How to Hire a Hygienist Fast in a Tough Job Market

Where did all the good hygienists go? You may be asking yourself this question, but the truth is they're out there. They're just choosing someone else.

In this episode, you’ll learn how to become the office people want to work at (and stay). The DPH coaches share how one of them out-recruited six offices for a single hygienist, why your job posting is costing you good candidates, and the interview red flags you can’t ignore — even when you're desperate.

Topics discussed:

(00:00) Introduction

(02:45) Landing a hygienist every office wanted

(07:12) Doing more with fewer hygienists

(09:21) Why recruiting is really sales

(12:25) Write an ad that stands out

(14:05) Get ahead of turnover before it hits

(19:02) Why you should involve your team

(20:15) Interview questions that assess culture fit

(23:45) Qualities that matter most in a hire

(25:38) What's more important than recruiting

This episode was produced by Podcast Boutique https://www.podcastboutique.com

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Transcript

Why Hygienists Are So Hard To Find

Paul Etchison 1:09

At some point, every dental owner has asked themselves the same question where did all the hygienists go? It feels like they all moved to some secret island none of us can find. And if you've tried hiring lately, you have a pretty good idea that it's just not the way that it used to be. You post the ad, you wait, maybe someone applies, maybe they show up, maybe they're interviewing at six other offices too. And at some point, you've realized in the past few years that you're not just evaluating them, they are evaluating you. And if you want great people on your team, you've got to give them a reason to choose you. So that is what we will be talking about today: how to be the office that everybody wants to work at, and how you can convince your future prospective hires that they should join your team. Now, you're listening to the Dental Practice Heroes podcast, where we help dentists build practices that attract better people, keep stronger teams, and create cultures that make great employees want to stay. Now, I'm your host, Dr. Paul Edgeson. I'm a practicing dentist. I'm the author of two books on dental practice management, a dental business coach, and I'm the owner of a multi-doctor dental practice in the south suburbs of Chicago. And if there's one thing that I've learned from coaching practices for the past eight years, is that hiring is not just an HR problem. It is a culture problem, it's a leadership problem, and sometimes it's a sales problem. So today I am joined by my DPH coaches, Dr. Steven Markowitz, the owner of six practices in the Boston area, and Dr. Henry Ernst, the owner of an 18 operatory practice in North Carolina. Both of these guys have huge teams. They have hired through all sorts of tough markets, and they have figured out how to create practices that people actually want to be a part of and stay a part of. So let's dive into this episode. I know it's pertinent, and I would beg the question I don't think there's a single person listening that is not hiring at this point. Let's get to it. Where have all the hygienists gone? When are they coming back? We've talked about hygiene island. I don't know if anyone's ever found hygiene island yet. It's somewhere. It might be on the East Coast. We've got some uh top intel that it might be over there. But hygiene island, no one's found it. Where are all the hygienists? And we thought there'd be a big solution coming around soon. You would think we're talking about the hygiene schools. Oh, they're upping their classes. Oh, they're making more hygiene schools. I can't say I've heard that, which is beyond me. There's gotta be more people wanting to get in hygiene. When is it gonna fix? We don't know, but what can we do now? And Henry's got a really happy, touching story for us. Henry, I'm gonna pass it to you. Make us cry, baby.

Henry Ernst 3:51

Yes. So on June 1st, I don't know when this is coming out, but on June 1st, we hired a hygienist in 2026.

Paul Etchison 4:01

Woo!

Henry Ernst 4:01

Yes, amazing. Yes. Cue the fireworks, yes. So we were in the running for a hygienist, and we're our office is just like any other office. We could always use a hygienist. We could probably use two or three if we had them in front of us. We were in the running with between six other offices, and we were in the running for this one hygienist, and we got her. And it really hit me because the process that my office managers just took on was totally out of the box and different, and it worked. And we got the feedback from this particular hygienist that said, I really loved your process when I came into the office. So that's a win, right? It's nice to say happy stories for hygiene nowadays.

Paul Etchison 4:41

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love it. I mean, I would be scared to even try that. I feel like I want to be like, I want to be like very hygiene, like, how would you like to be interviewed? Because we we can just skip this whole process. We're just happy you showed. Yeah. Have you seen this thing? Yes, it's a scalar. You understand? Okay. Can we make this work?

Steve Markowitz 5:00

I'm like desperate. You just pick them up from their house and be like, you can just come to I'll come, don't even wother bother driving. I'll pick you up and we'll go from there.

Paul Etchison 5:07

I drive up to the hygiene school and I offer free Wi-Fi. It seems to work.

Steve Markowitz 5:12

You think the kids want Wi-Fi nowadays?

Paul Etchison 5:15

Yeah, yeah. They don't know what they don't respond to candy and toys anymore, guys. It's just the Wi-Fi.

Steve Markowitz 5:20

Yeah. It's the van.

Speed Meeting Interviews That Win Candidates

Steve Markowitz 5:21

The van that you have the screens Wi-Fi.

Paul Etchison 5:24

The Wi-Fi is only in the trunk. Hop on in. Anyway. Well, anyway, it's Steve.

Steve Markowitz 5:30

Steve quick. I thought we were supposed to celebrate Henry. He he just added a hygienist, outbeat six other offices for this talented young hygienist, and now we're putting people in trunks. What the hell the hell did that happen, Paul?

Henry Ernst 5:44

I don't know. Henry, is this the first time you guys ever did this? We did. My office manager just told me, I'm gonna try something different. Are you okay with? And I said, go with you, go with whatever you think is gonna work. And we let her run with it. And basically, what she did was she blocked off. Let's see, that particular day, we probably had about four chairs of hygiene, two doctors, either two or three doctors. And she made time for each individual that was working in the office that day. There may have been at least 15 to 18 people working in the office. And she made a point to have this person walk around the office, get a nice tour. She bought coffee in like one of these fancy coffee places right near us called Scooters, coffee order for everybody. And she sat in this in the office, and every 10 minutes, somebody, one or two people would come in and just sit with her and talk and get to know them and ask any questions, and then boom, it was off to the next one. Kind of like speed dating, right? Remember, like you see like movies with speed dating. It was almost like that, but it was this speed meeting. We just got to meet, and there was a time allotted even for the doctors. You know, that she blocked off time on our schedules, which is like such a like, do not do that. That's the worst thing ever. But we ran with it. We said, okay, you're gonna block off my schedule for about 15 minutes. That's totally cool. And the feedback that we got, I just heard this today was the feedback that we got is the reason she picked our office was because she felt the warmth and she loved that process. Nobody had ever done it. So I thought it would be a good thing to share. It's a win.

Paul Etchison 7:15

I like it. And I feel like when so we do working interviews, and this is something I disagree with my hygiene leader lead on, is that she would do the phone interview. If she likes them, she has them in for the in-person interview. And if she likes them, she has them back for another working interview. And I essentially our working interview is she'll shadow somebody. She may see a patient. Usually they don't see a patient, they're just shadowing. But what's happening is kind of the same thing. Everybody's coming in and meeting them. And I think they, I mean, think about it. If you don't do that, someone's just like meeting the boss and hoping that they like the people they're gonna work with. Like if they could really like blend in that culture and just be like, man, I really like these people. This place seems cool, the energy. I mean, it's really cool. I don't like that my hygienist separates that into a day because I feel like when they're in the office, we need to get them to commit.

Henry Ernst 8:02

I feel like in 2026, I don't want to waste my time with two visits. I may be going to four other places. Yeah. You wanted me to come twice? I would look at that as a big time negative. Right.

Paul Etchison 8:11

You know what? I'm gonna squash this right away. We don't need a hygienist right now. We're actually very blessed. We have 12. So we're we're doing very well. So we're good. But Henry, you know, and I'll just add this for listeners. Henry does assisted hygiene. How many hygienists, Henry? Uh we have about eight right now. Okay, Henry has eight and I have twelve. And we are seeing roughly the same amount of visits for hygiene. Just want to throw that out there. Non-assisted versus assisted. It's like such a perfect example.

Henry Ernst 8:38

We went over this in our mastermind last time in our in Tennessee. And one other thing is we have to set the stage. Like we do assisted hygiene and we show them what it looks like because there's so much negativity out there in dentistry. If you go on these hygiene threads out there, the hygienists are like, they call it crazy things like double-booked hygiene, accelerated hygiene. So we always like to set the stage too. And this was a good fit, also because this particular person did assisted hygiene. They were used to it. So when they saw that we do it and they saw that we do it the right way, we don't steal the assistant, we make sure that they're they never have to clean rooms, such. Oh, yeah, I'm cool with that. So it was a win-win all with that, too. You're right.

Paul Etchison 9:20

I love it. I love the idea. I think you got to sell yourself. I mean, we we are a product, we are a brand. Steven. I have nodded a lot throughout this first eight minutes. For the listeners, the sun is just coming in perfectly on the side of Steven's face right now. It is. And he is like he is glowing.

Steve Markowitz 9:37

The pastiness of my skin is just repelling right onto you guys. You guys are getting the benefits of I like it, Steve.

Paul Etchison 9:45

It reminds me of like those 1900s ladies that were all sophisticated. They couldn't like tan their skin.

Steve Markowitz 9:50

Yeah, I'm a 1900 lady. You look serene, like milk.

Henry Ernst 9:56

I feel like we're in a mobster movie. We're in a mobster movie, and Steve's about to get interviewed. Like, what's he doing wrong?

Steve Markowitz 10:02

I just want to, I'm gonna put the curtain down. Put him in the class whenever the heck thing down. I'm gonna put that down so I don't blind you guys with the color of my skin. I'm sorry for offending you. I love that milky skin, baby. What I what I was thinking about and why I kept nodding. Maybe you should put that clip on Instagram or whatever, Paul, just me nodding the whole time Henry's talking.

Paul Etchison 10:20

But I'll put a different voice over on it. I'll get you nodding to something.

Steve Markowitz 10:23

You need the AI version, whatever the hell you do in my voice, anyways. So recruiting is just sales. And I remember saying this to my team so many times when we came back from COVID, and it was just harder to find people for every position. People are going somewhere, people are going to work. Why not us? They should come to us. We are really awesome. So part of that is we need to be different. How do we differentiate ourselves? Like Henry, like Henry did and said, how do we differentiate ourselves? And the employee journey starts from that initial phone call. Who's doing those phone calls? What does that sound like? How are they introducing themselves to your office, to your organization? How do you get them in? What does that look like? What does that feel like? What does it look like to get to them from a phone screen to an in-person interview to an offer, from a verbal offer to a written offer? All of these things need to be mapped out so that you can differentiate yourself. And if you can do it quick, you know what those things are. Well, you can find even hygienist and make it happen and close that sale, close that opportunity and turn that prospective candidate into an employee in a day. But the entire process needs to be super intentional. Even if you're a small office that doesn't see a lot of turnover, I still think it's a really worthwhile exercise to go through and be like, all right, how do I reach out to people? When people are in here, what is that employee interview gonna or future boy interview gonna look like? Who do I want to be part of it? And you can engage

Recruiting As Sales From First Call

Steve Markowitz 11:56

your team and make sure they're part of it too, because when you bring someone in, that's gonna change the dynamic. So you want them to be as part of it as they can be. So they can sign off on like, yes, that was a good person. I have to spend 40 plus hours or whatever it is a week with that person. I want to invest in them being part of this team too.

Paul Etchison 12:15

Yeah, totally agree. You know what this made me think of is that there was a time at our front desk where we were really short staffed and we were having, I mean, essentially, everyone's like, why are we so search staffed? Like, I wish we would hire more people, we would do this. And I didn't realize that the front desk was like feeling this until I went and I asked them all one-on-one. But what was interesting is they had no idea that we had had an ad out for like a year, and we were calling on resumes and we just couldn't get anybody to show up. And I thought it was beneficial. I'm like, hey, we are doing our best to find anyone. Do you know anyone? But what was interesting is we went back and we looked at our process and what we were doing on the phone, and it was we just needed a little bit more. We needed to sell ourselves more. So we did, and man, we we had so many more people coming in, so many more options. But still, it was slim pickets. But what was interesting is my team had no idea. They just thought we were being cheap and not giving them the manpower that they need.

Steve Markowitz 13:12

You can so quickly have frustrated team members or lose doctors in your group or in your office if they don't really fully understand that you're trying to get more support there because they just walk in every day and feel like things are just happening to them. So I think that communication is super important.

Henry Ernst 13:29

Yeah, yeah. And I think also talking on the same subject, like before this hygienist even came into our office, how did we get her there? Right? Let's talk about that because I run into this with clients all the time. So if you look at it from the hygienist point of view, you're a hygienist and you're looking for a job in Paul's town, let's say, and you go under Indeed or whatever, and there's like 20, 30, 40 jobs available. How do you pick from all these? It's like you're the best-looking girl in the in the room, and gosh, every guy's staring at you, right? You have to stand out somehow. And I I've had this conversation with clients. Like, if you look at all the other ads, look at every single ad, they all are the same. Hygienist, full-time, blah, blah, blah. Maybe has the starting pick. Write something 100% that's different from everybody else, right? In our office, like we'll have a something like we've done it in the past where we've had something that says, want to join the office that goes that takes the team to the Bahamas once a year. You know, nothing to do with anything else. Or I've had other clients that I've worked with that don't do that with their team. So they have to think of something else. Like, why not write something like, because we have to look at all the things that people are looking at. Private office. That's another one. I want a private office, right? You know, private office, hygiene opportunity, signing bonus, right? I think a lot of us can do a signing bonus nowadays. That's fair. Five, ten thousand dollars, some of it paid in like 60 days, some of it paid in six months. Something that stands out. You got to get the date.

Job Ads That Actually Get Dates

Henry Ernst 14:58

If you don't even get the date, all these other things don't matter. So stand out in the beginning, I think is something key too. Because, like I said, if you go do an exercise and look at your town and look at the hygiene jobs, you'll be amazed on how many there are.

Steve Markowitz 15:11

I know for us, before we even go through the ad stuff, like I know we talk about this all the time, but that's the importance of one-on-ones. Like, I think where when when our team gets surprised that someone quit, that's where we get ourselves into trouble because we know it's going to be 45 to 60 days to fill that position. So now I'm asking, we have the same same amount of work for less people, and they don't know when the end is sight because of the current job market. So to get ahead of it, I know we talk about it on almost every podcast. You have to know how your team is feeling. You have to be able to have a conversation

One On Ones That Reduce Turnover

Steve Markowitz 16:56

with them honestly and say, is there anything that can make your your work life better? Are there things that you don't like what's happening here? Can we just have a real conversation? And you, and it doesn't need to be you, it can be one of your leads or someone or your office manager or whoever you appoint. But someone needs to know actually what's happening. So if there's someone on your team who has potential to put in their notice at any day, they've told their their friends and they're they're gonna show the office and they're gonna leave, like we should probably have an ad up before that that time happens because we know that it's gonna be they're gonna put their two weeks in if they stay that long, and it's gonna be another four to six weeks before we even have anyone in the office, and it's gonna be another 90 days before that person's even fully up and running. That's a long time to put that burden on the team. And it can start, we can get ahead of it by having real conversations and genuine relationships with our team. So I know that's not what we're talking about here with having a consistent interview process and knowing how to start our employee journey, but it's so important because if we don't have that, we're gonna be brought in blind.

Paul Etchison 18:03

Well, I'm telling you, when Henry, when we were in Tennessee for our mastermind recently, Henry did a really deep dive on how he does assisted hygiene into his practice. And like I said, I got 12, he's got eight, we're seeing the same amount of people. I think Henry might even be seeing more hygiene business than than we were. But that's our solution going forward. Is it for you in your office? It well, it's going to be. We don't have to right now, but that's what we've said. And we're gonna utilize that if we need to. And um, I guess I because I like I like how Henry did it. And now the listeners like, well, what did Henry do? And I'm gonna say, hey, if you're looking for doing assisted hygiene in your office, why don't you make a strategy call and go to dental practiceheroes.com/slash strategy. And we're gonna leave it at that. But Henry's got this great stuff, and he's only giving it to the clients, guys, right, Henry? Yes, sir.

Henry Ernst 18:50

That's right.

Paul Etchison 18:51

Henry's got happy hygienists.

Henry Ernst 18:52

We do, we do, and I'm proud of that. And I think we talked about it before, like getting the date, securing the date, maybe through the cool interview process, but then also like keeping the relationship. You got to keep people happy and calibrate them and make sure we're all on the same page. And it's not an easy thing to do when you have lots and lots of hygienists, but it can be done in 2026.

Paul Etchison 19:14

Yeah. To get back on topic, I will say on Indeed, I um ours was like join the best office in the universe, in the galaxy, something like that. It would just, and it's so cheese, but it's like you're right. Like, how do you stand out? I've got an idea for you, Paul. Right.

Henry Ernst 19:29

Oh man, let's get it. Do you want to join a dental team where the owner is literally a rock star? Oh, you know it. I knew you for a long time. And it didn't not till Destin, when we had the mastermind, we did I learn that you were in a band that actually had songs.

Paul Etchison 19:48

Yeah, okay. That's what that's what you're referring to.

Henry Ernst 19:50

You are literally a rock star, and that's like a good conversation starter, right? You're getting the date, you're getting interest for a date. I don't know, just a thought.

Paul Etchison 19:57

It's slightly cringy, though. It's like 25 years old now. Okay, I played this for my daughter, my oldest. She's 15. She was probably 13 at the time. She's like, This is horrible. What is this? I never want to hear it again. Roughly after that, I played it for my nine-year-old. She goes, This is you. And I'm like, Yeah. She goes, This is you. And I'm like, Yeah. She's like, This is the greatest song I've ever heard in my life. And I'm like, Hell yeah, Alyssa. Yeah, that's my girl.

Henry Ernst 20:22

I play one of your songs for my daughter when we were leaving, when we were going to the airport, and she didn't believe me. She didn't believe me that, oh, that guy was in a band. And I played one of your songs that you gave me. She liked it too. I think that's your target audience, brother. Oh, I forgot that I gave that to you.

Paul Etchison 20:34

Oh, okay. Well, what was the name of your band? Second Son was the name of my male band, but I was also in uh one of nothing was the other one. It was two different ones. But you know, truth be told, we opened up for Fuel one time and we opened up for Fallout Boy, but Fallout Boy was like, who's Fallout Boy? They were like literally no one when we opened for them. So those were our two big ones because Fallout Boy was a Chicago kind of thing.

Henry Ernst 20:55

Yeah, that's cool. When we get on the next podcast, your YouTube or whatever numbers are gonna go through the roof now. Everybody's gonna be looking at that now.

Steve Markowitz 21:01

What was the old song? Was that the old song that used to do your outro?

Paul Etchison 21:05

That was my brother's band, actually. That was that's a good song. I love that song. They were really good too. They're on uh YouTube Music and Spotify guys. Hey Leroy is the name of that band.

Steve Markowitz 21:15

Just go back to interview questions because I Yeah, let's get back there. Who starts your interview process for you guys or your own?

Henry Ernst 21:19

Oh, that's a good question. My practice manager weeds them out and has an initial conversation and then invites them into the office. And we haven't done them like we in this case, but we usually do a I think we've talked about on other podcasts where I'll have the leadership team go to lunch with them, not me, and see if they have any weird quirks. You know what we do that with doctors. I feel like we don't do a hygienist just because we want people, like we're not gonna weed out too much. Like once we have a hygienist that passes the sniff test, we're gonna bring them in.

Paul Etchison 21:48

Yeah. Yeah, totally. I agree. So at my office, we do the leads will do for the respective departments. So my dental assistant lead does the dental assistants. And I gotta tell you, man, getting that off the doctor plate is huge. And I don't know why we think that's such a complicated task to do, even just to do a little bit of the weeding out so they I remember doing like phone conversations with prospective resumes and like knowing within like three minutes I didn't want to, but I still talk to this person for 20, 30 minutes because I don't want to hurt their feelings. I don't want to do that. I mean, you could save so much time.

Steve Markowitz 22:24

Do you guys have go-to questions or like questions that you wanna you want everyone to ask? How do you assess culture fit?

Paul Etchison 22:31

Tell me, I want them to ask, like, why are you leaving? Why are you seeking? Why are you looking? And I want to make sure that they don't have that victim kind of attitude and throw their old boss or office under the bus. Like, you can say, like, uh, you know, there was just some culture things that I just didn't really enjoy about that office, versus saying, like, oh my God, the office manager was toxic. Like, I don't want to deal with that. If you say something's toxic, like that's that's my red flag.

Henry Ernst 22:58

Do not say things are toxic to me. I asked the same exact question, and I I look for that too. Like, are we shitting on the other office? But also, I'm trying to fill that void. So, our most recent hygienist, I asked her that same question. I was in my 10-minute little fast and furious little talk there. And she basically said that the office recently has had trouble keeping doctors, so it's affected my pay. There's times where doctors in North Carolina you have to have a doctor in the office for the hygienist to work. So there have been times where I couldn't work a day or two. And what do I do? My my brain jumps right in and says, Well, at our office, you know, we have at least two or three doctors here every single day, like clockwork. Look at our schedule. So I'm like filling that void. So it's a great question, but you can come at it with different ways there. But certainly anybody that craps on another office, that's a red flag. Yeah. Even if things went really bad, they should be respectful. Yeah, I totally agree. What's yours, Steve?

Steve Markowitz 23:50

So I I try to incorporate our values into those questions. So, like, one of our questions are one of our values is find a way to say yes or find a way to yes. So I'll say, like, can you tell me a way where you went above and beyond to find a way to say yes to a patient or a colleague, even if it was hard and just kind of share that story?

Paul Etchison 24:11

If they say no, is that immediately you're done? To that question. If they're like, no, I can't. If they can't even say yes to that, they are done.

Steve Markowitz 24:17

Sometimes though they will say, and I was like, if I'm already vibing with that, with that perspective candidate, I'll share like something for me. I'll try to give them jog their memories or give them my an example. If it's someone that I'm like on the fence and they like can't think of a moment where they went and tried to help a patient, they're probably not going to be good in things that any adverse situation. And maybe I don't want them communicating with our patients anyways. So I just try to incorporate, like I think there's nothing that we do in our our businesses that is that hard. What I really want to evaluate is is this a good person? Are they a values fit? And I need to ask it so many different ways so that I can assess is this someone who's going who I want to trust with our business with our patients.

Paul Etchison 25:05

Yeah. Totally agree. I think it's just to me, it comes down to how does this person make me feel? Do I feel happier or bored or what when I'm talking to this person? I don't know. That's I think that's just me. I don't I'm not gonna go through all those questions. I feel like those, um, I didn't like those questions.

Interview Questions For Values Fit

Paul Etchison 25:20

I don't like, I feel like those are those are weird questions. Well, they're hard to do, but I bet there's value in them. But the thing is, is right now, for me, it's like, are you bubbly? Are you enthusiastic? Cool, you're in. But I will tell you, we have lowered our standards. Yeah, but then if you're having a real conversation, well, I was I was gonna follow it up by saying, like, yeah, we have lowered our standards for I think our acceptance for the interview process because we've been in desperate situations occasionally. And every single time we've done it, we do not lower our standards in the office. And it's like, I just don't know. Like, I it makes so much sense to me. Like, why don't we still weed this out at the interview? But we almost give people the benefit of the doubt. Lately, we have, it seems like.

Steve Markowitz 25:58

So, like, the most important thing when you're hiring someone is humility for us. Like, I want to know that they're cultureable, that they can take feedback. Yeah, it's a normal question to say, like, have you ever had a time where your your manager or your doctor you're working with uh gave you some feedback that you didn't like hearing? Like, what did that sound like? Like, that's not a I'm not so like I'm reading this from a script, but I really would love to hear how they handle themselves when they when someone told them something they didn't like to hear. Like that's I think a normal question in an interview. And if they're like, I don't ever do anything wrong, you know what, everyone else there sucked, but I'm awesome. And let me tell you about that. Like, okay, well, then this is that's a red flag. I don't want to, that's probably not someone who's gonna take feedback well. But if they're like, you know what, there was this situation, or it doesn't happen often, but you know, when anyone, anytime someone told me something, I didn't, you know, I I thought they were telling it to me because they wanted to make sure we were doing the right thing. Like, that's so telling. And they're there for a job interview, they're not there to like show off how manipulative they can be.

Henry Ernst 26:57

It's almost sad, but that reigns true for all positions except hygiene. And hygiene, we're selling ourselves to them. If you have a heartbeat and you have a hygiene degree and you're not crazy, come on down, price is right, come on down.

Steve Markowitz 27:12

Yeah, we're gonna do that. We're gonna do there we go, Paul. So I think there is that transition point in that interview. Once you realize that this is someone that you want to join your team, and you can have some code words, then it goes, I need to go into sales mode. Like, I want them, like I don't need to do the questions, ask me questions. Like, let's get to know me more. So I can start to change those. Once I understand this is someone who's gonna be part that I want to be part of our team, my form of questioning is gonna be much more let me share what is awesome about this place, as opposed to let me see if you're a good fit for us.

Paul Etchison 27:50

That is so true. And I think, you know, we got to wrap this up. We're coming up on time here. But I think one thing worth saying as well is we're talking a lot about hiring, yes. But one of the best installations against hiring is having a great culture to begin with, communicating with your team and making sure that anytime you're hiring for people, it is to expand your office, to grow, to scale, or to that occasionally you're going to have to replace somebody that's maybe moving away or something like that. But I can't tell you, I mean, I think it would be so hard to grow the type of offices that we have if we could not retain employees. So we're talking a lot about hiring, but that doesn't mean to completely overlook the retention piece. One of the biggest takeaways from this conversation is that hiring, it can't be passive anymore. You can't just post the same generic ad as every other office and expect the great people to automatically find you and choose you. And I mean, not in this market. I mean, hygienist got options. They've every single practice around you wants them and is trying to get their attention. So you've got to be more intentional than you've probably been being. So from the first time that they see your ad to the moment that they walk through your door, they are getting a feel of who you are as an office, how you communicate, how organized you are, how your systems are, how your team treats each other, and whether your office seems like a place that they could actually see themselves working. All of the moments matter, just like they do for our patients. They matter for the perspective higher. So they're either going to make somebody more excited about joining your practice, or they're just gonna quietly push them to keep looking somewhere else. So here's what I want you to remember from this one. First, recruiting, it is sales. You've got to give people a reason to choose your office. Second, your hiring process should reflect your culture. So if you say your practice is different, they should feel that difference when they walk in. And third, involve your team. They are so helpful when it comes to hiring. The people already working in your practice are a huge part of why somebody may want to join you. And then finally, I know we're talking about recruiting, we're talking about hiring, but I still think retention matters more than that. The best way to make hiring easier is to build a practice where great people don't want to leave. Because yes, we all need better hiring processes and we can all get better in that, but you also need a better reason for people to stay. And if this episode made you realize that your recruiting process, your hygiene model, or maybe it's just your team culture and your own retention at your office needs to be stronger. That is exactly the kind of thing that we help dentists work through and perfect. So head over to dentalpracticeheroes.com/slash strategy and schedule a free strategy call with me. There will be no pressure on this call. I promise you, you're gonna enjoy it. It's not gonna feel like work. We will have fun and we'll have a conversation about where your practice is maybe getting stuck or what your team needs to do next, or how you can just build a practice that continues to grow that you can be excited about and that's runs without you. That's what we always want for people. So if that's something you're looking for, dental practiceheroes.com/slash strategy. And if you like these practical conversations, you like when we're talking about the things like leadership, hiring, and the real challenges of being a leader of a dental practice today, please leave a five star review. That is one of the best ways to support the show. It helps more dentists find us, and we really, really appreciate it. We really do. So thank you for spending some time with us today. Thanks for being here. Go build something great this week. I really think you've got everything it takes. Get out there and do it. We'll talk to you next time.