Good morning everyone. As many of you know, I work with dentists, doctors, and other business owners on their businesses, including selecting and onboarding their team members. This is more important today than ever, and I really enjoy doing this work and discussing this topic. I thought you may appreciate an email I recently sent to one of my clients on the issue of selecting and, potentially, on-boarding an associate for their dental practice. As you are reading this, ask yourself, what are you doing today to differentiate your business and can you truly say that you have an “employer brand”?

Here is the email, after removing all of the confidential information, of course:

It was great speaking with you yesterday. I can tell you that I really enjoy those discussions and really enjoy assisting when it comes to transitioning and onboarding associates with the hope that there is a success when it comes to the associate transition. In terms of the next discussion with the associate, I really do believe that you need to educate the associate on what your true expectations and understandings are of your practice and what your culture is within your practice. You do not want them to be surprised. And, you want them to say that they understand, agree, and buy-in to your vision, mission, core values, and culture. Ask them for any thoughts. I would make sure that you share with them the following:

1. What is your vision for your practice?

• Importantly, there is no vision, unless you have it down in writing. And, that should be in your own handwriting.

RESPONSE:

2. What is your mission for your practice?

RESPONSE:

3. What are your core values for your practice?

RESPONSE:

4. What is the culture within your practice?

• Does it need to change and does your team agree with you?

RESPONSE:

5. Whose job is it to ensure that the culture continues?

RESPONSE:

6. What are you and some of the other leaders within your practice doing, to ensure that the culture continues?

RESPONSE:

7. What is your success profile for a particular associate? I am not talking about the job description. I am talking about when you think about an associate, what do you want in an associate and what does an associate need to have to be successful within your practice? You want to share that with them.

• And again, it should be in hand writing. Think about the success profile. And, as I have discussed before, there are things like: strong clinical skills, humility, desire for continuous improvement, etc…
• And again, it is ok if they do not fit within your success profile. We will thank them and wish them good luck on finding a position.
• You select only those that fit your success profile.

RESPONSE:

8. What are some of your expectations regarding the associate relationship? As an example, it is okay to expect that the associate relationship will allow you to service additional patients, satisfy referral source needs, and provide additional income for you and your family. What are your expectations, and do you have them in writing?

RESPONSE:

9. What are the associate’s expectations?

RESPONSE:

10. Both of you should write down the expectations and ultimately come to an understanding, and share them with one another. Do they match up?

RESPONSE:

11. And, ultimately, it is okay if this relationship does not work out. We would rather know that now, versus a year later.

RESPONSE:

12. Ultimately, the purpose of this overall process is to ensure that we communicate with the associate from the very beginning what we expect and what they should expect, as well as what your vision, mission, core values, and the culture are. That way, again, there are no surprises. And, the associate will either figure it out that they fit in, or they will say, no way can I work here because…

RESPONSE:

Thank you, and this is just some additional food for thought for everyone over this weekend.

Wishing you a happy, heartwarming Easter. God bless.