When an academic radiologist considers a new job, it is a multifaceted event. The applicant wants to know what the organization is looking for in a candidate and what investments the organization will make in him or her and his or her career. For some leaders, hiring decisions are the most important decision they will make. For organizations, hiring and keeping good people is a source of competitive advantage. At other times, searching for a new job or hiring a new faculty member is an unplanned event. Hiring errors can be expensive. What is the cost of a bad hire? Replacement cost alone is estimated at 1.5–2.0 times the salary of the individual you are replacing . This does not include any lost revenue or other impacts. Regardless of which side of the hiring process you are on, this is a critical leadership task.
So what criteria do academic radiology practices use to hire new faculty? Smith et al. recently surveyed the Society of Academic Chairs in Radiology to determine qualities valued in newly hired faculty. This study is particularly timely in view of the changes in the American Board of Radiology exam and the current uncertainty on the direction health care in the United States will turn. In Smith et al.’s study, 79 of the 184 eligible academic radiology chairs completed the survey for a response rate of 43%. Smith et al. found, “the most important hiring criteria cited were expertise in subspecialty, fellowship training and perceived ability to work well with referring physicians. The most popular recruitment tools cited were hiring candidates from a chair’s own program, journal ads and academic networks. A minority of chairs (16%), primarily those of smaller departments, will not hire new graduates prior to completing board certification under the new certification structure” .
How does this compare to other industries? Taylor in a recent Harvard Business Review blog highlights the success of “hire for attitude, train for skill” approaches. While we cannot just hire for good attitudes, we can no longer hire for clinical skills alone either. For some, clinical skills are just table stakes to get to the interview. As radiology training programs, we can teach new faculty many clinical skills but one skill we cannot teach them is how to answer the phones politely. If they have not learned how to interact politely by the time they are interviewing, we probably cannot teach them that skill. The era of the toxic, expert clinician or the toxic, well-funded investigator is over.
In a review of the impact of hiring practices for senior executives and the long-term performance of the organization in the business literature, Fernandez-Araoz et al. described nine best practices in hiring. A comparison to academic radiology hiring practices is instructive. The first is to anticipate the need. This involves both proactive analysis of the future needs as well as continually evaluating the talent pool. Most academic centers have strategic plans to set an institutional compass for future directions. Many national radiology organizations have recently conducted strategic planning exercises, which highlight trends and possible future scenarios. The combination of national and institutional plans allows for the anticipation of future hiring needs in the local environment in light of the national landscape. In academics, the talent pool is assessed by reading the literature and networking with rising stars at regional and national meetings.
The second best practice is to specify the job. This involves defining relevant skills and experience as well as looking at the team that the candidate will work with and how the team and organization culture will impact the role. Academic centers often recruit into a subspecialty section or division, so the clinical skill expectation is somewhat defined. There is probably an opportunity to improve our hiring practices by looking beyond the clinical skills needed to do the job. Does this new position need to lead a team, work across institutional silos, or teach learners of different stages? Does the new position require process improvement skills, medical economics skills, or strong customer service skills? Would the candidate be effective in this new environment with the existing team? If academic centers are hiring their own graduates, some of these may already be known because the internal candidate has already worked in the environment.
Developing a large pool of possibilities is the third best practice. This should include people from both inside and outside of the organization as well as people in other roles. Using your networks allow you to have a large and diverse pool to choose from. In other industries, an active presence on social media is used to expand the recruiting network .
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References
1. Porath C., Pearson C.: The cost of bad behavior.2009.Penguin GroupNew York
2. Smith S.M., Demissie S., Raden M., et. al.: A survey of Academic Radiology Department Chairs on hiring recent graduates as new attending physicians. Acad Radiol 2015; in press
3. Taylor B.: Hire for attitude, train for skill. Harvard Business Review; February 1; Available at: https://hbr.org/2011/02/hire-for-attitude-train-for-sk/ Accessed September 20, 2015
4. Fernandez-Araoz C., Groysberg B., Nohria N.: The Definitive Guide to Recruiting in Good Times and Bad. Harvard Business Review; May2009. Reprint R0905F
5. Coine T., Babbitt M.: A World Gone Social How Companies Must Adapt to Survive.2014.
6. Buckley P.F., Dauphinais D., Miller D.D., et. al.: Academic leadership searches: evolving best practices. J Healthc Leadersh 2010; 2: pp. 61-67.