As a dentist, it’s important to have a strong team of dental professionals working alongside you to provide quality care to your patients. Conducting effective interviews is crucial to finding the right candidate for your practice. Your interviews need to be able to evaluate the candidate’s technical, interpersonal, and leadership skills so you can compare their abilities to the needs of your business as well as to other candidates. In this blog, we’ll go over some of the key interview questions that can help you evaluate the skills of potential hires.
Evaluating Technical Skills
When it comes to evaluating technical skills, it’s important to assess a candidate’s experience with dental procedures and their understanding of dental equipment and software. When looking at technical skills, you want to ask procedural or technical questions that have absolute true answers, even if there are more than one true answer. Here are a few questions you can ask to gauge their technical abilities:
- Can you walk us through a dental procedure you’ve performed in the past?
- How familiar are you with our office’s dental software?
- Can you explain the steps you’d take to sterilize a piece of dental equipment?
Assessing Interpersonal Skills
Having strong interpersonal skills is critical for success in the dental industry. A candidate who is able to communicate effectively, work well in a team, and provide excellent customer service is essential to your practice’s success. Here, you are encouraged to ask candidates to talk about past or hypothetical experiences that would give you an in-depth idea of how they think and operate when there is no perfect solution. Candidates who are well rounded will be able to explain their reasoning for the strategies that they use, so consider following up with questions that can give you greater insight to how they think. Consider asking the following questions during your interview:
- Can you describe a time when you had to effectively communicate with a difficult patient?
- How do you handle conflicts with team members in the workplace?
- Can you describe a situation where you went above and beyond to provide excellent customer service?
Evaluating Professionalism
In addition to technical skills and interpersonal skills, it’s important to evaluate a candidate’s level of professionalism. Work ethics, motivation, ability to handle stress and pressure, and problem-solving skills are all important factors to consider when making a hiring decision. This can be hard to evaluate in a pre-set professional setting, such as an interview, as candidates are already in the mindset of coming off professional. With that in mind, try to ask questions that pull candidates into real scenarios that have happened previously to get a more accurate look at how they operate. Here are a few questions to ask during your interview:
- Can you describe a time when you faced a difficult challenge at work and how you handled it?
- What motivates you to do your best work?
- Can you walk us through your problem-solving process when faced with a difficult situation?
In conclusion, when conducting interviews for potential dental professionals, it’s important to assess their technical skills, interpersonal skills, and professionalism. Asking the right questions during the interview process can help you find the right candidate for your practice. While blogs can be a great help, nothing is better than a recruiter when you are looking to hire. Click here and connect with a specialized recruiter today to learn more!