I couldn’t be more thankful for being taught and fully embracing the idea that your core values are genuinely your compass!
About the Author
Michelle Hacht, MAADOM
Michelle Hacht is an office manager with a personal mission statement: “Be a better version of yourself every day you’re allowed.”
Two of her most satisfying achievements include creating leaders out of team members who never asked for the title and creating an atmosphere of open communication and radical candor.
Michelle has been an AADOM Lifetime Member since 2018. She received her AADOM Fellowship (FAADOM) in 2023 and her Mastership (MAADOM) in 2024.
Michelle’s professional and personal mission is to leave everyone in a better position than when she arrived.
