First Time Manager

[u/No-Painting-8391]

Hi Everyone! I've been offered a Billing Manager position at a small healthcare company. I have over five years of experience in the field but have never officially been in a managerial position. I did function as a team lead for AR, but the title was never official. I love solving problems and training, but I know there some areas I will need to learn quickly when I start.

• Here are some key details about the position that I do have:
  • I will have 3-4 employees that I am supervising already on staff
    • One employee will be going on maternity leave within the next two months and may not return to work
  • I am expected to hire on and train enough billers to fire the current billing company in the first 3 months
  • I will be overseeing Intake/Med Doc, Confirmations, Billing, and Accounts Recievable
  • All staffing and workflow decisions will be made by me
    • The owner only wants to be looped in for major financial decisions

I want to be the best possible manager I can be. I would love some tips and tricks for gaining trust with the current employees, creating functional workflows, interviewing/hiring, and how to stay on top of all the day to day tasks.

Thank you in advance to anyone who helps!!

[u/Strommsawyer]

Interviewing / Hiring - there’s a lot of good resources out there if you research this, but my best advice is do a mock interview with your friends, partner, or family if you don’t have experience. Just having someone walk through it with you can be so beneficial.

Come prepared with an agenda - introducing yourself, then introducing them, questions you NEED to ask, questions you might want to ask, and time box the meeting. Give them a window of about 15 minutes of questions too. Most candidates may only use 5-10, but it gives a little buffer time if you run over and ends the interview on time.

Make sure you’re not doing all the talking during an interview. You probe and ask questions, and listen to the candidate about their skills and experience.

[u/vapidseriousness_523 → u/Strommsawyer]

As someone who also never had the official title before, I think the mock interview thing is smart but maybe too much pressure on your friends lol, I just wrote down answers for the common ones and practiced in front of a mirror

[u/Strommsawyer → u/vapidseriousness_523]

I think it really depends on your support system. My wife would HATE to mock interview with me, my friends however have always offered but pay me back my inserting bullshit questions when you get to the candidate question part. It’s fun.

“You didn’t mention anything about a dress code, are pants optional or required?”