Dentaltown April 2015 - (Page 10)
howard speaks
column
When Staff Members Lose Hope
In most dental practices, the average staff member
has been there three years, but when you go into the dental offices where they're just crushing it (the dentistry
is great, the revenue is high, the word-of-mouth referrals are high, the net income is high), you start finding
that if you want to be a dentist who makes $200,000 a
year, your average staff member has to be with you five
to six years or more. Every dentist I know who's making
$250,000 to $300,000 a year has staff members who
have been there 10 years or more.
To keep staff members that long, you have to reduce
burnout and increase hope. They need to have hope that
their jobs will either stay great or have hope that if their
jobs aren't great, the situation will get better.
There's a business reason for reducing turnover.
When patients walk into a dental office and the dentist
says, "You need a root canal," some patients will trust the
dentist no matter what, but other patients will need more
assurance that the dentist is trustworthy. Your team can
offer that assurance. See, if the patient knows that the
dentist has been able to keep his or her receptionist,
hygienist and assistant there for 10 years, it increases
trust. The patient thinks, "I like those people-I know
they wouldn't work here with a lying sociopath. If you
were telling me I needed a root canal when I didn't, I
don't think those employees would keep working for
you. I think they'd quit and turn you into the board."
When we plot highest net income with all the variables that can be associated with it, we don't find it
related to where you went to school or what institute you
did some training at; we find it linked to longevity of the
average staff member.
So what keeps turnover high? What keeps staff
members from staying with an
employer long term?
Toxic people and loss of hope.
They're sometimes related. Let's start
with toxic people.
I pay a lot of attention to teams
and I've seen that the No. 1 destroyer
of good teams is that the owner
by Howard Farran, DDS, MBA, Publisher, Dentaltown Magazine
10
APRIL 2015 // dentaltown.com
doesn't get rid of toxic people. Sure, you want employees
long term, but not if they're toxic. The most dangerous
type is the moody person. You know who they are. They
come in one day and they're adorable and the next day
they're mad at the world. You have to get rid of toxic
people. It goes back to the playground. Are we all going
to have fun in the sandbox? I don't care how good your
dentistry is, if you're toxic and you're throwing instruments, or you're tolerating toxic people, it's a morale
destroyer. Then you have staff turnover and then people
aren't trusting treatment plans, and your business stops
growing.
To keep staff members that long, you
have to reduce burnout and increase
hope. They need to have hope that
their jobs will either stay great or have
hope that if their jobs aren't great, the
job will get better.
Think of how valuable it is when you have your staff
take an online dental course from Dentaltown and they
learn something great, and then stay on your team for
the next 15 years implementing what they learned. That
value is long term. I see a lot of business owners who
aren't reaching their top and it's because they're holding
on to toxic people. You want the kind of person, where,
every time you see them, it's the same person you first
met. They should be allowed to be upset about specific
situations, but not just be grouchy for the sake of being
grouchy. Your staff will start to wonder why you keep
that person, that employee who is nice to you but mean
to others, who refuses change and who drags people
down. All this, and other mismanagement, will lead to
your team losing hope.
You have these staff meetings and employees tell you
Continued on p. 12
http://www.dentaltown.com
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown April 2015
On Dentaltown.com
HOWARD SPEAKS: When Staff Members Lose Hope
PROFESSIONAL COURTESY: Recommendations Refl ect You
Continuing Education Update
Industry News
Poll
Lateral Incisor Placement with CEREC
Oral Cancer: Stop Assuming and Start Screening
CE: Removal of Hemangioma, Fibroma and Performing a Frenectomy
Braces V. Aligners: As Technology Evolves So Do Patient Choices
Malpractice: Changing the Way We Practice
Treatment Planning for Implants in the Maxillary Edentulous Patient
You Should Know: Molar Media Mount
Collecting Trauma Pictures for a Lecture
A Progressive Treatment for the Over-Flared, Over-Prepared Endodontically Treated Tooth
New Products
Creating a Safe, Effective X-ray Practice
SmartBox: Marketing Prodigy Masters Patient Attraction
Facebook Updates and the Impact on Your Dental Practice
Improve a Dental Practice’s Fiscal Health by Proactively Managing A/R Days
Pennsylvania Doc Balances Professionalism and Humor
Ad Index
Product Profile: Ivoclar Vivadent
Perspectives: Being a Female Dentist in Yemen
Products in Practice: DENTSPLY
ULTRASONICS SHOWCASE
Ready, Set, Know: Making the Most of Your Dentrix Investment
Dentally Incorrect
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