EP 04: 30 Days to Better talent:

The Sad Truth About Talent

As business owners why does the prospect of hiring someone make us cringe?  If you’ve been in the ownership game for any time you’ve come to realize that A level talent just doesn’t grow on trees. In this podcast I’ll share with you my observations of the current state of talent and what this means for you. Lets get started!

Welcome and we’re happy to have you to Perfect Makes Practice. This is the fourth episode in a series titled 30 days to better talent and in this podcast we’re focused on: The sad truth about talent.

Summary of episode two podcast:

• Dive into several truths about the state of talent in today’s market.
• Discuss what you need to be looking for prior to hiring.
• Any documents we discuss are available within our new DoneDesk system at DoneDesk.com.
• If you haven’t done so, join our Facebook group Perfect Makes Practice to connect with us and other medical entrepreneurs.

Post a job ad on an internet site and you’ll quickly realize you made the mistake of using your personal email as the point of contact.

The ensuing flow of resumes will make just about anyone cringe with everything from job applicants nowhere near qualified for your job, misspellings in the resume, a 10 word resume (yes that’s happened), and a host of other trinkets for you to sort through.

Here’s a short list of what I’ve personally experienced when working with our medical entrepreneurs.

1. Small pool of A and B level talent available. Plenty of everything else.
2. Employees see work as a job and not a profession. This is partly on the owner for not offering development plans but sometimes young people just need money to survive and aren’t thinking long term.
3. The available workforce for small dental and medical tends to have limited education and experience.
4. Lack of trained talent/ untrained talent- One year of experience 10 years over. Which is another way of saying that the candidate hasn’t developed in their profession.
5. Dental assisting schools providing general education- training not specific to your practice and trainees lack real world experience.
6. Available talent can be a “gift” from someone else. A-players just don’t float around looking for jobs.
7. Sometimes you work in a talent constrained environment and need to hire someone with limited performance record. If you go this route be prepared to closely manage the person to identify problems early.
8. “temporary” can be another name for “unemployable”.
9. Temp employees pose a certain amount of risk to your practice and hiring temps should be done with a high degree of discipline. Unless the temp is a known person, using temp services is a good way to mitigate the potential risk.
10. Chemical addiction is a real thing for dental professionals. Staff can get access to your DEA number and script so watch out for signs of addiction. Better yet, drug screen all employees who receive an offer and implement a standing random drug screening policy. Drug Screening available within your Done Desk account.
11. Low wage earners can turnover. According to a Harvard Business Review study: Walmart turns over 44% of their first year employees where Costco turns over 17%. The reason for the difference is Costco pays higher wages and generous benefits. I’m not saying pay above market. What I am saying is you should be competitive in your pay strategy to minimize turnover.
12. Hiring costs money and resources…continually hiring costs even more. Industry estimates are hiring can cost up to 60% of the hourly employee’s salary in hiring expenses (time, charges, etc).
13. What does this all mean for you?

Places a huge burden on your recruiting process to identify, screen, and select the right person from the sea of sameness.

We’ll cover interviewing in a later podcast but a few pro tips are:

• Understand why they are available and be critical.
• Ask why they jumped around and motivating factors.
• Conduct background and drug testing on all applicants
• Be prepared for an extended search to find the right person

Now that you know the talent pool is generally shallow, you’ll be forced to make investments in tactics to overcome the lack of talent in your area. Future podcasts will discuss these techniques and get you on track to improving your talent position.

Hey if you feel that this series would be of benefit to your professional colleagues, please share this podcast series on your socials.

If you’re ready to start the process of improving your practice’s talent position, subscribe to this series for future updates. You can also subscribe to our podcast on Apple iTunes, Youtube, and Google Play.

Have something to say? Jump into our Facebook group Perfect Makes Practice and fire up the dialogue with our team and other medical entrepreneurs.

 

Cary Smith, CPHRM is the CEO and founder of Done Desk, Dentist Secure, and Dentist Secure Labs. His companies provide amazing solutions that manage risk to your people, practice, and patients.

Cary is a Certified Professional in Healthcare Risk Management from the American Hospital Association and the American Society for Healthcare Risk Management.  His experience includes leadership roles in HR and recruiting for fortune 500 companies like Motorola, The Hartford, and CIGNA. Cary has trained thousands of medical professionals, provides keynote lectures to local and state dental societies, and works with medical entrepreneurs to address risk within the practice.

Need in-depth training? Two options:

• Join us for our 2018 Big Risk Conferences for 6 hours of CE in Risk Management practices. Schedules are forming now. Hit the pre-registration form below.
• Call our office to schedule in-office or group training events that engage, educate, and entertain.

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