Ludwig on Leadership: How to Win Big When Hiring Staff

Hiring employees can be like spinning a roulette wheel; just substitute red and black for the words “good employee” and “bad employee.” You hire someone and spin the wheel. Sometimes it comes up “good employee” and other times it may come up “bad employee.” But is there a way of beating the house and improving your odds of hiring a good employee? It all depends on how much time and effort you are willing to put into it.

Some would contend that private ambulance services have an advantage over government agencies when it comes to hiring employees, as long as they do not have discriminatory practices. Government agencies, such as fire-based EMS systems and third-service government EMS agencies, usually deploy a testing process to rank potential employees on a list to determine their hiring priority. With a little more flexibility of hiring, private ambulance services can be more selective when it comes to hiring employees. Regardless, you should have best practices in place to ensure you are hiring the best employees.

Conducting background checks on potential employees is invaluable, as past behavior is a good indicator of future performance.

If an employee had poor customer service skills, a terrible attitude and excessive absence from the job, it usually will not stop just because they get another position.

Some might say that the reason the employee had a poor performance record was because of the way the EMS agency was managed. If you had leadership that did not care about their employees and poorly managed the EMS agency, it would stand to reason that an employee’s attitude would reflect the overall demeanor of the employer.  Sometimes the employee does not fit culturally into the attitude of the EMS agency and it is reflected in their work performance. But my experience is that this is the exception more than the norm. Most employees who had a terrible work record at one employer will carry those habits over to a new employer.

If you are going to use background checks on potential employees, you should have a set process that is written into your hiring policy.  As an example, you may decide to contact past employers for a period of three years to determine objective information such as number of customer service complaints, sick leave usage, and any disciplinary actions such as suspensions or reprimands. Criminal background checks should be mandatory. One would think if a state has issued an EMT or paramedic license that a criminal background would have already been done. However, sometimes things slip through the cracks or there may have been a conviction since the last time their medical license was issued or renewed. In one case where I assisted an attorney, an EMT faked getting hired by passing himself off as a paramedic. Unfortunately, the employer did not verify if the potential employee had a paramedic license. It was discovered some six months later when a patient went into cardiac arrest in front of the fake paramedic and he did not know what advanced life support procedures to do.

Some employers also do credit checks and see if there have been any civil actions against potential employees. Employees with poor credit histories and a history of civil actions for non-payment of bills may be a poor risk for employment since EMTs and paramedics are often in people’s homes and the temptation to steal may be strong. Some employers have gotten in trouble in the past by trying to check on how many times an employee filed workman’s compensation with another employer. However, you may have physical standards that are required or a medical screenings prior to employment that matches job expectations.

There have been many past examples of employers who regretted hiring someone after they demonstrated poor work performance. Later, they discovered those same work habits existed at previous employers. If they only had done a background check, they could have saved themselves a lot of headaches. Of course, I also recommend you use your human resource department or attorney when establishing hiring practices.

Gary Ludwig, MS, EMT-P, is chief of the Champaign (IL) Fire Department. He is a well-known author and lecturer who has managed award-winning metropolitan fire-based EMS systems in St. Louis and Memphis. He has a total of 37 years of fire and EMS experience and has been a paramedic for over 35 years. Contact him at garyludwig.com.