Orthotown March 2015 - (Page 36)

practice management // feature by D. Douglas Depew, DMD, MS As practicing orthodontists, we are all faced with business dilemmas and one that often surfaces is staff training and development. How much of our practice budget should be allocated? Where and when should we have training? What resources are available? And most importantly, what is the ROI on my training expense? It may be best to start with a quote from a leading success speaker, Zig Ziglar. He once said, "What's worse than training workers and losing them? Not training them and keeping them." We can all agree it's frustrating to help improve the skills of our employees only to see them leave for a modest increase in pay with a nearby competitor. However, what justice are you providing to your practice to hold someone mentally hostage by not providing her or him the resources to become the best possible employee? Orthodontists are living proof of Benjamin Franklin's statement, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Our profession is about extended education, elite performance, and specialization. Intelligence is the primary catalyst to even get into the profession. Orthodontists need continuing education to keep up to date; should we expect any less from the people we employ and who represent us? Not only is standardized and highly structured training critical for new hires, continuing education on advanced techniques, customer service, and new treatment modalities are vital for veteran team members as well. As business managers, we must continue to adopt progressive concepts to further differentiate from ever-growing competition and the dental specialty expansion. Orthodontists are well known for their adoption of new technologies, and this movement continues today. As technology advances, we must ensure that our teams are equipped to handle the fast-paced challenges of today and tomorrow. Most practices claim to have training and development and most of us appear prepared, but we also fall short of being satisﬁed. In today's world, how do we keep up and appropriately manage a training or development program? The ﬁrst step is to make education a visible priority and mission of the practice. It should be published in the mission of the practice, clearly communicated to your patients and very openly discussed in your regular staff meetings. Regardless of the size of your practice or experience level of your team members, designating a training director is the ﬁrst step you should take. This could be a clinical manager, ofﬁce manager or even the doctor. A training or development director should be responsible for 36 MARCH 2015 // orthotown.com the entire program. He or she would handle the administration, scheduling, event planning and resource allocation for your entire practice. At a minimum, two to three percent of your annual expense budget should be spent on training and employee development. Rather than focusing on the expenses, focus on the positive impact this type of R&D will produce. Keep in mind that training and development is not exclusive to the clinical area and that most practices need more ﬁne tuning in other areas of the business. Areas often overlooked include: soft skills, customer service, computer skills, public relations, sales training and marketing. These are common areas that need continuous improvement. As the technology age unfolds, we have to be prepared to adjust our communication models with technology and our own human resources. A few examples could include team building, treatment coordinator seminars, email, Microsoft Ofﬁce, social media, blogging and other technology-related modules. As each member of your team becomes more efﬁcient at his or her particular role, more job duties can be taken on and shared by the same employees. Instead of hiring more employees, current employees are enabled to do more and feel more important. Experience has proven that most individuals want to do more, want to make more, and want to be a part of the overall success of the practice. Of course, there are employees who don't meet this proﬁle and that's okay. It's important that you understand who is the right ﬁt and who isn't. Compensation or reward models should be designed with this in mind so you never give more work to an employee without proper rewards, i.e., expanded job titles, perks, time off, beneﬁts and even monetary supplements. We are not IBM, but we can learn from the IBM white paper, "The Value of Training, and the High Cost of Doing Nothing." IBM's founder, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. said, "There is no saturation point in education." This applies to the health-care world just as it applies to technology or even service companies. It's no secret that untrained workers cost signiﬁcantly more to support and maintain than well-trained workers. Once you commit, spend a day with the director laying out a 24-month schedule of events, proposed venues, budgets, resources and rewards. Meet with the team regularly to review the progress and evaluate successes and failures. Often, more learning and advancement will come from failures and the valuable lessons we learn from them. Keep it on the front cover of everyday life in the practice. Conversations should encompass your desire to see the team and individuals grow as employees or professionals. Stick to the http://www.orthotown.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Orthotown March 2015

Orthotown.com Highlights
Embrace Progress: From the Phone Book to the Internet Age: How Marketing Has Changed Over the Years
Industry News
HSD—A New Twist to CL2 Correction
Managing Expectations
Patient Engagement by the Numbers
What’s on Your Tray? Bonding and Retie Setup
Corporate Profile: Locking in Success with Unmatched Customer Service
Poll
Building Partnerships: How to Earn GP Referrals
New Products
Custom Mouthguards for Ortho Patients
The Strategic Value of Staff Training and Development
Lateral Open Bite
Ad Index

Orthotown March 2015