Attracting and retaining the best team
Featured Products Promotional FeaturesPosted by: Dental Design 1st April 2022
Attracting and keeping great staff is a priority for UK dental practices today. Only with a passionate, dedicated and experienced professional team can a practice consistently deliver exceptional patient care. However, recruitment difficulties and increasing demands on the team have made team building and retention challenging.
Sarah Buxton, Head of Dental Employment Law and HR for FTA Law, will be exploring these challenges and offering some practical advice to help delegates improve their own staff retention and recruitment processes.
“A fair salary is important to attract and keep good members of staff, but simply offering more money is not the answer. There are other incentives and benefits you can offer that are appreciated just as much. However, it’s vital for dental practices to offer these in accordance with the current regulations. For example, increasing holiday entitlement for employees the longer they stay with the business might seem a nice thing to do, but legally, it could be indirectly age discrimination.
“If you’re found to be discriminatory, the consequences can be costly to the business – both in monetary terms and with regards to reputation. Compensation in an employment tribunal is unlimited, so there is a huge risk to the practice should things go awry. Some outside-the-box thinking may be required to better reward staff loyalty. For instance, rather than looking at the minimum number or length of breaks that staff need throughout the day, instead consider what would most benefit their wellbeing. This is what employees are looking for today.”
Though staff retention has always been crucial, Sarah reflects on the pandemic has made it even more important and difficult for dental practices across the UK:
“It is absolutely more difficult to retain staff since the pandemic. The regulatory and SOP changes of the last few years have created a very difficult practice environment for some individuals, with a number choosing to leave the profession altogether in search of less stressful careers that pay a similar salary. Principals and managers have to do what they can to counterbalance the issues and provide the best possible working environments to keep staff in the practice and in the profession.
“Managing sickness has also become a hot topic in dentistry – not just due to the ever-changing Covid-19 regulations for self-isolation over the past couple of years, but also with the growth in awareness of mental health conditions. It can be complicated to determine what ‘sickness’ is today, making it hard to apply and implement protocols. Mental health can be particularly difficult to manage as team leaders may be less familiar with what conditions entail and what sort of treatment or support individuals may need. It is most important to ensure that mental health is not suffering due to something within the practice’s control – workplace bullying, for example, can be addressed and someone could be encouraged to remain at the in the team.”
This current climate in dentistry makes recruitment almost as challenging as staff retention for dental practices today. Sarah offers some advice for owners and managers looking to strengthen their teams:
“This is one of the toughest recruitment markets practice owners and managers have ever known, making it very competitive for highly trained and passionate professionals. To be successful, it is essential to promote the practice and the job vacancy well, to interview correctly and know how to look for the right candidate. Even details such as the wording used in advertisements should be reviewed very carefully to ensure these are compliant with current laws and regulations. For example, advertising for a ‘senior’ dental nurse may be interpreted as an older person, and once again could be considered discriminatory to younger age groups.
“The other big mistake that practices can make is to hire someone because they are desperate to fill a vacancy, but end up choosing a candidate that isn’t right for the job. This can create issues if other team members have to pick up the slack or people just feel the pressure of being in over their heads.”
Sarah will be looking at all these areas as part of two sessions she will present at the British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show (BDCDS) in May. In the Dental Business Theatre, programmed by Practice Plan, she will discuss “How to survive the staff retention crisis”, with a second session entitled “Recruitment, retention & sickness management” to be presented from Apolline’s Compliance Clinic. Sarah continues:
“These topics were picked because they cover the questions I am asked most often in my day-to-day work. I want to offer relevant information that will help delegates on a practical level.
“During my sessions, I will go into detail on how to attract new staff in accordance with the current regulations and keeping within your remit. I’ll discuss the policies and procedures to have, what should be in employment/clinician contracts and what fringe benefits you can safely provide to retain staff. I will also cover how to optimise the wellbeing of staff, how to support them and how you can build a very profitable and efficient team. I hope delegates reflect on their own policies and how they do things.
“It’s difficult to keep up-to-date with the latest regulations and I’m always being asked what’s happening around the profession. I aim to give delegates the opportunity to learn about the current situation and help their practice flourish. All questions are very welcome! BDCDS is a great place to come and see experts in their fields, including people you wouldn’t normally see. The face-to-face events are also well-overdue!”
The British Dental Conference and Dentistry Show 2022 will be held on Friday 13th and Saturday 14th May, NEC Birmingham, co-located with DTS.
For more information, visit birmingham.dentistryshow.co.uk, or email dentistry@closerstillmedia.com
