Dental Practices - why bother with HR?

Added On: 20th September 2011

Having access to HR support is not seen as a priority for many dental practices. However in a sector where success depends on the skill and expertise of staff and the quality of the experience provided to patients, it is something that needs to be given serious consideration. Many dental practices that don’t benefit from HR services could be wasting profits, putting their reputation at risk, adversely affecting the quality of service they provide to their patients, or losing out on opportunities for additional contracts.

It is the norm for small organisations with limited numbers of employees to ‘go it alone’ when it comes to handling HR issues; in fact, many don’t even appreciate that there are such things as HR issues until it is too late and they have one! Most small businesses are built, and operate, on the basis of everyone knowing everyone else and working flexibly together on the basis of trust.

This approach is fine as long as everyone adheres to the unwritten culture and rules – which is relatively simple when organisations are small, everyone knows each other, there is frequent and regular contact between all staff members and the environment is relatively static. Problems tend to arise when there is a change of some kind – new employees are brought into the organisation, owners sell up and move on, the practice expands, or staffs’ personal circumstances change because of things such as relocation or new families. These types of changes can upset the equilibrium that has built up over a number of years, and when established ways of working and dealing with staff can’t accommodate the changes, problems can arise.

It is in these sorts of circumstances that organisations start to realise that their lack of formality – which up to then had been a real bonus – could now potentially be a source of difficulty.

Where staff don’t have contracts of employment, who can definitely say what their hours of work or notice periods are?

Where staff don’t have job descriptions, who can definitely say what duties they are responsible for?

If there is no clear policy or approach to part-time working how can you defend allowing it for one member of staff and not another?

If there is no clear policy on absence notification, how can someone be taken to task for not complying with what is expected?

If you don’t have an induction programme how can staff be expected to start to contribute to their best ability as quickly as possible?

Common sense would say that employees should know what is expected, and that is true. However, in problem situations common sense doesn’t always prevail. Consequently it is always better to have simple, straightforward processes in place which are clear to everyone right from the start, regardless of how many or how few employees an organisation has.

It’s true that many small businesses don’t need full-time HR support, but a good HR advisor can add so much value - in the same way that an accountant can do so much more than simple book keeping. HR is much more than just the legal stuff and recruitment! – used effectively, HR can bring real benefits to a business including:

Improving staff contribution

Employees perform best when they are clear what they are required to do, are trained to do it and feel rewarded and valued. Good HR can help you to ensure you have all the necessary processes in place to achieve all these things and more.

Increasing Practice output/productivity

Having dedicated HR expertise means that questions, issues or problems can be dealt with more speedily and effectively – right first time, every time – minimising the amount of time that clinical, or other senior professionals within a practice, need to pulled away from their core activities. This helps to limit non-productive time within the practice.

Managing risk

By ensuring all your practices are legally compliant, consistent and well understood by staff you will reduce the number of problems that arise, and deal efficiently and effectively with those that do.

Reducing or avoiding costs

A good HR advisor will help reduce your costs by getting things right first time in much less time than it would take a non-specialist. They can also help you to avoid cost through things such as effective recruitment, absence management and change management.

In order to maximise the benefit your HR support should be tailored to the specific issues of the dental services sector and your particular practice; buying something ‘off the shelf’ will be of limited value. The sector does have a number of particular issues which can have a significant bearing on HR policy and practice – examples include:

Regulation and accreditation of staff

The high proportion of female nursing staff which can result in large number of requests for flexible or part-time working]/'>
- NHS contract award processes which can require documentary evidence of HR processes
- High levels of patient service and interaction – which requires staff to be trained in customer/patient service and handling potentially difficult situations.
As a small business you may not need a great deal of day-to-day support, but by establishing a relationship with an HR specialist you can:
- Benefit from the full range of specialist HR skills and knowledge - expertise that you currently don't have in-house – so that you can use exactly what you need, when you need it
- Reduce your business risk – by using experts whenever you need them and working proactively rather than simply reacting to problems
- Free up your time to focus on running your practice - rather than constantly fire-fighting –or ignoring – staff issues;
- Increase your flexibility by being able to respond rapidly and proactively to staff problems or queries.
In order to maximise the potential benefits you must ensure that you select the right provider – someone with the right experience who will tailor the service to your specific needs. By choosing the right person you will find that HR is an investment in your business, not a cost.