Page 65 - The Dental Entrepreneur

The Dental Entrepreneur

Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill

My favorite approach here is to be proactive. Instead of sitting in your office waiting for
potential people to come in and apply. Go out into the consumer marketplace and pick
someone out for yourself. You can evaluate their appearance, hygiene, attitude, and their
interpersonal communication skills without them even knowing it. You must find the absolute
best “people” persons that exist in your area. It may be at the mall, a local bank, grocery store

or fast food restaurant. There are very special people stuck in all kinds of dead end jobs that
would be flattered to get a chance at a stable long term profession such as dentistry. These
people are in your potential pay scale range and they are used to working long, hard, and
sometimes irregular hours. Many are unselfish and used to working with little recognition or
reward. They will work weekends without complaining. I see them everyday in many facets of
life. I was recently checking out a couple of items at Target and an employee went out of her
way to tell me what a beautiful day it was. Bingo!. A keeper. She passed the first test. This was
a happy individual who loved life. She put out positive energy and spoke in a positive manner.
She loved interacting with all customers even though it probably wasn’t necessary to retain her
job. She had all the initial qualities that I am looking for. In this case, I would discreetly hand
her one of my business cards and tell her if she were ever interested in a career in healthcare
to stop by the office for a tour. You can eliminate the vast majority of bad actors by proactively
selecting people that you are pretty certain are winners.

Retired People

Another very valuable group of potential employees who are often overlooked are retired
individuals. These people may have retired a little too early and become bored after a year or
two. They especially miss the energy of being around younger people. They often would like to
return to work on a limited basis or sometimes full time. They are the complete package.
Mature, experienced, dependable, often financially secure, and most importantly not
demanding or manipulative. Because of their vast life experience, they relate confidence and
calmness among patients and employees. They also make great flex time employees because
they may not have the financial demands of a young person. Definitely worth consideration.

Single Parents

You might get a variety of opinions on this but from my observation is that single people as a
group are very responsible and serious hard working folk. They have been dealt a fairly difficult
set of cards and they are generally very efficient .They are good at multi tasking. They live in
the same place for an extended period of time. Many become very long term and loyal
employees The office often becomes a second home to them. I would not overlook this group
of people.

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