Dental Talent – Recruitment Guide

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Part 1, What is Recruitment?

Recruitment is the process that involves everything from identifying, attracting, screening, shortlisting, interviewing, selecting, hiring, and on-boarding employees.

In dental practices, recruitment is typically the responsibility of a Practice Manager or Principal Dentist.

What Goes into a Perfect Recruitment Process?

An efficient recruitment process is an organisation-specific sourcing model that aims to find the right fit for the right job at the right time. It is a step-by-step approach to bringing in talented people who can help your practice grow. An all-inclusive recruitment process has 5 key phases but it may vary from practice to practice depending on the organisational structure, size of the company, nature of operations, existing recruitment and selection process.

Importance of a Strong Recruitment Process

Any foolproof recruitment process is typically targeted towards attracting qualified candidates and encouraging maximum possible job seekers to apply. This makes it possible to build a big pool of talented candidates in a tight job market and minimises the time involved in finding candidates and filling roles for the present and future requirements of the practice. A well-planned and thoughtfully crafted recruitment process helps the hiring manager filter the right candidates faster while staying focused on engaging the eligible candidates for maximum conversions. The recruitment process not only reflects the practice’s professionalism but also helps attract the right kind of candidates while saving the time and money spent on identifying, attracting, engaging, recruiting and retaining talent.

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7 Phases in a Recruitment Process

The recruitment lifecycle consists of seven interrelated steps which are as follows:

1. Identifying the Hiring Needs

2. Preparing the Job Description

3. Talent Search

4. Screening and Shortlisting

5. Interviewing

6. Evaluation and Offer of Employment

7. Introduction and Induction of the New Employee

1. Identifying the Hiring Needs

Whether a job opening is newly formed or just vacated, you cannot find what you need if you don’t know what you need in the first place. So, your recruitment process should start with identifying the vacancies that exist followed by analysing the job specifications including the knowledge, skills and experience needed for the role. Here’s how you can determine your hiring needs:
  • Figure out where the gaps are in your current team. Check if you have new needs in terms of ability, performance or personality. Ask yourself if you need someone to take care of something that is not being addressed currently. This will tell you that there is a hiring need.
  • Keep a track of input versus output when it comes to your team. See if there is an increase in workload that needs to be addressed by hiring.
  • Regularly analyse performance and make a list of missing qualities, qualifications, skills and proficiencies that you need to add to your team. This can also signal towards hiring needs.
  • Be mindful of existing employees leaving. This is definitely when you will have a hiring need. Every time you recognise that there is indeed a hiring need, act before it becomes a pressing matter.
The recruitment process starts off with recruitment planning that involves analysing and describing job specifications, qualifications, experience, and skills required to fill the open positions. If the recruitment plan is not well-structured, it may fail to attract potential employees from a pool of candidates.

Factors That Influence Recruitment

Size of the practice

Salary structure

Work culture and working conditions

The growth rate of the practice

The current state of employment in dentistry

Setting up the Best Recruitment Team

A strong recruitment team ensures a strong recruitment process. The team’s role in the recruitment

process is crucial because one wrong decision can affect the productivity of the entire practice.

The best recruitment team should be able to:

  • Clearly identify the job vacancy and define the qualities of an ideal candidate.
  • Write a clear job description to enable candidates to understand the job and to assess whether they are the right fit.
  • Create an outline detailing the qualities needed in an ideal candidate, which will also help later during the candidate selection process.

2. Preparing the Job Description

Once you know exactly what you need in terms of knowledge, skills and experience, it is time to determine the duties and responsibilities of the job. Preparing a comprehensive job description (JD) will help you know what your potential employees must have in order to meet the demands of the role. More importantly, it provides your prospects with a checklist or a list that they can compare themselves to before applying. It is a tool to ensure that you get applications from the right candidates.

Title

Duties & Responsibilities

Qualification & Skills

Location

Salary, Perks & Benefits

Checklist to Crafting the Perfect Job Description

  • Practice Name & Description
  • Core Values
  • Benefits Offered
  • Location
  • Job Title
  • Salary
  • Description of Duties
  • Demand (specific skill set, knowledge, experience or training required for the job)
  • Qualities that are nice to have and would be an added advantage

Do’s

Dont’s

  • Personalise

  • Be specific

  • Use the right keywords

  • Use bullets to break the monotony

  • Keep the tone conversational

  • Provide details when you can

  • Don’t use big chunks of text

  • Don’t use jargons or metaphors

  • Don’t sugarcoat the challenging

    aspects – great candidates want to

    make things happen

3. Talent Search

Identifying the right talent, attracting them and motivating them to apply are the most important aspects of the recruitment process. The job listing should be advertised internally to generate referrals as well as externally on popular social networking sites and preferred job boards such as www.dentaltalent.co.uk.

Recruiters can also promote openings in leading industry publications to cast a wider net. Broadly, there are two sources of recruitment that can be tapped for a talent search:

Internal Sources of Recruitment

When recruiters use internal sources for recruitment, it works to motivate the existing employees to be more productive and maximises their job satisfaction and sense of security. Recruiting through internal sources also reduces the attrition rate along with cost and effort.

Transfer

The recruiter can fill a vacancy in a different location without any changes in the job role, status, or salary of the employee by transferring a suitable candidate from within the organisation.

Promotion

A vacancy can also be filled by offering a high performing employee to take over a senior position within the organisation for handling additional responsibilities along with a raise. Promotions motivate employees to perform better and also reduce the attrition rate.

Demotion

Depending on the performance of the employees, sometimes the management has to take the decision of lowering the position of under-performers. These employees then become a source for filling the lower positions.

Existing Employees

The employees of your organisation can spread the word and create a buzz on their social media accounts to help you fill your vacancies. Have an employee referral program where employees are incentivised for bringing in suitable candidates can also help accelerate the recruitment process.

Retired Employees

In case of an emergency retired employees can also be called in to fill a position for a short period till an appropriate candidate is found.

Previous Applicants

Keeping applicants on file who have previously applied and didn’t make the cut the first time around makes for a resourceful database. They can be reached out to when matching positions open up.

External Sources of Recruitment

Recruiting through external sources offers a much wider scope for selection from a big number of qualified candidates. The process moves much faster even for bulk requirements while eliminating the chances of partiality or biases.

Advertisements

Advertisements help recruiters build a solid brand identity that attracts efficient manpower. You can go with the traditional approach by using print media or use digital media for better results at a reduced cost.

Job Portals

With the growing use of the internet, job portals have come to play a crucial role in connecting companies with candidates. These portals are a preferred platform for jobseekers looking for better career prospects so they make an excellent source for recruiters to tap the top industry talent.

Practice Website

A mobile-friendly, branded careers page that conveys your work culture and integrates with the company’s social profiles not only makes it easier for your potential employees to apply but also attracts top industry talent with a professional theme, attractive headers, compelling content and engaging employee videos.

Social Networking Platforms

Social networking sites are the place to find the most qualified, potential recruits and as a recruiter you would not want to miss out on this massive pool of talent.

Placement Agencies

Placement agencies are a perfect solution for those hard-to-fill vacancies that often demand a lot of time, effort and resources. These agencies employ various tools and techniques to find top talent for your company faster, at a reduced cost.

Professional Bodies

Professional management bodies maintain an up-to-date database of trained and qualified professionals in their respective fields and make a great resource for tapping top industry talent.

4. Screening and Shortlisting

A survey of recruiters revealed that while 46% struggle to attract top talent in the current candidate-driven market, 52% confirmed that the most challenging part of hiring was identifying the right candidates from a large pool of applicants. In order to move forward with the recruitment process, you need to screen and shortlist applicants efficiently and accurately.

This is where the recruitment process gets difficult and challenging. You can resolve this recruitment bottleneck by following these four steps:

1

Screen applications on the basis of minimum qualifications.

2

Next, sort CVs that have the preferred credentials by looking at their certifications, relevant experience, technical competencies and other specific skills that are required for the role.

3

Then, shortlist candidates who have both the preferred credentials and the minimum qualifications.

4

Finally, flag any concerns or queries in the CV so they can be clarified during the interview.

No wonder, the most arduous task of the recruitment process is reviewing CVs.

5. Interviewing

The shortlisted applications will now move through the interview process prior to receiving an offer letter or a rejection note. Depending on the size of the hiring team and their unique recruitment needs, several interviews may be scheduled for every candidate.

Telephonic Screening/Video Interviewing

This is a quick, easy and convenient way to screen candidates and their capabilities. The telephonic or video interview is also your first opportunity to leave a lasting first impression on your potential employees. So, while you need to keep your very first interview short, make sure you also take the time to screen them against the knowledge, skills and experience mentioned in your job description, so you can eliminate the irrelevant profiles first.

Psychometric Testing

This is a very crucial step of the selection process because the information revealed from this assessment will help you know if your potential employees will perform and stay productive in the long haul. This screening is absolutely unbiased yet an important eliminator that efficiently identifies the right fit for any job. Psychometric tests can be your reference model for any given position because these tests specify the complete personality profile, behaviour, flexibility, aptitude, creativity, communication and problem-solving skills that are required to perform in a given position.

Face-to-Face Interviewing

Personal interviews can last longer because this is the last step before the recruiter does a final evaluation and makes the job offer. Final interviews may be conducted by the top management and are typically extended to a very small pool of standout candidates. The final choice should be agreed upon at this stage along with a backup candidate selection.

1: Interviews are a two-way process. During the process, the potential candidate also assesses whether your company is the right fit or not. So, be courteous, respectful and sell the benefits of the job role and the organisation.

2: Prepare questions that give you deep insights into every job applicant’s professional background to assess whether they might be a good fit for your open role.

3: Refrain from asking abstract questions to check your candidate’s reaction; Rather, keep your questions relevant to the role.

6. Evaluation and Offer of Employment

This is the final stage of the recruitment process. You should never take it for granted that the candidate will accept your offer. However, if your candidate has patiently completed all the paperwork and waited through the selection process, the odds of accepting the offer are high.

Things you should do once you zero in on a candidate. The recruitment process is not easy, so if you have a structured format to follow, you wind up with more time to stay focused on finding the right fit for your business.

Checking the References

Once the final selection for a position is done, it is time to check the candidate’s professional references and verify all the employment details. If you find that everything is in order, it is time to draft your employment contract and make the offer.

Making the Job Offer

The offer letter should include everything from the start date and the conditions of employment to the work hours and the compensation while ensuring that every detail is clear and unambiguous.

On-boarding

Every new hire feels awkward at first, but you can win some really good loyalty points here by putting in some extra effort and helping your new hire settle in. Instead of just showing them around the office and making sure all the essential supplies are handy, make them feel welcome by making special arrangements for lunch and getting colleagues to talk about non-work stuff.

7. Introduction and Induction of the New Employee

When applicants accept the job offer, they officially become the employees of the company. The joining date and time is communicated to the employee. Once that’s done, pre-employment screening that includes reference and background checks are conducted. Once the verification is done, the employees are then introduced to the organisation. The induction process of the employees then begins. During the induction process, a welcome kit is usually given to the new employees, and then the employment contract is signed.

Benefits of a Good Recruiting Process for the Organisation

An up-to-date recruitment strategy positively impacts the bottom line in multiple ways. Better quality hires, an improved retention rate, reduced cost and enhanced job satisfaction are some of the benefits of following the best practices in the selection process. All of these benefits, when put together boost overall business success.

Four Benefits of an Effective and Comprehensive Recruitment Process The best way to optimise the recruitment process is to monitor and measure how well it’s performing.

Time-Saving

Instead of putting candidates through a lengthy and complicated application process followed by every test practically possible, recruiters are now customising the recruitment process for a personalised, positive candidate experience.

Engaged Employees

Engaged employees are motivated, enthusiastic and committed to their work. A recruitment and selection process that aims to hire applicants with a work history that reflects commitment, consistency and career growth is an easy way to predict their level of dedication in the organisation. An in-depth interview process is the best way to evaluate the enthusiasm and efficiency levels of potential candidates.

Proactive Recruiting

A recruitment process that is designed to identify gaps ahead of time while ensuring that the talent recruitment team stays on the same page empowers the team to take a proactive approach. This allows the recruiter to review and refine the recruitment strategies in real-time for better quality hires. The key takeaway here is that while evaluating the recruitment and selection process, it is important to identify the factors that interest and influence new hires. This will reveal what’s hurting your recruitment process and which benefits can make you more attractive as an employer.

Improved Performance

Any applicant proactively seeking a change in job is definitely not in jeopardy of losing his/her current job due to poor performance. An extensive selection process sheds light on the candidate’s competence and skills that determine job performance. Skilful recruiters use the interview process to elicit responses that reveal the candidate’s strengths, limitations as well as areas of improvement – which is the very first step in predicting that employee’s future productivity.

Pro Tip:

It is a good idea to involve employees and other members of the organisation in the recruitment process. One of the best ways to do is by establishing and maintaining a strong employee referral program.

Whilst you are welcome to read the guide online below, if you would prefer to download this guide as a pdf please click the button →
Download Guide
Get in touch