10 Hiring Tips for Healthcare Startups

Updated on May 8, 2020


Your vision is to change the lives of millions, although with your startup outgrowing its infancy, it has new needs, the most pivotal one being talented staff. Our thorough combined research has allowed us to provide you with the best hiring tips that will allow you to focus on what is most important as a business-owner: your assets! 

Making decisions such as knowing whether to make deliveries through reliable couriers instead of hiring delivery drivers can be challenging. Join us as we unpack our ten tips that will guide your healthcare startup hiring process:

1. Knowing When to Hire and When Not To

You should take an unbiased look at your reasons for, as more often than not,  the reasons why work should be outsourced to experts might outweigh those of wanting to permanently employ a candidate. Paying for a once-off service is, more cost-effective than paying someone a monthly salary. 

2. Have a Detailed Job Specification

There is nothing more frustrating than having under or overqualified people apply to the available position, which emphasizes the importance of a solid job description. Be sure to mention all the duties that will be expected from the successful candidate, clearly articulate non-negotiables and feel free to include “would-be-nice” attributes.

3. Show Salary be Shown Upfront

The truth is that at the end of the day, the money is the determining factor for every single candidate. We recommend that salary is shown up front, (or as early into the interviewing process as possible), as it only wastes the time and energy of both parties if the candidate is successful but rejects the offer.

4. Consider A Recruitment Agency

Recruitment agencies come in handy as they will save you a lot of time by knowing what to look for in the candidates they already have enlisted in their systems, according to your ideal candidate description. Although their services are not free, many of them are reputable and will stop at nothing to find the talent you are looking for on your behalf.

5. Hiring Hierarchy

Studies show that having a strong sales department is the most profitable investment to make as an emerging healthcare startup, the runner-up would be your marketing, then admin departments. As important as admin might seem, it will not have half the impact on profit that a strong sales team might.

6. Avoiding Credential Fraud

Today, it has become increasingly easy to fraud any kind of degree, especially in the medical field. We strongly suggest that background checks be conducted, and credentials be verified before inviting any candidate in for an initial interview. A good way to verify credentials is to get in contact with the candidate’s tertiary institution to inquire about the accreditation.

7. When Replacements Matter

The face of your company is the most critical, so if you should find that your current CEO is inexperienced, overconfident or arrogant, it may be a good idea to evaluate the decision of replacing them, or reassigning them to a different position within your startup.

8. Where to Advertise the Position

A great way to ensure that you hire candidates that are generally interested in your startup is to post up a careers section on your website, or through your social media, as then anyone who is following you can see it and apply through your portal, sifting out any ‘chancers’.

9. Skills to Hone In On

Consider candidates that have a multi-dimensional skillset, as these accumulated skills will only benefit your startup. Hiring someone simply because they have the accreditation to perform the available role is shallow. Try to sift through your candidate pool as deeply as possible to find a candidate that can bring a vast array of skills to the table.

10. Hire for Emotional Intelligence

The perfect candidate may not be the best culture fit for your company, and while finding the perfect culture fit proves to be near impossible, hiring a receptive person with a high emotional intelligence quota is not.  We suggest that you look into online resources that offer free and premium emotional intelligence tests.

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Throughout the year, our writers feature fresh, in-depth, and relevant information for our audience of 40,000+ healthcare leaders and professionals. As a healthcare business publication, we cover and cherish our relationship with the entire health care industry including administrators, nurses, physicians, physical therapists, pharmacists, and more. We cover a broad spectrum from hospitals to medical offices to outpatient services to eye surgery centers to university settings. We focus on rehabilitation, nursing homes, home care, hospice as well as men’s health, women’s heath, and pediatrics.