Improve Employee Satisfaction in the Dental Practice

Do you have unhappy or disengaged team members in your practice? Perhaps staff retention is getting you down? Dental practice managers know that engaged team members perform better because they are enthusiastic and interested in their role and the business.

 

You’re not alone and if it seems too big a problem to tackle, the best place to start, is to look at what could be easily changed to create a more satisfactory workplace.

Begin by removing what can cause dissatisfaction for your team members.

By removing these factors in the workplace, you create a neutral zone. That means that the working conditions are not dissatisfactory nor are they satisfactory. In other words, your team members may not consider your practice to be the most fantastic place they’ve ever worked at but also not the worst. It’s “Okay”. It has become a tolerable place as there is nothing to cause them distress. The individual can perform their tasks as the job description dictates but there is no motivation to perform at a higher level.

This isn’t ideal and not the end-goal but in the short term you won’t have staff leaving in droves.

Next, let’s understand how satisfaction and dissatisfaction works.

The work of psychologist Frederick Herzberg in the 1950s and 1960s suggested that the opposite of dissatisfaction was not satisfaction, it was actually no dissatisfaction. The opposite of satisfaction was not dissatisfaction, it was no satisfaction. The factors that create satisfaction are very different to the factors that cause dissatisfaction.

The opposite of SATISFACTION is NO SATISFACTION

The opposite of DISSATISFCATION is NO DISSATISFACTION

By removing the issues that can cause dissatisfaction, for example the remuneration amount of a dental assistant, we may create no dissatisfaction but we cannot say that suddenly there is satisfaction. Being paid more to do a job that we find unfulfilling or unenjoyable will not give us more job satisfaction. It simply removes that monetary dissatisfaction. This is an important concept for the dental practice manager to grasp.

Factors that Create Dissatisfaction:

• Working conditions
• Wages
• Company policies
• Supervision levels
• Relationships with peers or manager/employer
• Status
• Security

So your first strategy is to ensure you have a fundamentally good and fair working environment for your employees.

The second strategy is to ask your team what they consider to be good and fair. Don’t only rely solely on your opinion (or your employer’s).

Then you can begin to look at ways to increase satisfaction and enhance the working environment that your team will actually appreciate you for.

Factors that Create Job Satisfaction:

1. Achievement
2. Recognition
3. The Work Itself
4. Responsibility
5. Advancement
6. Growth

Employee Feedback

To find out what causes your employees’ dissatisfaction within your practice, an employee questionnaire is invaluable. Obtaining feedback from your team will assist you in identifying those factors so that you may work towards eliminating them from the work environment. You could use an app such as Survey Monkey to help you collect and collate the results.

 

Questions you can ask your team to gauge their satisfaction, level of engagement and to get general feedback:

Job Satisfaction

• Do you feel encouraged to come up with new and better ways of doing things?
• Does your work give you a feeling of personal accomplishment?
• Does your work make good use of your skills and abilities?
• Do you have the tools and resources to do your job well?
• Do you feel the practice does an excellent job of informing employees about matters affecting them?
• How satisfied are you with your involvement in decisions that affect your work?
• Do you have clearly defined tasks and expectations?
• Considering everything, how satisfied are you with your job?
• How satisfied are you with your opportunity to develop within your role and to progress to a more senior role?
• What suggestions do you have for improvement in the practice?
• What issues need to be addressed within the practice?

Job Passion and Self-Evaluation

1. Do you experience personal growth such as updating skills and learning different jobs?
2. Does management look to you for suggestions and leadership?
3. Are you encouraged to be your best?
4. Are you adequately rewarded for the quality and results of my performance?
5. Do you feel valued?
6. Do you believe the practice has a positive image in the wider community?
7. Do you feel your work makes a difference in the lives of our patients?
8. Compared to an average employee in your position do you feel less, the same or more:
   1. Productive – the time you spend working on jobs delegated to you?
   2. Accomplished – can meet the goals and targets set for your performance
   3. Self-motivated – go beyond expectations to complete jobs or satisfy patients?
   4. Focused – able to keep on track and complete daily tasks?
9. What is it that helps you be more productive and deliver quality work?
10. What could the practice provide to you to help you be more productive and deliver a higher quality service?

Employee Retention

1. Do you feel there is enough of a variety of tasks in your position?
2. How flexible is the practice with respect to your family responsibilities?
3. Would you recommend a friend to apply for a job at this practice?
4. Have you ever observed or experienced any form of discrimination or harassment at this practice?
5. Do you feel the practice goals and strategies are clearly communicated to you?
6. Do you feel aligned with the practice vision and direction?
7. Do you feel motivated to see the practice succeed?
8. Would you say you are satisfied with your position within the practice?

 

When you decide to do this, remember that your team will expect you to take on board their suggestions.

Be willing to make some changes!

Put a process in place to regularly collect feedback and suggestions from your team. The more they feel listened to, the better leader you become and environment you create.

 

Would you like to know more about attracting and retaining superstar team members? Read the ADAAMA April Newsletter for Sharon’s top 5 tips. DOWNLOAD NEWSLETTER