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Top Tips for Hiring in Your Dental Practice: Finding the Perfect Fit · The Millionaire Dentist™

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  Hello, everyone, Welcome to the Millionaire Dentist Podcast, brought to you by
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  four Quadnan's Advisory. On this podcast, we break down the world of dentistry,
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  finances and business practices to help you become the millionaire dentists you deserve to
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  be. Please be advised we do speak with an honest tongue and may not
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  be safe for work. Hello and welcome. This is Casey Hires back at
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  the Millionaire Dentnist Podcast in studio with co host Jared Bridgeman. Casey, how
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  are you looking good man? I don't know if you like Crockett or tubs
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  over there with your powder blue sport coat, but your fight, you're fighting
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  the good fight. I am fighting. And also, speaking of jackets,
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  you got a really nice one on too. Is that brand new? Yeah?
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  New to you at least? Yeah, Yeah, it's nice. It's
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  making its debut and yeah, multiple people have mentioned it, so apparently need
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  to keep the wardrobe fresh. I think you need to. And I'm also
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  in that same boat because I have such head trash from being younger and like
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  not having money growing up that buying clothes for me, it was always a
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  one time a year, school year thing and I'm as an adult with my
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  own decisions to make. I'm getting used to the more and more used to
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  the idea of, oh, I can go and buy clothes when and where
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  I want. Hopefully, our bodies aren't going to change too much where we
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  quote unquote outgrow them anymore. Yeah. I get that when you as a
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  kid. But yeah, now it's just if you're consistently adding to it,
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  it's good. I mean, I'm not getting taller, just wider. Yeah,
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  that's fine. And we're not talking about wardrobe today. To our listeners,
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  Casey, you know you you've We've got our lovely team and they've been
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  going out and then meeting and greeting and doing our speaking events. One of
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  the things that's been keeping you a little busier than normal is, uh,
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  you know, our firm has been growing quite a bit and you've been more
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  involved doing interviews in the hiring process. How is that looking for you?
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  What is what does that look like to you? Well, it causes me
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  more to be more empathetic because when I talk to practice owners, the number
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  one frustration that they like to talk about is team or staff and hiring.
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  Right, And we've talked about that before. I would say it's usually number
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  one on the list. Yeah, for multiple reasons. Number one, it's
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  real, right, there are challenges finding good hygenis and good assistance and keeping
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  the office good. That's we're going to talk about today. But they also
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  lead with that because it's not as personal, right as some of the things
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  we talked about. It's kind of a blame shift. It depersonalizes it towards
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  something else. Yeah, when we start talking about your income and your retirement
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  and your planning and the profitability and over it, those things are not as
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  fun to talk about, right, So staff and team get talked about a
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  lot, to which we understand that's virtually universal, yep. And then we
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  just kind of move forward. Let's get to the core and root of things,
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  because when those things are better, typically staff and team aren't as frustrating.
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  That being said, we're going to talk about hiring and in dental practices
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  that are replacing or growing. What that's like, because again, here we're
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  growing, we're helping more practice owners, and so we have to make sure
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  our level of service is the rich Carlton and to maintain that there are a
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  lot of hiring and interviewing and the right people and the wrong people things that
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  we're we do. So we said, let's talk about this thing that dentist
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  and specialists feel safe talking about, right, which is, oh my team,
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  oh my staff. So let's do it. Let's do it. So
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  right out of the gate, let's talk about what's the number, What's what's
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  what's number one on our list here? What's what's the top thing you think
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  they we should we should speak about? Well, I mean kind of before
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  we get into that. I think it's really important just as a practice owner
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  or if you're running point hiring people, separate yourselves by being straightforward with what
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  you want and strongly stating expectations instead of just wooing them. There's a misconception
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  out there that you just have to tell people what they want to hear and
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  woo them or I'm not going to get them. I'm gonna be understaffed to
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  find the right person. I think you need to start off being pretty honest.
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  That's one hundred percent accurate, because let's say you do get them in
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  and it doesn't live up to what you've promised. That that's that could lead
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  to very quickly people people quitting human nature, human psychology, people complain and
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  in this time people like to be victims and selfish and all the negative human
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  psychologies can come out with a bad hire, and so just wooing them and
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  telling them what they're going to say is not real effective. You have to
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  you want to sell yourself in your practice if you're hiring, but you also
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  need to start to lay the foundation of accountability and achievement and a service minded
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  heart. And if you have those things, that's a good starting spot.
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  Instead of me, me me, I, I, what's the number?
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  How much am I going to make? How much time off am I going
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  to get? Like if you have somebody that's leading with that, hopefully this
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  is a obvious thing, but big red flag, right, But not just
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  trying to woo people. Try to get to know them and be very straightforward.
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  And if there are things you know you don't likeacteristics from past people bring
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  that up early, right. It's it sounds like a again a one to
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  one level tip, but it's it's not done. And so it'd be nicer
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  to know up froud too if something's just not going to work between the two
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  of you. I mean, I saw I you know, the hours of
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  research wink wink, I saw something where it talked about offering ownership opportunities to
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  a dental hygienist, and I was I thought I was on like a parody
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  or a spoof like research site, because I'm like, I don't I'm trying
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  to refrain. I have not heard of anybody doing that. That's the dumbest
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  thing I've ever heard of. If you're a practice owner, you went to
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  didnal school, you want to make some money, you need role players to
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  help your practice offering. Like half the things that I saw was all about
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  kissing ass and willing these people to get them in the door. Please work
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  for me. Well, you're already starting off as not a strong leader if
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  that's your starting spot, yep, you know. And I liked how and
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  you brought up a lot of people. You know, people just tend to
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  complain in general about things, no matter what. Yeah, I don't like
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  the temperature in here right now. I'm kidding. I like to chill out
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  in here. Keeps me fresh. So and the problem with today, I
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  think is it's so much easier to get your complaints out there too. It's
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  celebrated. Yeah, And I mean there's a there's a platform that everybody can
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  use. It's the Internet, and so having a situation where you may have
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  misled a potential higher and things like that that could also get out there as
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  well as a not to be misled. It's just you didn't you focused on
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  the wrong things right, And you know, in the old days, grumpy
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  old man, get off my lawn, if you were maybe not great at
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  what you were doing, you work to get better at it. Now people
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  just complain and share their complaints and get that like victim, like, oh
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  they feel sorry for me. That feels better than admitting you, I need
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  to prove some skills and work at my craft, and you have someone feel
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  sorry for you. It can be nice sometimes. That's how I got laid
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  in college. That is a technique. Yes, you know, and lost
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  puppy dog or woe is me? Oh what's wrong? Yeah? Okay,
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  I don't know if you're gonna edit that or not. I think it's useful.
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  All right, here's a couple. Here's something I kind of put together.
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  So many dental practices focus on clinical and technical skills, and that's very
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  important. Those are also trainable, correct, right, The focus has to
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  be personality. Are they kind? Are they confident, Are they caring?
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  Is there a warm and happy demeanor? It's hard to change personality. Technical
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  skills again, are trainable, right, And I think that's just a good
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  reminder. It's not some breaking news thing that's new, but I think that
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  it needs to be reminded. What am I looking for? Well, I
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  want somebody who can multitask. I want someone who's not scared to take on
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  more responsibility. Well. The nice thing too, about the potential of hiring
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  somebody that with some skills up maybe you need to train them on is is
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  that you train them in your process. In your method, they don't come
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  in with a lot of potential bad habits, right, and you don't need
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  a bunch of little professors. Yeah, well I've done it this way and
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  this is why I'm going to do it. Well, hopefully that aligns and
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  you need to talk about that. But really it's getting to what motivates people,
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  what type of person they are, what their personality is. Are they
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  trainable? So many people just want somebody who's already all the way training.
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  They just plug and play. Well, if you're going to be a lazy
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  interviewer and a lazy hirer, then you're probably not going to get the person
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  you want, put in some work on the front end, and don't have
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  the scarcity mindset where you're like, there's nobody out there and I can't find
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  anybody, and I'm just going to have to pay them a ton of money
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  and do everything they want and again offer ownership. I just couldn't believe that
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  was real. By the way, if you're out there and you're offering all
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  those things, I know people that could use a job, if you're just
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  going to kiss their ass again what they want that can help people out casey
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  one of the things I wanted to bring up with you, and I think
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  anybody that's ever really applied for a job can find this to be annoying as
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  part of the problem, and that is like finding references. This four quadrants
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  is one of the first places I've ever ever applied to that actually called my
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  references. A lot of people ask for them, yeah, but they don't
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  actually follow up. You know. The joke early on for some early you
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  know, out of college or out of high school people is they put their
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  friends numbers down and have them pretend sure to be a business. Ye out
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  with some very unethical people. I do but how important do you think actually
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  getting real references and actually call them is? Well, I put it in
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  all capitals on my notes. Oh I can't see that from here. I
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  mean, it's really it's incredible. If somebody struggles to find three professional references,
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  that's a big red flag. And call those references and ask good questions
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  and listen, everybody has strengths and weaknesses. Knowing what those are is really
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  important instead of finding them out in month ten when most of your patients have
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  already met this person, and then that becomes a larger problem. So getting
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  good references and confirming they are who they are, and most likely if they've
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  worked for somebody in your geography, yep, you could get a feel for
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  that. So I get it. In the dental world, a lot of
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  times they're just trying to go poach some hygienists and they don't want to call
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  anybody, and they don't want them to know that they're trying to grab them.
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  But there needs to be some sort of origin or some proof source that
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  they are who they say they are. And I like the idea of,
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  you know, getting to know their strengths and weaknesses. For people who have
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  worked with them for X amount of time and seeing what their weakness is,
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  because everybody's got weaknesses. Is this a manageable weakness? Is this a weakness
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  you're comfortable with? Right, and listen, if somebody volunteers, well,
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  there should be there could be. Personal references can be valuable as well.
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  And because again I get calling the dentists down the road that you're going to
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  poach their person. Right, there's there's some nuance there that we won't get
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  into. And sidebar, we're not a recruiting firm and not an HR firm.
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  This is just Jared and Casey talking about this. But you need to
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  have some sort of reference. You can't just do the poach thing and you
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  don't really know much about him. You've got to I would like some personal
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  references. I would like some volunteer reference. Something You've got to talk to
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  somebody about this person. And it's incredible, Uh, the honesty I have
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  gotten from references from people who they've just met me and they know so and
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  so in some regard enough that they gave that reference. But you can get
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  people to share some general feelings. You know, my weaknesses were when they
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  call my references works too much yeah, immaturity. What Yeah, that's weird
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  that came out somehow. I call it fun loving, right, that's right.
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  I'm a fun loving guy. So if your reference is somebody who likes
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  you, they're gonna go he's very fun loving. Yeah. Yeah, but
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  you can read between those lines. I've had multiple those where what they said,
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  I'm like, I get what you're laying down. Yeah, yeah,
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  yeah, no, that makes sense. Compensation's tough, right, and really
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  with the assistance and hygienis a lot of them are chasing the next dollar,
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  which over time is going to hurt them. But everybody wants immediate gratification,
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  so they're going to try to, you know, just get the number.
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  We all know geography, it varies drastically your market. Everybody's geography and market
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  is unique and there's unique challenges. But your practice overhead and your practice health
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  financially is also a factor in compensation. Well, I'm going to play good
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  people good and if the range for a HYGIENESI is twenty nine to sixty dollars
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  an hour, well damn it, I'm going to pay them on the high
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  end. Okay, so is your overhead, how's your overhead? Like factoring
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  that in should dictate what you pay them, not just your emotion of And
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  if you're starting them at the high end, where do you go from there?
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  You go to ninety percent overhead and you yeah, practice till you're seventy
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  five. Now, I will say, you know, as someone who's job
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  hunted before, I would make sure to let people know what your pay range
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  is because you don't want someone coming in and wasting your time and their time
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  and come to find out what your pay is. Not general expectations is good
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  getting in the you know, specific comp too early is sure? Is not,
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  I would say, But generally speaking, you know what, what's a
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  year one and a year four expectation? And if it's out of the ballpark,
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  you just saved yourself some time and a lot of headache. So having
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  general again expectation, I mean, listen, if you you should know what
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  that comp that you're able to offer an assistant or a hygienist should be again
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  for your practice, health and all that stuff. And if you're not on
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  the same page, find that out early lose fast, lose fast in an
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  interview and that's okay, don't feel bad about it. But man, there's
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  so many practice owners out there that they take pride in paying their I pay
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  my staff very well, and you know they're great. Well, yeah,
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  you're getting ripped off. You're paying an assistant, you know, damn near
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  six figures. That's probably needs to be looked at. There. There's some
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  factors where it's just so out of whack you didn't ask, but other things
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  to look for. I was just thank you, Yeah, that's so good.
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  Appreciate it. I mean, a great smile on a great personality.
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  Yeah yeah, I mean we're not being shallow here. But how how does
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  walking into your to practice make your patients feel correct? Because not only your
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  front office you know person, but most of your staff is going to be
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  patient facing in some capacity. If you're if your patients feel joy from,
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  you know, from every step of the way, the fact that you just
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  you know, shot put a shot in their mouth, they might not remember
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  that as much because they had a good experience, and that's going to matter.
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  Again. Some of these things just sound very well duh right, Well
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  they're not addressed because there's a lot of bad hires out there. Positive attitude,
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  meticulous to detail, empathetic, right, somebody who just doesn't like people
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  and rolls their eyes and just trying to get through their that's not a good
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  fit. How do they deal with adversity? I think putting adversity into an
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  interview was a good thing. Tough questions. Oh that's how do they react
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  to adversity in an interview? I don't. I don't have any like Zingers.
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  I just I like to drill in on some of the bs that I
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  smell. So so many people have talking points and high levels things or name
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  drop your longevity and it's like, I've been doing this for twenty five years.
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  Okay, that's great. Longevity does not mean you're worth a shit at
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  what you do. Correct it can be a good thing. But I typically
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  will meet them where they're at and then drill down on what they say to
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  see is there any depth to them or is this just a talking point that
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  they expect somebody to go, oh that sounds great and move on right.
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  That's a call. But I think hearing what they say and then going three
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  levels deeper instead of just accepting the surface and surface level answer that they're used
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  to getting oh great, Instead again, go deeper. That is so important
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  because you need to know what this person is about. Are they about themselves.
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  Yeah, is it just all about their personal lives? Their personal happiness
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  and their money. Those are important, But if that's what they're leading with
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  in a first interview or two, I feel like a lot of these points.
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  It may not be specific towards it, but I think the overall general
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  feeling of this conversation could also be applied to you know, if you're out
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  there and you're looking for a new external financial team or looking for a new
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  accountant. You know, taking more than just a surface level questions. Oh
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  you can plug this in with anything. I mean, you know you want
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  to be around people who are energetic. How about physical stamina? Hygenis are
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  going to be on their feet all day, you know, physical stamina and
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  energy and empathy and all listen. Interviewing is hard resist the urge as a
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  practice owner to just have that be the thing that you're always thinking is going
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  to hold you back. It's a huge factor, but it's on you.
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  Get it right. Have a real start to show your leadership now right.
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  Don't just be a kiss ass to try to woo them to get you on
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  your team. Because that culture fits important. How are they going to fit
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  with the other people in the office. How's that culture fit, how's their
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  energy? Are the easy to work with? All the approval, all this
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  pre work will save you so much more work down the road. That's it.
• 16:48
  That's exactly right. You know it's so easy to just I shouldn't say
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  so easy, but to go woo, somebody poke, somebody, get somebody,
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  it's the wrong person, and you just hear you have months of suffering
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  and problems versus take a little more time on the front. Yeah, Casey,
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  we're gonna be in several places throughout the summer and throughout the fall.
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  I know we're going to be in Saint Louis and Kansas City coming up pretty
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  soon. Check us out of four Quadransadvisory dot com. There's an events tab
• 17:11
  on there. We're also going to be in Indianapolis. We're coming up throughout
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  Ohio, Scrimba and Cincinnati and Cleveland. I know we're gonna be at the
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  Florida Dental Convention. There's all kinds of really awesome things that we're doing to
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  meet and talk to and try to help practice owners out there. Are you
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  excited to be on the road again? Oh? I love it. If
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  you're interested in learning more about how we may be able to help you guys
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  out there. Go to our website, fill out a form, give us
• 17:38
  a call, and we'll be in touch. When you're overheads fifty five percent.
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  It's a lot more fun to hire because you have more funability. Thanks
• 17:45
  Casey. That's all the time we have today. Thank you to our guests
• 17:49
  for their insight and for sharing some really great information, and thank you to
• 17:53
  you the listener for tuning in. The Millionaire Dennis podcast is brought to you
• 17:56
  by for Quadnus Advisory to see if they might be a good fit for you
• 18:00
  and your practice. Going over to four Quadransadvisory dot com and see why year
• 18:04
  after year they retain over ninety five percent of their clients. Thank you again
• 18:08
  for joining us, and we'll see you next time.