Episode 764: Getting Real About Raises + Reviews

 Popular end-of-the-year topics: raises and reviews for your team members. Kiera shares Dental A-Team’s approach for creating happier teams via feedback, rewards, and accountability. She talks about…

• Best time for formal reviews and check-ins

• How to set goals for the individuals

• Questions to ask

• And more

Episode resources:

Reach out to Kiera

Subscribe to The Dental A-Team podcast

Become Dental A-Team Platinum!

Review the podcast

Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.81)

Hello, Dental Enteam listeners. This is Kira and oh, I'm so excited. I love to do podcasts. I love to just connect with you. We have actually been having some of you sign up this month and I'm so excited. Welcome, welcome, welcome. We still have about five more spots for platinum for the end of the year, but five of them are already gone. And I'm just super honored to have you guys joining us. And I think my most favorite part this month and talking to you guys is hearing about

how you're going on this podcast journey. Most of the people joining our team and our family are podcast listeners. We have some from Google. Welcome those of you who aren't as new or haven't been with us as long. But really it's just been fun for me to hear all of these different people listening to the podcast and going on a journey with us and to hear that you guys are doing the book clubs and that you're buying the books and that you are having fun sharing this with your team.

We just had a new client email me and she said, Kira, this is such a fun, fangirling moment. And I started with the four agreements book club with you and your team. And then I had my team do it and I use that on all of my life. And just to hear the podcast family's lives changing and to be growing and to be morphing and to know that you're coming along this journey with me. So definitely just want to give a shout out to that client. Welcome. We're so happy to have you as part of our family. And for all of you listening, don't, don't let this year run out.

Um, Denali team's fees are going up in January and we are changing and we are going in a different direction. So if you wanted that one-on-one consulting, I would definitely encourage without giving away all of our cards, uh, that if you want that one-on-one, you want people to custom coach you in your practice to definitely reach out hello at the Denali team.com or just click that book, a call, uh, I'm doing a lot of the calls so I get to meet you. So if nothing else, Hey, let's just say hello and let's see if we're a good fit for each other. So.

I definitely would love to work with you guys and to just have you be a part of my life. It's really fun to have our clients because you become a part of my life. We have a monthly doctor think tank and it's truly my favorite call of the month. It's the first Tuesday of every month and to meet our doctors and to meet our team members that are a part of our dental hygiene family. We have a, we call it the after party. So we always do like really fun content. It's time for our doctors to actually chat with each other and to meet each other and

Kiera Dent (02:21.174)

have conversations with each other that wouldn't be had anywhere else. So I really, really love and enjoy that aspect of our consulting company. But it's just fun for me because then we also have what's called the after party. And I don't know how it started, but that's where Keira goes unfiltered and there's no recording. So you guys and I have a good time. And honestly, when you come into our team and you become a consulting client, it's just fun because I know we're going to change your life.

I know you're going to have a year that you never expected. I know that you were going to have more freedom and higher numbers and higher collections. Like we have a client who I remember chatting with her when she signed up and she didn't think that she was cut out for consulting and she didn't feel like she'd worked with other consultants in the past. And she just did not feel like she was qualified for it or that she could actually have help. And, um, she's about to break her million dollar mark this year.

and she knows her numbers and she's grown her team and she's grown as a leader. And for me to see someone's personal life change that much that I know that I've met in person is honestly why I do Dental A Team. That's why we do the consulting. That's why we listen to you guys is why we constantly are preparing ourselves to make sure that we are the best consultants for you is because your life literally depends on it.

because your life changes when you consult with us because your personal and your professional life change, your family dynamics change, the freedom you have to be with your kids and your loved ones and to be able to travel when you wanna travel and to do whatever you wanna do is why we have a consulting company, which is why Dental Team exists because I wanted you to have whatever your version of freedom looked like to have your version of success look like.

to create that with you with ease. So I'm just super honored and excited. Like I said, we have about five more spots for platinum. So if you wanna be one of those platinum offices, be sure to reach out hello at thedenaliateam.com. Prices do go up in January and that one-on-one coaching is going to look a little different in 2024. So definitely, if you've been thinking about it, you've been on the fence, that office, I'm shouting you out in the Pacific Northwest. You know who you are. We text, tis your season, tis your time. But again.

Kiera Dent (04:36.978)

I really want to be able to serve as many people as we can, which is why 2024 is going to be so fun. We are shifting it to be able to serve and help more people. So with that today, it's just kind of a fun topic. It's raises and reviews, which I mean, how can we get excited about that? But I love reviews and I just want to tell you why. I actually don't like to call them reviews. I like to call them check-ins. And I also don't have a set.

time that I do raises. So I think there's two different ways that practices can do this. And I'll give you the two ways I've seen and then I'll give you CuraDense model. And then you guys can just rock and roll and do whatever you wanna do with it. So on that, what I do is for raises and reviews, every single month we do what's called a check-in. And I really like that instead of a review. A review feels so stressful. But in December, I actually do more of a set review, if you will.

but I'm not looking for a review of performance per se. And this is Kira's model. You guys can definitely do a way more corporate. This is my model. And I think it's because I want to know my people as people. And maybe there will come a time that I am more corporate and do more formal reviews. But I want my check-ins to be about their personal and their professional journey. I want to know how are they doing as a person? I want to know what's lighting their fire. I want to know where they want to go for their next year. So in December.

So this will be happening. It's on our calendar. In December, I do a formal review with our team. It's still on their check-in, but I go through and I check to see how are they doing in their position. Let's go through all their KPIs. Let's look at their client load. Let's look at sales and marketing, like whatever they've got. Let's look at our operations. And I wanna see how they're doing in their position. And what did they do really, really well this year? And what did they need to improve upon? I have them fill it in first, and then I come in and I also have things to share with them.

Then I also want to look at their personal and what did they do really well in their personal life? What were some of the highlights? What were some of the wins? What were some of those things? And luckily this year, I had all of them set goals last year. And so we're able to look back a year later and see how did they do? How did they do really well? What are they going to change? And then also I have each of them set up a word for their year. And so all of my team had a word like Dana, hers was connection this year and Britt was confidence and Shelby was growth. And my word was joy. And

Kiera Dent (06:47.734)

So each of us have a word and just to find out how was that? What was their experience with this last year and giving them true feedback. And from that feedback, we then set the next year's goals, personally, professionally, and choose a word for them. So that's my more formal review, but I do not associate reviews with raises. And the reason why is because I don't want it to be something where we're on our best behavior during that time.

but I want it to be something where when you're going above and beyond, when you've gone beyond it, and we have it broken down, so we have our job descriptions made up to where it's beginning, middle, and advanced. So they can see, how do I go in? I recommend this for your practices. So like a dental assistant and a treatment coordinator, office manager, what is that growth tier? And we do this with a lot of our clients. So there's actually a tier, like, shout out to the office that we coached and we came up with this with them. Love this idea, I thought it was brilliant.

is really having it set up so that way they know. So that way the raises aren't a constant thing. Because me as an employer, one, I don't enjoy ever having to look and see, all right, what is this? What do I need to do for this? Every time they come and talk to me, they're going to want to raise. And for team members to always wonder, when am I going to get a raise? When are people going to notice what I'm doing that can also be stressful? So helping people see full transparency, deadly team has this kind of we need to get better at this because I do feel like it's unfair. And with new positions that I've never hired.

It is tricky. So that's one of the benefits I think working with us is we do have the experience of what should you be paying your dental assistants? What should you be able to expect and for every position? And then what are those tiers? So we've actually created that for every position within the practice. We share that with our offices. So just kind of cuts out that question mark and then really making sure you are paying your employees the best. But that way they know so on these reviews, you can check in like where are we at and have you

mastered these tasks to be able to move on to the next level to qualify for that raise. So I think that really can cut out that raise question mark of when do I give raises and how much, but always, always make sure that you are within that like 30% of your total collections is your payroll. Now there is a question of, but what if I need to hire these people? What if I need to give raises like Kira? We've got like a economy right now where people like inflation, things are going higher. I don't want to lose my team because honestly, team turnover is the most expensive.

Kiera Dent (09:03.278)

cost on a company? And the answer for you is, sometimes you have to do a three to six month stretch is what I look at. And I'm doing it right now. So this is Kira speaking real life right now, but a three to six month stretch where I know my overhead is actually gonna look like junk. I know that, but I plan for it and I can reinvest into the business. So I have a timeline, a finite timeline of six months. This is how much I'm going to invest in every single month, knowing that as I onboard train and bring people in, or I give those raises that I could then

Kiera Dent (09:35.123)

be able to afford it in six months because sometimes we have to hire outside of that 30%. Sometimes we do need to give the raises, but I also need to look at the production and the collections to see what would offset that. So really for you guys, just kind of looking at that and seeing how could we do this a little differently? What do I need it to be? I know a lot of my clients right now are actually projecting into next year of I wanna do these raises, this is what I'm projected at. Figure out the production, figure out the collection.

but then the raises can come on the one-on-ones. It can come from those tiers like I mentioned before, but really finding a different way for you to raise your team and have it set. But then like I knew as a dental assistant, I tapped out and this was the max I was going to make. Maybe there's a way that we could bonus them on certain areas, but really there should be a ceiling for the positions. For Hygenist, this is the ceiling. This is the ceiling and we're always going to pay within industry standards and we're gonna be one of the highest paying offices in our area.

So kind of doing that search every year, you can have your office manager do this, where in January we go check what are the ads, maybe in June as well, what are the ads, what are people paying for these positions? Because we always wanna be in the highest tier of that. But then making sure that what they're doing and what they're producing and the skills that they're doing really do qualify for that raise. And then I am generous, like let's do surprises and delights when people are doing an awesome job.

bonus them, give them those nice raises, do the things for them that really truly are, showing them how much you care and appreciate. So really going through those reviews, I do a formal review every single at the end of the year, more of that like let's set the goals personally and professionally, let's choose that word for you. And then every single month I just do a check-in and really that time is for me to see how my team's doing. And this time around, we actually just did them today so it's pretty relevant. I said,

and I don't get on them. So as an owner, I actually get on them hopefully once a quarter. I used to do all of them myself, but now I just do once a quarter is usually when I get on them. But today I changed it up. So a question I ask in all of our check-ins is on a scale of one to 10, what is your happiness level with your job? And it actually gives me a good baseline. Sometimes I get a six, sometimes I get a seven, sometimes I get a nine. And so just kind of finding out, looking back at the month, realizing that every month will change, but helping them see that is something that really can help out. And then,

Kiera Dent (11:54.926)

Something I asked today is what can I do as your leader and as your person who's overseeing, what can I do to support you and make your life easier or to reduce your stress? And today I made a new rule where I said, and you're not allowed to say nothing. I really want you to think of one thing that I could do because if I can hear that and I can get that feedback from them, I can reduce the burnout, I can minimize the turnover.

I can really ask the questions. And I think when you build that bond with your team, that they know you genuinely are listening to them, that you're genuinely asking the questions, you're getting temperature checks on your whole team. So I feel like that's the point of a review. That's the point of a raise. That's how I do it. Others are more formal. So the other side of this is some people at the end of the year do raises or on anniversary marks, they will do raises. For me, that always felt stressful. It also felt like, why are they just getting a raise? Just because I felt like if they're doing their job and we're paying them a fair rate.

I don't feel like I need to constantly do raises because I didn't like feeling that way as an employee. I didn't like feeling that way as an employer. So my whole team knows I don't do set raises. Your raises will always come as you deliver more value to the team and to the company. I check in with you every single month and I'm constantly asking them, how are you adding more value to the company? That's a question I ask on our check-ins. How are you adding more value to the company? What are you looking for to grow our company forward? And that's really what's going to move these people forward.

I look for different ways to incentivize them, to motivate them, and I change it up every single quarter, every single year, so that way things are shifting, but I try hard to make sure that every team member feels valued, that they feel appreciated, and that they feel like they're being very well compensated for the job they're doing. That's something that I'm really big on, because I feel like the biggest cost on a business is turnover, and so we can avoid that turnover, and we can have happier teams.

And we can be generous with our raises and we can be generous with our feedback and make sure that it's an amazing culture while still holding people accountable. So please don't be fooled to think that I don't have high expectations and that if someone's not performing that we don't put them on a performance improvement plan. And we have some team members that have been put on that performance improvement plan and they knew we were dead serious and they would be gone if they did not improve.

Kiera Dent (14:06.314)

And so I think like, please don't fool yourself that it's just happy go lucky and sunshine and roses. Sometimes those conversations are hard conversations, but I try hard to have a set time every month that we know we're going to meet, but not just saving it until that moment, but also for my team to know they have a set time every month with their supervisor to be able to have these open and honest conversations. So I would recommend if you don't have this in place to definitely get it in there too. If you don't have the tiers in place so people know what they can expect for raises, get that in place.

If you don't know what you were going to pay people at the top tier of their career or like of their position, you should figure that out because then you can figure out your overhead. If you don't know what it's gonna cost you to do raises next year for the raises you wanna do, and you don't know how much production you need to produce to be able to offset that, get that in place. And these are the things that I love to help our clients get into place to make sure that they're doing it, to make sure that they feel confident with the hires, to make sure they're confident with the raises. Because me as an employer, I...

No, it's scary to say like, can I hire this person or can I not? And like I said, it's that three to six month usual training time and onboarding time before that person really brings the benefit to the table. So if you can offset that, if you can know for that, if you can plan before, or if you know you're going to reinvest X amount of dollars in, that also gives you guys that freedom to be able to grow your practice in the way you need to. And like I said, these are things that I love to do with our clients. These are things that I love to just give them the insights so that way they feel confident.

hiring and giving raises and giving the feedback every single month. Um, but again, if you're the office that says like, Nope, I want to do it once a year and I want to have a formal review and I want to have the formal raise by all means, there's nothing wrong with that for me, that wasn't my style. And so again, I think it's your style, your practice and how you want to operate. So with that, if we can help you, if you are like, Oh my gosh, everything you just said sounds like a fairy godmother was not a fairy godmother. And it's real. And we're really good at this. I truly do believe that we are dentistry's experts in.

having happier teams in reducing stress, increasing profits, and doing it all with ease. And so if that's what you're looking for, reach out. I'd love to help you. But as at end of year, make sure you get these things in place. Make sure you have those pieces and have a good leader who does these consistently. I found that consistent time with your team, it might feel like a lot of time, but that time will prevent the turnover, the time you have to spend on hiring and onboarding new team members. So for me, it's...

Kiera Dent (16:31.562)

I always think if I could only choose one or two things to invest my time in, I would always invest it in getting to know my team and making sure I'm connected with them. So that way I reduce the turnover that we have. So for you guys, I would just challenge and encourage you to do this. Make it a thing for 2024. And like I said, if I can help you, if I can invite you to our family and have you be a part of that and just give you that confidence, that would make my entire 2024.

So fun to watch you grow and evolve. So with that, reach out hello at thedentaleateam.com. And as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental Elite Team podcast.