One of the things that makes a good dental practice a great dental practice is having the right team. I always say there is nothing that trumps organizational health. In any business, having a great group of people around the table is the ultimate game changer. My guest today is Dr. Ken Allen from Caring Smiles in Fort Collins, CO. Ken is a good friend of mine, a client, and now a teacher. He has done an incredible job of finding the right people and building an amazing team, and that is what we are going to talk about today. 

Ken shares how he started out by purchasing a small practice with a wonderful philosophy that resonated with him. He also got extremely lucky with his first hire by just taking the recommendation of a previous coworker. When it was time to hire a second person, Ken put an ad in the paper and interviewed all the applicants. It didn’t take long for Ken to realize that a pre-screening process was necessary. By his third hire, he began to hone the process. He now has some great techniques and advice that he shares in this episode.

You can find Dr. Ken Allen here:

Caring Smiles

Dr. Ken Allen facebook

@Caring_Smiles Twitter

 Show Notes

[01:53] Ken has a practice in Fort Collins and has been there 17 years. When he started his practice it was a one care operation that was open two short days a week.

[02:29] Ken purchased the practice because the dentist had a wonderful philosophy or caring for his patients and treating them like friends. That is the kind of practice that Ken wanted to have.

[02:43] It was a small start, but over the last 17 years things have grown and grown.

[03:19] When hiring, everyone can get lucky once. A friends recommendation  ended up being his one and only first employee.

[04:20] When things started to grow, Ken needed an assistant. He put an ad in the paper and interviews all 45 applicants. It was so tedious.

[05:13] Interviewing seemed like a long process because he didn't prescreen the interviewees.

[05:39] In 2003, Ken needed a receptionist. He came up with ideas to screen applicants before the interviews.

[06:34] How time needs to be put into the hiring process. Team members are an extension of the practice and hiring needs to be done right.

[07:04] Ken spent a long time crafting his ad so that it was completely in line with his practice vision. Dentists sometimes miss the vision in their ads.

[07:51] He created a concise ad that focused on people skills, caring, and empathy.

[08:28] The key was "dental assisting experience is helpful, but not mandatory". Sometimes it takes longer to untrain bad habits than to train a new person.

[09:59] Writing the ad is critical to the quality and number of responses. Make sure the traits and characteristics are included along with job description and must haves.

[10:48] Then they rented a room and contacted the applicants and held a mandatory group interview for 150 applicants.

[12:01] They also paid attention to how applicants answered the phone when the team calls them. It was critical to have the entire team there to interact with candidates.

[13:05] Some people refused to write their names on the name tags.

[13:46] They started at 7:00 and started sharing information. Ken also shared his philosophy. It needs to be match for the employer and the employee.

[15:55] The importance of having core values that line up.

[16:15] Everyone is asked to feel free to take notes. Sometimes it takes two or three of these group interviews to find the right person. If you settle, you have worse problems afterwards.

[18:04] Then the job duties and job description is explained.

[18:50] Then policies and benefits are explained. At the end things are opened for questions and answers.

[19:22] The question and answer session is the most fascinating part of the interview.

[20:42] Now interested applicants are offered the opportunity to fill out an application.

[21:22] The application has important pieces with an open section that asks what the practice philosophy is and how they fit in. Explain job duties as described.

[23:34] The questions on the resume screen the applicants with how much they listened and simple math and other job specific questions.

[24:44] Finding out what the team members felt and observed is the eye opening part.

[25:46] Team members hand out the applications and then hang out in back to take the applications and respond to applicants. Dr. Ken Allen hangs out in the back and shakes the hands of the applicants.

[27:23] Ken has even gotten new patients from the hiring process.

[28:17] All of the names are entered on a spreadsheet. There are columns about contacts, and the group interview, then the application is focused on the questions on the back. The applications are sorted by the answers on their questions.

[29:41] Going through the questions the list can be narrowed down and then checked on the spreadsheet and then the team feedback comes in afterwards.

[30:50] This process takes time, but it screens out the bad applicants and saves one-on-one interview time by getting better applicants in the interview process.

[32:50] Dr. Ken Allen's best hires have always been internal referrals. They will interview a strongly recommended applicant before the group method.

[33:51] If you settle, you will have to do it all over in a few months.

Links and Resources:

Caring Smiles

Dr. Ken Allen facebook

@Caring_Smiles Twitter