09 Nov BITE SIZE JOBS: 5 WAYS TO USE TEMP WORKERS IN YOUR DENTAL PRACTICE
Most dental practices are already familiar with using ancillary workers to cover planned and unplanned absences within their team.
While this is a great way to ensure that your practice has the people power it needs to operate efficiently and assist your patients, you don’t necessarily need to wait for someone to be away to make the most of a temporary workforce.
Read on to find out five ways your practice can prosper by utilising temporary workers.
1. Extending Your Trading Hours Without Increasing Your Pay Roll
Most dental practices aren’t 9-5 operations anymore. Modern patients demand flexibility in appointment scheduling and this has seen dentists continuing to provide treatments into the evenings through the week and all day on weekends. Staffing costs can be a major hurdle when it comes to staying open late, especially if you don’t have a full appointment schedule.
By using an app like ANCI which lets you control the temporary recruitment process you can have a cost effective and easy to use on demand staffing solution to help fill your roster without increasing the number of staff on your books.
You can look ahead to when you need increased coverage on late nights or weekends, and quickly post and appoint a flexible freelance dental professional without needing to hire ongoing team members or engage a recruitment agency.
2. Utilise Peak and Off-Peak Seasons
Short-term work contracts can be a great way for you to increase capacity and take even more patient bookings in high demand periods.
All businesses have traditionally busier and quieter times and often there is a focus on trying to increase revenue and reduce costs during the low periods. While this is a good strategy in any business plan, a lot of practices are not positioned for innovation to make the most of the peaks.
Hiring temporary staff only during the peak period means you can manage your increased work load and open more appointment time slots when there is demand, without carrying those staffing costs across into the off-peak periods. This allows you to accelerate your practice growth without overcommitting your ongoing expenses.
3. Give Your Team an Opportunity to Up Skill
Whether you have identified skill gaps in your team to service your current range of treatments or want to expand your offerings, it can be hard to facilitate necessary time off for training and courses while you’re running a busy dental practice.
Ancillary staff can provide coverage for your existing staff members on an ad hoc or ongoing basis while they complete their upskilling activities.
Being provided opportunities to increase their skills and/or qualifications and progress their career will go a long way in ensuring that your existing staff members stay happy, engaged and motivated.
Even if you don’t feel that formal training is required, temporary staff can still ensure that the practice keeps running while you and the team work on informal development and culture building exercises.
4. Building Your Workforce of the Future
If you know that you have a permanent position opening soon, hiring a temporary staff member can help you give your team the time and support they need to recruit, induct and train the new employee.
Hiring someone on a temporary or casual basis can even be a way to test a potential candidate before they step into the role permanently. This can be a very effective way to make sure that the new role is meeting business needs and you’re hiring the right person for the job.
5. Reduce Overtime
While sometimes a complex or emergency case might make unplanned overtime essential, it’s important to analyse and review your time sheets and staffing expenditure regularly and look for opportunities to reduce costs and increase capacity.
If business needs are regularly making your team stay back late and accrue overtime, it might be costing you more than money in the long run. Plus, your team will be susceptible to burning out, and may become disgruntled or dissatisfied in their role.
Whether it’s bringing someone in earlier in the day to make sure everyone leaves on time or getting someone to start as the rest of the team prepares to finish for the day, utilising temporary staff can help contain overtime wages costs and boost overall team morale.
In conclusion
While ancillary staff will always have a place when someone is sick or taking annual leave, innovation in your approach to managing team resources can really help you achieve your practice goals.
By incorporating a flexible, temporary workforce into your practice business strategy you can provide your patients – and team – with an even better experience that will help you take your business to new heights.
How are you using temporary workers in your practice? I would certainly be interested to know. Please share your thoughts and comments in the comments section below.
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