Nurture A Safe Haven For Your Dental Team

By Dr. Reuben Sim

When we talk about being a patient-centric haven at Dental Boutique, we’re not just throwing around buzzwords. Every member of our team wholeheartedly embraces this vision. 

Achieving a truly patient-centric environment, where every staff member goes above and beyond for the betterment of the patient’s experience, demands something that may seem counter-intuitive to many. 

It begins from within – ensuring your staff members are well cared for, feel safe, and work in an environment that cherishes and protects them. It’s the secret sauce behind not just happy customers but also the booming revenue that follows. 

The success of a patient-centric practice hinges on your team’s shared understanding, belief, and perception of its significance. At the core of this ethos lies the paramount task of establishing a sense of safety for every team member, from the helm to those just stepping through your doors.

Strategies for Building a Safe and Unified Team

At Dental Boutique, we go beyond open-door policies, ensuring our team members receive clear, targeted invitations to share their perspectives. From town halls (we call them Culture Days) with predefined topics to periodic one-on-ones focusing on critical insights, our invitations are structured, explicit, and designed to extract valuable input. 

This proactive approach ensures we hear diverse voices and don’t miss crucial aspects of our evolving landscape. Our primary focus is to design a team that fosters a sense of belonging and unity, emphasising that we are all part of a shared journey. 

We employ various strategies to achieve this goal.

Morning and Daily Briefings: We organise daily briefings with each department to create a communal atmosphere where managers and team members collaborate closely. New members quickly sense the community-oriented problem-solving approach, fostering confidence in expressing their opinions.

Team-building Activities: In addition to daily interactions, we introduce team-building activities and holidays to strengthen the sense of unity. After the first week, new members are interviewed to gather their impressions and suggestions, contributing to a culture where every voice is valued.

Positive Leadership: Our leadership team plays a crucial role in cultivating this environment. Feedback and discussions are framed positively, emphasising improvement rather than blame. This approach ensures that team members, regardless of their role, feel empowered to voice their opinions, contributing to continuous improvement and a positive work culture.

Pulse Point Surveys: Two weeks into a new team member’s tenure, we conduct a “Pulse Point” survey — 10 to 15 questions about their experience. This serves as a regular checkpoint, providing an additional avenue for anonymous expression, supplementing daily interactions. It’s a tool that ensures our finger remains firmly on the pulse of our team’s sentiments.

Sustaining Momentum: Culture Days and Leadership Training

Creating a safety net, akin to a family, involves investing in meaningful connections. Our quarterly Culture Days bring together our diverse team, ranging from dentists to students, nurses, administrative staff, and consultants. 

Though the interstate team has grown, we’ve adapted, now organising location-based Culture Days. Despite the logistical challenges and expenses incurred — transportation, hotels, food, and activities, not to mention the loss in revenue and associated costs of closing all the clinics on that day — we view this as a crucial investment in the foundation for patient experience.

Leadership Training: Equipping Leaders for Success

Leadership is the lighthouse guiding our ship through the dynamic waters of dentistry. To sustain the positive momentum, we conduct annual leadership training for all leaders across various sites. This training, spanning practice managers, team consulting leads, clinical leaders, and front office leaders, emphasises communication skills and the importance of a supportive and respectful workplace. 

Retreats lasting one to two days provide our leaders with the necessary tools to manage team members effectively, contributing to the overall success of Dental Boutique.

This ongoing commitment to training reinforces the understanding that a supportive and respectful workplace is essential for cultivating a positive team culture.

Investing in People, Investing in Success

While some may view our commitment to creating a safe and positive work environment as an expense, I see it as an essential investment in the foundation for patient experience. 

A cohesive team, nurtured in an environment of safety and belonging, is crucial for realising their full potential and ensuring the continued success of Dental Boutique. Periodic reminders and boosts, akin to personal rejuvenation through holidays, are essential to sustaining this positive momentum and reinforcing our commitment to the well-being of our team members.

In the end, our success is not just measured by the advanced technology within our practice but by the empowered, engaged, and unified team that forms the heart of Dental Boutique.