Secrets to Finding the Perfect Job Match

Secrets to Finding the Perfect Job Match- Cracking the Code

Recruitment problems

Are you having problems with recruitment or finding a new, perfect position?

At dental school you were not taught how to recruit and because you are brainy, destined for uni you didn’t have lessons in how to find a job.

Recruitment is an art that follows a process, that until you learn the fundamental rules you are at risk of the finding the wrong match, if you are a practice owner, using the wrong approach results in the endless revolving door of staff members, if you are an associate it means the emotional roller coaster of optimism of a new job and the sinking feeling that you have made another mistake, you job hop, you clinical skills decline, mental health suffers.

Many people recruit by placing an ad, associate wanted, SOE computer, full team support, scanner, 50%, good private potential, immediate start.

The first bright eyed dentist comes along, impressed with the superficial décor, says yes without meeting the principal, team or doing any due diligence. Because they have not been taught how to discriminate for what they want and don’t want, they only questions they ask are about salary, holiday, and CPD days off. When they start, they do have SOE, the team is fully staffed mainly with locums and trainees, the book is crammed with NHS patients with no space to discuss private treatments or use the scanner. The principal is no where to be seen and you feel letdown, lost and unsupported. The Practice manager cannot answer any of your questions and is busy taking control of your book, not allowing you time off, filling your book through lunch, think you are ungrateful for objecting to a trainee and perceives you as picky or troublesome when you try and improve your diary and day. And so the cycle goes on,

There is another way.

To get the right results, team members need to have the right behaviour and to do this this must have an ARSE that is compatible with the practice.

Looking inside

This means that you need to look inside first. The greater clarity you have about the criteria you want and don’t want the better chance you have of finding ideal. Leaving it to chance is not an option, your future success depends on the preparation.

Questions to think about,

What is important to you in an associate / practice?

What is essential?

What is important?

What would be nice and not a deal breaker?

What must never be true?

Look at their A.R.S.E.

A= Attitudes This is the most important of the four, get it wrong it causes conflict., disharmony and is the primary reason people move on to find something better. The wrong Attitude results in a toxic working environment.

A is about beliefs, values, culture philosophy of dental care. What are yours, what are they for the practice, are they compatible? Values and culture elicitation is a process that your coach will take you through as part of the process of choosing the right match, there is more to it than choosing fancy marketing works. Clarity about beliefs, values, culture and philosophy are essential, because these are the (usually) unconscious rudders that steer your thoughts, decisions and actions. Once you know your values every decision is easy. Let’s make recruitment easy for you.

R = Reasoning. This is about your thinking patterns. Your thoughts control your emotions language and behaviours. There are 13 patterns that it is useful to identify and decode when recruiting an associate or new practice. When you learn how to decode the cognitive diversity of your candidate or practice, you will be able to predict their behaviours, what they are like to work with, a dream or a nightmare. Personalised decoding can be done in 20 minutes, followed by a debrief and showing you how to identify patterns in others. When you understand your reasoning patterns and the patterns of what you are looking for, you can write your ads, schedule your recruitment process to screen for what you are looking for. If you are looking for a role you can write your application letter, so it acts as a screening tool, filtering out the wrong practices.

S = Skills. This is less important because skills can and will be learnt if the right A and R are present. There may be some fundamental skills that are essential e.g .BDS (or equivalent) if you are looking for a dentist, ability to speak and be understood etc. You will probably find the aptitude to learn is more important than having the skills already.

E = Education and Experience CV’s are full of this information and in most cases, not all it is not essential information. On a basic level you do need to know that they have mandatory qualifications, and registrations, and depending on the position experience may or may not be useful.

Conventional recruitment processes focus on a CV which is heavy on the data about skills, education and experience, and there is little investigation in the ‘soft skills’, beliefs, values, culture, philosophy, or reasoning. It is the soft skills that will make or break a working relationship.