Is your list half empty or half full?

This Christmas season, Chris Barrow asks which list you are going to live with for the next few weeks – one that’s half full or half empty?

Half-empty

1. Recruitment is impossible
2. Retention is an increasing challenge
3. Potential recruits don’t show up for interviews
4. New recruits leave after a week and vanish
5. Clinicians want to work a shorter week and reduce their days
6. Clinicians want an increase in % or hourly rate
7. Team members want a pay rise (especially now that ‘living wage’ is going up 14%)
8. There is white space in the diary for the first time since before COVID-19
9. Patients are deferring treatment until after Christmas
10. I’m exhausted.

Half full

1. Recruitment is like looking for a needle in a haystack. But the needles are there – you just have to look in the right way and in the right places
2. Retention is a great way of letting your weak links move on and creating a culture that makes a move look very risky
3. Interview people online, then ask them to complete a psychometric test, then ask them to come in for a work experience day – allow them to triage themselves out
4. Have a robust onboarding and mentoring process
5. Call the bluff – we need you for X days or we will no longer be the right fit for you
6. If you want to earn more money, let’s look at how we can work together to increase your average daily production
7. The business in its current shape cannot afford pay rises, so let’s look at how we can do things differently to generate more profit in less time – and pay you more
8. Back to basics on internal and inbound marketing please
9. We are running a pre-Christmas marketing campaign on hygiene, airflow and whitening to fill our available diary time. We also have a priority list for patients who want their results before Christmas
10. It’s ‘harvest time’ – I’m going to carry on at this pace until Christmas, then take a break, then balance my time in the New Year.

Which list are you going to live with for the next few weeks?

Catch up on previous Dental Business Coach columns:

• Planning for a profitable exit when selling your business
• A guide to setting your goals for 2024
• Dealing with pay rise demands – from drama to empowerment
• Would you want to work full-time for you?
• Rinsing and repeating.

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