Low unemployment rates and the rise of top talent make it difficult to find the right candidate for your office. Not only will your patients be treated by your staff but would also have to interact with them. Poor interaction by your staff can result in your patients seeking a new dental office. This is why it’s important to really get to know who you’re hiring beyond their credentials. Keep reading for some tips on the hiring process for dental offices.
Take on a Systematic Approach
You don’t need a hiring manager or a business degree to understand how to successfully recruit someone to your practice. However, it is a good idea to have a plan set in place. Organization is key for effective staffing solutions. Start with writing up a detailed job description of what you’re looking for. Think about where you would like to advertise the position. Know when, where, and whom will be conducting the screening and interview process. Have a timeline in place for when you’d like your new dental assistant or hygienist to start. Knowing these elements before starting the hiring process can be extremely helpful and makes everything run smoothly.
Job Description
It’s important to spend a decent amount of time perfecting the job description. This is where you want to explain the position as accurately as possible. Whether you’re looking for an office receptionist, medical billing clerk, another dentist, part-time or full-time dental hygienists/assistants. This is a crucial step because it gets rid of any misinformation about the position. You will more likely gain response from suitable candidates and save a lot of time when hiring.
How do you Want to Recruit?
Formulate a plan on where you’d like to look for new staff. There are many sources with some popular ones include Indeed, Craigslist, and even Kijiji. However, these sites also have a lot of clutter from several companies.
Not to toot our own horn but TempStars has started a new job board feature. It allows you to gain access to many dental staff posts near you and for free. Not only is it great with hiring permanent dental staff but also perfect with finding emergency temps. Currently this temp agency is available in many cities across Canada including Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Halifax, Edmonton, St. John, and PEI. With constant growth, we’ve expanded to Buffalo, New York as well. There’s no harm in checking out TempStars, it might be just what your dental practice needs!
The Actual Hiring Process
Once you officially have started the process (even if you’re looking for just one hire), make sure to be prompt. Reach out as quick as you can to the candidates that have wow’d you and let them know you’re interested. It’s crucial to have a screening process so you know you’ll have the best candidates coming in for an interview. Many prefer to do an over-the-phone interview to start. It’s important to have a standard set of questions already in place for this part of the process. Standardized testing has also become popular to test professional competence.
The next step would be to bring successful candidates in for a formal interview. It’s up to you on how many interviews you’d like to conduct. Perhaps it would be a good idea after the interview to introduce the staff to the potential new hire to see how the chemistry flows. Get to know the candidate to the best of your abilities because this person could be representing your practice. It could also be beneficial to conduct some background checks of the candidates. Follow up with the references they provided. Ask them why they left their previous job. Be thorough.
Conclusion
Keep in mind that hiring a candidate is an investment that you should be thinking about for the long-term. Be as thorough as possible. The hiring process can sometimes be exhaustive but at the end of the day, it’s worth it. You want to be confident in your staff and make your patients happy.
