When a dental practice needs an additional team member and you have determined that you need to hire another employee there are so many factors aligned along the same. This decision is made for one of two reasons:
- Your ability to increase production, provide better service for patients, or support the current providers in the practice is hindered because you don’t have enough team members to cover.
- You have a demand for a specific skill that is not present in your existing team, for example, PDA or treatment coordinator.
When you hire someone, you need to do it correctly and seriously, which means doing it in the most cost-effective and time-efficient manner possible. Hiring a new employee may seem like a fairly straightforward endeavor, but it’s important not to decide before you carefully prepare.
Factors to Improve Employees Quality in Dental Practice
While there are never any guarantees that the person you hire will work out, there are some steps you can take to attract the best candidates and precautions you can take to improve your chances of making a good decision.
Determining what you need
Before you start the process of hiring somebody for a new vacancy, you must know what you’re looking for. The more completely you understand the position for which you’ll be interviewing, the better you’ll be able to evaluate applicants and choose the apt ones for consideration.
Job descriptions and specifications are two tools that will help a great deal in evaluating all the potential candidates. A job description is a written record of the responsibilities of a respective job. It indicates the qualifications required for the position and outlines how the job is relevant to others in the practice. In a clean, concise manner, the job description should indicate position title, salary or compensation method, area that person will work in, to whom they are accountable, their work schedule, a summary of the job, major responsibilities, and qualifications needed for it.
The job description should be organized in such a way that it indicates not only the responsibilities but also the vitality of these responsibilities. Within the categories mentioned above, including such information as the following examples computer experience required working conditions, and terms of employment.
If the position is new, the job description will help you clarify what the position demands and the necessary qualifications. If you’re filling a position that ‘s been vacated, and if it’s possible to do so, ask the departing employee to update the entire job description. Job descriptions can become quickly outdated. A former employee may also help you review the job description to determine if activities being performed still add value to the practice.
It is important to be able to answer these questions:
- What is the purpose of the job?
- What day-to-day duties are performed?
- What other duties are performed?
- How is the position supervised?
- How much or how little control is exercised over this position?
- What instruments, computers, or equipment must be used?
- What external or internal contacts are required?
- What verbal, numerical, or computer skills are necessary?
Determining the requirements of the position
When you’re deciding on the hiring criteria, you’ll need to examine experience, education, intelligence, and personality requirements. By establishing these requirements objectively by making use of the job analysis, job descriptions, and job specifications, you will eliminate bias that might be caused by poor values, and you’ll be able to look objectively at the traits tied to the performance of the job.
As you define selection criteria, you will need to look at the job performance of the former employee and isolate a few characteristics that have the most impact on successful job performance.
Before you start your search for qualified applicants, consider education, experience, physical requirements, and personality requirements. Be conscious that each requirement you identify is specifically job-related. This can help prevent potential problems later. Don’t make these job determinations in a vacuum. Ask the other team members for their perspective.
