When dentists start their own practice, they are mostly concerned with the clinical aspects of treating patients such as providing quality dental care, maintaining a good relationship with all their clients etc. But doctors should remember that running a practice also requires good business skills in other areas such as practice management.
Having a great team can be one of the biggest strengths of your practice but few doctors are experts in HR management, recruiting or employee training. It is not surprising that many practices struggle to hire great talent and have to deal with HR problems even after the recruitment process is complete. Some of the common HR mistakes dentists make are:
1. Hiring and firing
Many practice owners hire the first candidate to apply for a position, as long as he or she has the right credentials. They fail to evaluate the personality, work habits and other aspects of a potential hire. Hiring too quickly can be a fatal mistake as a single employee who is not a good cultural fit can quickly bring down the morale of the entire team. On the flipside, too many dentists wait for months before making the decision to fire an employee. If you have justifiable reasons to terminate an employee, it is better to do so quickly.
2. Delegation of work
As the practice owner, you may be tempted to do most of the tasks yourself. The time you spend on doing tasks which could easily be accomplished by someone else is time that you could have spent on more important jobs that only you can do. In some cases, dentists become impatient with inexperienced or new hires and complete the work themselves, instead of delegating. Quite often this means that the new employee never gets the chance to improve his/her work. In both situations, the productivity of the office suffers as a result.
3. Feedback
Once a good team is in place, many dentists assume that their work is done. They don’t bother to provide positive feedback or praise a job well done which can hurt an employee’s motivation. At the same time, constructive criticism is also extremely important as errors might be repeated and go uncorrected if they are not pointed out promptly.
Dovetail EDR incorporates practice management features to help dentists run their practice better. Practice owners can easily view reports and graphs to praise employees who are doing well as well as provide feedback to those whose work needs to be improved. Dovetail simplifies practice management so you can focus on your patients.
