Recruitment

Welcome to a whole new world of dental staffing management. As most of us know staffing is often the hardest challenges in a dental practice. From recruitment, finding longevity with team members, covering extended holidays, sick days, accommodating temps, everyday these challenges can feel overwhelming and ongoing. With dental landscape changing and the workforce altering, being dynamic has become more important than ever.

Pivoting into the new world of dental is not only a physical change but also a mental shift in understanding the new generations and workforce. With more practices opening, longer hours, lack of childcare options, more part time demand, less continuing education opportunities, our challenges are everlasting for the foreseeable future.

Attracting top talent is important as working with your dream team will level up your practice. When posting job ads, ensure you are clear, concise and describe the position accurately. The more details you include will help to ensure you attract the right candidates and will reduce time screening resumes.

Be thorough, add details that describe your office culture, showcase your technology, location, your amazing patients, team and any benefits you offer.

When potential candidates are seeking positions, they want to ensure the values align before applying. Screening resumes is an important part of the process, check that the candidate has the certifications, experience and their values align with your practice philosophy. 

When setting up interviews ensure you include the location, parking details and anything that will help the candidate find your location easily, interviews are stressful for most, being clear helps to create success. Interviews are tough, easy signs to identify if you values align can include timeliness, professional dress, communication skills, body language, confidence and interest in the practice philosophy.

When conducting an interview, have your questions prepared, invite the candidate into your office, give them a tour, explain the role in detail and ensure their answers match the information provided on their resume. Candidates like to hear about your patients, team, longevity and history in addition to your core values. Once you have selected a new team member, send an offer letter and check their references.  References are critical to ensure the smoothest fit, verify the candidate’s information and transition for a new team member.

Onboarding new team members is very important, encourage your team to make them feel welcome, have an onboarding package ready which includes payroll forms, contract, job description, training guidelines checklist and any other details that may set them up for success. Remember to check in with your new hire frequently to ensure they are receiving the support they require.

The number one reason team members quit their job is they feel the clinic is unorganized. Often this is a lack of communication, and the team member feels they are not being heard or have support.

Regular team meetings are critical to ensure clear communication and offer a safe space to discuss issues and ideas to improve the patient experience. Monthly is the most common, for bigger clinics, department meetings can be a benefit as well.

In addition to encouraging clear communication, having systems in place helps the team keep on track and confirm things do not get missed. Examples include process manuals, checklists, equipment instructions, written protocols, utilizing practice management software and any additional software that makes organization easy.

Conducting annual reviews to discuss accomplishments, individual goals and practice goals are important to ensure values and shared goals continue to align and the practice and team member can support each other.

Spending time outside of the practice is also important, team members enjoy getting together outside of work and get to know each other. This can be as simple as a dinner together, a fun activity or a weekend trip, often the small things make a big impact.

If team members feel heard, valued and supported they will stay with your practice. Most often team members will not leave a great practice for a minimal amount of money. Investing in your team will continue to keep your practice profitable, thriving and most importantly valuable to your patients.

Remember we are all in this together, reach out to your vendors, industry friends and keep the positivity levels high. Your dream team is out there and once you have them in place, keeping them happy will be easy and worth all the investments made.