As the makeup of the dental workforce evolves, practices can benefit from changing how they go about seeking new employees.
Suzanne Ebert, DMD, vice president of dental practice and relationship management at the American Dental Association Business Innovation Group, spoke with "Becker's Dental + DSO Review Podcast" to discuss ways for dental practices to attract and retain talent.
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full podcast episode here.
Question: What do you see as being crucial for organizations to attract new dentists and dental personnel into their practices?
Dr. Suzanne Ebert: I think one of the things that our dentists who are trying to sell their practice, who want to get somebody to come into their practice, need to understand is they really have to be able to look at their practice from an outsider's point of view. We have so many doctors who are retiring. The retirement age is actually lower than it's ever been right now. So there are a lot of practices out there that are kind of ripe for the picking, so to speak. They need our doctors, as they're looking at exiting practice, need to understand how to look at that practice from that younger doctor's point of view. Understanding that that younger dentist might not look the same as they do. That younger dentist might be a female who doesn't want to have a heavy handpiece in her hand. I mean, think about that as far as a change that's going to happen in our industry. The way that marketing's going to have to change to accommodate, sometimes, the smaller hand sizes.
So just looking at the practice from an outsider's point of view, being able to understand that these doctors coming in might be really interested in having digital radiography. If you don't have digital radiography, maybe you need to update. Maybe you should take a step back and look at your systems. Make sure that all of your systems are solid. Make sure that you are absolutely ready to hand over the reins to somebody else. Explore your community, find out how a new dentist can fit into that community. Emphasize how you can have a great practice life and a great personal life in this practice. Again, so many of our young professionals right now are interested in work-life balance. They're graduating a little bit older than they used to so many of them already have families. Explore your school systems, explore the parks, explore all the recreational activities that are available. So find ways to entice them to come to your area because many of these practices are located a little bit off the beaten path, but that's quite frankly where a lot of people are moving right now. They're not staying necessarily in the urban environments. So find ways to attract them by looking at it from somebody else's point of view.