The first days and weeks of a new job can be daunting. To help recent hires hit the ground running, it’s critical to make them feel part of the team as soon as possible. Here are our top tips on how to welcome a new team member to your dental practice:

Have a Well-Thought-Out Onboarding Strategy

If you run a small dental office, it may be tempting just to make up the onboarding process as you go along. You have enough on your plate as it is. Why add the extra responsibility of creating a formal onboarding process to your to-do list? Besides, small businesses don’t need these kinds of formal HR protocols, right? 

Wrong. All dental practices should have standardized processes for training and onboarding new hires. This not only takes the guesswork out of onboarding but also ensures that you don’t inadvertently skip important steps or best practices. 

The simplest way to go about it is to create an onboarding checklist. Potential action items for your list include:

• Compliance: Start by taking care of any legal and policy-related issues, such as verification of employee documentation and form submission.
• Clarification: Train new employees, ensure they understand their roles, and set clear expectations. 
• Culture: Introduce new hires to the rest of the team and the company culture and values.
• ‍Connection: Assign a dedicated mentor or point of contact for each new hire.

In addition to the onboarding checklist, it’s also a good idea to have an employee handbook with all the information a new hire might need to hit the ground running.

Set Clear Expectations 

To perform their duties properly, employees must first know what these are. Make sure new hires understand all aspects of their positions, including not just their core duties but also any fringe or occasional responsibilities. For instance, a dental assistant in a smaller practice may have additional roles such as scheduling appointments or keeping records.

A great way to set clear expectations from the outset is to enclose a job description with the offer letter. Later in the onboarding experience, you may also provide training materials that cover the position in more depth and that new hires can refer to going forward.

Check In on New Hires and Give Feedback

It’s essential to check in with new hires often, even if you think you’ve explained everything or they look like they have it under control. 

Regular check-ins can help you identify and address potential issues early in the employee onboarding before they become real problems. It’s also easier to monitor policy compliance and confirm that new hires can complete their tasks by the end of their shift.

As you do that, be sure to provide easy-to-understand, actionable feedback on how the new hires can improve or become more productive. This is an essential part of learning how to welcome a new team member.

Encourage Communication and Collaboration

Easy, open, and rapid communication and streamlined collaboration between staff members not only make your practice more efficient but also facilitate employee engagement and can help new hires feel part of the team more quickly.  

At Dental Intelligence, we make this happen using our system for office communication for dental practice teams. Our communication solutions allow you to:

• Connect with your coworkers
• Send individual and group messages
• Get notifications about unread messages 
• Manage schedule changes in real time
• Keep all team members in the loop
• Collaborate and communicate even when away from your computer

Make New Hires Feel Part of the Team With Dental Intelligence

The onboarding process is crucial for ensuring the future success of new hires and establishing relationships with your team — and you only get one chance to do it right. Once that introductory period is over, it can be hard for new hires to unlearn bad practices, become more engaged, or better connect with other staff members.  

At Dental Intelligence, we take onboarding seriously. That’s why we developed our communication software for dental practices. With it, you can set the right tone for all your future working relationships. 

Don’t take our word for it. Contact us at Dental Intelligence and schedule a free demo to learn how to welcome a new team member using our cutting-edge communication solutions.