The key thing to remember is that people spend more time at work than they do at home. There is a general theme that Dental Practices that create a good working environment tend to get more out of their people than those who don’t.
Productivity is the key measure of success in a business. If you’re a small practice, productivity is key; if you’re a large corporate practice, productivity is key.
Motivated staff deliver the best performance
Clever employers want their employees to engage with the Dental Practice as much as possible because motivated staff deliver the best performance. But how do you make this happen?
Every dental practice should look at itself and ask: “What do we do for out staff?” Most of the practices I see actually do nothing other than the annual Christmas party. But by the time Christmas comes around, will all your valued staff be with you?
Ask yourself: “What do we do beyond giving our employees a uniform, gloves or a desk? What can we do in the practice?”
You have to try and incorporate non-work related activities
It can be as simple as giving the practice a monthly budget for takeaways, so the team can take their minds off of work and feel that can relax and enjoy being at the practice.
You have to try and incorporate non-work related activities into the week, which are designed to make going to work a bit more fun. Think about how you can make the practice a more enjoyable place to be.
All about money?
As a head-hunter, I recruited a number of candidates who were offered a job, but when it came to the final decision of resigning, they changed their minds.
It wasn’t because more money or a better position was offered; they just didn’t want to leave their friends. I’ve learnt a lot from that because it reminded me that money is not everything. Really clever practices recognise that to retain their top people, they actually have to give something back.
Creating the right atmosphere
I would say it’s one of the single strongest factors of staff retention – creating the right atmosphere, creating the right environment, and doing things that make being at work fun.
Do we actually do anything that creates a good working environment?
So what I do is reverse back and say: “What are we doing? Do we actually care? Do we actually do anything that creates a good working environment that incentives people to maximise their productivity?”
Have a weekly lunch, and I’m not talking about the Ritz. Get some pizzas in, or have some nibbles, it doesn’t matter. Just enjoy the lunch break.
Inject some fun
One of the best things I ever did was taking a bunch of my people to The Comedy Store. We had a fantastic time. It was mid-week; we went to the pub, had a beer, then went to the Comedy Store and came out literally with stomach aches.
For the next three weeks everyone was talking about our Wednesday night out: “Didn’t we have a great time? Wasn’t it so much fun?”
You can say to one of your Practice managers: “Why don’t you take a bunch of our guys, get some tickets, go out and have some fun?” It might cost you a hundred pounds but what an amazing investment for a hundred pounds!
The key message is that every organisation need to look at their business and ask “What do we do for our people??”