Recruit Your Current Employees
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There’s a joke about a man who gets to choose between Heaven and Hell. He visits Hell and finds golfing, fine food, terrific weather and paradise. In Heaven, he encounters a boring lot of harp players. He chooses Hell; but on his return is greeted with fire and round-the-clock hard labor. Bewildered, he asks for explanation. “Yesterday,” he is told, “we were recruiting you. But now– you’re just staff.”
Sound familiar? As Dental CEOs, we woo the best people we can find, then gradually take them for granted. I encourage you to pay as much attention to your tenured team members as you did when they were job candidates.
Here are my tips:
- On a regular basis, change something to make the employment environment better – simplify a process, add a benefit or do something simple like add a plant. Each time, “market” the upgrade at your next meeting. Discussion keeps the positive at the forefront of your team member’s thinking.
- At the end of the year, meet with every team member for a moment. Shake their hand warmly, look them straight in the eye, and say “I am really happy that you are part of our team. Your being here makes a positive difference.”
- Sit down individually with your team members and ask “How likely are you to still be working here two years from now?” If the answer is anything but “I’ll be here!”, ask “What would change that for you?”
“There’s no limit to what can be achieved if you’re willing to share the credit.” ~ Wilson Wyatt, Sr.
How much have you shared with your team regarding your practice numbers? What do they know about the financial statements? When did you last discuss the profitability of your business at a Morning Huddle?
Too many Dental CEOs operate under the philosophy that practice revenue numbers are top-secret. To the Dental CEO, the numbers should be kept in Fort Knox.
In my experience as the Dental Coach, I’ve seen that failure to share key financial information misses a huge opportunity to get everyone involved in growing a profitable dental practice.
Use an Open Book management approach to teach your employees how their individual function contributes to the profitability of the company’s profits.
- Educate your team to what each line item means and how it impacts the practice profitability.
- Ask your accountant to develop easy-to-read financial statements.
- Track important numbers each month and share the significance with your team. Examples are production, collection, treatments recommended vs. treatment accepted.
- Invite the team to make suggestions for places to cut costs.
Open Book Management enables employees to make better decisions and leads to explosive growth. It implies that you trust your team, believe they are capable of understanding the business and have faith in them.
“Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes
Give Them Something to Talk About
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How much communication do you think is necessary in your dental practice? Think of that amount – and then add to it.
Communication is necessary to build and sustain relationships. What has happened when you and your team started the day without reviewing the schedule? What has been the success of the dental practice when you fail to schedule regular team meetings?
The success of your dental practice depends on good, clear and consistent communication.
To create opportunities for more communication, give your employees something to talk about. Hold Morning Huddles. A well-organized Morning Huddle meeting can also save time and increase productivity.
- Create outlines for your Morning Huddles and encourage communication, ideas and fun.
- Implement an “Open Door” policy and coach your employees to feel comfortable coming to you anytime.
- Assign a “Mentor” to new employees for the first 6 months of their employment. The employee and the Mentor can communicate about things that the employee may not feel comfortable discussing with “the boss.”
- Talk to your employees not only about the intricacies of the dental practice, but get involved in their personal lives as well. Ask about their families, hobbies and weekend plans. This creates a good, stable relationship.
Nurture Your #1 Source of Referrals
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The number #1 source of referrals to your dental practice is not from current patients. It’s not from billboards, postscards or facebook posts.
Take a look your current employees.
86% of happy employees refer and recommend their workplace. Only 43% of mildly satisfied employees do.
In a past blog post here, I talk about how to make your employees happy. Now, how to make them pass along referrals?
- Role-play “asking for referrals” at every staff meeting. Give scripts and encourage ideas.
- Take a field trip to a 5-star hotel or restaurant so that your team experiences what service excellence feels like. Hold a meeting to discover ways you can duplicate such service.
- Provide 500 professional business cards for each team member. Encourage them to share the cards with others in their community, i.e. at the grocery store, library, and church or synagogue. You can order inexpensive, quality cards at Vistaprint.
Making your employees your #1 asset and treating them accordingly is your strategic advantage.
“Don’t aim for success if you want it; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.” ~ David Frost
Making Exit Interviews Work For You
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People change. They change their goals, what’s important to them, where they live and where they want to go. Sometimes, that change means that the job they once loved at your dental practice is no longer a perfect fit for them.
It’s hard to let a team member go – especially when you valued their contribution. There is a right way to handle an employee’s exit, because, perhaps most importantly, you do not want to impact the team members who remain.
- Always speak in positive terms. If you are in charge, someone is always paying attention to you. If you give everyone the same respect and treatment in your office – even the ones who are departing – employee’s trust in your leadership will grow.
- Give people choices: Let them make a choice about how they will/will not say goodbye to others. This helps to honor them as a person.
- Know the three questions to ask on the exit interview:
o What did you most enjoy working in the office?
o What reasons are you leaving? (There are usually several.)
o What could I, as the Dental CEO, do better in the future? - Evaluate the results: Ask your coach to review the results of the exit interview with you. Your coach will be able to point out any consistent themes and help you take action to improve a condition of employment in your practice.
- Add your alumni to a mailing list: Keep them regularly updated on the practice. Former employees are a surprising source of patient and employee referrals.
“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.” ~ Vincent Van Gogh
When is the last time you disrespected someone? Maybe it was by accident or maybe you were having a bad day. It happens. Is that how you want your team members to feel towards you, the Dental CEO or any co-workers? Absolutely NOT!
Respect breeds respect. And when you, as the leader, fail to show respect to even one individual, you lose respect from all your team members. As THE DENTAL COACH©, I ask you to add this to your Core Values: Show utmost dignity and respect for each person you encounter and in all situations.
Here are my top 3 action steps to ensure that you are a remarkable Dental CEO who has integrity and respect in your dental practice:
- Use the Publishing Test: Ask yourself: “Would I want my behavior/this incident to be posted on Facebook tomorrow morning?” If not, put a stop to it now.
- Follow the Platinum Rule: You show even more respect when you “Treat others as they would like to be treated.”
- Encourage open conflict: When you ask your team to voice their opinion at your Morning Huddle or other meetings, disagreements will probably ensue. That’s okay. Address them in an open and positive manner. Conflict – when managed properly — often leads to better, more reasoned decisions.
“The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it.” ~ H. Norman Schwarzkopf
A common team goal in successful dental practices is to make selling everyone’s job. Selling is about being a positive Ambassador for the practice, in and out of the office. Every member of the team is responsible for selling themselves and the practice. It is through communicating the value and benefits found in your practice that the business grows and flourishes.
Here are my top 2 tips on how to make each member of your team (yes, even the hygienists) on board with selling your practice:
- List every type of service you provide. Once you have the list, answer these two questions: What will your team do to let your patients know what you have to offer? How will you measure your efforts as a team?
- Enroll in a sales training program. Every member of your team will benefit. This program should include learning how to sell/recommend dentistry, asking for referrals, and how to deliver service excellence.
A knowledgeable, caring staff attracts new patients and sustains relationships with current ones. Your staff keeps the dental office moving like a well-oiled machine. I bet they take care of most problems before the problem even reaches you!
Thus, the smartest investment you can make in your dental practice is: training.
Technical training is important, but I want you to focus on the non-technical training as well: customer service. What opportunities can you find? Look for ones that enable your team to be:
- Savvy communicators
- Experts are handling difficult patients
- Excellent at interpersonal skills
- Able to manage change quickly
Coach Ron’s Hint: 25-50% of your training hours should be spent in “soft skills.”
“I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do and I understand.” ~ Confucius
The Secret to Keeping Good Employees
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It costs four times more to hire a new employee than to retain a current one. What’s the secret for keeping them?
Recognize them!
Your STARS – Synergistic Team Member All Ready Stars – are the most important part of your practice. They dazzle new patients, jump in to help other team members, encourage smiles all around and get the job done right. They light the way for us and make our jobs as Dental CEOs easy, stress-free and fun.
Action step: Make a big deal out of these team members today. Let them know you appreciate them. Here’s how:
- Write a thank you note.
- Give public praise at your next Morning Huddle.
- Give a “spot bonus” – a gas card or movie tickets.
- Bring in a massage therapist to give 15 minute chair massages throughout the day.
- Invite someone to lunch today—don’t talk about work, learn about their lives.
“The deepest principle of human nature is the craving to be appreciated.” ~ William James
To grow your dental practice, you need a strong staff. To have a strong staff, there must be increasing levels of accountability and responsibility, with formal performance reviews to make sure that’s happening. Are you doing this today in your dental practice?
If not, read on….
Holding formal Performance Reviews helps you measure Performance against goals. This is a tool that you, as a Dental CEO, have to recognize your employees and determine how they can better perform their job.
Takeaways:
- Invest time to help team members identify their strengths, develop their talents and work on their weaknesses.
- Develop an “IDP” – individual development plan. Schedule time to meet with each team member and outline a plan for continuing professional learning. Set times on the calendar for future check-ins.
- Document all conversations with date and initials. Note any behavioral issues with full descriptions. Remember to evaluate observable behaviors against the IDP.
- Begin with positive communication. Start off the conversation with something commendable. For example: “I feel you are an important member of our team.”
- Offer incentives to develop the behaviors you need and want. If your team has not been asking for referrals, create where the individual who asks for the most referrals during the month wins a full tank of gas.
“If you don’t set a baseline standard for what you’ll accept in life, you’ll find it’s easy to slip into behaviors and attitudes or a quality of life that’s far below what you deserve.” ~ Anthony Robbins
