Building a long-term hiring strategy for pharmacy technicians
Pharmacy technicians are hired to work along with pharmacists to ensure smooth operations, minimize medical errors, and manage inventory efficiently. Often, many facilities witness a significant setback while medical staffing, i.e., retaining the talented professionals hired. This creates a huge demand to address the staffing gaps, making it challenging to hire pharmacy technicians.
Increased staff burnout, unfair compensations, and work-life imbalance are some of the leading causes of the staff turnover rate. Addressing these factors while ensuring proper credentialing and compliance adherence can help a pharmacy build a long-term hiring strategy to attract and retain top pharmacy technicians.
This blog aids you in building a sustainable strategy to hire pharmacy technicians. Here is a glance at the key considerations while creating a long-term hiring strategy for pharmacy technicians.
- Understand the role of a pharmacy technician in your pharmacy and do proper workforce planning.
- Craft a well-detailed pharmacy technician job description tailored to the needs of your pharmacy.
- Evaluate the experience and qualifications of the pharmacy technician while interviewing.
- Provide competitive pay based on market standards.
- Invest in the professional development of the existing staff.
- Ensure proper work-life balance.
Let us delve in and see how each of these key considerations can be effectively established to have a long-term hiring strategy.
Essential skills and qualifications for pharmacy technicians
If you are looking to hire pharmacy technicians, knowing what skill sets and qualifications are needed for a candidate is essential. The following are the educational qualifications and some crucial skills for pharmacy technicians.
- A high school diploma or equivalent with on-the-job training or a one-year postsecondary education program in pharmacy technology accredited by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) needs to be completed to become a pharmacy technician.
- On top of the above qualification, most states demand a certification issued by the Pharmacy Technician Certification Board (PTCB) or the National Healthcareer Association (NHA) which requires passing an exam to become a Certified Pharmacy technician.
- These pharmacy technician certifications need to be renewed every two years by completing 20 hours of continuing education courses.
- The licensure requirements for a pharmacy technician vary from state to state. For some states, they need to pass a state licensing exam and often a state law exam to practice.
- Along with these pharmacy technician qualifications, there are some essential skills such as attention to detail, problem-solving, critical thinking, effective communication, and organizational skills that need to be looked for in a pharmacy technician.
How to write compelling job descriptions to attract top pharmacy technicians
As there is a massive demand for pharmacy technicians, there might be many job openings displayed in job portals to hire pharmacy technicians. Amidst all these job openings, having a compelling pharmacy technician job description can attract top talent to your pharmacy. By following the below steps, you can curate a job description tailored to your pharmacy’s needs.
- Be specific about the role of pharmacy technician in your facility rather than providing general job duties.
- Specify required qualifications, certifications, and other license requirements, if any.
- Have a section on what it would be like to work for your pharmacy.
- Mention the desirable area of expertise or the years of experience preferred.
- Highlight the critical essential technical skills as well as soft skills for pharmacy technicians.
- Mention the compensation range and the list of benefits offered by your pharmacy.
- Describe the workplace culture and the diversity in the workplace.
- Provide proper instructions for applications and a contact number in case of any queries.
- You can also get help from medical staffing solutions platforms like MedSquirrels which curates job descriptions for your pharmacy with the help of AI technology.
How to evaluate the experience and education of pharmacy technician applicants
When you hire pharmacy technicians, you need to ensure that they are well-qualified and have the expertise to work at your pharmacy. A primary checkpoint to ensure this is by evaluating the experience and educational qualifications of the candidates at the time of the interview.
- A detailed credentialing and background check of the candidate can be done to ensure that all the details provided are valid.
- Also, asking for reference letters from previous employers can help authenticate the level of expertise mentioned by the candidate.
- The skills of the candidate can be checked by having an assessment test or problem-solving scenarios at the time of the interview.
Also read: A step-by-step guide on how to hire top pharmacy technicians
Hire pharmacy technicians: cost-effective strategies
A significant portion of the expense for the facilities is in hiring new professionals to fill the staffing gap. This can be reduced to a greater extent if proper policies fostering work-life balance and benchmark compensations can be implemented to retain the current workforce. However, there are some strategies that can be followed while hiring as well to save costs substantially. Taking referrals from your existing staff is a greatly value-added strategy where the existing employees are provided with some perks for referring a suitable candidate. At the time of interviewing, a thorough compliance check needs to be done to prevent any future regulatory issues that can create a massive loss for the facilities. Taking care of these main strategies while recruiting a pharmacy technician can save a lot of money for your facility.
Avoiding common pitfalls in hiring pharmacy technicians
Hiring pharmacy technicians comes with several common pitfalls that require careful management. Addressing these issues effectively during the interview, onboarding, and throughout the employee’s tenure is essential to prevent future complications. Common challenges include compliance and regulatory concerns, hiring inexperienced professionals, poor work-life balance, inadequate job descriptions, and unfair pay scales. By recognizing these potential pitfalls and implementing targeted strategies, you can mitigate risks and ensure a smoother hiring process. Here is a checklist to avoid these common pitfalls.
- Verify the candidate’s educational qualifications, skill sets, and experience
- Do a proper credentialing and background check
- Check whether the candidate is licensed to work in the state
- Provide the pharmacy technician with a salary based on market standards
- Establish clear career progression paths
How MedSquirrels will help you hire pharmacy technicians
Building a long-term strategy to hire pharmacy technicians requires you to understand the end-to-end function of your pharmacy, the job role of a pharmacy technician, the potential compliance issues, and the job market of pharmacy technicians. This process can be complex and time-consuming, involving detailed documentation, credentialing, and administrative tasks. However, you can associate with a well-experienced and reputable healthcare staffing solutions provider, like MedSquirrels, to get all your staffing requirements fulfilled in a stress-free manner.
Our most popular hiring plan, Orange Plan, finds and recruits contract pharmacy technicians based on your job requirements and handles all the HR-related aspects, such as credentialing, onboarding, compliance, and benefits management. On our AI-integrated platform, you can curate pharmacy technician job descriptions and get shortlisted profiles based on those requirements in 2-5 business days.
On the other hand, you can opt for our Purple Plan if you have already sourced a contract pharmacy technician, and want a pharmacy technician staffing agency to handle the onboarding, payroll, and benefits. In this case, MedSquirrels will become the legal employer of your hired pharmacy technicians and ensure zero risks to your pharmacy.
Hiring through our platform not only takes less effort but is also cost-effective, as it works on a flat-fee model that saves you significantly on hiring costs compared to other recruitment agencies that charge huge markups. Beyond cost savings, it will also help reduce your staff turnover by enabling you to pay the industry-best compensation to healthcare providers. To learn more about our platform’s features and how it can help you hire pharmacy technicians, book a demo today.
