Hiring Exceptional Dental Staff

The major ingredient to successful leadership is effective followers. Effective “followership” begins with the leader’s decision to hire an individual for a specific position. Your ability to choose effective people will not only determine your ultimate success as a leader but will greatly influence the amount of energy you expend to achieve that success.

Peter Drucker says that, “to make a decision is the specific task of an executive; effective executives, therefore, make effective decisions.”  People decisions are not only the most important and difficult decisions a leader will make, they are time consuming and complex.

People, not plans or products, are the wellspring of organizational success. Individuals are the basic building blocks of any group or organizational effort. Your success will ultimately be determined by the quality of people you recruit.

The objective of any placement decision is to obtain the best possible fit between the person and the position. The better the match, the greater the potential to succeed. To achieve the greatest match, the decision maker must know the demands of the task as well as the gifts, skills and temperament of the people being considered for the position.

The selection process may appear straightforward, yet we tend to blow it for a few reasons:

• FIRST, the selection process involves many more unknowns than knowns. Jobs are difficult to define, and the people who fill them are infinitely complex and their behavior somewhat inconsistent. People decisions are frought with subjectivity, uncertainty and risk.
• SECOND, the selection process is hard work, the complexity of which prompts many leaders to unfortunately make too QUICK decisions, leaving the results to chance.
• And FINALLY, making good people decisions is a skill. It involves knowledge of human nature and proficient application of certain processes and principles. Not knowing the process and how to apply it causes us to fall back on the old standbys of intuition and gut feeling

Generally, mistakes in people decisions aren’t immediately obvious. But when they do become apparent, we invariably go through a long, drawn out expensive process of analysis and attempted solutions. Instead of taking fast action to solve problems, we often delay, hoping the problems will solve themselves. They seldom do. When the basic fit between the person and the position is flawed, things usually become worse over time, not better. Often, another cause of delay is some feeling of guilt on the part of the person who did the hiring – usually the doctor.

Cost of Mismatches

Poor hiring decisions are the costliest mistakes practices make. The doctor too frequently finds that a newly hired employee performs unsatisfactorily on the job. Both the doctor and the hiree suffer the consequences. A poor hiring decision effects productivity and morale and can have grave economic consequences.

By definition, the selection process means choosing one applicant in preference to others. This decision is based on a set of characteristics which the doctor believes must be present in order for the job to be performed satisfactorily. The question is whether or not an applicant’s suitability for a job can be predicted with any measure of success. The answer is YES!

These statements we know to be true:

• Exceptional people are less accessible and are difficult to find.
• Finding exceptional people is hard work, but worth the effort.
• We are often too quick to settle for acceptable versus exceptional ones.

Steps in the Selection Process:

• Determine critical or essential job requirements
• Screen resumes
• Interview candidates
• Check references
• Evaluate all data
• Make the offer 

There is no guarantee that by using these suggested practices you will hire only winners or avoid personnel problems. However, by considering the issues presented here, you will be improving your abilities, as a professional, to hire effective performers.

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