Caring management means giving your team members a sense of purpose and encouraging them to develop their skills. This is best done by implementing a straightforward employee review and feedback process.
Temp workers can save your dental practice a lot of money in the long run by answering phones, greeting patients, and filling short-term gaps in staffing. This can help reduce the stress of your hygienists and dentists and improve office efficiency.
Save Time
Dental staffing agencies save offices time by doing much of the sifting, screening, and interviewing for them. This includes checking professional licenses, completing background checks, administering skills tests, and conducting reference checks.
Advertising open positions, sifting through resumes, and onboarding new team members are expensive and time-consuming. A dental assistant staffing agency streamlines this entire process, bringing in pre-screened candidates ready to work as soon as you need them.
Temp staff can help you manage unexpected absences or a sudden surge in patient volume. They can also provide relief for administrative staff who may have a full workload and cannot handle additional tasks.
Unlike traditional temp agencies, staffing platforms allow dental offices to connect with candidates directly and pay only for the hours the candidate works. This helps keep costs down and encourages temporary workers to work harder as they see their value in the practice. Plus, most staffing platforms have safeguards to protect the practice when a temp worker cancels at the last minute or misses a shift for personal reasons.
Reduce Cancellations
When you partner with a dental employment agency, you can reduce cancellations and provide your patients with consistent care. However, many dental practices are unsure about working with agencies and fear they may not treat their temporary employees as accurate “employees.” Temp workers (dental assistants, dental hygienists, and dental therapists) are legally allowed to work in any practice that employs them.
Aside from being an excellent way to get additional staffing support, temp agencies can also provide benefits you wouldn’t find in a permanent job. For example, many agencies levy exorbitant fees and inflate hourly rates, a cost that does not benefit the dental practice nor the temp worker but rather the staffing agency itself.
Additionally, the lack of communication and clear expectations can significantly deter temp workers and cause their satisfaction to drop significantly. By streamlining your onboarding process and providing clear lines of communication, you can create a better workplace environment that attracts and retains more talent for your business. Learn more about reducing cancellations during the hiring process by visiting our Savings Calculator and learning more about improving your onboarding process through Weave Team, our unified communications platform that makes it easy for dental offices to collaborate across multiple locations.
Save Money
Staffing agencies save dental leaders money on hiring fees and other costs associated with recruiting, background checks, and onboarding. Additionally, they provide valuable short-term coverage for busy periods or longer-term vacancies.
However, working with a temp agency can be inconvenient for some dental professionals. Some feel that they are not paid enough for their time and are treated like disposable employees. Others find that the back-and-forth of communication with an agency can ensure they secure other jobs and opportunities.
The good news is that there is a better way. A new generation of job-matching technology provides a more streamlined and efficient alternative to traditional dental staffing agencies. With Cloud Dentistry, you can connect with pre-vetted, ready-to-work professionals with the specific outlook and expertise you seek. In addition, we can also help you convert temporary workers to permanent employees if that is the path you are interested in.
Increase Efficiency
During the hiring process, dental practices spend valuable time on recruitment activities. This takes away from other tasks, which can hurt patient care. Innovative recruitment tactics can enhance the candidate experience and raise the possibility of drawing in top talent. Examples of these practices include application tracking systems (ATS) and job matching technology and creating precise job descriptions and interview procedures.
Staffing agencies can effectively solve a practice’s short-handed situation but have drawbacks. They often charge a significant markup for their services and may give temp workers short notice when they’re scheduled to work at a dentist’s office. This can cause anxiety for staff who must make arrangements to meet their families or other responsibilities.
Additionally, some practices are wary of using a staffing agency because they think temps are unreliable or can’t keep a permanent job. However, these fears can be overcome by choosing a high-tech alternative, such as Cloud Dentistry, that offers remote dental assistants and hygienists the freedom to choose their hours.
Focus on Patient Care
Effective patient care and efficient office operations are two of every dentist’s primary objectives. When your office is fully staffed, it’s easier to focus on those two objectives. However, when administrative tasks are handled by staff who should be seeing patients, it can negatively impact everyone’s morale and productivity.
A reputable temp agency or online platform will screen their temporary dental assistants for skill set, education, and experience before sending them to your office. This eliminates the stress and hassle of interviewing, testing, and onboarding new employees.
A temporary agency or online platform will also handle background checks and ensure all necessary documentation is in order. This can save your dental office a significant amount of time and resources. They will also address issues during a temp’s time in your office, such as last-minute cancellations or call-outs. This will allow your dental practice to focus on the day-to-day operations of your business without any additional distractions. This is important because temp professionals have busy lives, too, and they need to feel like they are working in a supportive environment.
