Recruitment & Retention: Getting it Right the First Time

Finding the right team member that aligns with your practice’s culture, long-range goals, and patient demand is critical to the success of your dental practice. Reducing your turnover and solidifying your team over the long term improves your profitability and elevates your brand. However, in the current hiring environment and with so much competition for quality candidates, it can be terribly challenging to find employees with the right expertise and who are a cultural fit for your dental practice.

Putting the Right People in the Right Positions

Become an Employer of Choice: 

Your employer brand is how potential candidates, and your patients of course, perceive your practice as an employer. Just as patients are your customers, so are your employees. It’s essential to create a positive brand image that highlights the benefits of working at your dental practice. With that being said, it’s important to showcase your positive brand image throughout the initial recruitment process. First impressions are everything! For example, your job descriptions, pre-qualification questions, interview panel, and compensation packages must all reflect your practice values, culture, and long-term goals. Potential employees do their research, so your website and social media must be world-class.

Offer employee referral bonuses: Your current employees are an invaluable resource for recruiting the right team members. Since they already know your practice values, culture, and long-term goals, they understand exactly what it takes for someone to make successful contributions to your practice. By offering an incentive to your employees to help you find top talent, you can tap into their networks and leverage their relationships to reach potential hires that you may not have otherwise reached. Referral bonuses can take many forms, such as a cash bonus, a gift card, or extra time off. Whatever form you choose, the bonus should be significant enough to motivate your staff to actively seek out quality candidates. 

Attend career fairs and networking events: Attending career fairs and networking events is an excellent way to connect with potential candidates, promote your dental practice, and tell people about your current job openings. These events offer a unique platform for showcasing your practice’s mission and values, networking, recruitment, and hiring. Career fairs and networking events also allow you to interact with potential candidates face-to-face, giving you the advantage of assessing their skills, qualifications, and enthusiasm for your dental practice. In addition to connecting with candidates, attending career fairs and networking events can also help you build relationships with other professionals in your field. These relationships can lead to collaborations, referrals, and partnerships that can benefit your practice in the long run.

Making the Placement Stick

Offer competitive compensation and benefits: To ensure that your dental practice is able to attract and retain the right employees, it’s essential to offer pay and benefits packages that are in line with industry standards and competitive with other employers in your area. By researching and understanding what other practices in your area are offering potential employees, you can determine a fair and competitive salary range and benefits package for your employees.

Common benefits that employees value include health insurance, retirement plans, paid time off, and flexible work arrangements. As a dental practice manager, it’s important to regularly review your benefits packages and make sure they are in line with industry standards and meet the needs and expectations of your employees.

Provide opportunities for growth and development: Beyond compensation and benefits, creating a positive and supportive work environment can also help to retain quality employees. This includes providing opportunities for professional development, recognizing and rewarding exceptional performance, and promoting a culture of open communication and collaboration. Employees want to feel like they are growing and developing in their roles, so by offering training and development programs, you can help your employees improve their skills and advance in their careers.

Acknowledge and reward excellent performance: Recognizing and rewarding good performance is a powerful way to motivate your employees, boost employee satisfaction, and keep them engaged in their work. When employees feel appreciated and valued for their hard work, they are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs and committed to the success of your dental practice. Offering incentives like bonuses, extra time off, or other rewards are a few of the ways to reward your employees for their outstanding performance.

In addition to tangible incentives, it’s also important to provide verbal recognition and praise for good performance. Taking the time to acknowledge employees’ hard work and contributions can be a powerful motivator and can help employees feel more engaged and invested in their work.

Ensuring the success and efficiency of your dental practice begins by getting recruitment and retention right the first time. By implementing competitive hiring practices, and by having a solid plan in place for keeping your employees on track to personal growth and success, you can reduce turnover, solidify your team, increase profitability, and elevate your practice brand.