New Hiring Strategies With Dr. Johnny Franco

Dr. Johnny Franco, owner of Austin Plastic Surgeon in Texas,  goes beyond standard hiring practices by evolving the traditional job interview, recruiting in different places (like social media), and transforming his practice into a destination where talented people want to come and stay.

What is your practice doing differently?

Immersive job interviews:

“We invite them to spend a half-day. They kind of roll with us, get partnered up with one or two people and see patients. They can see what the actual day-to-day duties are, and we can ask them questions. I feel like sometimes people can be very good during an interview, but you get a much better idea through the course of a day. If you're turning over a room and somebody puts on gloves and helps wipe stuff down, you know that this person is willing to do whatever is needed. If somebody does nothing but complain about their other job, you know that situation, too.”

Recruiting on social media:

“We get a lot of direct messages on social media. Anytime somebody direct messages, I ask them to give me a CV. We put it in a file and, when a position comes open, we'll reach out to them. When somebody follows us and understands our brand, they already have an attachment. That has been successful for us. One of our medical assistants that we hired has been absolutely incredible. She started off with us by DMing me on Instagram. She asked if she could do her externship with us. We've loved her and then we hired her.”

Building a destination company:

“It's such a competitive market for employers to recruit and keep people that we do some things to incentivize our employees. We have a 401(k) that everybody can participate in and we do a 3-percent contribution across the board for everybody. We also do a profit sharing model, so everybody gets an additional bonus when the book is closed at the end of the year. We also have really good health insurance. So we try to make this a system where, when they come, they feel like they're well taken care of.”

How has this innovation helped your practice?

“We used to just try to fill holes. Now, we restructure as we hire, making sure to spread the work and balance the load properly. When you grow this fast, it goes from a few jack-of-all-trades personnel to getting people who are experts in their field. Hiring the right people for the right roles and keeping an eye on workload allows us to do that. We are trying to make sure that everybody is in a system where they think and we think they can be successful.”

How has this innovation helped your patients?

“When the team is working together and the office is running smoothly, patients can feel it. Things happen on time. People get their questions answered. The overall quality of care goes up. And that’s the goal. We want to grow, but we want to put the right people in place so that quality is maintained and even improves as we go. We want patients to come first, no matter what.”

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