Many dental practices have very loose HR plans or set standards in place a number of years ago and then they have never been updated. Either way, you are running a business and need to meet employment standards, if you are keeping your fingers crossed that what you have in place is good enough then you could be setting yourself up for a problem down the road.
Not only do you want to make sure that you have the initial steps in place you want to ensure that there is compliance with your team and updating each year of the following areas:
- Analyze your current status and compliance with Employment Standard and plan for any areas where you may be lacking. Understanding the legal standards related to HR is crucial if there are ever any issues in your office. Understanding the process of termination step and employee record management is important as well.
- Develop clear job descriptions for each position in the office, which will include the tasks involved in the daily, weekly and monthly portions of the position. These job descriptions should also include performance goals for each position. Some performance goals will be for the office as a whole and some will be unique to that position. (For example, an assistant may have the office sundry budget in their goals as well as doctor chair open time.)
- Refining your recruiting, interviewing and hiring process to meet with today’s job market. Recruiting today has changed drastically from previous years. Your postings need to actually look like marketing for your practice, be creative in your posting locations and reply as quickly as possible to your applicants via text if you have that capability.
- Having an onboarding and training plan in place for all team members once they have signed their employment contracts. Set out training in advance for the first three weeks as a minimum for a position so that the expectations will be known for all as to how training should progress. A weekly check in should be planned for the first month for all new team members.
- Having a system in place for Performance Improvement Plans, Performance Reviews and Financial Reviews as well as the records required. Having systems in place to deal with small problems before they become bigger issues will be proactive in keeping the office flowing smoothly. Performance reviews should be discussions of employee’s satisfaction and their attention to the goals set forth in their job descriptions instead of a discussion around their attitude in the office.
- Recognizing the importance of a legally sound employee handbook and the policies attached to it.
Most Dentists aren’t involved in these details of running their office and rely on their Office Manager to know these details as well as executing them. This is all good until there is a problem with an employee. You will want to review all of your policies and documents listed here and sign that they have been reviewed at least once a year. If you don’t understand some of the items that are listed in this newsletter or haven’t thought about them since you last put the policies in place a number of years ago then hire a coach to ensure that your office is compliant with current standards.
