Episode 817: Hiring: Are You a Hunter or a Fisher?

 The hiring climate has changed dramatically in recent years, and Kiera’s here to encourage listeners to embrace the challenge of finding the right people for your practice. She talks about three things to consider when approaching hiring:

1. Establish a culture that doesn’t have turnover

2. Assess the patterns of those who are leaving

3. React to those trends

4. Consider your role as you hire: are you a hunter or a fisher?

Episode resources:

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Transcript:

Kiera Dent (00:00.758)

Hello, Dental A Team listeners. This is Kira and I am so excited to do a solo cast. Today is podcasting day and I actually have like a really fun topic that's been hot on my mind. Jason and my husband, he was talking to me the other day because in our company we are hiring and he said, Kira, there are people that are hunters and there are people that are fishers when it comes to hiring. And I just thought that was such like a really cool way to look at this of

when you're hiring your A-Team, are you a hunter or are you a fisher? And so I'll dive into this a bit more. Guys, as always, I hope you know how much I love this podcast family. So if this podcast has blessed your life in any way possible, if it's made you laugh, if it's made you cry, if it's helped your practice grow, please do me a solid favor and go leave that five star review. Your reviews are how we get noticed in the industry. So make sure you're downloading because those downloads also

put us up higher in the rankings. So other practices like you are able to find us. My mission is to serve millions of dentists and to be that positive light that just influences and impacts. So please help me on my mission. I'm here to help and serve you guys figure out how to hire that A-Team. So right now, hit pause, go leave us that review. And for those of you who have left it, just know I'm giving you a giant hug. I appreciate you. I am thankful for you. I appreciate that you have taken the time to go and leave us that review. Because honestly,

Without you, our podcast wouldn't be where it is. So this is going to be a shout out. Kay Foster. I have been listening since day one. I'm not at all at 700 episodes, but you better believe I will be love listening to Karen, her team. Thanks so much for all you do for our great profession. Much love. So if you want to be one of the reviews that are read on our podcast, go and leave that review and just know, I appreciate you so much. So with hiring, um, the climate's changed in the industry. Uh, I just was talking to a doctor the other day and she said,

Hey, Kira, I never thought that I would have this kind of a practice where it'd be so hard to hire, so expensive to hire. And I said, absolutely. And that's why I actually enjoy coaching our clients. So these are clients that we coach and we get to have these conversations candid behind the behind the doors, if you will, and talk about what's really going on. So just so you know, like, let me bring you up to speed. It's hard to hire. Wages are higher than they've ever been. Hiring people is harder than it's ever been.

Kiera Dent (02:23.598)

And reality is this is where it's at. And instead of fighting it, let's embrace it. So first and foremost, I would recommend that you have a killer culture, have a place where people want to work because team turnover is going to be one of your hardest things this year, we did experience team turnover. I'm not here to say CureDent does not have team turnover. I do. And I don't like it. And it's not something that's fun, but guess what? That's part of it. And I'm going to learn from those. So those who do leave your practice.

ask them, ask them for the candid feedback and just say, hey, I want to be better if you could give me any tips to make me a better employer, a better place to work. What would that look like? Because really being candid and asking for that honest feedback is going to make you a better employer and it's going to be humbling for you. So that's first step. Second step is look for patterns. I decided I was like, OK, we've transitioned some team members. I want to look for patterns. And I found a pattern. I found two patterns with all of the hires we've had because there's patterns.

just like on a treatment tracker, there are patterns. And so if you'll take the time to go figure out the pattern, you can then hopefully break the pattern. So things I noticed where we were hiring team members like our consultants, most of them don't have prior consulting experience. Well, good to know it's a new job, a new experience, they've never done this. A little bit of turnover should be expected, but what can I do? What questions could I ask? What type of training? What type of screening? What type of things could I have them do?

before they even take the job to try and eliminate that from happening. Um, if you're noticing, you're having a lot of turnover in your office management, find out, are you micromanaging? Are, are these people do, do the people, the candidates themselves have any similar characteristics and, or are there any characteristics of things that they're saying when they leave? Because with those patterns, you then are able to fine tune to refine and to change.

something else I noticed was the different types of management styles. And I realized like, Oh gosh, the way we're managing this type of employee is very different than how they probably need to operate. So let's change that on our next hire and see if we have better success. Um, something else I noticed was I was hiring a lot of team members that have never done the job I'm asking for. So I go, I take people from dental offices. Don't worry. None of the podcast offices, none of our clients in order to work for

Kiera Dent (04:45.534)

of a client we've worked with, it's a minimum of two years and a sign off stamp from your prior employer. So don't worry employers, we do not come and take your team members. However, there are a lot of teams that we don't work with and maybe they want to shift. So maybe it's a treatment coordinator who wants to go into sales. Well, notice it's similar, but they've never done sales. They probably never had to do cold calls. They've probably never had to go to conferences and conventions and sell there. So just realizing that was a pattern I was finding.

So then I could change it up and I could go hire people who have maybe have better experience, so I'm not having to do such a big learning curve. So when you're hiring, really take the time to look at who's coming in. What are the patterns? And I think that CEOs and office managers and doctors who are willing to do this. They have a leg above. They're able to then

hire better people, they're better able to find out what's going on, what is really causing this and I just think that you become a better employer. So that's first and foremost, because if we can eliminate team turnover, you're already a leg ahead. But also I just want to let you know that having teams of 17 year employees is not the norm anymore. We live in a transient society. Cultural right now is very much like less commitment, more flexibility. And so if you are having that turnover,

look for the patterns, take the ownership, make the changes, and realize that it is different. To have team members stay with you for two years, high five, that's incredible. And so just realizing that there are some different pieces. However, with that little asterisk, please don't let yourself off the hook if you are the cause of turnover. If you are creating a culture that people don't wanna work with, take that ownership so we can fix that once and for all. So now moving into when you go to hire,

And I worked with a lot, like we have a hiring course online. So if you guys are needing some help, I actually give away a lot of our secrets and our tips, and I walk you through the whole hiring process. We update it to like current trends, help you guys write really good ads. But what I'm finding is so often we just feel like, oh, I need to go hire so I'm going to write an ad, I'm gonna go place it online. And something with that, again, this goes back to that Hunter versus Fisher. So a Hunter,

Kiera Dent (06:58.958)

They go out and they're seeking and they're looking for that kill. A fisherman throws their reel in and they sit and they wait for the fish to come along. And I just would ask like in your practice and as someone who's hiring, are you a fisherman or are you a hunter? Because for me this week, Kiera is a hunter. She's going out. I have hires that need to be made. I am home this week and I have cleared everything else out of mine. This week alone, I think I've done about 15 interviews. I have checked references. I've done mock

calls, you better believe like a hunter versus like, let me wait for people to come in. I have been proactive. I've been changing my ads. Shelby and I like, it has been a mass, mass project and we're going to hire this week. So thinking about that, how are you going? Because like I'm waiting. I had so many people this week say like, wow, you called really fast. And I said, yep, you applied. I figured you were available. That's how I'm able to snag the best people. That's how

capture them and you might say like, Kira I don't have time for that. And I'd say, choose your hard. Is it harder not to have the best employees or is it harder to dedicate and become a hunter rather than a fisherman? It's up to you and there's no right or wrong, but just kind of that visual for you to think about. And I talked to my husband and I said, this is like GSD. There's no option for me. I will hire and I will hire the best and I will not make a desperate hire. I don't care how many resumes. I have over 350 resumes for one position.

So I'm going to teach you guys a couple of things. If you are on that where you're like, care, there's no way I'd ever have 350. We get like, we're lucky if we get one. I want to do, if you're on the one side. Okay. So a couple of things, one, first and foremost, create that culture. Second, look for the patterns. Third, I want you guys to really think about, am I being a hunter or am I being a fisherman? How bad do I want this higher versus am I okay to lack sedentary? Have my fishing pole out there? Well, maybe you're okay with that because you don't need to hire right away.

Fantastic. That's great for you. But if you need to hire, let's maybe put on that hunter mentality that we are going to find the hire and do whatever it takes. So if you're a place where you're getting a ton of applicants, um, we've found a really awesome thing. Shout out to my friend Pierce. If you guys heard him on the podcast, this came from Pierce. There is a software called Willow, W I L O and we use it. So for when I'm getting a ton of applicants, or if I want to see people's strengths, so like for consulting, we actually send them through what's called Willow.

Kiera Dent (09:25.258)

and Willow allows you to have some videos and also some written responses. Now, if this is a position where it's really hard to hire, so maybe hygienists where it's like we get one resume and we're hopefully gonna hire them, Willow is not the option because I feel like it does put a barrier up there. But again, if I've got 350 resumes, I'm not gonna sit here and go through them. I'm gonna send all these people a message right after that says, oh my gosh, I'm so grateful you applied for our position. The next part of our interview process is to complete this 10 minute survey.

And as soon as it's done, I'll schedule an appointment with you. From there, I'm able to see those who want to fill this out versus those who don't. And so this is a good weeding process that saves us a lot of time. Also on the video, I'm able to capture, and I I'm very specific on the questions I ask. So for a consultant, a lot of times consultants don't know overhead. So we literally have them give a video of explaining overhead to us.

So those common pitfall questions that people come through is really a great way to weed out, to filter through and it saves a lot of time. Instead of you calling, trying to ask the questions, you already have it there. It saved us hours of time and it allows us to be more hunters rather than fishers because all we have to do is just check the resumes, send out the willow and any person who responds, then we interview.

Also the willow, I'm an empathetic person and I love people. And so what the willow allows me to do is it also requires them to take a personality test. So you could do disc, you could do culture index, you could do, um, Colby, whatever you choose to do that, you know, I purposely send it out there. And before I hire, I know the personality profile that I'm looking for before they send me their information. So what it does is me as an empathetic lover of people, it allows me to weed them before I meet them. So they don't have the profile that I want.

I don't interview them period because I've just found that if they don't fit that I'm probably going to love their willow and love their videos, but I need that personality test to assess and to weed out before I hire. And so those are some great ways for you to weed to save some time. It's very quick. We just send them a quick link. They take it within our willow. We have them upload their personality test there. And so it really does allow me to get it. And then we get an immediate notification and we can schedule them for an interview right then and there. I've already seen them on a video.

Kiera Dent (11:36.63)

I've already seen how they interact. I've already asked them the questions that I want. And then after that, I'm going to be able to really figure out what do I wanna do from there? How am I going to be able to hire them? Now, if you're on the flip side and you're like, Kira, that'd be a dream, but I don't even have those people. I wanna make sure you're writing really good ads. If your ad is not performing, take it down and rewrite one. And I want you to really think of that person on the other side, the person reading your ad, who are they? What do they like? What are they not like? What's their personality? Are they a driver?

or they an introvert and you need to write an ad and have a title that's very much targeted to that person. I had so many people just recently direct message me on our ad. They don't qualify because they're not in the state I want, but they said, Kira, kudos to you for actually being someone different. Kudos to you for doing ads differently. Like I literally had someone write me a message saying, your ad is something that's so different than anyone else in the industry. I would love to work with you.

I'm keeping your information for when I moved to a state that you're hiring in. Fantastic. Thank you. I appreciate that. But what I found is so often people just write lackluster ads and I'm like, you're getting lackluster results. That's why, because you're not taking the time. You guys, I literally sit here and I think that the person I'm trying to hire and I basically write a love letter to them, like not really, but if I'm looking for a treatment coordinator, I'm going to send in like, do you love the thrill of closing cases? Do you love the hunt?

for getting a schedule up to maximum productivity. Do you love closing a case when patient told you no, and you finally found the yes of what they truly needed? That's your treatment coordinator. That's what a salesperson's thinking of. They're not here like, I love great culture. That second, I want someone who's as hunterous, hunter, who's coming in, that they love the thrill of the kill. Like not to say that treatment planning is the kill, but really I want someone who loves that, who like drips with that. They love it.

because I know they're going to be the person perfect for the job. My scheduler. Do you love making an amazing first impression? Do you love being the person who handles multiple things, but makes every person feel seen, safe and heard when they're in your presence? That's the scheduler that I want. Do you love being that first impression? Do you enjoy, like, do you get so high on life making a schedule so perfect that runs smooth, well-oiled machine that you can take pride in your scheduling?

Kiera Dent (14:00.45)

That's Shelby guys, in case you didn't know, Shelby on our team literally would respond to that ad and be like, this is me. Keira Dent would respond to your treatment coordinator and be like, this is me. Brittany Stone, like do you love operations being behind the scenes where you know that you can make an impact but don't have to be the face of the company? Do you love building out the processes, protocols, making sure that Gantt charts are in place? That's Britt Stone to a T. So when you write that ad, make sure you're writing to that person and that should boost the number of applicants that you're getting.

So thinking about it, we're looking for one, how was our culture so we don't have turnover? Two, we're going to assess and look for the patterns if we are having it. Three, we're gonna figure out different ways based on how far they're coming up, forgetting a lot, how we can weed those. And if we're not getting enough, how it can be more there. And really putting on that, am I a hunter or am I a fisher? And what I found is depending upon how much you really need this hire, depends on who you're going to be.

So I wanna just pop on, give you guys a couple quick things to think about. If you guys want more help on this, one, a lot of our clients, we help them hire the right people because sometimes you don't even know like what should an office manager be? And that's something I love to do for our clients, helping them identify and then interview and then onboard successfully these positions that maybe they've never hired before and setting them up for success. That's something I'm obsessed with doing.

The other side of it is, if you guys want help, you can pop on over to our website, thedenaliateam.com, click on that virtual academy, and there's our hiring course, which would be fantastic. Takes you guys step by step, has questionnaires that you can ask, has onboarding documents for your team. But really, the biggest thing is, you can take all this information, but unless you actually apply it, you're not gonna get different results. So if I can help you in any way, reach out hello at thedenaliateam.com.

But go be that Hunter, get your dream team. They're there. They're waiting for you. They want to work for you. You just need to find them and you need to write to them. And with that guys, as always, thanks for listening. I'll catch you next time on the Dental Team podcast.