[Webinar Recording] How To Create & Showcase a Culture That Attracts New Team Members

Dental Hiring Trends: Post Pandemic

Finding great employees through the pandemic has been a struggle for thousands of dental practices across the country. Changing demographics, requests for higher pay, Covid health risks, lack of career development, unsatisfactory unemployment benefits have all been factors. According to recent career studies, the health care industry has been hit the hardest.

We welcome our experts who will educate and highlight on ways dental practice owners can find the right employees during this difficult economic time.

Webinar Presenters & Learning Objectives

Denise Williams Jones

Founder of Next Level to Success

Denise Williams-Jones is a Customer Service Consultant, Speaker, Founder and Owner of Next Level to Success. She specializes in Phone Training, Maximizing Patient Flow, Treatment Case Acceptance, and Delivering Exceptional Customer Service.

Objectives of Denise’s Presentation:

• How to create a culture that attracts employees
• How to set a vision for your practice
• Establishing a practice mission that your employees will be proud of
• Creating a practice story that attracts new team members
• How to create trustworthiness and authenticity in your practice

Blake Hadley

Founder of My Social Practice

Blake Hadley is a founder and President of My Social Practice. He has won a number of national and international awards in art direction, advertising, and creative marketing strategy. He is passionate about about helping dental practices use out-of-the-box thinking to create stories that spread on social media. Over the past 12 years at My Social Practice, he has spoken to dental audiences all over the country and has helped thousands of practices thrive on social media.

Objectives of Blake’s Presentation:

• The new age of hiring trends
• How social media has changed hiring trends
• Best practices of online hiring
• What is the right type of content to post
• Tips, tricks, and complimentary tools to help

Denise not only speaks throughout the industry on hiring processes but also a wide range of dental management techniques. Contact her through her website Next Level To Success.

My Social Practice offers a professionally managed dental social media marketing service. Regardless if you need simple training, support, and instruction; or if you’re looking for full management, My Social Practice has a solution for your practice.

Blake Hadley:
Welcome everybody to our webinar tonight. It’s great to see people jumping on right now. I’m sure some more people will jump on as time goes on a little bit. My name is Blake Hadley. I am the president and one of the founders of My Social Practice. I am happy to be doing this webinar tonight with Next Level to Success with Denise Williams Jones. We are going to be talking about hiring and how to create and showcase a culture that attracts new team members. This is a really important topic right now. We know a lot of dentists are looking for this help, so we’ve decided to address it in a webinar. All the attendees will be on mute for the remainder of the webinar. If you have any questions at all, any questions that come up, please chat them in into the Q&A section here in Zoom, and we will leave some time at the end to answer those questions.

Blake Hadley:
This webinar will be recorded. We will send out an email to all the registrants after the webinar with the recording, so you can watch it again on your own time, so don’t worry too much about taking notes. We’ll send it to you again. Let me just go over how this webinar is going to go. We’re going to have the first 25 minutes to hear from Denise Williams Jones from Next Level to Success. She is going to be talking about how to create an attractive culture in your office, and then I’m going to take the next 25 minutes, and I’m going to be talking about how to showcase that culture that you have then created and how to showcase it online, to attract new team members, and then we’re going to leave about the last 5 to 10 minutes at the end for any questions that you might have.

Blake Hadley:
With that, I am going to introduce my good friend, Denise. Denise Williams Jones is a customer service consultant, speaker, founder, and owner of Next Level to Success. She’s specializes in phone training, maximizing patient flow, treatment case acceptance and delivering exceptional customer service. As I mentioned, Denise is one of my really good friends. We have had a lot of discussions about this topic and just about dentistry in general and what’s going on right now in the industry. I’m really excited to hear her presentation about this. With that said, I’m going to stop my screen share here, and are you there? There you are Denise.

Denise Williams:
Hello.

Blake Hadley:
Hey, and we will turn it to you for your presentation.

Denise Williams:
Thank you. All right. Let’s get started. Here we go. Hiring. The struggle is definitely real. When we’re talking about new team members, we have to realize that the hiring process has definitely changed. In fact, ever since the pandemic started, there’s been a change and a turn in the tide ever since the world shut down. Now, when it comes to options and employment, it seems that we just can’t find the correct team members, now that things are opening businesses are getting back to normal. There’s an obvious and a significant hiring crisis that’s going on, and it’s going on all across the country, especially in service, and yes, it has affected our industry of dentistry.

Denise Williams:
Now, according to a recent ADA Health Policy Institute report, it says that more than 80% of offices and dentists are having a tough time finding team members. Now, when you think about that, 80% is huge. This is a true crisis going on in our industry. If you’re having this issue in your office, just know that out alone, it’s happening everywhere. There’s clearly something going on in the dental workforce, and although we’re all aware of it, some joke about it, some lose night’s sleep over it. We really have not been able to figure out and pinpoint the exact science of what’s going on.

Denise Williams:
We just have to accept the fact that we cannot control, that there’s not enough candidates right now. There’s just not enough candidates available for work. But what we can do, is we can adapt our culture right within the office so that we can attract the top tier people who are looking for a job, and that’s really what we want to talk about today. Creating a culture that attracts new team members. How do we do this? Well, social media, online presence is one way and that’s what we’re going to touch on today. There’s something very unique about our world right now. We live in a time where, I don’t know if everyone has recognized, but it’s very unique because the internet is so big. It’s such a big deal, and it’s created a huge opportunity, that maybe wasn’t here years ago.

Denise Williams:
You see, we can reach people in different ways that weren’t available years ago. Look at today, we’re talking to you through this webinar. If you are focusing your practice team culture and you are deciding and choosing to show it online, that’s actually a really brilliant way to market yourself, because everybody has some sort of social media. You’re reaching all kinds of people. The great thing about it, is you don’t have to be an expert to do this. You see, you can advertise yourself in the best light. You can set up yourself for success, so that when the new hires are checking your social media, they’ll want to belong to your office. They’ll want to come into your place. But to do this, we have to start with the mindset shift. We have to change the way we’re thinking. We need to start thinking outside the box.

Denise Williams:
Let’s take for instance entertainment. Let’s take that world. Imagine an artist that’s been successful over many decades, Madonna, Mick Jagger, what do they have in common? Adaptability. They adapt as the years go on, they reinvent themselves. They adapt. They adapt to what’s going on. Why is adaptability important? Because it showcases your ability and your capacity to handle changes. Frankly, with what’s going on in our world, things are changing daily. If we could take a page out that book and we want to stand the test at times, we’ve got to be adaptable. Let’s think of that approach as we talk today, being adaptable, reinventing in a different way, moving with the times and let’s take that approach with new hires.

Denise Williams:
Things are different. How are we looking at things? You see back in the day, the old school way, when you were going to hire someone, you put an ad in, you waited for the applicants to apply. You interviewed, and then you picked the best candidate. The thing is that back then there were plenty of people. People were coming out of the woodworks, but not so much anymore. I’ve heard of some doctors that have put ads in and over a two month period, they might only get three candidates and maybe not the top candidates. We still want to pick the best people. We want to pick the best person for the job. But if we’re willing to change our mindset and do things a little different, we will realize that we actually have some control in attracting the right people. We don’t have to sit and wait and wait and hope that somebody, top level is going to apply. Things are changed. Things are different.

Denise Williams:
Now, let me explain what I mean by this. Go with me on this. You’ve heard of the expression in real estate, a buyer’s market and a seller’s market. What this means is that based on supply and demand of potential buyers of homes or potential sellers of homes, it will determine which market you’re in. Now, let’s take that theory. Let’s take that concept and let’s change the words and let’s apply it to dentistry. Let’s change it to employers market, an employee’s market. Now, please note that, this is also determined by supply and demand. Pre-pandemic, it was an employer’s market. Definite, there were so many people that were looking for jobs and the supply of people was greater than the demand of the job. Not so much anymore.

Denise Williams:
Things have changed. The table has turned and now it’s an employee’s market. The demand of the job is greater than the supply of the people. Buyers market, when you’re buying a home, that’s the time to do it. Seller’s market, when you’re selling a home, that’s the time to do it. Employers market, pre-pandemic, things were different. We handled things differently. Now, employees market. We have to do things a little different, because what happened is, this pandemic forced many people to reevaluate their lives, to reevaluate their careers and what they care about most, and in doing this, it has allowed the employee to have the upper hand in choosing the team, because there’s so many options out there, and because there’s so many things to consider that maybe weren’t an issue before.

Denise Williams:
Let’s touch on a couple of them. Childcare. Many schools are not open, and if they are, they have a lot of COVID 19 restrictions, which may mean parents need to be home or pick their kids up or not even send them to school. Daycares are not open, and if they are, they’re taking a limited amount of people, also daycare cost has in has increased. Parents are now evaluating their salary versus childcare. How does that even out? Let’s touch on other one. Physically demanding work, with low to modest pay. People are now considering a higher pay as they have things that they need to pay for like daycare and gas. They’re also considering benefits. Before it wasn’t such a big deal, if you had benefits in this profession in a lot offices, but now in the middle of a pandemic, people have reevaluated their relationships with their family, their health. They need to make enough and they need to have benefits, and that’s important to them.

Denise Williams:
Another issue, availability of employment, as there are plenty of jobs to go around. It’s all about location, location, location, and we know gas prices are just outrageous right now. Team members, potential team members are considering places closer to home, as they don’t want to spend as much for gas and driving. With all these things pressing, people are weighing their options. You have cost of living, childcare, gas prices, closer to home, benefits. With so many offices that are hiring, there’s a lot of choices. Does this mean as an employer, you just throw your hands up and it’s over? No, not at all, and that’s not what I’m saying, but what I am saying is, it is imperative that employers shift their mindset and realize that if you’re going to attract new team members, you must adapt, like it or not, it’s an employee’s market right now.

Denise Williams:
You have to make the needed changes when you’re going about hiring, because things are different now. Now, since employees have so many options, here’s my question to you. Why not be the best option out there? Why not stand out? Why not be so wonderful in what you’re doing, that they want to be part of your team? You see, you do have some control in this employment crisis, if you choose to shift your mindset and do things a little different. One of the first things that I’d like to talk about that employers need to do, is build a strong, solid brand. Build a brand that appeals to your potential candidates. It’s nothing worse than an office that doesn’t know what direction they’re going in. Build your brand.

Denise Williams:
You see if the doctor is unclear of the company values and the direction and where everything is going, then trust me, everybody else is going to be confused. Your team, your current team, as well as possible new team members. Remember new team hires are deciding between several offices, so when they’re looking at all their options, you want to be the one that stands out. You want to be the one that knows the direction, and you’re clear on the direction that you’re taking your team. One reason is because, as they’re deciding if they want to be part of your team, they want to see if they’re in alignment with what your standards are, what your values are, where your team is going.

Denise Williams:
Doctors, I want to ask you a question. Are you telling your story in a real and authentic way? Now, notice I said real and authentic, because that is the true key here. You want to attract like-minded employees, that fit the culture of your practice. If you are not authentic and you sell a fake version story of your office, what’s going to happen is, you’re going to draw someone who connects with that, and that’s a fake version or story that’s not really happening. When they get there, this new hire’s going to think, “Oh, I’m joining this team, that’s displaying this one way, and then when I get into the office, it’s a completely different thing going on.” Now, if you’re lucky, they’ll adapt. But if not, they may not fit with that real version of what’s going on.

Denise Williams:
You know why? Because you deceived them from the start, and what do you think’s going to happen? They’re probably going to leave and they’re going to find the right fit, because again, as a reminder, it’s an employee’s market and there’s plenty of jobs available right now. The options are there for them to find a fit. What does that leave you, then you’re back to putting another ad in. I ask you, are you setting a clear mission, vision, and excellence of showing what you stand for? What is the brand of your office? Have you thought about that? What is the vision? Where do you want to take your office, and are you telling the public? Because if you’re not doing this, not only will new hires not stay, but your current team may not want to stay, and not only will you not get top tier candidates, but when your current team, some of them leave because you’re not providing the guidance and the structure that’s required to maintain that quality team, where does that leave you?

Denise Williams:
That leaves you putting in multiple ads for quite a few team members. It’s something to really think about doctor, because there are leaders amongst leaders, but you are the main leader. You are the captain of the ship, you set the tone, and if you’re not showing excellence, you’re not going to attract excellence because like attracts like. I really feel that this is something we don’t give enough attention to in our industry, the branding part of it, the mission, the vision, the direction. You see, when it comes to our doctors, we expect them to be fine clinicians. Oh yeah. “Oh, this doctor can do a beautiful crown, outstanding veneers, a precise root canal, an amazing Invisalign case,” but we don’t give enough attention to the branding element of the business, and it’s just as important because it’s the time when you’re telling who you are.

Denise Williams:
It’s the time that you’re saying, this is who I am world, and this is what I bring to the table. It can have devastating consequences on so many levels, especially when it comes to new hires. You see, in this day and age, we have so many platforms that are available for you to showcase your story, so there’s no excuse. Are you using them? Are you using the platforms that are right at your fingertips? Doctors, tell your story, be the best choice. Show the public what you’re all about. Show the public, why you love this profession. Why did you get into dentistry and let the public know how you feel about your team, how you feel about your patients, what drives you to do this, every day to come in and work on patients and the perfect place to do this is your website and your social media. Because those days of driving by an office and checking it out to decide if you want to work there are over.

Denise Williams:
I’ve been in dentistry for 25 years, and that’s what I did back in the day. I’ve only been in two offices in 20 something years. I drove by the first one and see who came out in morning and who left and looked at the building, those days are over. We’re in a totally different time. Potential new hires, they’re now looking at your website and they’re looking at your social media platforms. What does that look like? In fact, when was the last time you updated your website or your social media post? Are you doing those regularly? How about your logo? Are you telling your story on your website or is it just a bunch of words that people are probably not reading? Let’s be real. Maybe it’s time to revisit that website in particular and really look and see what the public is seeing.

Denise Williams:
You see, we get so comfortable with things and then things change, and then we forget to change them everywhere. If you looked at your website, you might be surprised to find outdated photos of old team members, or just the office of information on your website that maybe doesn’t really align with your current vision or your situation, and what’s going on in your office. Technology changes in dentistry. If you have the top technology, is it on your website? If you have prices, have you updated them? Do you have team members that work there 10 years ago? I invite you to check out your website, check it out, and if you need to make changes, make those changes. Now, we’ve talked about doctors telling their story. Now, we’re going to shift gears. Remember we talked about that mindset.

Denise Williams:
Now, we’re going to shift gears and we’re going to talk about focusing on the team. Now, it’s all about the team because they has to be a balance. It can’t be all doctor, and it can’t be all team. You have to share the spotlight, if you’re really going to show the full picture of what’s going on in your office. Potential hires, they need to see your team. They need to not only just see your team, they need to see what your team capable of. You know why? So they know what you expect of them. Before they even interview, they already know what your expectation is, if you show them what your team is capable of. Setting a high standard, is going to draw out people with high standards. Yes, they need to see the personalities of your team, but show them the skillset, show them what your team can do. Because by doing that, you’re showing them the whole culture, and remember we talked about that balance.

Denise Williams:
With that in mind, I want to ask a question to your doctors. Might be a hard question to take, but I’m going to still throw it out there. Are you allowing your team to shine or is it all about you? I don’t know, love your doctors, but, we talked about your role in telling the story, now we’ve shifted, and now we’re talking about your team. That mind shift, that mind change that we talked about in the beginning, because here’s what you don’t want, and I’m going to give you two extremes. You can have one extreme where the doctor never shows his face, never opens his mouth and never says a thing, and you can just have like a dental office and nobody really knows who the doctor is, or you can have the other extreme where that is all everybody sees.

Denise Williams:
Frankly, that’s not realistic, because in a real office, the situation is, it’s not just the doctor working there. There’s a whole team there. There’s a whole team of people, so why in the world would the doctor be the only person shown on social media? Mean after all, you’re showing and representing your team culture, right? As we want to connect with a new team member, wouldn’t we want them to see everyone? Balance is key. Balance is absolutely key. Now, some of you would say at this point, “Oh my God, what would my team say or do, how can they represent my office?” I’m going to answer that question with the question for you. Are you investing in your team by making sure they attend the need at seminars, continuing ed courses and training, so they can truly be their best? Because the fact of the matter is, a doctor that invests in his team will have a competent team, and a competent team will know exactly how to help promote the office, because they’ll do it in whatever way that they can.

Denise Williams:
The doctor won’t have to be worried. What is the team going to say? Oh my God, are they going to embarrass me? They’re not prepared, because your team will be informed and they will understand the vision. As we talked earlier, you’re setting that tone and you’re branding and you’re showing them the vision, so they’re going to know the vision of your office and they’re going to know how things are supposed to be. What happens is, they become your biggest advocate. They actually help you shoulder the responsibility in finding new hires, by showing not only their personality, but their skills. That’s how you showcase your true culture on social media and on your website. You include everyone. You let everyone shine. You keep that balance, and that will draw others to come in, because the tendency in our profession is to allow the doctor to be the spokesperson.

Denise Williams:
Everybody else stands back, quietly and basically sits back and watches him or her do their thing. That narrative needs to change because times are different. What should be happening, is the responsibility should be on everyone to help find the new hires. You know why? Everyone in the office has to work with them. So wouldn’t it be nice if everyone shared the responsibility of recruiting these new team members? We’re in a unique situation, as I spoke of earlier with the internet, and we’re able to reach people in a different way. Are we utilizing it? Because when you invest in your team, that’s creating a competent team, you’ll have trust that they can truly help you. One way, please take note that your team can really help you is by allowing your team to create honest and transparent videos, saying how great your office is, why they love to be part of it.

Denise Williams:
Doctors, this is a game changer. You know why? I’m going to tell you why? Because now your potential hires are hearing from their peers, and that’s very powerful. In fact, in dentistry, we all know the power of hearing something from someone other than the doctor. I’m going to give you an example because I’ve heard it a million times. Doctor comes in recommends treatment, patient smiles. Okay, okay. Yes. Minute the doctor walks out of the room, patient either looks at the assistant, hygienist, or if it’s the front admin and goes, do I really need that treatment? We’ve all heard it right? Sometimes they trust the assistant, hygienist, or the front admin more than they trust the doctor. Well, news flash, the same happens with potential hires. Potential hires want to see how you treat your employees. They want to see how employees feel about your place of business. They want to see what’s going on from the other side.

Denise Williams:
Guess what? Give them what they want. Remember how we talked about it being an employee’s market and how there’s a lot of options, be the best option. It’s right at your fingertips. Starting by branding, then treating your employees well and let your employees tell everyone about it. Let them be your biggest advocate. Let your employees make videos, inviting future candidates. The trend right now on Instagram, which is a great trend is people are putting a post that says, “We’re hiring.” That’s fantastic. How strong would it be to have your employees make a video that says join our wonderful team. I’ve worked with doctor so and so for so long, and this is why I love it here. They can be your number one advocate, if you allow them. Then potential candidates, I’m going to say it for the second time, are hearing about your culture from their peers.

Denise Williams:
If you really are putting your team first and you’re investing in them, this is going to be easy because your current team is going to feel like, “Oh, this is real. This is exactly how it is. This is wonderful. I want to help the team. What can I do doctor to help bring in new people?” Current team members will know, that you’ve created this positive environment and that it is a great place to work and they’ll want to share it, and it will naturally show in their posts, because there’s nothing worse than having a fake, scripted, awkward story. We all see those and think, “Are you kidding me? Who told them that was brilliant to post that?” No, we want a heartfelt, genuine expression of what’s really going on and if we can do that and allow the employees to do this and help you in this way, it’s going to entice the potential new hire.

Denise Williams:
I’m going to say it for a third time because my father used to tell me, three times repetition for emphasis because they’re hearing it from their peers. Game changer, game changer, game changer. This is going to require something of the doctors, and I cannot emphasize this enough, you’ve got to let your team shine. We love you doctors, but you have to let your team shine. You have to let them be great. You have to let them be great and show it. Do not keep their accomplishments a secret. It doesn’t take away from you. It enhances you because you’ve got this team that are doing these great things. Give them the tools in the form of training and then the freedom to them to Excel and to promote it. Highlight their strengths, let them speak about it. Acknowledge birthdays, anniversaries, weddings, babies, put it all on your social media.

Denise Williams:
You see, the dental office needs to be sterile. The instruments need to be sterile. The room needs to be sterile and we need to wear our PPE. But the one thing that does not need sterile to be effective is social media. People want to see your human side. We all want to connect. All of us. People respond to human natural stuff, and they feel connected, because doing this will show a team centered culture, and that’s what you want. You want to appeal and attract leaders as new hires. You want the best, right? So let your team shine. That is we want, because if the pickings are slim, don’t we want the best choice? Don’t we want the cream of the crop? Show that you have high standards and you’ll attract employees with equal high standards.

Denise Williams:
If you have a certain position that you need to fill, take the person in your office that excels at that and let them ask other hygienists to come, front office admin to come and join, RDAs to come and join. Let your team shine, show your brand, tell your story, let your team shine, and this is how you create and showcase a culture that will attract new team members. Thank you.

Blake Hadley:
Thank you, Denise. That was awesome. I love your perspective and your energy on this subject. I think, like you said, 25 years in the dental industry, Denise has experienced this a lot as an employee and from a lot of different positions. She has learned a lot about this, so thank you so much, Denise, for that perspective. All right. I am going to go ahead and share my screen here and, let’s go right here. All right. Hopefully everybody can see that okay.

Blake Hadley:
Denise said something really, really critical. She said, we are in an employees market. I think this is a huge mind shift for you to think about when you’re trying to find new team members, you need to think about this. You are the one being interviewed. You’re waiting for potential employees to come in to interview them, but really you are the one being interviewed, and guess what? Your future employees have already interviewed you, before you even interview them. What do I mean by that? Well, this is what they are doing. Just like Denise said, they are going online and they’re finding everything that they can about your practice, before they even apply.

Blake Hadley:
They’re looking on Facebook, they’re looking at your website, they’re looking at Instagram, they’re looking on Google, they’re looking on TikTok, they’re looking on Indeed, Glassdoor, everywhere they can. This is just like a new patient. They’re looking everywhere before they even become a new patient, before they schedule their first appointment. Team members are doing the same thing. They found that 79% of job applicants use social media in their job search. That was from a survey from Glassdoor, and 55% of job seekers find social and professional networks to be the most useful resource during a job search.

Blake Hadley:
What are they looking for when they go to all these different sites? What are they trying to find out about you? Well, they want to know what is your culture. This culture that you’ve created, that Denise talked about. What is the culture? They’re trying to dive into your practice to see who you really are. Now years ago, I thought this was culture. The ping pong table in the break room, the colorful walls, the fun office. That this must be what culture is. I remember we had a competitor of My Social Practice that popped up a few years ago and all they posted on social media was the employees playing ping pong and the fun things, the cool office that they had and how much fun they were with the bean bags and the Xbox in their break room.

Blake Hadley:
This must be their culture, and I remember looking at these posts and thinking, “We need a ping pong table.” To have a great culture in our business, we need to have this ping pong table. We need to have our employees playing Xbox and doing all these things. Is that what culture is? Is this what a real culture of a business is? Recently, so this area that I live in, I live in Utah and there’s an area close by that they call Silicon Slopes, like Silicon Valley in California. But it’s a place where a lot of tech startups are, and they had a big conference just recently, and this was one of the key takeaways from that conference.

Blake Hadley:
They said, “Ping-pong tables are not culture.” Thank you. This is what I’ve been thinking. Utah tech leaders say startup culture is changing. I want to share this quote from the CEO of Overstock. Overstock is also, their headquarters is here in Utah. Jonathan Johnson, the CEO said this, “Office space is not culture. Ping pong tables are not culture. Subsidized meals are not culture. We built a new company that represented who we were and who we wanted to be. We offered a variety of paid family leave for most circumstances. An employee stock purchase plan, a generous 401k, and eventually covering fertility treatments for employees who want them as a result, employee satisfaction has soared, and so has the company’s market cap. Who knew doing good is good business?” He said at the end, tongue cheek, right?

Blake Hadley:
It’s not about your office space. It’s not about how cool you are in the ping-pong tables, it’s about the benefits and your purpose, who you are and who you want to be that you’re communicating to your employees. Can your online presence answer the questions about culture that your future team members really care about? What are the things that they really care about, and when they look online about you, are you answering those questions, these interview questions, so to speak? If yes, you will have more and better qualified candidates. I guarantee that you will. All right. Let’s talk about what these questions are, that these potential employees are asking you about your culture.

Blake Hadley:
Well, first of all, are you hiring? This one is pretty straightforward. They just want to know if you’re hiring. How can you let the world know that you’re hiring? Well, list your job everywhere. If you’re just listing it at one place, that’s not enough. You need to put that job listing in many different places. Let me just give a few. There’s Indeed, there’s Glassdoor, there’s Monster, there’s LinkedIn. If you go to linkedin.com/talent/postajob, you can create a job listing on LinkedIn. As we know, this is a professional network. This is where many people look for new jobs, so you can create a job posting here and many people that use LinkedIn will turn here, if they’re looking for a new job.

Blake Hadley:
Facebook. Facebook has really advanced the way that they let companies put job listings on their platform. If you go to facebook.com/jobs, you can learn a little bit more about that. But if you go to your business page on Facebook and go to create a post, and you’ll see this little section right underneath where you’re going to make a post that says, job, where you can actually post a job up and it will allow you to create a page that looks like this. It will say the name of the job you’re looking for, the salary. It’ll allow you to put into the details. It’ll allow you to link to your Facebook page. Again, that’s the importance of how to keep up a… You need to keep up a good Facebook page if you’re going to link to it, and then they can apply right there from Facebook.

Blake Hadley:
Something else to think about is, Facebook is becoming more and more a search engine. If people put in dental assistant jobs near me into Facebook, there’s actually a section now on the very first page that says jobs nearby and that your listing of the job post that you create will show up in that section. Also, something that you might want to consider is posting in group pages. One way to do this, if you’re looking for a hygienist, for example, and let’s say you live in Utah, your practice’s in Utah, you can search Utah hygienists and then go down to the bottom left where it says, groups, so you’re search in groups and you can actually specify what city you want to search in a group that might be in a certain city.

Blake Hadley:
You can see here on the right, all these different groups that are for hygienists in Utah. Utah Dental Hygienists Connect, Southern Utah Dental Hygienist, Utah Dental Hygienist Association. A lot of these are private groups, but you can request to join those groups, and you can even ask the admin if it’s okay, if you post your job listing in those groups. Now, the great thing about Facebook groups is that, usually people are pretty active in those groups. They want to see what other people are doing in their profession. A lot of times the moderators, they want the best for their group as well, so they’ll post those job listings and they’ll talk about those job listings to the group. Also, group post are seen a lot quicker and a lot more often than just regular posts that you might put on your Facebook page. So that’s a good reason to maybe look into the groups in your area and see if you can post your listing there.

Blake Hadley:
Something about Google as well. They have added something. If you search dental hygienist jobs near me, there is a section on the first page of Google now called jobs, just like a maps section would show up on the first page. There is a job section that now shows up and it will show all the jobs listed near that location that the person is searching, and then there will be a bunch of links at the top of the listing of all the places that the person can apply. I’ve mentioned to try to list your job in many different places, that’s because these integrate with Google and it will show up in this section, and Google is where people search. Even people searching for jobs, then they might search something like dental hygienist jobs near me. It would be great for you to show up on that first page of Google.

Blake Hadley:
I want you to consider adding a careers page to your website. A careers page is just for people that are looking for a career at your practice, and you can link like this site does, you can link to the listings and just update this page whenever you have new positions that you’re trying to fill, you can update this with new links to those pages. You might also want to include a video on this page, that’s talking specifically to new team members, maybe a video about your culture, a video about your employee plans, so that you’re talking specifically to them. A lot of businesses do pages like this, and so I want you to consider doing it for your dental practice as well.

Blake Hadley:
Question number two, what’s the pay? People want to know what are you going to pay them? I want you to be transparent about your salary that you’re offering. I know this is sometime a subject that a lot of people go back and forth on. Should we show how much we’re paying, should we not? In this day and age, it’s really important to be transparent. Some people say, “Well that doesn’t give us the ability to negotiate with our potential employees,” but I want you to consider some stats. The lack of compensation information is the number one frustration among job candidates, according to a survey by Glassdoor. Also, when job ads include a salary range, they attract more than 30% more candidates, what they found.

Blake Hadley:
In a book by Jennifer Deal, called What Millennials Want From Work. She said, “Millennials are most likely to discuss their compensation with their parents or their friends. In comparison, older staff are substantially less likely to discuss their compensation with coworkers, friends, or parents.” The topic of compensation is discussed a lot more among the new workforce. Employees are talking to each other, they know what each other are making, so it’s important to be transparent from the very beginning on what you’re paying your employees. It’s different than the older generation. They were more hush hush about what they were getting, but now, they’re talking about it more. Transparency is always better for your employees. Employees before they even try to apply for a job, they want to know if it’s something that will be worth their time, if they’re going to be paid, what they feel they’re worth.

Blake Hadley:
Question number three, that your potential employees are going to ask you. Are there opportunities to grow at your practice? I want you to show them what the latter is, in your job listing and from the very, very beginning. You need to tell them what their earned perks and benefits are. What are the bonuses that are tied to maybe profitability of the practice? What is the income potential? What can they achieve, if they were to get a job at your practice? What could they potentially achieve in the future? This is something that’s critical to the millennial mindset. They want to know how they’re going to grow.

Blake Hadley:
Your job invitation is not… I want you to think of your job listing as an invitation and not just a job description. What I mean by that is, here on the left, this might be a job description that is just saying, you’re stringent requirements. You must have this many years of experience. You must have this, this, this, this, this. What that feels like, it’s okay to do that, but if that’s the only thing that you put on there, what it feels like is just a notice that says, “No entry, unless you’re authorized.” You need to have this, this, this, this.

Blake Hadley:
I want you to think of your job listing as an invitation, that talks about long term opportunities. You want people to stay there for a while. You want to invite them to your practice, not just say, “Hey, you need to have this, stop, before you come in, you need to have this, this, this,” think of it more as an invitation. I want to show this little video clip with you. This is a panel that Ramsey was on, Dave Ramsey. They were talking about hiring millennials, and I really like what this monitor moderator says about hiring millennials on this subject.

Dave Ramsey:
Here’s what millennials are struggling with, they want it now. Now, every generation has always wanted it now, this is not a millennial thing, but they want it faster than most. But if you can say, “Hey, if you come in here in this role and you win with this KRA, let me show you the next run, and let me show you the next run, and the next run. If you know your role, accept your role and maximize your role.” If you can be discerning and show them that in this organization, that you can meet your why, and fulfill your why, they’ll turn into some of your best leaders. You’ve got to understand that, and one other point on this that you got to understand, I’m reading this data like crazy, but you got to get this.

Dave Ramsey:
More than any other generation, millennials are also not looking at a job as something they may do for more than a year. Not because they’re not loyal, not because they’re just shiftless. They watched Xers, they watched their grandparents work one job for 35 years and they went, “That just doesn’t seem fun.” So they’re looking for a ladder and you’re going to miss it, if you don’t show them that the ladder could exist at Ramsey Solutions, it could exist here. But if you grow them and you develop them and show them a ladder, you might turn these millennials into absolute rock stars. You got to figure it out in the interview and then remind them of their why, and how it matches up with their current role. Be patient, be patient, you’re getting closer.

Blake Hadley:
Okay, so remind them of their why, and then show them the ladder. I think that’s so critical to do from the very beginning. Question number four, that they’re going to ask you. Is will I fit into this practice? One way to show potential employees is to focus on your, Meet The Team page on your website. Hopefully you have a meet the team page or an About Us type of page, where you’re showcasing your team members, talking about your doctor and your team members. Like Denise said, you need to talk about your team members as well. This is a great About Us page from Holt Dental Care, one of our clients. I like how they did it, on every one of their team members, they just asked them a few questions with really short answers, explaining who they are, what they like to do a little bit about their life, and so someone could go and meet the team and know a little bit about each person.

Blake Hadley:
Something we did at My Social Practice recently on our Meet The Team, our About Page, is we showed the professional photo of everybody, but then we showed a little bit about who that person was. This is Cole, he’s our art director. He’s also in a band, so there’s his professional side, and his band shot. Michela she’s one of our copywriters and she loves sci-fi and fantasy and reading, and so you can see her with all of her fun movies and the things that she likes to do and what she likes to read. Here’s mine. Mine’s maybe a little weak, but I love sour patch kids. I shouldn’t admit that to the dental professionals, but this is me scarfing down some sour patch kids, so it just shows my fun side. \This dental practice, this Orthodontic Practice did the same on their about page. They explained, they showed each person had a little bio, and then they showed their fun side as well.

Blake Hadley:
Your Google, my business photos are really important. Again, a lot of potential patient or potential team members are going to search Google, search your practice. The first thing that they’re going to see is over here on the knowledge graph, your Google my business listing. On the Google, my business listing, there’s a photo that you can choose to be your very first photo, but when they click on see photos, they can see all the photos that you have uploaded in this section. If it’s just a photo of the outside of your office by default, that’s what Google does. It might not set a very good impression, but if you can put all these fun photos of your team and who you are and the things you support, and what you do, this sets a really great first impression. You can upload these in your Google, my business profile on your dashboard. If you were to look at all these photos, these headshots of all the team members and the holidays that they celebrated, and then some photos with patience, it just gives you a really good feeling about who they are.

Blake Hadley:
Denise talked about social media. Social media is the best place to show the true, authentic you. I really like what this practice did on their social media. Every once in a while, they do a little post of their team members and they keep it really short and simple, but they have each team member just introduce themselves. You can see here, that it’s a vertical video, so it’s shot with an iPhone. It’s not professionally shot, but it’s really authentic and transparent, and it feels really real. Let me just show a couple of these.

Savanna:
Hi, my name is Savanna. I’m a dental assistant here at the office. I’m an aspiring dentist and I love to go outside.

Chaz:
My name is Chaz. I am a dental assistant. I love trying new places to eat, spending time with family, traveling, and enjoying the outdoors.

Israel :
Hi, my name is Israel. I’m one of the dental assistant here with Dr. Susan Smith. I’ve been with Dr. Smith for two years now. When I’m not at work, I like to go fishing, I watch a lot of UFC fights, and I do have a daughter, she’s two years old, that’s all about me.

Blake Hadley:
This last one is the dentist, the doctor.

Dr. Smith:
Hi, I’m Dr. Smith. I love to hike, read, and travel. I have three lovely daughters and I love working with this valuers team.

Blake Hadley:
All right. Again, short, simple, but it gives you an idea of who they are and their personalities. On social media, it gives you a chance to show how you connect as a team, that you’re a team family. You do things together. You have great unity, so take these team photos whenever it’s for Halloween or event you’re doing, or just show that you enjoy being with each other. Another way to do it. TikTok, as we know is really big right now, really popular. A lot of dentists are jumping on this train and doing TikTok, short form TikTok videos. The great thing about these type of videos is that they’re fun, they’re upbeat, and they give you a fun feeling about who these practices are. This is from Holt Dental Care. I just want to show a few of their little videos. This one’s just an office tour. Again, this is probably meant more for potential patients, but it also can be used for potential employees to see your office.

Speaker 8:
We’ll come back here, Dr. Holt and his lovely family. Here’s Ashley doing cleaning, and when we have our treatment rooms, where Dr. Holt takes care of all your needs, and back here, we have our brand new, lovely pano machine that takes beautiful images.

Blake Hadley:
It shows the technology of the practice. It shows that it’s a friendly place to work, and it’s just a really… Like Denise drove by the practice to look on the outside, now it gives them a peak on the inside. Something else, if you have a Instagram account, which I hope you do, Instagram is such a powerful storytelling tool for dental practices and potential new team members are going to look at your Instagram and find it. There is a section at the very top called highlights. What highlights are, is they’re your stories that you have saved.

Blake Hadley:
If you’re creating stories, these are posts that last for 24 hours, and then you disappear, but you can actually save those posts into a highlight section, that’s at the top of your Instagram page, and you can categorize it. This practice has, every time they go out and do something with the team, they save all of their team’s stories into a little section called our team. This is like a nav bar at the top, it’s like you have a nav bar at the top of your website, this is a nav bar for your Instagram page, and it’s a more interactive nav bar that really gives you a feeling of who they are. This is like your Meet The Team page. Let me just show you how theirs is.

Blake Hadley:
You can see all of the things that they’re doing, all the events that they go to, [inaudible 00:53:55] support the concerts, the runs they do. You can see it’s all here in this one quick, they can scroll to the next, click to the next one and see it all in one place. This is so valuable for a potential team member to see who you are. All right. Question number five, that they’re going to ask you. Does your mission or who you are align with my values? You’re going to want to show a culture of giving. They’re finding that, employees like to work at a place that does good for other people that gives back to the community. This post exemplifies that. This is by Hines Little Smiles Pediatric Dentistry, and this was during COVID when hospitals needed more PPE. The practice donated some of these masks and all this materials to the hospital.

Blake Hadley:
But the thing that I like about this post is, this comment by Linda. Linda works at the practice, and she said, “Being a part of Dr. Hines team only makes me appreciate her more and more each day, not for what she has done for me and my coworkers, but how she looks out for the community always. Such a giving staff behind her as well.” You can tell Linda, she’s just proud to work at this practice because they’re doing good for the community. When people see these posts, and they see that the employees like to work there. Anything that you’re supporting, whether it’s breast cancer awareness month, show these posts on social media. If you’re doing a food drive and giving back your community, show these posts, these are great opportunities to put on your Facebook page or Instagram page.

Blake Hadley:
When it comes to values, another thing that employees are looking for is a place where they can have a really good work life balance. As we know, the pandemic has created this, where a lot of employees want to work from home and they prefer to work from home, but it’s a little hard in dentistry to have many of your employees work from home, but you can still show how you believe in a good work life balance by doing things that aren’t always dental related. You can see here, this practice went to a professional basketball game. They go out to eat together. They just enjoy being with each other, even when it’s not at work.

Blake Hadley:
Last thing is, to share your core values. Tell your audience whether it’s your patients or potential employees, what your core values are. I really like this post that Temple City Dental Care pinned to the top of their page. That means that they keep it at their top of their page for a given amount of time so that, it’s the first thing that people see. This might be something you might want to do when you’re hiring, is to pin a post like at the top of page. This is Dr. Jack Von Bulow and he just explains what their core values are, in their practice.

Dr. Jack Von Bulow:
Hi, this is Dr. Jack Von Bulow at Temple City Dental Care, and today I will just talk about our core values. We always knew what they were, but we never really listed them or discussed them, so put them on the wall, but an advisor gave us an assignment to make an acronym that expressed what our core values were. We chose FFEARLESS with two Fs. It’s a clean practice. The Fs are basically family fun. The E, is empathy. The A, is appreciation. The R, is represent as represent your community. The L, is all about love. E, is enthusiasm, you have to bring enthusiasm to the table and then we have support and service. Those are our core values, and I think that’s something that’s important to know. And hopefully we can connect on those core values when we see you.

Blake Hadley:
All right. He’s the talking to patients and potential team members. I really like that. A post like that your doctor can do. Question number six, they’ll ask you, will I feel safe at your practice? This is a new question that’s coming up because of the pandemic.

Blake Hadley:
Ann Battrell, she’s the CEO of the American Dental Hygienist Association said this, “Many dental hygienists had questions and concerns about COVID-19 and rightly so. Some dental hygienists were faced with a very personal decision about returning to work in the face of the pandemic. Our most recent data indicates that for dental hygienists who have voluntarily left their positions, 42.9% reported, I do not want to work at is a dental hygienist until after the COVID 19 pandemic is under control. Another 38.1% stated, I have concerns about my employers adherence to workplace/safety standards.”

Blake Hadley:
This is a concern right now that you need to address. Social media, again, is a great place to do that. You can show the protocols that you have in place, the filtration, the temperatures that you’re taking, the things that you’re doing, not just to keep your patients safe, but also your employees. Question number seven, will I feel appreciated? Denise talked about this. People want to feel appreciated. There’s a lot of ways to do this, showcasing birthdays, you never miss a birthday and you should never miss an opportunity to post about a birthday.

Blake Hadley:
At Berrien Dental, I love the doctor actually asks his team members, what cake they want for their birthday and he personally, he makes them a cake, whatever type of cake that they want, which is cool and then they do a post about the cake that they chose. Showcase work anniversary. If someone has been with you for years, show that happy 21st anniversary, 30th anniversary, this team member is new, and then this is a little video that Holt Dental Care did. [inaudible 00:59:48] and recognize their awesome team members. Then really just show appreciation any chance that you can get.

Blake Hadley:
I don’t know if you knew there’s a hygienist appreciation month, there’s dentist appreciation, every position there’s actually appreciation month. Show how you appreciate your team members. Give them a little gift, take a picture of that little gift that you gave them. Maybe put an employee of the month, maybe every month, pick a new employee and highlight just how great they are, or just do a little spotlight on them, on your social media accounts. The great thing about social media is not only do you show that recognition and show that you appreciate them, but these type of posts get some of the best engagement on social media. You can see all these comments that people congratulating them saying how great they are.

Blake Hadley:
Just imagine how that makes somebody feel, your team members feel, if they go to that social media post and they just see all these comments of people, congratulating them and telling them how great they are. It’s a great way to show that appreciation. Question number eight, do patients and current team members actually like you? I went to a dental show recently and I was talking to a doctor and he said, “I recently hired an amazing hygienist. When I asked her why she decided to apply to her practice, she said, because I saw all of your positive reviews on Google.” Robert Cialdini, he’s a famous psychologist. He talked to us about what social proof is, and he said, “We view a behavior as more correct in a given situation to the degree that we see others performing it.”

Blake Hadley:
What’s the social proof of today? How do we make decisions based on what other people are saying? It’s these five stars. People want to see how other people are rating your business, and in future employees are doing this. They’re looking at those five stars. They have found for in order for person to trust a business or a dental practice, that business needs to have at least 40 reviews to trust their star rating, and then their star rating needs to be at least a 4.0. 80% of consumers say they do not trust a business with average review rating below those four stars. This needs to be goal on your Google, on your any reviews account, you need to have at least 40 reviews and at least a 4.0 on your rating.

Blake Hadley:
What do you need to do? You need to get more reviews, ask your patients to leave you reviews. You don’t have to ask every single one of your patients, just cherry pick the patients that you know are going to give you a positive review. Look at your schedule at the beginning of the day and say, “Hey, Anne has been with us forever. I know she’ll give us a positive review.” One way you can do it, is set a review goal in your practice. Say, we want to reach this amount of reviews by the end of the year and you can even say that to your patient and say, “Hey Carl, would you mind helping us out? We’re trying to get more Google reviews. We have a goal of 300 by the end of this year, can you help us out? Would you mind leading this review?” You can even create a team incentive for your team if you reach that goal, and so that they are sure and reminded to ask your patient, and then make that process easy.

Blake Hadley:
My Social Practice has an app that you can put in their name and phone number. It sends them a quick text. Then they can just click on the link in the text and decide where they want to leave you a review, and then when they click on that link, it takes them right to your page to leave you review. The best is if you can ask them while they’re in your practice and then make the process super simple. We have seen the most success with practices to get the most amount of reviews that way. Not only ask patients to leave you review, but ask your team members to leave you a review. They can leave it on Google or Facebook. They could even leave reviews on Indeed or Glassdoor, but ask them to do that.

Blake Hadley:
This is a post by Kasey who works at Davis & Engert dentistry. She posted on her page, about how much she loves this practice, and she loves the people she works with and wrote a post about a charity event that they did. Whenever you do any events like this, ask your team members to post about it and to tag you. When you post stuff like this, everybody knows people that work in the dental industry, so the more you can get the word out and have your team members do it, like Denise talked about, the better that your reputation will be and the more awareness you’ll get about your job. As I mentioned, ask your team members to leave you a review. They can go to Indeed, they can go to Glassdoor, wherever it might be to leave you a glowing review about how great your practice is to work for.

Blake Hadley:
A summary of these interview questions that your employees are going to be asking you are these, are you hiring? What’s the pay? Are there opportunities to grow? Will I fit in? Does your mission align with my values? Will I feel safe at your practice? Will I feel appreciated? Do patients and current team members actually like you? They’re going to check that for sure.

Blake Hadley:
What are the obstacles of doing all this? This is a lot to do. I understand the obstacles that we have seen in the industry is, we can’t think of anything to post about my team. This sounds great Blake, but when it comes down to it, we don’t know what to post. We don’t have the time to take photos and videos like this. I can’t get my doctor or team on board with all of this. That’s where My Social Practice can step in and we can help your practice. You don’t have to try to figure this out on your own.

Blake Hadley:
Every month will actually send you a packet of ideas, of signs and ideas for you to post and for photos, for you to put on your social media accounts with your team. We’ll give you a calendar of when the holidays are, or when the charity events are. For example, Red Nose Day. We’ll send you a little sign and we’ll show you how to support Red Nose Day and what to do for your post, and so you can create awesome posts like this of you and your team supporting these great causes. We’ll give you ways that you can highlight team members. This is an awesome way, two truths and a lie, where people can find out about your team members by playing this little game, always gets a ton of engagement.

Blake Hadley:
Things that you can do to show the personality of your dentist and again, like I said, different charities that you can support and how you can support those charities. Even if it’s Shark Week, for example, we’ll send you a sign, we’ll send you a prop. We’ll send you something fun that you can do around Shark Week. We make everything really timely and easy for you to do. This is a great idea, Flash your Fangs for Halloween, for example. Not only will we give you photo ideas, but we also will give you video ideas of how you can talk about your team that, did you know, and will give you a script and what to say, so you don’t have to figure that out. And then we have a member side that teaches you how to do everything as well. Timely ideas and we always stay on top of the latest trends so that you can be on top of it in your practice.

Blake Hadley:
I want to tell you about this free download, that we’re giving away. You can download some of these signs that you can print out of your office printer, that highlight your team, different photo ideas that you can use to highlight your team. I love my job, smile squad, office managers rock, just things that you find photo downloads. If you want to scan this QR code with your phone, go to the camera app on your phone and scan the QR code, it’ll take you right to the page, or you can just fill out this quick form and download those for free. There’s the link there at the top as well. If you want to jot that down or take a screenshot of that.

Blake Hadley:
These are some of the signs that we are including in that pack that you can use for your team. We’d love to see your photos. If you do this, tag My Social Practice and we’d love to see what you do with these. If you want to contact me directly, here’s my contact information, [email protected]. If you have any questions about our service or whatever you’d like, feel free to contact me personally or visit our website, mysocialpractice.com or give us a call. There’s my contact information. All right. That’s all the information I have for you. This is Denise’s contact information. Denise, do you want to tell them how to get ahold of you?

Denise Williams:
Absolutely. If you need any help in your office, creating or upgrading or taking your culture to the next level, please feel free to contact me. My email is there [email protected], or you can give me a phone call and thank you for listening, and I’d love to help you take your office to the next level of success.

Blake Hadley:
All right. Awesome. Well, Denise, that’s all we have. We have a little bit of time, I know we went a little bit over, so thanks to everybody that has stuck with us up till now. If you have questions, please chat them in right now. I’m not seeing any so far, but we’ll just give you a minute, if you have anything. Denise, any further thoughts on the subject?

Denise Williams:
No, I think together we covered it all. I hope that you all that watched it, got something out of it. Maybe picked up a few tips that you can help create and showcase a culture that will help you get new team members.

Blake Hadley:
Yeah. All right. Agree. Well, it’s getting dark over here. You’re lighting is a lot better. My, as the time has come, I’m like, my face is glowing from the screen light, is about all I got in here.

Denise Williams:
You know girls and lighting, we know our lighting.

Blake Hadley:
I know. I need to work on that for next time. I didn’t take into account, that’d be getting dark, but all right. Well, thank you everybody for joining us and let us know if you have any questions. Have a great night.

Denise Williams:
Bye-bye. Thank you.

Blake Hadley:
Good Denise.

Denise Williams:
Bye-bye.

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