Do's and don'ts for retaining staff

The No. 1 challenge facing dentistry is staffing. Prior to the onset of the pandemic, many practices were challenged in hiring skilled and trained dental staff members. The pandemic further contributed to the loss of team members and made recruiting and hiring extremely difficult. Anyone will tell you that prevention is the best way of dealing with any type of crisis. So, the best way to avoid a shortage of dental staff is to prevent your current staff from leaving.

Be interested in your team. It's much more important to be interested than interesting. Doctors and office managers who take an interest in their team members and go beyond having a simple work relationship with them tend to have long-term teams.

Don't forget to recognize team members. People love recognition. It's very easy to recognize team members for a job well done, so you should do it daily. A compliment, a thank you, or a positive comment in the morning meeting all go a long way toward creating extremely positive feelings and a strong desire to remain part of the practice.

Dr. Roger P. Levin is CEO of Levin Group, a leading practice management and marketing consulting firm. To contact him or to join the 40,000 dental professionals who receive his Practice Production Tip of the Day, visit LevinGroup.com or email [email protected].

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