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| Corporate
Culture: Finding the Right Fit Jeffrey Zurlinden, RN, MS, ACRN |
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| Each hospital
or healthcare agency has a unique culture, the collective
personality of its employees, management style,
communication patterns, mission, and values. And just as
we seek out certain kinds of individual personalities for
our friends, spouses, and business partners because we
enjoy and prosper with them, we should look for hospital
“personalities” that suit us. During an
interview, try to measure the corporate culture and
decide if it would be the kind of partner you need. Nurse recruiters also want to find a good fit for candidates. “We’re nurse driven,” says Joan Orseck, RN, nurse recruiter at Hackensack University Medical Center, Hackensack, NJ. Nurses receive a copy of the medical center’s philosophy to help them determine whether its mission and values match their own. To evaluate their clinical skills, applicants are interviewed by a nurse manager and a nurse educator. But first Orseck screens candidates to ensure that they have the characteristics needed to succeed in Hackensack’s culture. “I tailor my interview to the applicant,” she says. “But I really want to find out three things: compassion, caring, and commitment.” To measure compassion and caring, Orseck pays close attention to the stories that candidates tell, as well as their body language and facial expressions. For signs of professional commitment, she relies heavily on the candidate’s resume. “I look at resumes not just for length of service at a particular job, but for evidence of professional growth and learning,” she explains. Desirable candidates may have continued their education by returning to school, participating in continuing education, or earning clinical certification. They might have joined professional organizations or contributed through committee work or professional writing or speaking. During interviews at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, DC, senior employment specialist Susan Ackerman, RN, MSN, tries to paint a vivid portrait of work at a bustling medical center. “We’re very realistic with an applicant,” she says. “We’re a very busy acute care hospital with great clinical opportunities, as well as challenges. We hope the challenges motivate them to come.” She describes the ideal nurse at Washington Hospital Center as a professionally committed team player who puts the patient first and is prepared to accept the challenges of caring for patients with complex health needs who may require cutting-edge technology. She says the hospital is a “great place to begin your career, as well as grow in your career.” To give nurses an opportunity to sample the culture at Washington Hospital Center, applicants are first screened by the human resources department, then promising candidates are invited back for open houses to talk with the nurses directly involved with the unit. Visiting a prospective patient-care unit may be the best way to gauge a unit’s culture. Even if a prospective employer doesn’t provide an open house, you may still be able to spend more time than a tour normally allows by requesting a unit visit, but give the nurse recruiter plenty of time to make the arrangements. While visiting a unit, pay particular attention to the interactions between staff members and between patients and staff. Prepare for the visit by determining which elements of worklife are important to you, then observe if these qualities flourish on the unit. The accompanying sidebar “Measuring the Culture” may help. At Hackensack University Medical Center, Orseck asks candidates to outline the specific contributions they will bring to the organization: “Tell me something that is special and unique about yourself and why you should be hired.” She also judges whether a candidate’s professional attitude matches the hospital’s from the first contact, even the message on an applicant’s answering machine. “The very first conversation on the phone may determine whether they get an interview,” she says. Don’t Forget to Ask Questions The best interviews sound like conversations when both candidate and interviewer ask and answer questions. Most nurse recruiters welcome questions and view the candidate favorably for having asked. To assess the organization’s culture, consider asking some of the following questions:
Measuring the Culture During the interview and tour, you gained a general impression of the organization and what it would be like to work there. Some of this information came from direct questions you asked, while other information came from keeping your eyes and ears open and reading between the lines. Now compare your preferences with the agency’s ability to meet them. Consider the characteristics listed below as continuums. For example: Very few hospitals have totally obsolete technology, and very few have all state-of-the-art technology: most are somewhere in the middle. First determine what degree of technology you seek, then compare the potential employer to your standard. Compare your preferences to the remainder of the following characteristics with the employer’s ability to meet them.
Adapted from Job Interviewing: A Step-by-Step Guide for Nurses. By Jeffrey Zurlinden, RN, MS, ACRN, 1997. Used with permission of the author. Jeffrey Zurlinden, RN, MS, ACRN, is a frequent contributor to Nursing Spectrum. |