How to Recruit Top Talent for Your Dental Office

Why is a Structured Recruitment Strategy Important? 

The success of your organization weighs heavily on having the right people in the right positions to ensure everything runs efficiently. Your recruitment and team member selection process should start with a clear understanding of not only your objectives and KPIs as an organization, but also your core values and culture.  

The right candidate should not only be able to effectively execute their job responsibilities and meet established KPIs for their position, but also understand and align with the organization’s core values and culture. Your recruitment strategy should outline how to target and engage these types of candidates.  

Steps to Successful Recruitment

Establish and Evaluate Your Employer Brand

Your Employer Brand describes how you present your company to job seekers. A strong Employer Brand clearly communicates your organization’s core values, culture, and raises awareness of what the organization offers.

• Analyze any reviews from employees on listing sites such as Glassdoor and Indeed.
  • It is important to respond to both negative and positive reviews when the option is available.
    • Know your response will be judged just as much or more than the initial review.
      • Remain fair and objective.
    • Encourage former and current employees to leave reviews, making sure to space out posts over time.
• Understand your reputation and create counter-branding that addresses concerns; it is important to be self-aware and realistic.
  • Did bad reviews result from previous hires that did not integrate well with your culture and brand?
  • Encourage current team members to leave a positive review.
• Know that your website, social media and online patient reviews will often be analyzed by candidates.
  • Create a Careers page on your website that speaks to anyone interested in joining your team.
    • Share culture, team testimonials, benefits and open positions.

Utilize Video to Speak to Your Ideal Candidates 

When you choose a team to tell your story, keep in mind that not all videographers are created alike. While the technical aspect of setting up the camera and shouting “action” can come at a variety of price points, consider your investment. You get what you pay for…

Does your team understand not only the technical aspects of lighting, filming and editing, but do they also possess the industry knowledge to guide the interviews and extract important details? Do they have the ability to connect emotionally with your audience and tell your story in a way that makes people want to take action?

• VIDEO: Using Video for Recruitment 
• Set up full day photo/video shoot to capture the following:
  • Still photography of doctors, team members, location and patient interaction
  • 2-3 minute culture video with interviews and B-roll that speak to your mission statement, purpose and core values
  • Targeted team member testimonials focused on the positions you are seeking
  • Variety of :30-:60 social media pieces to grab attention and pique interest

Determine the Ideal Target Candidate

• What skills should the candidate possess?
• What tasks will be involved with the job?
• What responsibilities will be involved with the job?
• What qualifications are needed for the position?
• What kind of personality are you looking for?
• Which of your core values should the ideal candidate embody?

Write a Clearly-Defined Job Description

A well-written job description gives a sense of the responsibilities involved and provides a clear picture of the position for potential candidates.

Ask for feedback from current team members — there may be aspects of the job that you are unfamiliar with, and they can provide valuable insight..

• Determine the Most Accurate Job Title
  • Make sure it reflects the nature of the job and the duties being performed.
  • Make sure it clearly reflects ranking order with other jobs in the organization.
  • Make sure it is self-explanatory for recruitment purposes and can be easily found in online job searches by your ideal candidate.
  • Research other job postings for similar positions and titles; it will give you an idea of keywords to use, as well as what is searchable .
• Create a List of Duties and Responsibilities
  • Optimize your list and make it as short as possible while still clearly communicating expectations.
• Create a List of Skills and Competencies
  • Make it very clear what skills and competencies are required for the position versus what are preferred or nice-to-haves.
    • Skills are activities that the candidate can perform based on what they have learned in the past or from qualifications they have obtained.
    • Competencies are traits or attributes that you expect the candidate to display in the role, such as leadership, flexibility, communications and initiative.

Create Your Job Posting

In order to attract top talent, research your local competition and write a posting that gives your business a competitive edge. Before publishing the listing, proofread it and preview the formatting; it should be easy to read or skim. Include the following:

• Core values of your organization
• Description of the position
  • Duties and responsibilities
  • Skills and competencies 
• Include a salary range for the position along with any bonus opportunities and benefits: health, dental and vision insurance, flexible spending accounts, life insurance, retirement savings, and paid time off
  • Job listings which include a salary range get 75% more clicks than job listings that don’t  
• What sets you apart from your competition and why a candidate would choose to work for your organization
  • Understand that candidates may choose one position over another for:
    • A more flexible schedule 
    • An aggressive employee growth plan
    • Opportunity for mentorship
    • An attractive bonus structure
    • A work culture that aligns well with their personal beliefs
    • Availability of more up-to-date technology 
    • A well-established marketing plan and proven patient flow
    • Continued education and tuition reimbursement
    • Practice ownership opportunity
    • Location 
• Include a company photo or video that clearly demonstrates your culture, or provide an employee video testimonial 
• If targeting candidates from out of town, include things that stand out about your community; ie, near to beaches, professional sports teams, highly-rated schools, museums and attractions

Establish a Recruitment Campaign Budget 

Like marketing to consumers, knowing your return on investment is important. 

Understand that a well-targeted posting board may require more of an upfront investment, but will ultimately provide more qualified candidates and make for less work on the end of your hiring manager or HR professional. 

• Establish KPIs for your campaign
  • Number of well-qualified candidates by a certain time
  • Staying in or under established budget
• Document performance and compare
  • Some job boards perform better than others depending on your region, the position you are posting for and recruitment budget
  • Keep a log of where your best hires have come from in the past

Determine The Best Place to Advertise For Your Ideal Candidate

Understand where your ideal candidates are looking. When looking for a candidate, it is critical to understand where to reach and engage your target audience. Try a different job board for each posting and see which one works best for you.

Consider establishing a referral program for employees. Candidates who come from word-of-mouth referrals tend to be higher-quality teammates, just as patients who come from word-of-mouth referrals tend to be higher-quality patients.

A Career page on your organization’s website validates your employer brand and can be linked in job postings and used to funnel candidates.

• Associate Doctors and Specialists
  • Industry-specific online job boards
    • Dentalnachos.com
    • Groupdentistrynow.com
  • Local and national networking groups and associations
    • Study clubs
    • Specialty associations
  • Dental schools and specialty programs
    • Send an email or letter introducing your practice and your city to program leaders
    • Have your associates reach out to their alma mater 
    • Offer mentorship and case studies
  • Clinical supply sales representatives
    • Supply reps are “in the know” about what is happening at each office in your area and may be aware of candidates looking for new opportunities.
  • Recruitment and consulting agencies
• Clinical and Administrative Candidates
  • Job posting boards
    • Indeed
    • Craigslist
    • LinkedIn
    • Glassdoor
  • Local programs and colleges
  • Networking groups and word-of-mouth
  • Social media pages 
    • Local networking groups
    • Current employees pages – have your team share the post

Manage Your Candidates

• Consider utilizing an HR software program such as Breezy or Bamboo to establish a database of resumes and previous qualified candidates
• Determine if you would like to administer a personality test; Disc, Myers-Briggs, Kolbe, etc.
• Create a file for candidates who you do not immediately hire, but still want to keep in touch with in order to reach out to them for future opportunities.
  • Create a strategy to stay in touch with these candidates and keep them engaged with your organization.
    • Linkedin
    • Newsletters
    • Mentorship 
    • Networking organizations

Make Your Offer

• Things to include in the offer:
  • Job title 
  • Start date and time
  • Non-compete clause
  • Salary and bonus structure
  • Benefits and timeline of when they become effective
  • Sign-on bonus
  • Relocation package
  • Growth plan
  • Practice ownership schedule (Associates)
  • Expiration of offer
• Stay in communication with your candidate and follow up on the offer.
  • Be open and willing to negotiate.
    • It may be worth going out of budget for a well-qualified hire.

Start Onboarding

An established onboarding process will set up your new team members for success and will benefit your organization’s bottom line.

• New Team Member Onboarding – New Hire Journey