Dr Michael Sernik, March 2001 - Unemployment in and around the capital cities and even in many regional cities across Australia is the lowest it's been in many, many years. Dentists across the country are complaining of the difficulties in attracting staff to work in their practices. We always hear how hard it is to find good people, but we've never heard it so much as in the past 1 - 2 years. Is this a temporary problem, caused by a reasonably sound economy? Possibly, but we think it's likely to continue for quite a long time.

Simply put, the supply of jobs available has outgrown the supply of employable people. Smart dentists are rethinking the impact that too many jobs and not enough employees will have on the way they carry on their practices in the next decade. Building and retaining a quality, loyal team is now a number one priority.

As we at Prime Practice travel around the country giving workshops and seminars, we see dentists with a wide variety of management styles. Often technically excellent dentists have unmotivated teams and not very productive practices, and occasionally, less technically adept dentists can be good managers, have good teams and enjoy very profitable practices.

But in all practices, dentists have to work hard to ensure that their staff is motivated, eager and productive. Many dentists feel they are constantly working at both dentistry and administration, and dragging their lax staff along behind them. Why doesn’t the staff know what the dentist wants them to do and just do it! Show some initiative! Why don't they stop waiting constantly for instructions from the boss - just go ahead and get the job done!

Unfortunately, usually the staff person doesn't know exactly what the dentist wants and is afraid that if they show initiative and get the job done, the dentist (being the pedantic person he or she often is) may not like precisely what the staff person did and get angry with them. And so the situation continues.

All of us, constantly, need to work on, and with, our staff, just like we need to work on and with our dental practices. Recruiting and retaining employees will require different strategies in the future. The role of a chairside assistant, or front office manager has evolved well beyond hiring a high school girl to mix cements, pass instruments, handle the suction, and clean up the rooms, make appointments and take money. Dentists who want to keep pace with efficiency, quality and profitability will need to hire and train employees who can keep pace and handle the complexity of technology and externally imposed regulation now and in the future.

There are a number of things a dentist can do:

1. Recognise and hire good people

2. Create a desirable culture that attracts the best patients and employees. The challenge of all practices will be to market their business to prospective employees as the best place to work. All of us want to be the "employer of choice" for potential staff.

3. Invest in your people by taking them to courses that will enhance their communication skills. These skills will help perpetuate the culture that you created in the first place, and contribute to minimising stress and reducing friction in the workplace.

4. Share with your staff your goals in all areas of your practice. Goals can be set, measured and monitored in a dental practice, with respect to:

• Total production
• Total collection
• Number of new patients from internal referrals, yellow pages, and other advertising
• Amount outstanding
• Case acceptance for new patients
• Case acceptance for patients of record
• Expenses: percentage & amounts of gross production made up by:
• Employee expenses
• Facility expenses
• Lab expenses
• Supply expenses
• Discretionary expenses
We see a lot of dentists who are afraid of sharing these numbers with staff. To a large degree the dentists are concerned that the staff will know how well the dentists are doing.
What we have found is that staff are indeed surprised - but by how little the dentist is making not how much. Generally, the staff can see how much comes in - where their surprise is, comes from the quantum of outgoings.

5. Lastly, offer competitive salaries and benefits. Minimal wages and benefits are common complaints of dental employees. Unfortunately, many dental practices are offering wage packages that barely compete with minimal pay, fast-food jobs in today's market. Dentists must begin to think of compensating their staff commensurate with what other employers are paying quality people in order to compete in the market place. Dental practices can be great places for employees to work - and to thrive. However, for many of us, a shift has to occur in how we hire, our practice culture, and in how we compensate future employees.
All of us, constantly, need to work on, and with, our staff, just like we need to work on and with, our dental practices. The situation will never exist, that our practices, or our staff, will never be permanently fixed - and just run by themselves. Leadership and management constantly need to be applied to our practices. It's somewhat akin to our patient’s mouths. Our patients can never stop flossing and brushing and say that now their teeth are clean, and fixed, or wont need any more work, or cleaning ever again.

Constant attention is needed to keep mouths at a high standard, and similarly to keep our staff, and practices at a high standard.

[Published Australasian Dental Practice, March/April 2001]