Challenges in Dental Recruiting

A current trend in most professions in recent years is the difficulty in recruiting, hiring, and keeping talent. The Dentistry Profession is not exempt from this troubling trend. There are many reasons why:

National shortage of dentists – As the deficit of dentists continues to increase, so do the challenges faced by clinics around the country. Simply put, there are more job listings than doctors looking for work, or even already in practice.

Recruiting methods – In this day and age, it’s not enough to write a classified ad in the newspaper or trade journal and expect to fill a position in a short time frame. In the age of digital media, clinics must reach out to candidates on multiple online platforms both directly and indirectly. And even with those online ads, you’re likely to still face difficulty finding top candidates because most times they aren’t looking at the ads since they are already employed.

Making the offer and closing the deal – Due to the shortage of dentists, the ball is in the candidates court when it comes to negotiations. So, when you do find the right candidate, be sure to bring your best offer to the table from the start. To do that, I recommend considering more than salary and benefits. Get to know the candidate to find out what they’re looking for outside of the workplace and use those things to your advantage to sweeten the deal. For example, do they want a mentor, a 4-day work week, continued education, or perhaps live in an area that offers museums, theatre, mountains or a beach. Play up to those desires to make your offer more appealing.

Of course, recruiting can add up to a full-time job, and if you don’t have the time to spare to search for and hire the right candidate for your clinic, you might want to consider hiring a recruiting service. I’d love the opportunity to tell you how my team has earned a 93% success rate using our unique business model.