Top 3 Tips for Hiring the Right Administrator

Are you having trouble finding good people? Well it may not make you feel any better, but you’re not alone. There is a growing shortage of qualified ambulatory surgery center (ASC) talent. The nationwide demand already exceeds the supply of experienced administrators and other key personnel. The number of ASCs in the U.S. has almost doubled over the last seven years. Add to that a national nursing shortage and baby-boomer administrators retiring, and it looks like the war for talent is back on.

OK, you already knew that, right? What you might not know is that that trend will continue as aging baby-boomers fuel even greater demand for ambulatory surgical services. These factors make it all the more challenging to identify, attract, acquire and retain top professionals for those ASCs seeking improved performance or to maintain their competitive position.

While you cannot enlarge the pool of qualified applicants, you can improve your chances of hiring top-notch individuals by following these three top tips.

1. Understand and Define What You Want To Accomplish

“If you don’t know where you’re going you’ll probably end up somewhere else.”

What challenges are you facing? What goals does your facility have? What key initiatives will be critical to success? Does the center want to grow? If so, in what areas and by how much? What resources and support will need to be deployed? How will top performance be defined and measured?

Try to quantify your needs where you can and be as specific as possible. Taking the extra time to really think through the business challenges and goals not only increases your chances of actually accomplishing them, it will also increase your chances of attracting a talented person to whom you can delegate those challenges. Understanding and defining what you want to accomplish also gives you the ability to evaluate an administrator’s performance once hired.

2. Craft a Compelling Message

“I would never join a club that would have me as a member.”

Why should someone quit their current job and come to work with you? If you never thought about it before, think about it now. To answer this question, try to put yourself in a successful administrator’s shoes. Are you there, yet? OK, now, what is important to you in a job? What motivates you? For many people, an ASC’s culture (the people and core values) is a key motivator (or de-motivator). Who you are as a team is an important factor in attracting and landing the best candidates. 

To recruit top performers you should be able to describe and emphasize the facility’s culture and the opportunities the position affords, rather than focusing on the position’s duties and responsibilities. Let’s face it, an experienced administrator already understands the general “job description” because she or he is performing the job already. Talking about duties and responsibilities will rarely interest the best candidates to consider making a change.

Top candidates will be more interested in who they will be working with (the culture), the challenges to be met, and how they can grow personally as well as professionally within the organization. Interestingly, while certainly not unimportant, compensation is generally not the primary motivator. Of course you have to be competitive with compensation and benefits. Also, plan on paying for reasonable relocation expenses and, in today’s real estate market, consider a few months of temporary housing for the new administrator and family. Be ready at every turn to laud your community, team, and opportunity throughout the process. Having a compelling message opens the door to a dialog that helps you understand what “makes them tick” and increases the best prospects’ level of interest.

3. Access the Network

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.” Newspaper advertisements and Internet job postings are rarely successful in attracting the best and most-experienced administrators. The best and brightest are generally not reading ads anyway. They are dutifully and successfully doing their jobs. How can you identify and attract them?

Utilizing existing personal connections is a much more effective approach. To this end, have physicians, office staff, nurses and others develop a list of names of potential candidates to contact. If you don’t know of anyone or have the time and expertise to contact potential candidates, you should consider working with a well established executive search firm, who have already developed a network of experienced executives in the industry. Just be sure the search firm knows your industry well. Just because they, “do healthcare” does not mean they have the knowledge and industry contacts necessary to do a comprehensive search or attract and close the best candidates if they can find them.

Don’t be reluctant to reach out to a competing facility. While it might seem taboo or uncomfortable to recruit an administrator from a competing ASC, if done professionally and tactfully, it can be the best way to find a high quality and experienced professional. If you are worried about the potential for political or personal backlash using this approach, again, you might consider using a third party search and recruitment specialist for assistance to insulate you from this backlash and to demonstrate to candidates that you respect their confidentiality as well. Accessing the network will allow you to leverage existing relationships an increase your chances for success.

While the war for talent does not appear to have any end in sight, following these proven guidelines will improve your chances of identifying, attracting and hiring the best administrator possible for your ASC. 

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