The Training Process in Your Dental Office
So you just hired a new dental team member and the question is, “Now what can I do to ensure this hire is really successful”?? All too often we just throw them into the mix and hope for the best, then perhaps get frustrated if it doesn’t work out.
Many people in life get focused on the Outcomes of life rather than the Process. By this I mean they obsess about whether this new hire will rock or not. Well, if you don’t focus more on the Process, how much control do you have on the outcome? In life in general we would be far better off to focus on the Process of life rather than the Outcome. If you do this and put your best effort forth on the Process, I can guarantee you a much better Outcome. For example, if you are going to run a marathon, do you just sit home for months prior and hope you will run the time you want? No, you have a training program that you follow that prepares you for the time you want to run. The training program is very different if you want to run a 2:30 marathon vs a 4:45 marathon. Of course all of you out there reading this right now are thinking, of course!!! So why with our employees do we not take the same approach?
I want to empower all of my team members to be as successful as possible in each of their roles within my company. The training is completely different for each position and each person. Everyone knows that the training should vary on the position but they rarely cater it to each person. Using my sports metaphor, we all know you train for a marathon vs triathlon differently. But you also train for the different time goal for each. Therefore, with each team member the training should be individualized. Every person comes to your business with a different skill set and background which is why the training needs to be individualized. We want to highlight their strengths and grow them in the areas they are not as strong.
So how does this related to training a new hire in your dental office? For the sake of this example, let’s assume you just hired a new receptionist and she has fabulous communication skills. We don’t need to spend much time training this person on communication skills and probably need to spend more time on billing, as an example. Now just because they have great communication skills doesn’t mean they use the “buzz” words we want them to. Take some time to perfect this person’s communication skills by teaching them those little things that will make them exceptional in this area of their job! Then teach the other skills that will take more time and development such as billing, in this example. My suggestion regarding using AMP content would be to pull a list of the proper video training modules for this person to watch and learn. Hand them the appropriate scripts to learn and master. Then, after the appropriate amount of time, schedule a meeting to verify mastery of the material. Some people don’t like the testing portion of this process but here is my question on this matter - if you went to a Broadway Play or Movie and the actors missed some of their lines, would you want to see it again or recommend it to others? Probably not. Your dental office is no different. We want the patient to experience perfection as often as possible and the only way to ensure that is to focus on the training Process. If we put a lot of effort into the Process what do you think the Outcome will most likely be? A great experience for the patient.
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