6 Tips for Successfully Hiring Healthcare Executives

I've dedicated my career to helping healthcare organizations fill vacant executive-level roles. These openings require nuance; they need an understanding of healthcare, yes, but they also demand creativity, an affinity for data and an awareness of the unique industry that is healthcare.

This is part of what makes hiring for these types of leadership roles so difficult — yet also so critical to an organization's success. From what to look for in candidates to how you can prepare your organization to bring in someone new, here are my top tips for successfully hiring healthcare executives:

1. Know your organization.

I see it often: Executives who excel in one healthcare system but flounder in another. As the hiring manager, you must deeply know who your organization serves, what makes it unique, and other dynamics that can influence the type of leader best suited to come on board. Some of these considerations may include:

• Cultural differences

• How people communicate across clinical/non-clinical functions

• Bilingual communication needs

2. Outline an onboarding plan.

Before bringing in someone new, you must first make sure you have a plan to set them up for success. This should include the stakeholders that the new hire needs to meet, ample communication with affected team members, and a clear process for helping the new executive gain a deep understanding of the organization and their role within it.

3. Establish clear KPIs.

While specific metrics might be hard to define from the onset, having an established foundation of what you want your new addition to accomplish in their role is critical. It starts with knowing the pain points your organization is experiencing.

For a chief nursing officer, this might be focusing on readmission rates and staff retention. For financial executives, knowing where your organization is losing the most dollars is key to repairing the damage. Aligning the overarching hurdle with the right person for the job is where success lies.

4. Look for openness and curiosity.

There is tremendous art and science behind operating a successful healthcare system. The people you choose to lead yours should approach their work with this balance in mind.

In my experience, candidates who are open to learning new things themselves and to teaching others are signs of a good fit. Those who are confident in their expertise yet willing to adopt new ideas and methodologies are often able to work well with others while still bringing their own value to the table.

With constant advances in technology, artificial intelligence, regulations and more, look for someone open to embracing these changes and committed to staying abreast of them.

5. Balance data and people.

From clinical data to operational metrics, the healthcare realm houses a lot of numbers and information. While this information is necessary for making ongoing business decisions, the candidates you consider for your C-suite should be able to balance this with the realities of working in a people-first environment.

Employee burnout plagues the industry. Medical cases are complex. Healthcare is extremely individualized. Successful healthcare executives are those who not only understand this dynamic but balance it along with driving business objectives.

6. Be patient.

Hiring for most positions — and especially executive positions — simply takes time. The unique demands of these types of roles, combined with the experience, education and personality required, can make finding the right candidate feel like an impossible task.

I'm here to tell you it's not. Staying the course and not settling out of desperation can better serve your organization in the long run. The short-term discomfort the vacancy causes — even if it takes three, six or nine months to fill — is far less than the frustration that will ensue if your new hire exits the organization shortly after joining because they aren't a fit.

The importance of hiring not just any healthcare executive, but the right executive, cannot be understated. By starting with a solid foundation of your organization and its needs, you can then be intentional about finding someone who can fill the gaps — and so much more.