Regardless of whether you’re starting a new office or if you’ve been in dentistry for many years, the importance of hiring quality employees is the same. Whatever the case may be, you need to hire good employees you can trust. Otherwise, you may find yourself with employees that are wasting your resources and money.

The ability (or inability) to find trustworthy employees is one major reason why employers keep employees a lot longer than they should.  It becomes a matter of control, where you want to know what your employees are doing at all times to make sure they’re productive. However, if you hire someone who is motivated, hardworking, and trustworthy, it shouldn’t matter where he or she is working, and the amount of quality work is all that counts. It is VERY difficult to find a staff member that is the right fit for the office.

It’s important to not skimp on the important things during the hiring process. Here are a few tips on how you can hire employees that you can trust:

Take your time.

There are many offices that will have an open position for several months. The Office Manager and Doctor will go through a handful of interviews and countless resumes, but it is sometimes difficult to fill a job position where there seems to be an abundance of potential staff members.

And then it happens: The office has been short handed for so long you settle and make a “desperation hire”.  When this happens the candidate is less than perfect but sometimes you just have to take a shot.

Unfortunately, you will find over time because they are not as qualified as they should be it’s a lot more work to help this person and to fix their shortcomings than alleviating the workload. These staff members typically don’t get along well with the other staff and it creates a toxic environment.

When it comes to hiring new candidates, don’t rush the process. Even when you have an urgent position to fill, resist the temptation to fill it just to fill it. Carefully scrutinize your candidates to make sure they’re a good fit for your team, company, and most importantly, the job description. Utilize a service such as www.DentalGrind.com to help find great candidates.

Check references.

Resumes are used to inflate a person’s experience to make them appear qualified for the job. Unfortunately, resumes can also contain false information, so you should exercise due diligence. Contacting the person’s most recent manager or doctor they worked for could be the most valuable information you can get on the candidate.

Reach out to several of the references and ask about the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. For example, you could ask if the person is a good team player or what ideas they have brought to the office where they used to work. Most importantly, you should ask the reference if he or she would hire the candidate again. Red flags should be raised if the reference says, “No.”

Hire humble people.

While you may be attracted to a boastful candidate who may claim to be a “guru” in his or her field, recent research shows that you may want to steer clear of these folks. According to a recent study by Baylor University, humbleness and humility yields better work performance. Additionally, humble people are more receptive to feedback when needed.

When you give your employees tasks or projects to work on, you want to be able to trust that they will strive to perform well. People that are overconfident or too self-absorbed could potentially value themselves or their personal brand over the company. They also may over inflate their work performance, giving you an inaccurate view of them and the quality of work that was accomplished.

Trust your gut.

If you have a gut feeling, don’t ignore it. If you think that your candidate is perfect, but you don’t think he or she will get along well with the team, don’t hire this person. While it’s important to find someone that has the appropriate qualities and experience to fit the job, it’s also important for the person to feel right. The individual should be perfect for your team, the job, and the company. If you sense that something could go wrong, there’s a chance your gut could be right.

To summarize, we all know it’s very difficult to find a great staff member.  This is because their current employer knows how good they are and will do almost anything to keep them!  Even if you are overwhelmed and working your current staff too hard, you are much better off taking your time to find the right staff member that will complement your office rather than hiring a liability.