At TempStars, we love providing great resources and information to help dental offices and hiring managers find the best possible candidates to fill their team. To assist in this process, we’ve partnered with Transitions Group, North America’s premier Dental Practice Management solution provider. Transitions Group specializes in providing dentists and their teams with cost effective dental training and coaching programs with proven results.
As Canada’s largest and #1 rated dental temping and hiring service, we’re well-equipped to provide a unique insight into finding the best possible candidates for the job. Together with Transitions Group, we hope that our shared years of experience provide you with some helpful direction in your hiring journey!
Hiring the right person
Does your team have the right people? Do they have the right roles?
Finding the right person for the job is not only about the right qualifications. The reason we conduct job interviews is to get a sense of what kind of person they are. Some people are bubbly and outgoing, others are quieter and more measured when it comes to approaching others. Yet both of these types of people may share the same qualifications.
Looking beyond the resume
This is why choosing the right person shouldn’t be based solely on qualifications, but also on whether they have the right character and capabilities to deal with others. Especially in dentistry, where the hygienist, assistant, associate dentist, reception are all dealing directly with people all day.
This bears the question: how do you find the right person for the job? More importantly, how do you determine your people are already in the right roles?
What does a good candidate mean to your practice?
To determine this, the first thing you need to do is define what makes a good candidate in the context of your dental practice and the team you already have. Determine their specific duties and responsibilities, as well as the relationship and communication skills they need to thrive. Imagine yourself in the position and determine what kind of persona it takes to succeed in it.
Once you have a profile, you can start interviewing candidates or relocating people. During the interview process, you want to pay attention to their attitude.
The key to finding the right candidate
Finding the best candidate takes digging deeper than the resume and focusing on what your practice truly needs. Here are some things to consider:
- Go beyond qualifications. You want to know where they stand on success, achievement, ethics, and more, as these things tend to be more important than qualifications, appearances, etc.
- Evaluate communication skills. What about their communication skills? They make a huge difference in a dental team, so you need to consider them.
- How are YOUR communication skills? Of course, this is also a part of your responsibilities as a leader. Have you provided detailed and clear job descriptions? If you haven’t, you need to! The job description must be specific about responsibilities, expectations, duties, and more.
- Provide feedback. Have you provided performance feedback to your team members? This is vital because feedback is what allows people to improve. If they don’t know what they could be doing better, they won’t have the opportunity to work on that. It’s your responsibility as a leader to provide guidance through regular feedback.
- Define roles. The roles in your practice need to be clearly defined based on each person’s values and strengths. This lets you inspire a sense of ownership while supporting a shared vision of what the dental practice wants to accomplish and why. When you define everyone’s role clearly, you change the perspective from “we’re all responsible for this” to “this task is my responsibility”.
- Share a clear mission. People need to relate to a mission because this inspires them to work harder and achieve further success. You can’t be motivated or inspired if you don’t know where you’re going. Goals are necessary because they drive us, and that’s what you need to provide.
With these tips in mind, you are capable of hiring the right person for the job, and ultimately building a team that works well for your practice.
Get Started – It’s easy!
If you or your office are not yet a member of TempStars, it’s free and easy to join. We offer the largest and #1 rated dental temping and hiring experience across Canada. Thousands of dental offices like yours trust TempStars to find them a dental temp when they need one, and to help them hire the best candidate to their team. We don’t charge any hiring fees! And our temping fee only applies after a successfully completed temp dental hygienist or dental assistant shift. There’s a reason we’re the most-loved in Canada! Join here now if you’re not yet a member!
Need a Little Help?
If you’re interested in seeking professional consultation for your dental practice, whether for hiring or otherwise, get in touch with the amazing team at Transitions Group. Transitions Group also has a fantastic “Pandemic Proof Your Practice“ program if you need any help or advice on accelerating your re-opening recovery and avoiding future problems if (please, no!) anything like this happens again.
