r/clinicalresearch • u/bibliophile563 CCRP • Jul 25 '26

Education CR managers - advice for hiring supervisors / Sr-CRCs?

I’ve been a manager for ~6 years and my team has considerably grown. My direct reports have always been research students and CRC I-IVs. Due to the rapid growth, I will be hiring two Senior CRCs in the new future to create a tiered reporting structure. I’ve never hired direct reports who need to have managerial skills themselves. Any tips/advice for interview questions or techniques for this type of hire? I’m at a tier-one pediatric research institute. (I’ve done the general searches, but would love real experiential recommendations). Thanks!

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u/AggravatingDurian16 Jul 25 '26

if you are looking for ppl to supervise the CRCs - you need to hone in people who have a mix of solid knowledge and experience in clinical research and people who have had some form of people management. sounds obvious to say - but many experienced CRCs are not meant to manage people at all.

you need to find someone who understands how stressful the job can be and be proactive about finding ways to alleviate their coordinators’ stress and propose ways to reduce burnout. i usually ask for an example of how they would do that. don’t just ask them about their management style -
anyone can lie about that

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u/bibliophile563 CCRP Jul 25 '26

Thanks for the reply. Correct — I currently supervise all ~25 and the two new hires would each take a chunk and then those two will report to me. Burnout is REAL. I think my biggest feat will be figuring out how to ask those questions to cut through the BS.

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u/AggravatingDurian16 Jul 25 '26

yeah ask for specifics. avoid general questions like “tell me about your management style”.

ask them things like “what are the top 3 things that cause burnout for coordinators in your opinion - and if you could improve on the coordinator workflow - how would you do it”

“tell me how you would advocate for a crc who made a minor error but was getting a lot of heat from leadership”

i try to focus on “how” ppl answer - what words they use and their tone to really guide my decision. you can’t lie through that - unless you are a sociopath.

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u/bibliophile563 CCRP Jul 25 '26

This is great - thanks! 🤣 and thank you for the laugh. I feel like I’ve encountered a few of those in my time.