Often we discover that practices need a consistent method of training their team members, whether they are seasoned employees learning about a new service or technology or onboarding new hires. Unfortunately, not focusing on training and development puts your practice in a bad position and could affect everyone in the office and, ultimately, your patients. We understand that you’re busy, but you can’t afford not to make time to train your team members properly. Otherwise, your practice could slowly fall apart and eventually affect your bottom line. If you still aren’t convinced that it’s worth the investment, here are five benefits to establishing a training program at your practice.
Retains Top Talent
Retention has been a major challenge for practice owners since the start of the pandemic. Perhaps your practice has struggled with retaining good-quality employees even long before COVID. Establishing career development allows you to maintain a competitive edge when hiring and to retain top talent. When team members learn and grow through training, it empowers them to be better employees and gives them a sense of value in the workplace. Some studies show that offering career development lowers employee turnover by as much as 59 percent. Let that sink in…..can you really afford to ignore career development?
Develops Leaders
You may think of leaders as top management or something that only big companies need. But even a small dental practice needs leaders, and there can be more than one. Leaders help pave the way for growth for themselves, their team, and the practice. They essentially help the practice reach its goals, and it helps attract top talent. For example, if your office manager is an exceptional leader, you’ll more likely retain your front office team for a longer period than if your office manager is harsh, unhelpful, and vindictive.
Empowers Team Members
Training employees gives them a sense of empowerment, confidence, autonomy, and value within the workplace. It also helps them feel more independent about making some decisions on their own. Don’t aim to have a team that fulfills their job duties every day and that shows up on time and stays until quitting time. Those are reasonable expectations, but those are the same for every job. Instead, offer training and development opportunities to your team members so that they feel empowered, which ultimately affects the practice positively.
Boosts Engagement
Working through your to-do list at work can get boring real quick. Just as training helps empower team members, it also boosts engagement. It prevents idleness and helps team members learn how to re-evaluate their processes, which may need improving. Therefore, they can work together to develop and implement strategies that improve the practice as a whole instead of just looking out for what’s best for them as individuals.
Fosters Relationships
Training is mostly about learning, but it also allows employees a chance to refine their skills and gain a deeper knowledge about a service or technology, which fosters a stronger bond among their other team members. When things get tough, or they come across a challenge, they are more likely to lean on each other for help instead of getting frustrated and walking away or making a poor decision that could affect patients or the rest of the practice.
This advice is especially true of current or new employees. Even more so with new hires because they need to feel included and that their views and efforts as just as important as seasoned team members. Want to find out more or see if you’re training new hires the right way? Then check out our newest blog this week!
