I am a dentist. I felt strongly that half my staff was against me (4 of 7 employees). So I fired them. I inherited them when I bought my business a few years ago. I am very ethical but I do care about gross revenue (as any owner should). They never fully embraced caring about revenue production or understanding that bonus pay is tied to profitability. Nonetheless, I feel it is a failing on my part as a leader that they as a group were not on my team. What can I do as a small business owner to display better leadership and engender better office morale. I should mention that I pay above market wages, have better benefits than market competitors, work with my employees to satisfy the number of hours they need and I run a schedule that is very predictable 8-5 with a lunch and we do not deviate. Further, we take great care of our patients and the staff never has to worry about patient satisfaction or quality of care. Thank you for your input.
I’ve worked in dentistry for 13 years. I started as a dental receptionist and after going back to school I am now one of the dental hygienists.
After reading some of your comments, it seems like your office goals and expectations are not clear for staff. Who are the staff you fired? Dental front office? Dental assistants? How are they against you?
You have to set clear expectations for each staff members, from front office to back office, so that they all know what are the tasks they are to complete as part of their job description, that way you can use that information to assess their performance during employee reviews.
I would love to talk to you in greater detail to share what has worked and hasn’t worked in offices over the time I’ve worked in dentistry. Both from an administrative and clinical perspective. Send me a message if you wish.