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Staffing Up by Jay Geier

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Categories: Practice Management, HR and Accounting;
Staffing Up 

A tough job market requires a tough look at what your practice offers its team members— or, more specifically, what it doesn’t

by Jay Geier

Today’s job market is different, and conditions won’t be temporary. COVID-19 has forever raised the bar on recruiting and retaining good people—the emphasis being on good people. You may have been able to slide on recommended human capital best practices in the past, but not anymore. If you want to attract and keep the level of talent you need to run a profitable and growing practice, you have no choice but to step up your people game.

Analyze your compensation

Every business is on the hunt for good people these days, just as you should be. The most expensive thing that can happen to your practice—not just in this market but at any time—is the loss of a well-trained, high-performing corporate asset, so eliminate the risk.

Start by analyzing your compensation package, including not just pay but also other monetary benefits, vacation and paid time off, training and development, etc. If you’ve gotten away without offering many (or any) benefits, you’ll need to do better. Add benefits, such as a 401(k), matching contributions, and more paid time off. Of course, you need to analyze the financials, but if your good people are being undercompensated, you probably know it … and so do they.

Don’t overpay your team, but make sure you’re paying fairly and competitively. Moreover, don’t underestimate the added impact of being genuinely complimentary and appreciative for all they do for you and your patients, for being great team players, and for anything else they bring to the table. Make them happy to be working for you, and let them know you’re thankful to have them on your team.

To recruit talented new team members successfully, you’ll need to up your recruiting budget—and, in all likelihood, up your offer. You may already be spending more to attract applicants, but if you’re losing them at the offer point, you’re just not being competitive in today’s hiring climate.

If you don’t already have a team referral program, establish one. For example, if a team member helps you find a good candidate that you hire, give her a set dollar amount upon hiring, and another set amount after six months if the new employee is still there. If you do have a referral program, increase the bonus payout by as much as two or three times to motivate your team to more aggressively seek out quality referrals.

Don’t overhire, but don’t underhire either. Constantly be on the lookout for good people where you’re most likely to find them. People laid off in the depressed hospitality industry, for instance, have already been trained in many of the customer service skills you want in your office.

Make culture a priority

Culture is the feeling patients get when they call or walk into your office, and how your people feel about coming to work each day. It’s unique to you, your team and your practice. It’s also your biggest competitive advantage because, unlike everything else you do, your distinctive culture cannot be replicated.

Whether you realize it or not, you have a culture! The question is, have you intentionally created and continually nurtured the one you want, or are you living with the consequences of a mediocre (at best) default culture? As the leader of the business, you need to define the culture you want, then own it. You can delegate execution elements, but delegating ownership sends the message that it’s not really that important to you.

If you haven’t already, ramp communications back up. Get back to or start holding team meetings. Reinstill your vision and rebuild that sense of teamwork that has you all working together to achieve clearly defined and well-communicated practice goals.

Be a desirable employer for top candidates

The book Talent Magnet by Mark Miller discusses research done by Chick-fil-A that determined the top three essentials that top job candidates focus on when seeking the kind of employment they want.

1. A better boss. Good bosses genuinely care about their people. They listen, mentor, show appreciation and value others’ input. This is part of a great culture, and something you can’t fake. You can delegate pieces, but you have to be engaged in the efforts. For example, if you have more than just a few staff, you probably won’t remember every birthday and service anniversary or be aware of family illnesses or losses. Delegate to a team member or form a “care squad” to keep you informed and provide cards for you to sign. That’s not being ingenuine; that’s having a process in place to nurture a caring culture.

If you have team leaders, make sure their leadership training includes how to be a better boss as well. As their leader, you need to ensure expectations are understood and carried out at every level. If not, you could lose good people who report to them without even realizing why.

2. A brighter future. Today’s top talent wants to improve their skills through training so they can perform even better. They want to be developed through new experiences, challenged to do more, and given opportunities to grow and advance. If you take them on a tour of the office during the interview, they will react enthusiastically to a training schedule posted on the wall—contrast that with a lousy hire, who’ll be thinking they already have all the skills and experience they’ll ever need.

Offer training as a privilege and a benefit—but one that’s not optional. Let employees know you share their attitude about the importance of building skills and gaining experience that will help them not only on the job but also in their personal lives. To do otherwise implies that you don’t care about their professional and personal goals or have no confidence in their ability to learn more or perform better.

Provide development opportunities by delegating everyday tasks, assigning special projects and creating the role of team leader. The best—and sometimes the only—way to provide growth opportunities is to grow the business. Then you can offer the challenge of a new job, the chance to work in a new office and advancement opportunities as part of a leadership team. The more your people are capable of doing, the more your business is capable of doing, so think of it as an upward spiral with no downside.

3. A bigger vision. Today’s best people also want to be doing something more meaningful than just earning a paycheck. They want to be part of something bigger; something that makes the world a better place. Give them a cause to be passionate about. Participate in free dental days for veterans and the less fortunate. Support local charities through hands-on participation. Take team members on a life-changing mission trip. Your team members will be proud to work for someone who gives back to the community and your patients will be proud to refer their friends and family to a generous office.

Within the office, make sure your people fully understand the magnitude of the work you do that changes people’s lives. Dental offices perform small miracles daily by easing pain and suffering, rebuilding self-esteem and making people happy. If you take all that for granted, so will your team! Remind yourself why you went into dentistry in the first place, then help your people understand and appreciate that they’re making a real difference in patients’ lives every day.

 You’re in control

You can’t maintain a profitable and growing practice that delivers a great patient experience if you don’t have good people trained to work together as a great team. Don’t allow yourself to succumb to excuses about today’s tough job market making it impossible for you to retain and recruit good people, and therefore your business is suffering. You have total control over your human capital strategies, so step up your people game by being the type of employer good people want to work for. In turn, your business will be the type of practice new patients want to come to.


Author Bio
Author Jay Geier is a world authority on growing independent practices. His passion is turning practices into businesses, doctors into CEOs, and employees into high-performing individuals and teams. He is the founder and CEO of The Scheduling Institute, a firm that specializes in training and development, and coaching doctors on how to create a performance-based culture that drives business results. To hear more from Geier, subscribe to his Private Practice Playbook podcast at podcastfordoctors.com/townie.

 

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