Many offices waffle on the idea as to whether to have bonus/incentive plans for their teams. Do these plans actually incentivize the team successfully or do they become a way for making up for lower than average wages? With wages climbing through the roof currently because of a lack of trained applicants, many dental offices are feeling that they are already overpaying their team members. Whether bonus/incentive plans work for teams is still up in the area with many of the business experts. There are several different ways to go about structuring these plans if you decide to implement one:
Option One: You can choose to have a regularly timed bonus/incentive plan for your team, it should be based on their performance in helping the office achieve their goals. These goals should be set against industry norm with specific tasks.
The following are examples of staff performance incentives:
Practice Manager:
- Practice production meets or exceeds practice targets as established by your accountant , coach and the annual practice plan
- Collection on a monthly basis should meet the industry targets of 98% collection to production for each dentist, over 90-day receivables should be 15% or less of the total accounts receivables
- Ensure that all employee improvement plans are on track and being completed by the team member and employer
Hygiene Coordinator:
- Meet the hygiene downtime goal of no more than 10% hygiene downtime per month.
- Ensure all notes pertaining to hygiene calls are documented in software.
Treatment Coordinator/Patient Coordinator:
- Ensure all major restorative treatment is documented in a manner/monitor that can be measured each month
- Achieve 80 % case acceptance for all major treatment the first time it is diagnosed
Hygienists:
- Comply with the office’s Standard of Care Protocol
- Meet the office’s established goal for open time and patients being referred into perio intervals
- Use open time to contact overdue hygiene patients or help with other office tasks
- Exit all patients to the front desk with a travel sheet and verbal hand off for next visit
Assistants:
- Complete care calls daily for patients from previous day who may need one
- Exit all patients to the front desk with a travel slip and verbal hand off for next visit
- For those in charge of ordering: meet goal of supply costs at 6.5% or less of collection from the previous month
Option Two: You may also decide on a bonus/incentive program that is less structured. This means that you decide to bonus out some or all of your team at unplanned times throughout the year when you feel that their performance has warranted a bonus.
Option Three: A team bonus is provided at the end of the year to all team members based on the financial performance of the office regardless of each person’s contribution to the success.
Option Four: No bonus or incentive plan in the office. There is nothing wrong with this option as long as your team is being paid fairly for the job they are doing in your practice.
As you can see there is no wrong way or right way to have a bonus system in your office. The best idea is whatever you feel good about doing that will make your team feel appreciated every day in an outstanding office culture.
