HIRING - The 3 Best Strategies to Hire the Best People

Ultimately, the success of our practice is not limited by the economy, competition, or any other external factor. It thrives (or simply just survives) on our ability to hire, train, and retain an excellent staff. With an exceptional staff, we are able to consistently deliver an outstanding patient experience, which gives the practice a powerful competitive advantage.

But how do we find good people? What’s the best way to select the right person? And how do we decide if we should keep a new employee?

Hiring the best person for our practice comes down to three basic skills:

• First, we must FIND the right person
• Then, we must CHOOSE the right person
• And finally, we must employ and RETAIN only those who are right for our practice.

So, what are the best strategies to add someone who will become an asset to our practice?

Finding the Right Person 

Actually, we don’t really “find” the right person, they find us.  Good employees will not even consider our office unless it’s a great place to work.

So, the best way to find the right person is to make our practice highly attractive to the best applicants.

Key Hiring Skill #1

Practices with great teams attract the right person by becoming the “employer of choice” for the best people and by conducting a wide-ranging search for the best applicants.

The best practices attract the best applicants by making themselves the “employer of choice” for potential staff.  Just as we want to be the “practice of choice” for patients, we also want to become the “employer of choice” in our community for the best staff.

So, how do we make our practice highly desirable to the best person? 

 We do it by successfully finding answers to several questions:

• What are the key frustrations that staff feel when working in any dental practice?

Have we solved them in our practice? Does our staff get out of work on time? How much flexibility do they have in choosing their time off?  Are they given adequate support to do their jobs well? 

• Why would the best employees of another practice choose to apply to our practice?

First, it’s for financial reasons. A good financial package is merely the “price of admission” to be considered by the best applicants. But since the best people in other offices are probably already being paid well, it has to be more than that. 

Second, it’s for quality-of-life reasons - It’s the practical things like having a good working environment and work schedule, getting out on time, and having a compassionate yet fair leave policy. It’s all the big and little things that make our office a great place to work.

But finally, it’s also for emotional reasons– it’s the work environment, job satisfaction and a feeling that they made a difference at the end of the day.  It’s also the kind of co-workers they will have, the appreciation they'll receive from the doctor, the respect they feel because they have a voice in the decision-making process of the practice and the chance to enjoy their work because they will be a productive member of a team. The best applicants will talk with our staff to find out if any of this is true.

The next best way to find the right person is to conduct a wide-ranging search to attract the best applicants.

• What type of advertisement for a position in our office would attract the best person? What would our ad need to say to convey the unique nature of the opportunity to become a member of a dynamic office and team?

The wording of our advertisement needs to appeal to the type of person we want.  Invest in an ad that attracts an excellent applicant. It may cost a little more, but what is the value of finding the right person? Also, for business staff, word it in a way that may attract applicants outside the dental profession.  The idea is to cast a “big net” in the hope of finding the best person.

• What type of employee from another industry would best fit into the culture of our office? What other service industries have the right people with “the right stuff”?

Applicants with the right attitudes and outlook are often attracted to other customer service jobs and make great employees.  So, when we encounter people who give us great service, always give them the office contact information and ask them to call if they are considering a job change. Say, “We’re always looking for excellent people like you.”  They’ll be flattered and we might have found an excellent future employee.

• Finally, the best new employees are often referred by our staff.

If we have become the “employer of choice” by solving the key frustrations of our staff, then they can enthusiastically endorse our office as a great place to work and we will attract the best person.

Choosing the Right Person

Key Hiring Skill #2:

Practices with great teams select the right person through a highly selective hiring process in which team members participate in the decision.

What are the characteristics of a highly selective hiring process?

• Selecting the Right Person

We can usually train someone to perform the skills needed to do well, but we can’t train people to have strong interpersonal skills.  The best way is to choose self-motivated people who shares our core values, can learn their job quickly, and who, by their very nature, are caring and compassionate. Therefore, hire “good heads” and “good hearts,” not necessarily just “good hands.” When hiring, it’s great if you can get all three, but it’s essential that you get the first two.

• Involving the team

We choose the right person by having a thorough hiring process in which the staff are deeply involved in the interview process and hold the final decision about who to bring on the team once the applicant is acceptable to us.

One of the hallmarks of being part of a Championship Team is that decisions are made by the leader and the team and not by the leader alone.  When selecting the right person, if everyone has a voice, then everyone can commit.  In that way, every team member is fully invested into welcoming this new employee and training her to be an integral part of the team.

• The selection process

Finally, we need a systematic approach for selecting someone who will be a valued member of our team.  To be efficient and highly selective, therefore, we need:

1. An Extensive Search Process
2. An Effective Screening Process
3. A Thorough Interview Process
4. A Rigorous Decision Process

(For more details, see the article below)

Retaining the Right Person

Key Hiring Skill #3

Practices with great teams retain the right person only when they are 100% certain that they are right for the team.

The best way to keep the right person is to have a highly discriminating probationary period to retain only the best team members.

If we attract the right person and select the right person, we still must be absolutely certain that the new employee can become a productive member of our team.  Both the team and the new hire need a probationary period to evaluate the fit. During this time, the new teammate is considered a temporary hire and either party can walk away without giving advance notice.

During this probationary period, though, we must:

• Provide adequate training
• Give frequent feedback
• Retain only if we are 100% certain

If we have done a good job in the selection phase, it is usually no problem.  In some cases, however, the new person may learn that the position is not what he or she expected. In other cases, we may discover that they're not all that we thought.

If there are doubts on our part, it’s best to dismiss the new person during the probationary period. As difficult as this might be, the team should retain a new hire only when they are 100% certain it will work out well in the long term.

For more information, download Dr Steedle's article on Hiring the Right People