Overcome Staffing Challenges At Your Dental Practice: 5 Tips

By Alexandra Lewis, RealHR Solutions

As a dental professional or practice owner, your goal is to keep your patients smiling and healthy. However, it can be difficult to focus on your patients when your internal team is struggling. 

Unfortunately, the current state of many dental teams across the country is struggling. 

Troubling Trends Across the Industry 

Recent data from the American Dental Association (ADA) shows that practices need help in their recruitment efforts. Nearly 72% of survey respondents said it was extremely challenging to recruit hygienists, with 47% reporting similar difficulties with dental assistants and 33.7% with administrative staff. 

And even when practices can recruit high performers, it’s not a guarantee that those individuals will stick around. DentalPost’s 2024 Dental Industry Salary Report shows that many dental professionals are looking for a new job, including 42% of hygienists, 57% of assistants and 64% of front office staff.   

There may be several reasons for these trends. For instance, individuals face educational barriers to joining the dental profession, which can result in limited talent pools. Dental school graduates may also face large student loans, heightening the pressure to find jobs with competitive compensation. 

You may observe one or more of these issues at your own practice, and you know how stressful it can be. But don’t lose hope — with a few tips from the world of human resources (HR) management, you can improve employee recruitment and retention. Ultimately, you can make your practice one where employees find long-term fulfillment and success in their careers and patients get the best care possible.

While the strategies we’ll explore in this guide are general best practices, you may want to take your efforts further. Consider partnering with an HR consultant. You can start researching your options by exploring RealHR Solutions’ list of the best consulting firms. As you consider different consultants, consider their focus areas and expertise and compare them against your unique needs to find the right fit. 

Let’s dive in!

1. Strengthen your recruitment strategy. 

If you want to make real improvements to the employee experience at your practice, start at the beginning of the employee journey and take a critical look at your recruitment strategy. 

Begin by examining where you’re posting your job openings and looking for candidates. Ask yourself: 

• Am I casting the net wide enough? 
• Am I sharing our openings in places where I’m likely to connect with my target audience? 
• Is it clear what interested individuals need to do to kickstart the job application process? 

As you look at your list of resources for sourcing candidates, consider a few additional places you can share information about openings, like: 

• Dental profession-specific job boards. 
• Professional association job boards (like the FDA Career Center).
• Social media.
• Recruiting offices at dental schools like LECOM, UF and NOVA, as well as colleges and universities that offer hygienist and assistant programs.
• Your dental office (both patients and staff can help with word-of-mouth marketing).

Also, be prepared to look beyond your local area. Your best candidates, for example, may live in another city or county. 

2. Streamline the hiring process. 

The hiring process itself should also be optimized to offer job candidates an efficient, positive experience with your practice that sets them up to succeed if they are chosen for your open role. 

Here are a few ways to streamline the process: 

• Use an application tracking system. These platforms help centralize all information about candidates, including documentation like resumes and transcripts and can help you facilitate communication with candidates and schedule interviews.
• Conduct structured, standardized interviews. Structure each interview around the same set of questions. This will give you the added benefit of making it easier to compare candidates more objectively as you look at their responses to the same questions. 
• Conduct skill assessments. When all you’ve done is interview them, it may be difficult to understand what a hygienist candidate is like with anxious patients or how a new office administrator would handle a scheduling error. Have candidates complete skill assessments, even if just simple evaluations asking them to select what action they would take in a hypothetical scenario. 

Once you’ve selected a candidate you feel would be an excellent fit for your practice, ensure you can welcome them into their new role with a thorough onboarding process. As part of that process, help them integrate into your team through a mentoring program or team-building activities. 

3. Offer competitive compensation. 

To retain your employees for the long run, you must offer compensation that aligns with the going market rates for your team members’ roles, gives them financial security and motivates them to perform to the best of their abilities. 

Start by researching the dental industry job market and what a typical salary looks like for the role you want to fill (or keep filled!). While aligning your salaries with the current market rates is ideal, you may have a leaner budget to work with, as many dental offices do. In this case, take a holistic look at your compensation strategy and identify how you can optimize the indirect forms of compensation you offer (health benefits, student loan repayment programs, continuing education courses to maintain licenses, etc.) to round out your compensation packages. You can also incorporate free or low-cost perks to enhance your compensation packages, like reserved parking, healthy break room snacks and more.  

4. Invest in professional development. 

The dental profession attracts talented people who want to make a difference in patients’ lives and live a life of excellence. You should invest in professional development opportunities to ensure your employees feel like your practice is a place where they can grow in their careers and thrive. 

Most of the time, this will involve covering some or part of the cost for things like: 

• Continuing education courses for license renewal.
• License renewal fees.
• Online learning.
• Attending conferences, such as the Florida Dental Convention.
• Receiving specialized training. 

You can also prioritize professional development in your practice by hosting workshops or seminars where you teach leadership skills or cover new developments in the dental industry. Additionally, you can have your team participate in events or projects where you give back to the community, like the Florida Mission of Mercy FLA-MOM.  

Follow your employees’ lead to determine what professional development should look like in your practice. This will likely involve having career-pathing conversations with each member of your team to learn about their interests and goals and then catering your professional development offerings to those needs. 

5. Foster a positive work environment. 

Everyone wants to work in a positive and welcoming environment, where they can connect with their coworkers and patients and feel empowered to perform their duties. But a positive work environment isn’t something that happens — it takes a concerted effort from you and your team to make it possible. 

Here are a few ways you can make your practice a better place for all team members to work: 

• Prioritize open communication and transparency. Trust is the foundation of a great workplace. Build trust by being transparent with your employees about your practice’s highs and lows and prioritizing open, two-way communication. This will help your employees feel like true team players. 
• Recognize your employees for their contributions. Employees want to feel seen and valued for their work, especially big accomplishments. Design an employee recognition program where you shout out employees for going above and beyond, whether selecting an Employee of the Month or giving spot bonuses. 
• Equip your team with the right tools to do their jobs. Work is more accessible when you have the tools to make your role more manageable. Ensure your team has what they need to meet and exceed your and your patient’s expectations, like up-to-date dental imaging equipment or robust scheduling software.

As you implement these strategies for creating a positive work environment, seek feedback from your team members to know what is working and what could be improved. This will help you meet your team members’ needs and show them that you’re an employer who listens when they provide ideas and suggestions, which can strengthen your relationship. 

There’s no doubt that the dental industry is facing tough staffing challenges for a variety of reasons. However, with the right HR management strategies, you can make your practice a great workplace where high performers feel fulfilled and want to stay. 

And remember, if you need extra assistance, you can always work with an HR consultant to get catered solutions for your practice.