Archive for Dental Office Hiring and Human Resources
How Do You Attract Talent to Your Dental Practice’s Team?
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In the job market of 2012, our focus must be on attracting the kind of people we want to work with us. Remember, as THE DENTAL COACH©, I want you to work with people who believe in you, like you, and behave like you. This person has to live and breathe your Core Values and Vision.
It all sounds good, but how do you find them?
- Identify where people that you want to hire “hang out”. There are the dental training programs at local community colleges, but what about the grocery store? Day care centers where moms drop off their kids? What about the coffee shop? What do these people read? Who do they know? Are they on Facebook? Are they in professional dental associations?
- Start planting seeds: When talking about your dental practice, focus on telling vs. selling. Talk to everyone you know about your practice, why you do what you do and what makes you different.
- Offer a Team Bounty: Provide incentive for your current team. They are the best untapped source of new team members. They have friends from their training programs, friends they hang out with in the same circles. Studies prove that employee-referred candidates tend to be higher quality and stay longer than other hires. (If you give a $250 bonus to a current team member who gives a referral, you’re getting a great deal!)
- Announce position openings at your next networking meeting: If you are a member of BNI, Toastmasters, or your local Chamber of Commerce – announce the opening as you’re doing your 30-second commercial.
“Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” ~ Saint Francis of Assisi
Hiring is Like Dating
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Hear me out!
Most Dental CEOs view dental staff recruiting as a process of quickly convincing an experienced candidate to accept a job offer. That’s just not true. Recruiting is more about attraction and charm. It’s like dating! Yes, it’s been years since I’ve courted anyone (I’ve been married for 38 years to my beautiful bride, Trish). However, recruiting is all about attraction!
In today’s labor markets, our focus must be on attracting the kind of staff we want to work with us. Begin by creating a fun, fair, and rewarding work environment, so that anyone who visits you – candidate, vendor, or patient – walks away thinking “Wow, that dental office would be a great place for [me, my cousin, my sister, etc.] to work.”
Don’t just work on finding the perfect hygienist. Work on making your office the perfect place for a terrific hygienist to work at!
Write a Job Ad that Attracts the Top 25 percent of Candidates
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Here are my tips for writing a job ad that attracts the top 25 percent of candidates:
- Emphasize what you want successful candidates to “do” versus just what you want them to “have”. It is even more important, however, to attract those who really want to perform the duties you have in mind, and who will fit into your dental office environment and culture.
- Ask your staff: I always advocate getting staff involved in these processes. Ask what qualities would be best for a new team member—good sense of humor? High energy? The staff will be the ones working even more closely with this new employee than you will.
- Locate an experienced writer or recruiting consultant and ask them to help you write a master ad template for each position in your office. The pros are skilled at using more effective words to convey the message in an attractive and inviting way. Added bonus: lots of saved time!
- Scan the employment ads on Monster.com and print out ads that reflect the sort of energy you want to capture. Place those in a file for inspiration. It’s okay to adapt others’ ideas to improve your own ads.
Consider different methods of hiring: What about placing a Facebook ad with a fun photo of the team? These are inexpensive (you only pay per click) and can attract another targeted group.
“If it takes a lot of words to say what you have in mind, give it more thought.” ~ Dennis Roth
The Fundamental Flaw With Traditional Hiring
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To have the best staff, you have to attract only the top echelon of staff to begin with. When you treat candidates as actual “customers” – rather than subordinates — you change everything about finding new staff. Most dental ads and sourcing techniques are set up to simply fill a void. They are written to fill a quick position. Frankly, don’t you want to attract the top 25 percent, not just a warm body?
Most ads are written with one single criterion: experience. Lots of it. This is the fundamental flaw associated with traditional hiring. Don’t risk hiring dental staff with 20 years of experience who are complacent and know outdated techniques. Hire dental staff that can do the job, regardless of their experience. To find these candidates, write ads that focus on past performance, talent, energy levels and the ability to learn.
When candidates see the job as a career opportunity, you simply and instantly attract more people. On your terms. Many of my coaching clients have asked me what a good ad is. Remember: a good ad focuses on outcomes rather than activity.
Here is a sample ad I have done for you: Dental Hygienist wanted who can do all phases of soft tissue management and can head up a productive, profitable hygiene department. While we offer flexible scheduling and great pay, use the latest technology, and don’t mind if you Whistle While you Work (Grumpy need not apply). We want leadership, energy and commitment to a team. Call now or email your resume for a confidential audition!
Stay tuned for more tips on dental hiring….
How to Avoid the Dental Office Hiring Scramble
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Last post, I promised you that I would tell you exactly how to avoid the dental hiring scramble in your office. Below, find my tips that have been cultivated over years of being a DENTAL COACH© to many Dental CEOs!
- Calculate your “complete” staff costs in both real dollars and as a percentage of total overhead costs. Compare them to industry benchmarks to determine if your practice staffing levels are appropriate to your practice productivity. Ask dental colleagues or mastermind fellows to compare numbers if you have difficulty.
- Evaluate your practice capacity. When do you have the greatest demand for your services? How well are you staffed to meet this demand? If your afternoons are a higher demand time for patient care, what staffing configurations are most profitable to your practice while supporting your patient service? Could you possibly hire someone part-time?
- Connect with a staffing agency. Have a quality, temporary dental staffing agency on call for any unexpected departures or even medical/family emergencies. This takes the urgency off of the hiring process and allows you extra time to hire the best.
- Develop a list of questions to ask yourself before beginning the hiring process. Start with, “Do I really need to fill this position?” This will enable you to know “if” and “when” you need to hire. Envision what the “perfect” candidate acts like. Record some of those traits.
- Determine staffing needs based on your current level of office productivity. Factor in future growth you anticipate. Also, think about where you want the practice to be in 1, 3 and 5 years. What staffing needs will you have then?
- Call a team meeting and invite everyone’s input on what level of staffing is appropriate to maintain patient service, quality and practice productivity.
“Find a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.” ~ Author Unknown
How to Avoid the Dental Hiring “Scramble”
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When is the last time you hired someone in your dental office? Was it a smooth process where you took careful time to evaluate candidates; had your team make recommendations, had the potential employee come in for a trial day? Did the hiring process do its job of attracting, developing and retaining talents?
My guess is: Probably not. Generally, hiring is a crisis where the doctor and team “scramble” to find a suitable hygienist, chairside or appointment coordinator. In many instances, replacing a team member comes as a surprise—the team member often announces their leaving unexpectedly. The doctor is ill-prepared for this sudden opening.
Dentists that fail to evaluate staffing needs often fall into financial trouble. They discover their profitability falls, capital for expansion evaporates, and they experience lost productivity and increased hiring costs. Vacancies, for any reason, need to be evaluated carefully before any decision to hire can be made.
Stay tuned for my next post on how to avoid this scramble in your dental office!
A Treatment Plan For Your Dental Office’s HR
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Think back to 2011. How many times have you been faced with issues with a team member? Whether you are setting up a first dental practice or have had an active practice for a decade, a critical component is a plan for how to deal with personnel issues. What is it worth to you to have a “treatment plan” in place that describes in detail, for you and the team, how to handle a particular situation?
This “treatment plan” becomes your Policy Manual. It helps you avoid misunderstandings. It serves as a roadmap to settle employment issues. In today’s complicated legal environment, you are risking your entire business if you fail to have policies around hiring, reviews, promotions and terminations. Don’t be lax! The benefits of having an employee handbook are many. Every employee receives the same information about the rules of the dental practice; your employees will know what you expect from them (and what they can expect from you, the Dental CEO) and you may get legal protection if an employee later files an employment claim against you.
Action Step for this month:
- Develop policies around areas such as: Pay and salary (how raises are calculated), performance reviews (structure: what employees can expect), discipline (how, why and when consequences are handed out), complaints (how complaints/suggestions/comments are handled)
- Develop a HR Handbook. List all positions in the practice. For each position, include a list of competencies, performance standards, and standards of measuring. Distribute a hard copy to all team members. Sharing the standards and expectations for every position generates a higher level of commitment from each team member. Ask team members for their input in setting objectives and actions required to meet and exceed these performance standards. Ask your DENTAL COACH© for advice on how to approach these new policies with your team that ensures you work smarter and be more effective as a team.
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do…
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It’s inevitable that team members move on. One of the difficult aspects of working with people is that people change. They change their goals, change where they live, change their stage of life.
How you respond to departing employees will impact the retention of the team members who remain, so follow my four tips to make an exit less painful and benefit from former dental practice employees.
- When an employee leaves, conduct an “Exit Interview.” Spend 15 minutes to ask them about what they most enjoyed while working in the office, the reasons they are leaving (there are usually several), and what they would suggest you do better in the future. Take notes and file them. When you notice consistent themes in exit interviews, take action to improve a condition of employment in your practice.
- Always speak in positive terms. Here’s an alert for you: If you are in charge, someone is always paying attention. If your treatment of those departing is consistent with how you treat everyone else, their trust in your leadership will grow.
- Give people choices. Even when an employee’s departure is involuntary, they deserve to be treated respectfully. You might give them the opportunity to resign first. Let them choose how they will say goodbye to their teammates. They will respect you for honoring them as a person.
- Nurture your alumni. Keep former employees on your e-mail newsletter and holiday card list so they are updated on your practice. Remember: former employees are a great source of future referrals – both employees and patients. Alumni can also be a source for emergency backup or extra hands for a special project. When the relationship and exit was done respectfully and professionally, they will be happy to hear from you and to help out.
Recruiting Dental Employees 101: Choosing Between Heaven and Hell
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There’s a story about a woman who gets to choose between Heaven and Hell. She visits Hell and finds a paradise of golfing, fine food, and the ultimate in pampering. Expecting even more of Heaven, she encounters a relatively boring lot of harp players. She chooses Hell; but on her return is greeted with fumes, fire and round-the-clock hard labor. Bewildered, she asks for explanation. “Yesterday,” she is told, “we were recruiting you. But now you’re just staff.”
Sound familiar? Far too often we woo the best people we can find and then gradually ease into taking them for granted. When that happens, your investment in those people is at risk.
You should pay at least as much attention to your tenured team members as you did when they were job candidates.
Here’s an action step that I use with my Dental Contact Coaching™ clients in regards to employee retention. They have benefited from this and I know you will, too!
- Keep the value fresh and visible. On a regular basis, change something to make the employment environment better – simplify a process, add a benefit, upgrade equipment, cross-train for backup, even add a plant. Each time, “market” the upgrade at your next meeting. Discussion keeps the positive at the forefront of people’s thinking.
Communicate, Communicate, and then Communicate Some More!
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Communication is necessary to sustain relationships. What has happened when you and your team started the day without reviewing the schedule, the patients coming in and where to place emergency patients? What has been the success of the practice when you fail to schedule regular monthly team meetings?
Personal and professional relationships depend on good, clear and healthy communication.
The purpose of holding Morning Huddles is to start the day off positively by creating the right environment, keeping team communication fresh and fun, and encouraging problem solving. Use an outline to stay on task.
The moral of this blog post? A well-organized Morning Huddle saves time and increases productivity.
