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990: Hiring the Wrong People? You Might Be Missing This One Crucial Step – Carlie Einarson

Have you ever hired someone, then regretted it six months later? In this episode, Kirk Behrendt brings back Carlie Einarson, one of ACT’s amazing coaches, to share four key types of interview questions that will help you prevent bad hires. To learn the most important step to finding the right people, listen to Episode 990 of The Best Practices Show!

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Episode Resources:

Main Takeaways:

  • If you ask the right questions, it will reveal who someone is, not just what they can do.
  • Ask questions that are credential, technical, experience, and behavior-based.
  • When you hire the wrong people, your practice culture will always suffer.
  • Develop and document a hiring system — and then stick to it.
  • Always hire people who fit your core values.

Quotes:

“You can have the best systems, you can have the best patients, you can have the best clinical skills in the world, and the best office. But if you keep hiring the wrong people, your culture is going to suffer. Ultimately, the truth about it is practice owners don't have a hiring problem — they have a problem of asking the wrong questions and not having that cultural fit, if you will, fit like a puzzle.” (1:27—1:52) -Carlie

“It's harder to find people, so I think we're asking less and less questions because we just want somebody in the door or somebody in that position. But really, asking specific questions is going to make it so that you don't regret your decision.” (5:46—6:02) -Carlie

“You have to be thorough in your process. Sometimes, people will put on there they have experience. Go a little bit deeper. ‘Tell me exactly what that looked like. When you say you were a dental assistant for all of this time, share with me what a typical day looked like,’ or, ‘When you were an office manager at a previous office, what responsibilities did you have, specifically, and what did a day look like? What did a typical week look like for you?’” (7:14—7:42) -Kirk

“Have you ever hired somebody that you're like, ‘Wow, I thought that they were capable of doing that,’ and in the interview they said they were capable of that? If their capabilities or their experience does not match their experience in the office now, it's probably because we're not asking detailed or specific enough questions.” (7:47—8:08) -Carlie

“The missing piece is really digging into how the person thinks, how they react, how they live, and what their values are. I always say to a lot of my clients, ‘You can't teach somebody how to work hard, but you can teach them certain roles and responsibilities or certain duties of the job. You can't really change the inner workings, but you can teach them certain things.’ So, their instincts and their habits, do those things align with our culture? Same with your values. Ultimately, you pick people in your life — to marry, to be friends with, to spend your time with — based on similar values, most of the time.” (8:33—9:15) -Carlie

“These questions can be very different. It can be, for example, ‘Describe a time when your integrity was tested at work. What did you do?’ It could be as simple as, ‘Tell me about a time that you had to give difficult feedback to a teammate. How did you handle that? What happened? Tell me a little bit more.’ This shows more of their personality, more of their values, and how they handle tough situations. It asks about their integrity. Talking about different stress levels, ‘What was the most stressful aspect of your last job? How did you react to it?’ Those reactions go along with the values because if they're really core values of ours, we take them into our day-to-day and into our integrity, into our honesty, and into our job, in general.” (11:04—11:57) -Carlie

“Ultimately, I would ask about the core values. I would ask if they know the core values, if they looked into it, if they have done their homework, and how they could fit into your office related to the core values. I would also spend a lot of time explaining and sharing the core values and sharing the culture of your office. Most of the time, when I did a phone interview previously, I would share a lot about the culture and our core values to let that person know how important they are to us, because if you do really hire for a core values fit, you spend less time managing people and correcting bad behavior down the line. You spend more time leading, and those people make better decisions without being told. Most of the time, they're more self-starting and they continue to strengthen the culture without constantly, as a leader, having to repair that culture.” (14:38—15:36) -Carlie

“The hiring process is really important. I think this is really key, and we teach this in our To The Top study clubs. It's okay to ask somebody, ‘Would you like to be successful here?’ If they say no, that's a bad hire. Number two, ‘Would you like some coaching on your performance once you get hired?’ Some people, it isn't what they say, it's how they say it. Some people are like, ‘Uh, yeah. Sure,' which is a no. So, I'm going to ask a little bit more. But most people do want to be successful in the role.” (15:53—16:21) -Kirk

“The question is always, how do I find great people? Well, you don't. They find you, ultimately, and it starts with great questions, a great process, and really supporting the things that matter.” (18:46—18:56) -Kirk

“I'm not the best at hiring, but I think this still holds true. I'm always looking for the things I cannot train. There are a lot of things we can train. You can train people better than ever today. But there are some things you can't. And if they don't have the innate behaviors that support your core values, it never, ever, ever, ever, ever works, no matter how hard you want it to.” (19:20—19:45) -Kirk

“You really have to define your core values very clearly. If you do not have them, that is the foundational piece. It really needs to be, ‘This is our flag in the sand. This is who we are and what we stand for,’ so that you know exactly what you're looking for. Without those clearly defined, you can't go searching for it.” (19:53—20:13) -Carlie

“The right hire should add to your culture. The wrong one will drain it. Ultimately, you really should, in the hiring process, in my opinion, feel that you know in your gut this is the right person, and they're going to be the right person for our culture. It's just like if you like a shirt in the dressing room. You have to love it in order to wear it. If you are like, ‘Oh, this is fine,’ it's going to hang in the closet and you're not going to be happy with your decision. So, make sure you're asking all the questions. Ask extra questions so that you feel really confident in that decision, and you know they're going to add to your culture.” (20:16—20:55) -Carlie

“Try not to hire for what people know. Again, there are things that you can train, and there are things that are a little more innate and qualities that people have. I would rather help train skill than train attitude.” (20:57—21:14) -Carlie

“Have a really great hiring system. When there are challenges in the workforce like there are now, we have to up our game. It's very easy for people nowadays to copy a resume or an ad on Indeed, put it into ChatGPT, and say, ‘Create the ultimate resume and cover letter,’ that you'll read and go, ‘This is amazing!’ because ChatGPT did it. So, you've got to always be working ahead of that.” (21:22—21:51) -Kirk

“Really follow the system. Create it, follow it, and hold yourself to it. Because the hardest part is, you could maybe like somebody and get to know them really quick, and be like, ‘Oh, they're perfect,’ and then you throw the rest out the door. Try to follow your system and have that hiring system documented. Really go step by step and use it as a checklist.” (22:36—22:57) -Carlie

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

0:57 Why this is an important topic.

3:03 Four key types of interview questions: Credential-based questions.

4:14 Four key types of interview questions: Technical-based questions.

6:06 Four key types of interview questions: Experience-based questions.

8:09 Four key types of interview questions: Behavior-based questions.

14:20 Hire people for a core values fit.

15:50 Build a hiring process that protects your culture.

19:46 Final takeaways.

22:58 Bent Ericksen & Associates.

Carlie Einarson Bio:

Carlie Einarson is a lead practice coach who has a passion for helping others succeed in the dental field. She loves helping to create a stable foundation for practices so both professionals and patients have a great experience every time they walk in the door!

Carlie graduated from Utah College of Dental Hygiene. She has ten years of experience in the dental field, including clinical dental hygiene, front office, and leading teams.

In her free time, Carlie enjoys spending quality time with loved ones, traveling, skiing, playing volleyball, and golfing. 
ACT Dental Team

ACT Dental Team

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