Hiring, training, and retaining great MRI techs is no easy feat in today’s employment market. Not only is the entire healthcare field dealing with a workforce shortage, but leaders at radiology facilities often have to wear many hats, overseeing everything from recruiting to training to managing staff members.
With that said, significant improvements are being made in MRI tech hiring, thanks to recent technological innovation in the industry. Specifically, MRI simulation software is helping facility managers recruit highly-trained technicians, cross-train existing techs, broaden their current workforce’s MRI skills and knowledge, and retain top team members.
3 Tips for MRI Tech Hiring
Whether you’re preparing to hire one or dozens of MRI techs, here’s how to recruit the best talent – and avoid the most common mistakes.
1. Look internally and cross-train existing techs
Cross-training your current staff is one of the most cost-effective ways to grow your workforce. Not only do these qualified professionals already understand how your practice works, including your facility’s procedures, expectations, and culture, but you can avoid the expense of recruiting externally.
With an MRI simulator like ScanLabMR, techs can learn new skills and improve their existing ones – all in a virtual environment. Our software can help standardize MRI education and training at your facility, ensuring that all of your employees understand the same concepts and approach the scanning process in a consistent way — without disruption to the clinical schedule or risk to patients.
2. Verify before you hire
Before hiring a new MRI tech, you need to know that they have the clinical skills to perform the job properly – but assessing their knowledge can be tricky. You can’t put potential employees into a real-life scanning environment, but at the same time, simply looking through their resumes won’t help you verify their skills.
Fortunately, there’s a new way to test your candidates’ abilities in a safe, patient-free setting. During the interview phase, you can ask prospective techs to complete a clinically validated (and quantitative) hiring assessment on ScanLabMR’s MRI simulator software. When they’re done, you can objectively evaluate their competency and avoid a costly hiring mistake.
3. Offer competitive compensation and benefits
Finally, to recruit the best MRI techs, you need to show that you value their skills and experience – and offering competitive compensation is a great way to do it. So, what exactly is considered “competitive”?
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), the median salary for an MRI tech is $80,090 (as of May 2022, when the latest data was released). However, as you might expect, these figures vary across the country. For example, in Florida, the median salary for an MRI is $68,770, but in California, it’s $108,990.
To sweeten the deal, you can offer additional benefits. Many MRI techs are looking for education packages and opportunities for career growth. If you plan to use ScanLab for training and hiring, you can offer your employees in-house education and training to learn CT.
Partner with ScanLabMR for better MRI tech hiring
If you’re ready to transform MRI tech hiring at your radiology facility, ScanLab is here to help. Get in touch today to request a demo of our MRI software or get a personalized quote.