Introduction
We live in a society where changes follow one after another with great rapidity and in which, for the business world, the challenges and the compulsoriness of change represent the field of normality.
Without human resources capable of change and adaptation, creativity and a multitude of professional competencies, organizations of any kind are doomed to failure. In this context, people are a vital resource of all the today and tomorrow organizations that ensure their success, development and survival.
The success and survival of organizations in general is provided almost entirely by the quality of the workforce. Thus, organizations must focus primarily on the identification of skills and qualifications of their employees as well as on their election and selection for the new or vacant positions in the companies. Also, they have to pay attention to be in compliance with the field’s legislation that refers to the equal employment opportunities and correcting previous discriminatory practices or existing imbalances. All in all, organizations have to focus on identifying and attracting the best and most competitive candidates using the most appropriate methods, sources or recruiting environments. (Boudreau, 1996) Solving these problems also means the success of the whole staffing process, process particularly important if we take into account the effects of possible mistakes or errors of employment. For example, a competitive candidate rejection or acceptance of a poorly prepared one could represent a prejudice for the organization. (Boudreau, 1996)
Human resources recruitment and selection processes are vital for an organization that wants not only to survive in the market, but also to strengthen its position or successfully penetrate other new markets as well. To avoid future problems with the personnel, an organization should pay a special attention to the recruitment and selection process of the human resources. The further development of the modern enterprise depends on the quality of execution of these processes.(Gusdorf, 2008)
Presentation of the Organization
HomeMediCare is a virtual organization providing home medical care for patients in need. The nursing at home services are offered to the patients at doctor’s recommendation, by a multidisciplinary team consisting of nurses, psychotherapists or medical representatives to the dependant persons at home, temporarily or permanently.
Nursing at home services are specifically designed for patients who are in need to continue treatment or receive special medical care after discharge from the hospital., obtaining health recovery at home, in a familiar and more comfortable environment than in the hospital. Patients may be referred to home care services by the family doctor or the specialist doctor from the clinic in order to prevent hospitalization.
The patient’s family also benefits from these services by limiting the problems encountered in the life of the family when a family member is ill or cannot take care of themselves. In addition, the medical personnel could teach the family members how to conduct themselves certain types of care, allowing them to take an active role in caring for their loved ones.
Recently, the organization has been expanding and opened a few new job positions for medical representatives and is in need to find the best candidates for hiring them and align them to the company’s values, mission and vision.
Staffing of an organization, also called employment includes several basic activities, such as human resources planning, recruitment and selection of staff.
In essence, the staffing process is a process of sorting, passing through a series of filters after which the applicants are being selected through specific activities carried out successively by a HR person.
Sorting aims to eliminate uninterested candidates or those candidates whose training or qualification is not compatible with the job requirements. The sorting is base on employment of inquires, preliminary interview, in person or on the phone interview, checking references and experience.
The Job Position Description
Company Description: HomeMediCare, home healthcare provider.
The medical representative employee is responsible for the promotion of home health care services among physicians in the health care system, at their offices or in hospitals. They should be able to establish, develop and maintain their relationships with the physicians, the patients, respectively with the locally assigned hospital tutors. The medical representative should promote HomeMediCare’s image in the regular visits to the hospitals as well as the nursing at home services of the company. The same person is responsible with the preparation of files for home medical care and forwarding them to the health insurance institutions. The employee has to meet the individual objectives and make their contribution in achieving the goals set by the organization. Also, they will have to prepare periodic reports on their activity and achievements on the job.
The position of the medical representative in the organization is reporting to the Director of medical care. The duration of the contract established between the company and the employee is indefinite and the way of employment is directly done by the organization’s HR representatives. The working conditions of the medical sales representatives are normal, and the schedule is between 09:00 a.m. until 17:00 p.m. with lunch break. The company offers training before starting the job, a car (driver license needed) and phone. The salary is very attractive and is constituted of the gross/net salary, meal tickets and bonuses plus monthly commissions, depending on the files drawn by the representative in that month.
Job Specification
The medical representative function is part of the Public Relations Department of HomeMediCare Company. In order to occupy this job, the applicant must be a Graduate and have a Degree, preferably in the field of Medicine or Pharmacy. Previous experience in the medical field or in medical promoting represents a great advantage for the candidate.
As general competencies, the candidate has to have very good communication and negotiation skills and to be result oriented towards the client. The perfect candidate has to have planning and organizing skills, to be a proactive and dynamic person and have entrepreneurial spirit. Also, the company is looking for a neat person with a professional physical aspect who is persuasive.
As specific competencies, it would represent a plus for the candidate if they would be able to drive, have a driver’s license and knowledge of general medicine.
Detailed Discussion on the Job
Medical sales representatives or medical representatives are often referred to as “reps” and they are a key link between the pharmaceutical and medical companies and the healthcare professionals.
The medical sales representative is the professional who, in the name and for the benefit of the authorized pharmaceutical and medical companies informs the doctors and the pharmacists as well as constant updates the information about the products of the companies they represent. They work strategically for increasing the awareness and the use of their company’s medical and pharmaceutical products.
The medical representatives are usually specialized in a particular medical area or product and are based in a specific geographical location. The medical sales representatives may make presentations or organize group events for the healthcare professionals, as well as going with contacts on a one-to-one basis. If we were to continue with its duties and roles, we could say that the medical representative ensures the accurate and exact information flow between producers, drug distributors, the doctors who prescribe and use them, the medical personnel administrating the products and implicitly their patients, as well as the public healthcare and pharmaceutical institutions representatives.( Medical sales representative: Job description, n.d.)
Medical representatives must also know, in the best interest of those who prescribe the drug and the one to whom it is administered, the therapeutically, pharmaceutical and pharmacokinetic characteristics of the products they represent, the indications and the contraindications, as well as the administration modes and their possible side effects.
The typical work activity of the medical representative involves contacting the potential clients, identifying their needs and persuading the customers that the products and services the company they represent are the most suitable for those needs identified. The deal with the client has to be closed by agreeing to some pre-established terms and conditions and with the provision of after-sales service as well.
The general duties of the medical sales representative often include (Windermere, n.d.):
- Arranging appointments with pharmacists, hospital medical teams, doctors
- Making presentations of the company’s they represent products and services to doctors, nurses, practice staff, hospital doctors, or pharmacists in the retail sector. The presentations may be held in a local hotel or at a conference venue.
- Organizing conferences for medical staff or doctors.
- Building, sustaining and maintaining a positive working relationship with the medical staff and the supporting administrative staff.
- Managing budgets for conferences, hospitality, catering or outside speakers.
- Keeping detailed records for all the contacts
- Reaching the annual sales targets if possible.
- Monitoring the competitor’s products, services and activity
- Developing strategies that will increase the opportunities to meet and talk to the contacts in the healthcare and medical sector.
- Staying informed
- Maintaining knowledge of new developments in the field, anticipating the potential negative and positive impacts on the company’s business and adapting the strategy accordingly.
- Attending regularly the company’s meetings, briefings and technical data presentations.
The fundamental objective of recruitment allows the identification of a sufficient pool of candidates meeting the conditions to be selected and go through the recruiting process.
Selection Procedure for the Job
A crucial stage of the recruitment process is the development of recruitment strategies and policies that establish the organizational objectives or designate concepts, the organization’s code of conduct in the field or personnel recruiting and specific behavior in regards to this activity. (Recruitment & Selection of Medical Consultants Procedure, 2011)
The first step of the selection procedure for the job is the establishment of a budget for the recruiting process and the identification of candidates. As a HR representative of the HomeMediCare Company, to identify the sources of candidates, first of all one should turn to online recruitment, more precisely the proactive recruitment method by searching throughout the databases form the job recruitment websites and select the CV’s of the most appropriate with the requirements of the job candidates.
The second step is represented by promoting the vacant position on the online recruitment channel websites, attaching the job description as well as the profile of the needed candidate so the chances of finding just the person for the job in the needed time are more increased.
The third step in the selection process is represented by the gathering of the CV’s. The CV’s have been collected both by visualizing the applications submitted by those interested in the promotion announcement posted on the online recruitment channel, as well as the manual selection of the CV’s from the websites databases.
The fourth step in the selection process would be the separation of the CV’s. After sorting out the resumes, the very few that remained have been selected based on the candidate’s completed studies, the ownership of a driver’s license and the experience in a similar job. The elected candidates have been further contacted by telephone for conducting the pre-selection procedure.
The fifth step, represented by the phone interview with the candidates aimed first of all to check the compatibility of the candidates with the mandatory requirements of the job. On the other hand, verifying the interest of the candidate for the offer made. The interview begins with an introductory part in which the HomeMediCare Company is briefly presented to the candidate as well as a brief overview of the job offer as a medical sales representative. The candidate is expected to mention his salary expectations when asked by the interviewer as well as to answer to some questions aimed at addressing the compatibility of the candidate with the job requirements. The phone interview is expected to last for approximately 15 minutes/ candidate and example of relevant questions addressed in the pre-selection of the candidate could be as follows:
- What interested you when you read our Company’s job announcement and applied?
- How do you think you could make yourself useful for our company in this job position?
- What were your duties and responsibilities in your previous job?
- What is your experience in terms of driving?
- What was the highest number of penalty points that you have accumulated due to mistakes in traffic?
- How do you think that this position fits in your future plans and objectives?
The next step, namely the sixth constitutes of a face-to-face interview with the HR recruiting person of HomeMediCare Company. After the previous pre-selection of the candidates on phone, the candidates who moved forward to this step are in a very small number.
For the face-to-face interview, the Company’s recruiter has opted for a structured interview, conceiving pre-formulated questions with which the candidate’s abilities would be tested. Also, the HR person has used the biographic interview, in which it followed the educational and professional path of the interviewed candidates.
The interview’s duration for each candidate is expected to last approximately 60 minutes and should begin with a mutual and brief presentation, a short summary of the phone interview discussion about the nature of the vacant position (the nature of the company, responsibilities, contractual conditions), the checking of the candidate’s interest for the offer that has been made, immediately followed by a discussion on the resume. In regards with the resume, it is important for the employer to check up the truthfulness of the educational background of the candidate, the employment history, the reasons for cessation of activity where warranted, then the discussion shall continue by asking the pre-established questions. The relevant questions addressed by the employer to the candidate are exemplified below (Doyle, n.d.):
- Tell me about yourself in general.
- What is your biggest flaw? What about your biggest failure?
- What information do you have about the work we perform in our company?
- Why would you like to join our team?
- What new things do you think you will learn from this job that may contribute to your personal development?
- How did you get employed in your previous work place?
- What were your goals when you started work at your former working place? Did you manage to reach these goals?
- How did you cope with the demands from the previous job description at your former job?
- How did you feel at the previous work place in terms of promotion possibilities?
- Please, exemplify a moment of conflict from your former work place. How did you manage to solve it?
- Explain the reason for leaving the previous job.
- What qualities do you think you should possess in order to meet the challenges of the work you do? Please, list some essential performances for the job that you candidate.
- Have your career related aspirations changed throughout the years?
- If you were to change your job for one reason or another, in what field would you have chosen to work?
- What critics have you received throughout your career?
- Would you prefer to work under pressure or in a more relaxed environment?
- Please, describe a risky incident from your professional life.
- Do you prefer to work in a team or individually?
- Before finishing the interview, are you considering to mention any other aspects or information that is relevant?
- Do you have any further questions about the job you have applied for?
After conducting the face-to-face interview, the results of the last candidates should be analyzed and the most suitable candidate of the ones interviewed would have gotten the job. The final step is represented by contacting the candidate to announce the success of the application and discuss the terms of the work contract completion.
References
Boudreau, J. (1996). Human Resources and Organization Success. Cornell University ILR School DigitalCommons@ILR. Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1173&context=cahrswp
Deassler, G. (2003). The Strategic Role of Human Resource Management. In Human Resource Management (9th ed.). Prentice Hall.
Doyle, A. (n.d.). Job Interview Questions and Best Answers. Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://jobsearch.about.com/od/interviewquestionsanswers/a/interviewquest.htm
Hunt, S., & Van Klink, S. (n.d.). Get the Right People: 9 Critical Design Questions for Securing and Keeping the Best Hires.SuccessFactors. Retrieved November 21, 2014, from http://www.workforce.com/ext/resources/Resource-Center-Downloads/WFM_Assets_Roadmap/SuccessFactors_Get the Right People_9 Critical Questions.pdf?1372871758
Getting the Right People. (n.d.). Retrieved November 22, 2014, from http://hrcouncil.ca/hr-toolkit/right-people-selection.cfm
Guide to a successful Representative interview. (n.d.). Retrieved November 19, 2014, from http://www.pmpconnect.com/successful_sales_interviews.htm
Gusdorf, M. (2008). Recruitment and Selection: Hiring the Right Person. Alexandria, USA: Society for Human Resource Management.
Medical sales representative: Job description. (n.d.). Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://www.prospects.ac.uk/medical_sales_representative_job_description.htm
Recruitment & Selection of Medical Consultants Procedure. (2011).Notthingham University Hospitals.
Windermere, A. (n.d.). Qualities of a Medical Representative. Retrieved November 20, 2014, from http://work.chron.com/qualities-medical-representative-15836.html
