Hiring in Healthcare: Interview Questions to Avoid and What to Ask Instead

Healthcare organizations, including those in behavioral and community health settings, struggle to attract and hire highly qualified physicians, medical assistants, nurses, counselors, psychiatrists, social workers and even administrative staff. But once you do get candidates through the door and into your hiring process, are you following best practices when it comes to the interview? Do you know what questions to ask in a healthcare interview?

Seemingly neutral interview questions can get your organization or facility into hot water if you aren’t careful. In fact, 85% of organizations are guilty of asking inappropriate interview questions. To avoid these types of questions, we’ve put together a list of best practices for interviewing that healthcare organizations can follow.

Interviewing best practices for behavioral and community healthcare organizations

Do everything you can to avoid putting your organization at risk. Here’s how:

• Regularly communicate hiring best practices to your managers and others involved in the process
• Share best practices via email so they can be referenced when needed
• Save resources in a shared location or company intranet
• Emphasize interview questions not to ask and advise staff of the consequences to them and the organization

Questions to ask, and not ask, in a healthcare interview

The table below is a helpful tool your staff can use to prepare for an interview. It includes interview questions to ask in a healthcare interview, as well as those that should be avoided. These questions can help you get the information you need without opening your organization to discrimination or liability claims. Please note that this list is not all-inclusive.

Do you ask the right questions?

Communicating and enforcing interviewing best practices to staff who conduct interviews might seem like a hassle, but the time you dedicate to it will pay off in the long run. Not only will you safeguard your behavioral or community healthcare facility from claims of discrimination or hiring bias, you will also create a positive and safe hiring process for candidates and future employees.

For more tips on how to improve the way you hire and retain highly skilled behavioral and community healthcare staff, download the free guide, How to Become an Employer of Choice When You’re Short on Staff and High on Turnover. Inside, you’ll find an in-depth walkthrough on hiring, interviewing and onboarding, along with helpful templates and worksheets.