According to a recent Gallup Workplace survey, 51% of US employees are actively seeking a new job. This statistic is especially worrisome in the dental industry due to an existing shortage of dental personnel. Learn the primary reasons dental employees depart and ways you can prevent it from happening. 

So much of what is happening, or in some cases, not happening in your dental practice is invisible to you as the Dentist, leader, and owner. You are simply too deep in the trees to see the forest. A practice evaluation by an outside practice management business expert can be incredibly valuable to you, your team, and your practice and set your practice on the path to long-term success.

This month, we’re playing baseball, specifically, leadership baseball. You, the dentist, are the owner of this team, which we will call, “Team D” (for dental). You purchased Team D with a boat-load of money, time, and sweat by graduating dental school and purchasing or buying into a dental practice. Those decisions are what launched you into this game of leadership baseball.

The most effective team structure for a dental practice is a self-managed team structure. Why? In dentistry, the dentist-leader is the business's primary income producer. If the dentist-leader is not doing dentistry, the business is losing money. Over time, the stress of dealing with a dysfunctional team structure and being the number one producer will result in professional burn-out.

In my previous blog, Is a Bad Apple Employee Ruining Your Team?, you met Francis, a problem employee. Francis’s problems weren’t so much her job performance, but rather her behavior and attitude, both of which are more subjective and difficult to manage.  Here are some tools to help prevent and protect you from being saddled with, or “held hostage” by, a bad-apple hire.

You can spot disengaged dental employees a mile away. Research giant Gallup has found that globally, 85% of employees are disengaged in the workplace, and they under perform as a result. The dental industry is not immune! Your practice is not immune!

Scheduling is one of the most important elements of your practice. It is intimately tied to your profits, stress level, and patient satisfaction, yet I see practice after practice allowing their schedule to reduce their income, create work chaos, and drive patients away.

Want to maximize your retirement savings? Need funds for new equipment, technology, or an office renovation? Want to get those debt burdens off your back? Having a hard time making ends meet?

Professional burnout is an epidemic! In a study, just this year, of over a thousand Human Resource managers 98% indicated burnout was actually “sabotaging” their businesses. Many managers indicated professional burnout accounted for 50% of their employee turnover!

Dental practice embezzlement is a real issue. It is estimated that between 60% and 80% of dentists will know they were embezzled by the end of their career. Who knows how many never know!

Many practice owners feel like they need to be SUPERDENTIST by day, and the business-minded Clark Kent by night to make sure both of their roles as a dentist and business owner are taken care of. This doesn’t have to be the case. A dental practice that is “organizationally-organized” can alleviate the stress on the practice owner and let them focus on being a dentist.