In dentistry, as in every profession, a practice is only as successful as its people. While dental recruitment is still a challenge across the UK, particularly affecting rural and coastal regions, having the right approach to building and retaining a team can ensure practices are not only more likely to meet the needs of patients, but that they will develop an excellent reputation that will enhance the goodwill of the business.
Building a dream team requires a great marketing strategy, leadership, imagination, consistency, patience and excellent organisational skills, all of which can be learned, or achieved with support. With a host of demands taking up the time and energy of practice owners and managers, working to a detailed plan to recruit and keep the best staff may feel daunting. However onerous this work may feel in the short-term, the long-term reward is better patient care, a great reputation, and a more valuable practice.
How a great team grows your value
Team members interact more positively with patients when they feel happy. Extensive research has found that happier individuals are 13% more productive – they work more quickly and they are more likely to successfully upsell to more valuable services, increasing loyalty as well as profitability – when they feel good at work.[i]
Attracting new patients is 5 times more expensive than developing a good relationship with existing ones. Profitability can be increased by at least 25%, by improving patient retention by just 5%.[ii] The culture of any business, expressed in the behaviour of team members, is a vital part of improving satisfaction levels and building loyalty. [iii] Good patient and employee relations within your practice can significantly improve your goodwill to assets ratio.[iv]
Ways to be a more attractive employer
Problems with recruitment – particularly noted in NHS dentistry – pose a very real threat to patient care across certain regions of the UK. For dentists, this has widely been attributed to poor morale and burnout.[v] According to a recent survey[vi] a lack of meaning, reward and appreciation, poor progression potential and diminished personal satisfaction also featured heavily in the reasons for dental nurses wanting to leave the profession. However, 46% could be persuaded to stay or return if employers made suitable adjustments.[vii]
Developing an effective and positive recruitment and retention policy improves engagement, reduces stress, and promote health and productivity.[viii] Each of the 6 stages of the employee lifecycle; attraction, recruitment, onboarding, development, retention and separation, requires careful thought, as at every point there is an opportunity to enhance your good name.
Refining your branding to reflect your ethos will help attract the right staff, but onboarding is an important process that can be neglected within busy teams. Not only does the process reinforce and clarify your expectations as an employer, it makes the new team member feel more welcome. Regular follow-ups and ongoing appraisals are vital to ensure they feel heard.
Retaining staff hinges on building relationships, fostering a culture of respectful, open communication and ensuring there are regular opportunities for dialogue as well as opportunities for training and growth. Building this engagement with current staff reduces staff turnover, and demonstrates your positive culture to prospective employees when you do want to recruit. Another commonly neglected phase of the employee lifecycle is separation. It’s important to learn from any potential problems by encouraging honest feedback. A positive separation process will also reduce stress for the remaining team.
Although pay would seem to be the elephant in the room, it is not the whole story. As a significant incentive for remaining in dentistry, it sits alongside – or in some cases beneath – some intrinsic rewards, like autonomy, having adequate time to care for patients, developing knowledge and skills, and the freedom to pursue professional interests and goals.[ix] That being said, offering fair pay and other benefits are an important way to incentivise good candidates to seek employment with your dental practice, and to ensure current employees feel valued.
Collaborators in a vision that builds goodwill
Practice owners and managers can be time-poor, and having some external input to get the right staffing in place, and to ensure you are building and effectively nurturing your team, that your workforce planning matches commercial opportunities and that the most talented within your team are correctly incentivised, can take a great deal of stress out of the process.
Dental Elite is a well-established specialist dental agency, with a holistic approach to supporting clients. The team can help you assess and develop your whole business strategy, including workforce planning, culture, branding and your rewards package to help you improve recruitment and retention. With decades of collective experience and with thousands of successful transactions – a proven track-record, the team are ready and able to help.
While recruitment in dentistry is an undeniable issue, having the right strategy and support will help you appoint and retain great team members who will help build good relationships with patients and help you drive your vision forward. Doing so will not only enhance the experience of your patients and team, it will help your practice grown in value.
For more information on Dental Elite visit www.dentalelite.co.uk, email info@dentalelite.co.uk or call 01788 545 900
Author Adam Neeves: Recruitment Consultant
[i] https://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2019-10-24-happy-workers-are-13-more-productive%20/
[ii] Ekhlassi, A., Maghsoodi, V., & Mehrmanesh, S. (2012). Determining the integrated marketing communication tools for different stages of customer relationship in digital era. International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, 2(5), 761-765. https://doi.org/10.7763/IJIEE.2012.V2.202
[iii] Cvjetkovic Milena, Vasiljevic, Cvjetkovic Milovan, Josimovic M. Impact of quality on improvement of business performance and customer satisfaction. January 2021Journal of Engineering Management and Competitiveness 11(1):20-28 DOI:10.5937/jemc2101020C
[iv] https://www.investopedia.com/terms/g/goodwill-to-assets-ratio.asp
[v] Plessas A, Paisi M, Bryce M, Burns L, O’Brien T, Witton R, Hanoch Y. Mental Health and Wellbeing in Dentistry: A Rapid Evidence Assessment. General Dental Council. June 2021. University of Plymouth, Faculty of Health. Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise. University of Southampton, Business School
[vi] Reed D. What encourages dental nurses to remain within the dental sector? GDC-uk.org. January 2024. Available at: https://www.gdc-uk.org/news-blogs/blog/detail/blogs/2024/01/04/what-encourages-dental-nurses-to-remain-within-the-dental-sector. Accessed January 2025
[vii] Reed D. What encourages dental nurses to remain within the dental sector? GDC-uk.org. January 2024. Available at: https://www.gdc-uk.org/news-blogs/blog/detail/blogs/2024/01/04/what-encourages-dental-nurses-to-remain-within-the-dental-sector. Accessed January 2025
[viii] https://hbr.org/2013/07/employee-engagement-does-more
[ix] Avgoustaki A, Frankort H, How fostering intrinsic motivation for high work intensity can benefit employers and employees. CIPD Applied Research Conference. The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, London. June 2023.
