Journal excerpt: Recruitment and hiring practices—Who’s poolside?

by Monica Tyiska, MBA-PM, RHIA, CCS, CPC, CPMA, CHA, OHCC, CCP-P

As a hiring manager, when I am presented with candidates, they have already gone through a human resources (HR) screening, so I don’t see everyone that was poolside to begin with. If a candidate has made it past the HR screening process, I interview them. There may be diversity of resume backgrounds but not always diversity in past job description elements. Nonetheless, I let everyone shoot their shot.

If your candidates that meet the job requirements and are poolside are predominantly from the same cultural background, median age, and socioeconomic background, do you say, “Well, those are the candidates we have” and proceed? What are healthcare organizations doing to bring people of diverse backgrounds in? In today’s world, healthcare organizations need to reach out and bring diversity to their departments.

This can be accomplished by reaching out to diverse colleges and partnering with community programs to build partnerships that foster relationships where talent can be developed. Building and deploying tailored social media outreach efforts can help bring in diverse talent as well. There can also be internal workforce programs to develop talent within an organization. Bringing people poolside is one way to build diversity and inclusion, from the outside in.

In some cases, an organization may develop a diverse workforce from the inside out. I spoke with an HR administrator who said that diversity and inclusion was just for the in-house workforce and not a part of their hiring process. So, ask yourself whether there is equity in your current workforce.

An organization may need to work on diversity and inclusion within its current culture. It may be an uphill climb to promote changes in hiring practices when you do not currently have an environment that promotes diversity and inclusion from within. If everyone in the pool is not diverse and welcoming, you will not attract diversity and inclusion poolside.  

Editor’s note: This article is an excerpt from the January/February 2021 edition of the CDI Journal. Tyiska is a coding/CDI manager at CentraState Healthcare System in Freehold, New Jersey. Contact her at mtyiska@centrastate.com.