The Front OfficeTurnover in staff
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Background
The average term of employment for dental staff members is 3 years, but when a dental practice is doing well, the average time on staff is 6 years or longer. To keep staff members this long, the dentist must reduce burnout and increase hope among the staff. Team members need to have hope their job will remain great or become great. The most important reasons staff members leave a practice are the presence of toxic people and the loss of hope.
Causing Turnover
Toxic people may be moody—happy one day and mad at the world the next. They may be manipulators who turn everything to their advantage and create problems for other staff members. Often dentists will placate them simply because to do otherwise is to invite discord. The bottom line is they are difficult to work with and cause other employees to want to leave. With high turnover, staff members lose heart and lose faith in the dentist, and eventually the business stops growing. Everyone is looking
Restoring Hope
The only way to handle a toxic person is to get rid of him or her. When the dentist becomes aware of a situation through observation or by talking with staff, he or she should take action so that the turnover stops. This can have an immediate impact on the staff members’ level of hope.
Dentists should also invest in their staff. This includes sending them all to seminars and continuing education courses so they can learn new things and grow as individuals and professionals. The effect on the
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Farran H: When staff members lose hope. Dentaltown, April 2015, pp 10, 12
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