YOUR BIGGEST MISTAKE, and the 7-steps you can take to prevent it
February 21, 2021One of these mistakes cost my practice over $50,000 and we considered ourselves lucky to get off so cheaply.
Estimates are that this mistake costs practices that amount or more each and every year!
And, the Pandemic has made this mistake even more common.
The mistake I’m referring to is hiring the wrong person to join your team.
It’s time to stop the madness. Stop literally inviting disaster into your life.
Here are 7 simple things you can immediately implement into your hiring process to help you avoid making this common and costly mistake.
This is done by actually DEFINING THE JOB: It sounds simple but it’s one of the most common issues we see with our clients. They fail to have well thought out and defined job descriptions.
Without knowing what you’re looking for, the talents, skills and attitudes required for a given position, you’re likely not to get what you want. Rather, you hire someone who “seems” right, with the HOPE that they’ll work out.
HOPE is not a strategy.
Dentists often follow the crowd. They all put ads in the same place. Be creative. Look at places where others might not. For instance, for a person whose primary role will be to answer phones and schedule appointments, one might look in the Hospitality industry rather than healthcare. Have YOU received super customer care in a healthcare setting?
If your ad looks just like everyone else’s, you’ll get what everyone else gets…mediocrity.
Your ad should describe WHO you’re looking for in as much detail as possible. And, to make it really stand out, have another staff member do a video invitation. “Come join me”, heard from another employee can be very powerful.
This is somewhat controversial, but not to me. To me, if a person can’t follow directions, they’re not a good fit for a business that requires adherence to instruction. Providing a written letter or directing someone to the job’s landing page sets you apart.
Everyone asks for a resume and then makes contact for an interview. Now that most people, and certainly the ones that we would want in our practices, can use facetime or ZOOM, why not use this technology?
This will save you and the applicant a lot of time. And, as they say; “A picture is worth a thousand words.”
The bias to hire someone to fill a void in your staff makes choosing someone wrought with pitfalls. The more people involved in this process, the more likely personality or attitudinal flaws will be caught.
In addition, as culture is important, those who share your culture might be more sensitive to a potential hire’s fit.
Getting consensus for a new hire also engages the team in the new hire’s success.
There’s a lot of information out there. USE IT. It’s just way too easy for someone to pad their resume. A few clicks on the Internet or a few phone calls can uncover issues before they become yours.
The urge to rapidly hire and fill a position can lead to inconsistent, ineffective and coslty hiring. Such mistakes are among the most common in all forms of business. Yet, they are mostly preventable with proper systems and discipline.
Have you been trained in proper hiring and other Human Resources strategies?
Find out how to tune up your hiring process so you can prevent future, costly mistakes.
Schedule a free, 20-minute strategic session now: SCHEDULE HERE
To your excellent clarity and success,
Michael, Laurie, Merideth and the PPS Team
P.S. Want to learn more about HR issues?
Practice Success Insights

Dr. Michael Goldberg is one of the leading educators on dental practice management in the United States.
Michael ran and sold a prestigious group practice in Manhattan and has been on Faculty at Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Medical Center for 30 years including Director of the GPR program and Director of the course on Practice Management.
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