Thinking Outside the Box in Hiring

Episode #374 with Robyn Reis

Hiring the right person for your practice was always hard. After the pandemic, it got even harder. So, what can you do to find that amazing, capable candidate? To help you start thinking outside the box when it comes to employment, Kirk Behrendt brings in Robyn Reis from Bent Ericksen & Associates for the best hiring practices. Don't hire the first person who comes to your door! For her creative advice on attracting the best people, listen to Episode 374 of The Best Practices Show!

Main Takeaways:

Prospective employees are now asking for higher wages.

Get creative with benefits. They don't need to be in dollars.

Have a structured onboarding program for new hires.

Help your team master what you hired them for.

Be mindful of burnout for your existing employees.

Showing appreciation to your team goes a long way.

Hire for attitude, train for skill.

Quotes:

“Pre-plague, if you will, [hiring] was really hard to begin with anyway. You had to be really mindful about the ads you're writing, what you were promoting. But you had a really good chance of finding a qualified dental person to fill in for a dental hygienist, front office, assistant, treatment coordinator, whatever it might be. Post-plague, we have discovered that there was a tremendous amount of exodus of people that just didn’t want to return to the profession. And that created such a tsunami of openings that we just, you know, supply and demand. There wasn't enough inventory for the dental practices to find qualified dental people that have the skills and knowledge that a lot of practices are looking for.” (4:13—5:05)

“We always have talked about the adage of hire for attitude, train for skill. Well, we’re finding that it is extraordinarily hard to find those skilled dental people, number one, but then to find the attitude and the behavior and the person who’s pumping sunshine, they then don't have the training resources at the dental practice to actually train the technical, the terminology, basic skills of the position. It was hard before. It’s even more hard now. So, employing different strategies and thinking outside the box, such as having a conversation with your mailperson, nowadays, is not unusual in looking for dental personnel.” (5:17—6:07)

“[Candidates asking for higher wages] is definitely a trend that we’re noticing for any position. If the position was traditionally a $20 an hour position, administrative or dental assisting, we’re finding that candidates are asking, on average, for about a $10 to $12 increase. So, they're now asking for $30, $32 for what a $20 an hour position was, traditionally. And they are discovering that, yeah, practices are willing to pay for it because there's such a shortage.” (7:18—7:51)

“Can the practice afford [paying higher wages]? Can you negotiate? Of course. I would absolutely not walk into or make a commitment to a new hire of a high wage if, a) you're not comfortable and your practice numbers don't support it and, b) be willing to negotiate, especially if they say that they have experience in a prior dental office. What we have found is there are not apples to apples in dental practices. You work with the best of the best, and that is much different than somebody who is maybe insurance driven, or has a lot of high turnover, or does scheduling differently. So, not only do you have to worry about if they say they have five years in a dental practice, keep in mind, they have five years in another dental practice, not yours. So, still, the training, the onboarding, is so important in helping make that new hire a success.” (7:54—8:55)

“If you have the resources to devote and onboard this new hire in your way of doing things and teach them the technical, absolutely, I would choose that over a skilled person any day, if the vision and the values are aligned.” (9:59—10:16)

“Of course, you want to always keep stepping up when you change positions. So, if you don't feel that you're bringing value to your current practice and you want to make a choice, of course employees should ask for more, and always back that up with experience. But most importantly, for the employers, for the dentists, is double-check those references. 85% — it’s jumped — of resumes now have some form of falsification on their resume, be it in salary, or responsibility, or title. Because you're right, people will tend to embellish a little bit, make themselves sound good to get the interview. But when you're ready to make that hire, make that offer, I would absolutely make sure that you're double-checking references and doing a background check.” (10:26—11:20)

“Get creative. It doesn't have to be in the dollars. And if the practice can't support the dollars, then get creative, maybe in investing in their continuing education, helping them learn a new skill, a new technique, benefits. A lot of people will ask for medical benefits. And if it’s not something that your practice has considered in the past, you may want to look into your local dental association, dental society. Yes, you have to be a member, and you can find that there are some plans that can be more affordable than you think.” (12:47—13:23)

“If [medical benefits are] not an option for you, then think of ways that you can support this new team member, not from a dollar standpoint in an hourly wage, but maybe you set benchmarks. Maybe it’s pay-to-play. So, you set up benchmarks and you say, ‘Hey, if we set this goal and you guys can help us achieve it, then this is the reward.’ It’s not about that expected bonus that becomes just something that, ‘Okay. Well, if we hit so many new patients, we’re going to get a bonus,’ or, ‘If we hit so many whitening cases that we sold, we’re going to get a bonus.’ It truly is, again, going back to your vision and your values. What is going to really make the most impact, and what's going to be meaningful?” (13:24—14:13)

“Research has shown that 69% of employees that had a structured onboarding program that reinforced why they chose to work for this practice, why it was important that they got the package that they got, why they made this choice to join this practice, they stayed an average of three years or longer. So, the structured onboarding program is really important when we’re talking about bringing somebody new in, especially if they're nondental.” (14:37—15:08)

“If you're going to commit to finding that awesome person who doesn't have dental experience, make sure you set up this training program that will support not only their hands-on, immersing themselves into the training on-site, but also maybe off time. Maybe you set aside an hour or so that they do get to do training so that you still get to build that connection, that relationship, and help onboard this person so that they're going to stay.” (15:18—15:48)

“Transparency is a foundational principle of leadership. So, it is staying in conversation with your team members who are short-staffed. You might have one or two positions that are open that you're recruiting for. Hygiene is the hardest position right now, across the board. Dental assisting is number two, and three would be a front office or administrative position. So, knowing that if your dental assistant is assisting but also helping out at the front desk, a) you want to make sure that you're not bumping up against any wage-an-hour loss. So, anything over 40 hours in a seven-day workweek, or nonexempt employees, they're entitled to time-and-a-half, that overtime premium.” (16:30—17:13)

“You want to make sure when you are recruiting that you have a job description that is compliant, that outlines the soft skills and the hard skills of what you're looking for so that if you do have to say goodbye, if you do have to set someone free, that there is a clear understanding of why it’s not working, because the expectations were set up upfront.” (17:14—17:36)

“We also have to be really mindful of burnout and burnout for your existing employees. So, checking in, helping them with self-care, giving them a spa day, or giving them just an hour off to go home early or come in late. That really goes a long way. Showing appreciation is so key to keeping teams moving forward, wanting to get up and come to work every day.” (17:37—18:02)

“[Help your team] master what you want them to do and what you hired them for. There are so many times that the disconnect is, ‘Well, I thought I hired this person to do this, but they're not doing that.’ And the question becomes, ‘Well, why not?’ And it’s because they didn't have a training buddy. They didn't have direction. They weren't given expectations on, ‘This is what you need to do.’ And the response is always, ‘Yeah, but they’ve been a dental assistant or a front office person for ten years. Why do I have to tell them what to do?’ Well, it’s not the task. It’s really about aligning with that vision and what is it that they have to do to be a success dental assistant in your practice.” (20:49—21:31)

“When you offer someone a position, they’ve gone through the phone, they’ve gone through the video, they’ve come in, maybe they’ve even done a working interview and you want to make the offer, you still need time, especially if they're employed, to check with their current employer. But you don't want to ask the current employer if they haven't resigned yet. You don't want to put anybody in a bad position. But the conditions are the background check and checking references. And provided those are satisfactorily completed and we don't get any bad information back, then the start date should be at least a week out to give you time to do all that and to get all the background checks done. It’s just a condition that you could rescind the job offer if you get an adverse response from an employer or the background check.” (36:16—37:09)

“When you do a true working interview and somebody is actually working on patients in your practice, then they do need to be compensated. And you usually have them sign off on a letter that basically says, ‘This is part of our interviewing process. This is, by no means, an offer of employment,’ because you might have two or three people you're evaluating. So, you want to make sure that you're not making any promises, but that they understand this is a working interview for you to evaluate their skills, and they will be compensated for it.” (37:53—38:22)

“Make sure you understand what your state’s working interview requirements are. And if there are none, err on the side of handing a check to that person at the end of that interview.” (38:40—38:51)

“Having an employee manual is so, so key. If that is one thing you can ask Santa or what you can put on your New Year’s resolution list, you need an employee manual. And if you have one, have it at least looked at and updated to make sure — there are so many laws that have changed. Bent Ericksen is going to be sending out even more that are going to be effective January 1, 2022. Make sure you know that whatever you're providing for your team members is appropriate for your state. But also, you're really great dentists at doing the dentistry, and employment law really should be left to the experts, and experts like Bent Ericksen.” (40:30—41:13)

Snippets:

0:00 Introduction.

1:38 Robyn’s background.

3:31 Why this is an important topic in dentistry.

6:39 Candidates are now asking for higher wages.

8:55 Trust, but verify.

12:20 Get creative with benefits.

15:48 Show appreciation to your team.

19:33 Help your team succeed in what you hired them for.

21:45 Best practices on COVID-19 vaccination questions.

27:04 Guidance for state vaccine mandates.

29:45 An example of thinking outside the box in hiring.

33:30 Biggest mistakes dentists make.

36:07 Conditional start dates.

37:09 The working interview.

40:23 Last thoughts.

Reach Out to Robyn:

Robyn’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/robyn.reis.7

Robyn’s website: https://yourdentalpracticecoach.com/

Robyn Reis Bio:

Robyn began her dental career in 1998 as a marketing and communications director for a large group practice, and instantly fell in love with the world of dentistry. She has spent every waking moment since learning, growing, and collaborating with dentists and their teams utilizing her expertise in all aspects of dental practice management, marketing, communications, HR, continuing education, and laboratory sales. Robyn's personal goals are to make a difference in someone's life every single day and to give the best of herself to those around her. Robyn and her family live and play in Northeast Ohio.