CHRISTINE HOXHA
ENDO MASTERY PRACTICE COACH
Careful onboarding of a new team member is a vital step to preserving and improving team success and building a foundation for long-term employee retention.
Industry trends show that dental assistants tend to stay in their role 1 to 5 years and admin team members stay 2 to 6 years on average. However, companies with a successful onboarding program can boost long-term new hire retention by as much as 82%!
New team members arrive with unfamiliarity about the practice’s procedures, expectations, and team culture. They also arrive with a skillset that can have gaps for their new job role, or assumptions that your practice works the same as previous practices where they have been employed.
An organized approach to onboarding a new hire is the best way to set them up to be successful in their new job, as well as to smoothly integrate them into your current team dynamics.
Here are 8 tips to make onboarding more effective:
- Begin with proper screening of candidates. This includes asking for and checking references, background and criminal checks, drug testing, etc.
- Set expectations early. Share your practice vision, job requirements and performance standards in the interview process.
- Prepare for the first day. Keep your existing team in the loop and plan/discuss who will take part in training activities with the new team member. Ensure practice manuals are updated to match current processes. Send necessary paperwork to the new employee in advance.
- Day 1 welcome. Give a positive introduction of the new team member at the start of the day. Outline training expectations and provide all training manuals, office manuals and other helpful resources. Set up computer logins, emails, and update the phone contact list for all team members. Perform OSHA/HIPAA training.
- Week 1 shadowing. Allow new team members to shadow all departments and gain perspective on everyone’s role, the pace of the office, and how the team works together. For example, 2 days at the front desk and 2 days in the clinical area. At the end of the first week, the office manager and doctor should meet with the new team member to answer questions, provide constructive feedback, etc.
- 30, 60 and 90-day training plan. Utilize a task analysis of the team member’s job role to create a step-by-step training plan. Do competency assessments at the end of each month and adapt/refine the training plan as needed. time to improve and remember that office dynamics can prematurely lead to negative feedback from other team members. Be supportive and constructive for the new team member.
- Find opportunities to celebrate! Acknowledge the new team member’s progress and find opportunities to celebrate with the whole team to strengthen team unity.