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.
My dental hygienist (a co-worker’s spouse) makes about $200,000 annually, in large part, due to her ability to up-sell products and procedures. Based upon her salary, I’m unsure if there are serious ethical considerations based upon the sales volume required and profit margins.
IMO too many dentist offices have rude, indifferent front desk and administrative people that regardless as to the doctor’s abilities, the support people will ruin the business.