Dental Practice Management Issues: Sick Again?

Have you noticed your employees, or an employee being sick fairly regularly?
Is it that this person doesn't want to come to work, or is it that he or she is truly ill?
I find that someone who has ownership mentality, there is typically less sick time or time away from work. The challenge, when you look at the practice as if you were a dental consultant, is that team members can develop a 'clock' puncher mentality. How do you talk about this problem and why should you?
Dental practices are typically a small team. Even if we're in a larger office, you'll have a core team and you truly depend on each other. Taking sick days can impact the team members, the practice and also patient care.
Why are employees taking time off? Do you pay people to take time to be sick? If you offer sick pay rather than well pay, you may be paying them to be sick. And if they're sick pay doesn't roll over into the following year, they may end up taking more time off in December.
So many times, as a dental practice management consultant, we ask employees the question: "What benefits don't you have that you would like to see added in the years to come?" And many times the answer is, "I wish we had more sick days than the number we already have."
Is it time to change the focus? One doctor said, "I pay my people to be well." He gave four days a year, one day per quarter, of personal paid time for his team members and he also had a well bonus plan versus sick days. They kept absenteeism at an all time low. As his dental practice management consulting firm, we recommended and implemented the system for him the year prior and it made a huge difference in the employees' ownership mentality into the business.
The system worked like this:
• The employees could miss one day per quarter for any reason and be paid for the day. However, of course they realized that if they did this randomly, without letting the office know, it could seriously burden the office. In addition, if they missed two days in a quarter, they were paid for one, but not the other.
• In the anniversary month of the employee being hired, the doctor bought back each of the four unused personal days. If the dental team member had perfect attendance and turned in all four days for reimbursement, he also added a $100 bonus to the days that they were paid for. The first day off in the quarter was without penalty, but the second day off was:
1. Without pay
2. It affected the staff person's ability to be paid the extra bonus.
The team works very hard to stay well.
I believe it's important that we create incentives to keep our team well and focused on their importance at work. This small but important change can allow you to have a healthy, productive practice.

Dr. Rhonda Savage is the CEO for Miles Global, an internationally known consulting business. She is an acclaimed business speaker, author and consultant. To speak with Dr. Savage about your practice concerns or to schedule her to speak at your dental society or study club, call 877-343-0909.

Posted in: Dental Care