#892: Hiring Outside of Dentistry

Dental A Team Podcast

Kiera talks about how to effectively hire team members who don’t have formal dentistry training — and how they can be some of the best employees you’ll ever have.

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.942)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kiera. I hope you are just having the best day of your life. I know sometimes we don't always have the best days. know sometimes different things happen, but I truly hope that you just remember we are so blessed to be in dentistry. We're so blessed to be able to have the jobs that we have. We're so blessed to be able to give patients back so much confidence.

Welcome to today. And don't forget that where intention goes, energy flows. So if we're constantly thinking about how terrible life is or how terrible our job is or how hard the hiring thing is, we get it. And also remember if we can switch our focus and see the good, we tend to get more of that. If you don't believe me, I'm going to have you guys do a quick fun activity. If you're driving, I would recommend you not do this, but you know, if you're not, that's fine. I'm going to give you guys 10 seconds and I want to have you look around the room.

and want you to count everything that's white. On your mark, get set,

Kiera Dent (01:02.41)

And now I want you guys to stop and I want you to tell me how many things you saw that were red. And usually when I do this in an office, people are like, my gosh, like I wasn't looking for red and they all started giggling and I'm like, and how many of you actually looked for white things and you saw beige things and counted them as white? The reality is we get what we were looking for. There's red all around us, but sometimes we're missing it because we're looking so heavy for the white. And for

I'm looking around my room and you better believe I'm gonna count these beige shelves over here and this cream blanket over here, but I'm going to miss all the things that are red around me. And there's red all around us all the time or there's yellow or there's orange. But I want you to think about this because in today's topic, I think this is super relevant for what we get is what we are focused on. And so again, if things aren't going as well, again, I think that there's a lot of help that can happen. I'm not here to say that we just have to have an optimistic attitude.

but I do believe that looking for these positive things will actually breed more positivity into it. It's like a snowball. The more we're focused on the good things, the better it goes. The more we're focused on the negative things, the more we tend to find more negative. And that's not to say that we can't have the hard times, but it's interesting. look there, I have a practice and when I started with them, gosh, they were doing about 200 ,000 per month and they are now crushing over $480 ,000 a month.

And I think about this practice and they have struggles and they have different things that they're doing. But one thing I've noticed consistent about this practice is they are constant. I mean, constantly focus on the wins, the positive, how can we grow there? They've got incredible core values. Their leadership team is very focused on it. Their office manager is very focused on it. Their doctor is very encouraging and empowering. And I'm like, what is the difference of certain offices that just struggle? And when we come to meetings, they talk about their issues, but they do it in a way where

how can we fix this? What do we need to learn? They collaborate with their consultant. They use me as a coach and a guide and a sounding board versus other offices. They often love to live in problems and they don't take action and they don't fix it forever. And again, just looking at your practice and what are kind of the behaviors and the attributes, because I don't believe that things are just happenstance. I do believe that certain things do happen, but even in our own company, like I am literally like,

Kiera Dent (03:19.95)

you put me on the radar and I am always looking for what's wrong, how can I solve it? And that's a consultant's world, but that's not always positive to do in my marriage, in my family, in myself. And so making sure that we're using things to our best interest. So with that said, thank you for being a part of our Dental A Team Podcast family. Thank you for your reviews. Thank you for sharing our podcast and keeping us as one of the number one dental podcasts out there. Please keep doing that because my goal is to be in the hands of every dental practice out there.

to positively impact and influence the world of dentistry for good. And so we're gonna go right on, yes, I have my pen out. This is the teacher in me. I did use to teach high school sign language, believe it or not. I feel like I've lived many different lives. So I was a model at one point in time. I taught high school. Gosh, I've done so many random jobs. I worked for a geology firm for once upon a time. I used to work at Century 21 in their accounts payable. I was told I talked too much over there.

But I feel like a myriad of jobs. worked at KFC and A &W. I think that's a random. I mowed lawns with my family lawn business. That was very embarrassing in high school to have people honk and wave when I'm in my total grubbies. My brother thought it was totally fine to go to the mall when we were dressed like that, and I was mortified. So the jobs I've had are quite vast and varied. But that's kind of going into this, because there was a question about hiring. And what do we hire? And how do we hire? And how do we stop the turnover? And hiring verbiage?

Stapping and all this and then the question popped up that we saw of is hiring from outside of dentistry a good idea So I kind of want to just like let's dive a little bit into hiring Let's talk about some different outside -the -box solutions but really I also want you to remember like what we focus on is what we get and I was just recently at a seminar and they talked about how asking better questions Leads to better results. So if we say why is hiring so hard?

we've literally programmed our brain to believe that hiring is hard and we're having to find ways to make hiring hard. And I know that sounds a little crazy, but think about it like so much of what we, what we experience is not what we experienced, but our perception of the experience is what we actually experience. I'm going to say that again. So much of what we experienced in life is not the actual experience. It's our perception of the experience. so asking better questions to prompt our brains, to prompt our team. So instead of saying, why is hiring so hard or why can't we find anybody?

Kiera Dent (05:41.56)

We're literally programming ourselves to believe that we can't find anybody in that hiring is hard versus saying, we need to hire an office manager. Where are office managers at and how can we find the best office manager? We want to hire the best hygienist. Where are the hygienists at and how can we hire the best hygienist for our practice? That is a very different piece and you literally like, we're asking questions and we're giving ourselves answers. And so ask better questions and get better answers. Other questions could be like, all right, so hygienist.

it's a different hiring landscape out there. What are hygienists looking for now that would make us competitive to hire the best hygienists? Well, now that's a very different answer instead of answering why is hiring hard. Why is hiring hard can be very much a like, woe is me mentality of like, well, the job market and COVID and there's all these hygienists. But yet I have a lot of offices that are hiring hygienists with no problems. And I don't say that to make you feel yucky. I'm just saying that if other people can do it, you can too.

I do believe better questions lead to better results. And so what question you're asking could be why you're getting maybe lackluster results. So like, for example, let's go outside of dentistry and say, why is it so hard to work out? Well, I've just programmed myself to tell myself that working out is hard versus what makes working out fun. Well, now I have a way different outcome. I have a way different answer and I have a way different, I'm solving a different problem. And so I want you guys, when you're thinking about it, just like I said,

There are a million questions around us just like there's all the red around us and there's all the white around us and all the orange and yellow It's all around us. There's candidates all around us, too and So let's just kind of go through the hiring landscape a little bit of number one Let's ask better questions and let's get better answers. So let's think of where are these best candidates located? Who do we already know? That's an incredible hygienist or an incredible office manager and could we tap into those resources and ask them? Hey, where were you at when you got hired?

What are some areas? What are some things that you would put in a job ad? Do you know any people that are like you that might be interested in getting a job? What things should we be putting in our ads? What things should we be looking for right now? Those are way more proactive questions to be asking versus why is this so hard and why can't we hire anybody? Literally, you're making your reality. so let's stop those questions and let's give better questions. Now, on the other side of it is then with we're having a lot of turnover. Let's ask the questions

Kiera Dent (08:03.66)

Why are we having so much turnover and what's causing team members to leave our practice and really get to the root of it and fix those problems forever. And so what is that and how can we fix it? you know, like our team, we just got some good feedback from it and it was like, all right, what can we do? Are there different things that we could change? What's the common thread and A, are we setting up wrong expectations when we hire or B, do we need to make some like structural changes within our company? It's really good. And again, remember it's not right or wrong. And I know this is hard you guys. I am a person who

It needs oxygen, just like I need people to like me as a person. And I know that sounds ridiculous, but I've just realized that that's a piece about me where I really enjoy having people like me. like the connections. I like people around me. I like to have a good time. so oftentimes when I hear negative feedback or constructive feedback, it's sometimes hard for me to disassociate that this is just feedback. It's not actually about me. And so if we can disassociate it and realize like

We are so lucky and so blessed that they're telling us the feedback so we can find the root problem and solve it and fix this problem from happening. We do live in a world where people are changing jobs and sometimes that can feel frustrating because it's not what we're used to. But yet at the same time, we aren't used to taking film X -rays anymore either. And what an amazing transformation that's been. Isn't it an amazing transformation that maybe we get more team members that come in. And because team members are turning so much

Maybe that could be a positive for us and maybe that helps us onboard people faster. And that's also where I do believe that hiring outside of dentistry is a good idea. Some of my best practices actually hire outside of dentistry. And what's crazy is when we hire outside of dentistry, a lot of times these people are actually more loyal to the practices. Dentistry is a very different industry, just so you know, from corporate, it's very family friendly. It's very kind. It's very,

It's just a different vibe and I don't have a better way to describe that other than the fact that it is just truly a different vibe. so sometimes when people hire outside of dentistry, they literally get people where they train them from the ground up and these people are diehard loyal to them because they've given them this incredible opportunity. I know a lot of the corporate dental practices actually hire people outside of dentistry. They train them for about a month and these people are amazing employees.

Kiera Dent (10:24.626)

I work with some offices and I train them to be great treatment coordinators. I work with some other offices and train them how to be incredible billers. So there's a lot of skillsets that are transferable. And so I know some people that have hired outside of dentistry, they go for the service industry. So restaurants and waitresses, believe it or not, Shelbi, if you guys have ever gotten to interact with our company, you've probably been able to meet Shelbi. Shelbi is by far one of the most incredible employees that I have.

so kind, she's so considerate and Shelbi who used to be a waitress and I was like this girl pays attention to people's needs. She's obsessed about serving and taking care of people. She's an amazing customer success employee and takes great care of our clients and she takes great care of me. But I paid attention to the type of service she came from. Kaylee who used to work in our company, incredible person. She came from selling. She worked in, she's a high school or excuse me an elementary school teacher and she also used to

for one of the best car companies in our area. That company had incredible customer service and she had amazing customer service. And so I hired her from there. I've heard of people hiring from tanning salons and from the beauty industry and from waiter and waitresses and from fast food and some people who want really good treatment coordinators.

They snag them from in the mall. Those people who are like giving you out those perfume samples, they say like, hey, if you want a job that's like meaningful and impactful, that's going to serve and uplift people, give me a call. And they literally give out their business cards to them. But paying attention to this service industry, some of my best office managers actually come from the banking industry. Like hands down, I'm obsessed with bankers who come in as office managers because they get the finances, they get the, they have it. They just need to learn the industry knowledge, but they are not afraid of money. And best office managers.

And that practice that I mentioned to you at the beginning, who's just been doing an incredible job. They are a practice who hired outside of dentistry. I have another practice and they took one of our online virtual courses of our dental assistant one, and they literally are training dental assistants within. They weren't able to do a dental assistant course. There are some programs where you can actually create a dental assistant course and have a second business within your practice. I'm happy to share that info. If you want it, reach out. [e-mail]. But this practice couldn't do that in the state they're in. And

Kiera Dent (12:40.002)

We took the course, our course, our dental assisting course online. Literally, I built it to be training someone from off the streets to be able to do dentistry. Our entire virtual academy course, I built it with videos and trainings and CE. So that way you don't have to train them on all the pieces of verbiage, how we schedule, what the blocks are. Yes, you still need to train them within your practice, but there's a huge, huge academy already built for you that you don't have to go and do this all on your own.

My offices use that and they use it to structure it for their practices when they bring them on. We have a 30, 60, 90 day onboarding for team members that don't come from dentistry that we've created for a lot of our practices. And those are some of the amazing things within our virtual academy that I really love to share because there are ways to hire outside of it and they become so great. Truth be told, the best scheduler I ever met came from a tanning salon. Like hands down, best scheduler. Like the schedule was always full. She was over the top, amazing. She used to

in a restaurant setting as well, and then came from a tanning salon. And again, it's that service industry that works so well. And I've had quite a few dental assistants come from other industries, the hair industry, the service industry, any of those types of industries really can be incredible to bring in and just bring new vibes, bring it. Yes, it is tricky to train them up into dentistry, but remember all of us were trained at one point. All of us know what it was like. I went to school, but the reality is,

Office management, I didn't have schooling for that. It was a lot of hard knocks to learn it. so positions that I don't usually recommend hiring for dentistry is if you're a new doctor, you really need a good office manager who understands billing and treatment coordinating and scheduling for you because that's a tricky thing for you being a new owner, being a new doctor that I really don't recommend hiring outside of dentistry for. Now, if you've got quite a few systems built up, like I said, banking office managers are amazing to bring in. We train up office managers. So I have a lot of clients

We do a call with the doctor and then we actually train their, their team for them and their office managers. So a lot of really awesome ways that you're able to do it, but like use your resources, get the help. but you're going for culture. You're going for the hunger, scheduling app. don't usually recommend a schedulers from like optometry. Optometry is a little bit slower paced, typically not all the time, but like optometry and, certain other maybe like healthcare professions. They're not going to be the same.

Kiera Dent (14:59.766)

Now a busy chiropractic office might feel the same for you. I love bringing people in for ortho or pediatric or any of those like really fast pace where they're churning. They tend to work really, really well in dentistry, but I don't want to hire someone just because they're in medical if they're coming even from like dermatology or from, like I said, optometry. Those practices don't tend to turn as quickly as dentistry tends to. And I want someone who's used to working the fast pace. They're used to doing the busyness.

And that's what I'm going to bring in from outside. That's why a waiter or waitress, they're so used to the busy, like you're constantly having to pay attention to a ton of different tables and you're able to like make an impact and serve people and make them happy. Amazing people to bring in to your industry scheduling. I think about like at Harris Lawns, there's customer service, there's different things. And so you can put ads out and you can train them. There's also ways that you can hire like virtual assistants to do certain things. I've heard of some companies loving it and others not liking it so much.

can outsource. outsourcing is also a great option, but I think let's get creative. And again, let's pretend we were able to hire another, let's say front office. can't hire a scheduler. What would we do instead? And how could we innovate this? Well, we could outsource it or we can have this or our billing's taking forever. Can we outsource this to another company? love DCS. dental claim support is a great one or Shasta with Paragon, two great companies. Be sure to let them know Dental A Team sends If

Reach out to them. do get preferred pricing for all of the people we refer. That's my motto. I don't do affiliate pricing, but I do do preferred pricing for you guys. things like that. But really, again, I think it's what are we focused on? Are we getting that? How can we ask better questions and get better answers? And then I do believe hire outside of dentistry. Let's not just keep picking out of the same cabbage patch, but let's go outside because there's so many other service industries.

And if you can create a process where you can hire anybody up, that's why I built the Virtual Academy. So be sure to use it. can, if you're not interested in consulting, by all means, we have the Virtual Academy that you can purchase and use and you can train up your team. You can use it for onboarding. If you're like, hey, I don't even know how to do this and I need you to help train and onboard our office manager. We do that as well. So be sure to reach out. I'd love to help you out. [e-mail]. But the reality is...

Kiera Dent (17:13.59)

Let's start asking better questions. Let's start innovating. Let's get excited for the landscape that we're living in instead of feeling like it's such a problem. And let's start innovating and taking advantage of what we're able to have. Fix the problems when people turn over. Ask them the hard questions. Make the changes if you can. Set better expectations when we hire. And then make sure that what we're doing is we're checking in with them, we're getting the feedback from them, and then we're able to hire outside of dentistry and bring people in.

You guys, I hire consultants that are not consultants and I train them to be consultants. And while some might think I'm crazy because 90 % of consulting companies don't do that, they expect you have consulting experience. I believe that I'm able to morph them and train them into the person I want them to be. We're able to create this incredible consultant. guess what? It sometimes is really hard because within their first, usually six months, a lot of them can't make it. A lot of them are actually not cut out to be consultants. A lot of them don't like the world. They don't enjoy being a consultant.

And I'm okay with that because the ones that make it, the ones that go through are some of the best people I've ever met. Tiffanie, Dana, Brittany, amazing consultants that truly inspire me to keep hiring people that don't have the experience to keep training. Because when I get a good one, they're with me for life. And I think that that's one of the best things I've got others. I've had quite a few consultants that don't make it. have quite a few consultants that it wasn't a good fit for them or for us. And I'm okay with that because they're learning a new skill.

And I'm teaching someone who's never done this before. So you also have to be okay that you might not have as great of a success rate, but you're doing something different. And then you're not handcuffed. I am not handcuffed to just hiring hiring consultants. I can hire office managers or regional managers. And my cabbage patch is so much larger. If you don't just have to hire a scheduler who knows how to do scheduling or hire someone who's done billing, your cabbage patch of where you're able to go and find people is so much larger than just this finite area. And I think that that's something that can really free you

Again, asking better questions, getting better results. And don't stress, I don't hire anybody that we have worked with. So just so you know, I never want offices to ever be afraid because yes, we do hire office managers, but I have a very strict policy that you're not allowed to work with the LA team if we've consulted your practice. So never fear. We train them up and they're yours because I really truly believe that my job is to help you succeed.

Kiera Dent (19:33.67)

it's never ever, ever for you to be afraid of consultants. Cause I do know some consultants are that way. So just so you guys know, I think that, and that's something that you can do also, if you're training up other people, make sure that you, you risk mitigate for the person that you're with. Maybe you can risk mitigate or maybe you can get creative or maybe you can share somebody, but there's so many ways and asking better questions and looking for better results. I guarantee you, you'll have a much different experience. So change the culture, change your focus, change your life. And if we can help you reach out, [e-mail]. as always, thanks for listening.

I'll catch you next time on the Dental A Team Podcast.