Practice Tip #84: Hiring the Best Staff

For years we’ve posted tips to keep your practice running smoothly and to help you become more independent as dentists, hygienists, and dental office staff. We’ve helped you avoid (or at least minimize) down time with routine maintenance and simple repairs of things like air water syringes. Owning and operating a dental office go well beyond these matters. On top of everything, you need to worry about accounting, marketing, and staffing. Let us help you alleviate some of the stress that comes with hiring with a few pointers and find the best staff for your practice.

Staff Your Practice

Staffing issues seem to be extremely common in dental offices. There are a LOT of misconceptions about hiring and firing in the dental industry. Fortunately, American Dental has in-house experts in HR as well. This month, let's discuss employee resumes: what to look for, how to screen candidates resumes, and the phone pre-interview.

Much has been published by HR experts about the importance of a properly written and proofed resume. Unless spelling and grammar are important to the position, we don’t recommend giving them too much weight, however. For an assistant, these things aren’t important. For a front desk or associate position, the ability to use proper spelling and grammar (or at the very least a computer and the spell checker function) may be more important. Keep the requirements of the position foremost in your mind when reading resumes.

Resumes

When first reading resumes, some things that should raise concern. Not necessarily red flags, but a yellow flag at least. Proceed with caution:

• Multiple gaps in employment can be an indication of an unreliable employee and one that may have been terminated more than once.
• Short term employment (<2 years) at several positions. This can be an indication of a job hopper or problem employee.
• Long unexplained gaps in employment can also be a bad sign (although this is something you should ask about when phoning the candidate if it isn’t explained in the resume).

Of course, screening isn’t all negative. Look for employees with relevant experience and the requisite training, certification, and education (as applicable to the position for which you are hiring). Fewer positions, with longer employment periods at each, is usually a good sign of a loyal and worthy candidate.

For some positions (e.g. front desk), dental-specific experience or training may not be required. Keep this in mind as people with experience in retail, hospitality, or food service (restaurants) often have great people skills that can translate well to a front desk or treatment coordinator position.

Be prepared to train on filing claims and other procedures they are not likely to be familiar with. Generally, personality and attitude are things you need to hire for, skills and knowledge can be trained. Regardless of prior experience, you WILL want to train them to use your systems and processes.

Call Candidates

Once you’ve sorted resumes (and discarded those that have eliminated themselves), call candidates to further screen and pare down. By giving the potential employee a call, this grants you a unique opportunity to review the candidate’s phone skills. This can be extremely valuable if you are hiring for a position handling your phones. Secondly, this gives you insight into the candidate’s demeanor and professionalism. While you’re almost certainly calling a home or private phone, something as simple as how they answer the phone reflects on their professionalism and attitude.

Avoid These Questions When Hiring Staff:

1. Anything pertaining to a protected status (age, race, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, disability, etc.). A common age-related pitfall is their date of high school graduation. A high school graduation date can be a fairly reliable indicator of age. It is OK to ask for educational credentials, however.
2. Questions pertaining to marital status and children. On a related note, avoid health related questions and particularly anything pertaining to pregnancy.
3. A number of questions that may seem innocuous on the surface could also be construed as questions pertaining to race or religion. Things like appearance-related questions (hair or eye color) can indicate ethnicity. Club or organization affiliations. Even if the employee may be unable to work on specific days (e.g. Sundays - a very common religious restriction is a prohibition from working on a certain day of the week). Do NOT ask “Are you able to work Saturdays?” Instead ask “Are there any days you are unable to work” or “What hours and days would you like to work?” Inform the candidate of your days and hours of operation. “We’re open Monday through Thursday, from 8 AM to 6 PM, and Fridays at 8 AM to noon. Does that work for you?”

As implied above, there are things you need to know and which are permissible to ask. Much as you can discuss the specific hours required, you can also ask the candidate if he or she has “reliable transportation.” Discuss any physical requirements of the position or special skills required.

NOTE: The above list is not all-inclusive, but are some common landmines to avoid. For complete information and particular legal considerations in your state, consult a lawyer specializing in employment law in your state.

Candidate Discussion Topics:

• Review job history, covering at least the last 3-4 positions (this is generally adequate for your purposes). In particular, verify dates of employment at each position and job title.
• Review compensation to determine if the pay is what they are accustomed to and what you are prepared to pay. It doesn’t need to be an exact match, a good candidate may be worth a little more than you originally budgeted, perhaps.
• Review job duties to see if they have experience that will pertain to the position you wish to fill.
• Ask why the candidate separated from each position. Note that termination from a previous position in and of itself isn’t necessarily an automatic indication of unsuitability. Consider the candidate as a whole (and the circumstances of the termination) before eliminating them from the process (and in relation to other candidates). By reviewing employment history, you should develop a decent profile of the candidate’s work ethic, career path, and type of position he or she is interested in.
• Last of all, inquire why the candidate applied for the position with you. This gives insight into his or her motivation to see how well it blends with your existing office staff and practice culture.

As you may have noticed, most of the information you’re asking about in the phone screening should already be on the candidate’s resume. You are simply confirming what they wrote. If any information was fabricated, they may not recall what they wrote, so their verbal answers will differ. Large discrepancies between their resume and their verbal answers is a red flag.

Eliminating Candidates

More than one such discrepancy is a good sign the candidate can be eliminated from the pool. “I’m sorry, your experience and qualifications aren’t a match for the position.” Avoid getting into a discussion of the particulars of why you’ve eliminated the candidate. Just repeat a derivation of the “experience and qualifications” phrase above. You also don’t want to start a debate with the candidate. You just want to politely and professionally let them know you aren’t interested.

Last of all, question any irregularities or causes for confusion generated by a resume. Things like large gaps in employment can have legitimate or even helpful explanations. For example: “I took 4 years off of work to get my hygiene degree.” If the candidate dodges the question or provides an evasive answer, this indicates they aren’t the candidate for you.

Once you’ve phoned the candidates who passed your initial screening, you should have a smaller pool of candidates suitable to interview. Review your notes and schedule the interviews. Next we go over the next phase of hiring staff for your practice: the interview. Read Practice Tip #85 for more!