No team member should have to ask for an increase when they have clearly earned it

I talk about the value of team members all the time. I can’t stress enough how important it is to be able to clearly identify the employees that pull their weight “and then some.” I’m referring to those employees that get as much or possibly more satisfaction than you do when they can see their efforts paying off.

I recently worked with my wonderful “work sister”, Cyndee Johnson of scaler2schedule fame, and assisted one of her clients with a couple of team dilemmas. In this case the client believed that one of his business office personnel was not managing her post very well and with that, he asked that we review the additional office employee whom he thought was having her own difficulties with insurance filing and billing. These happened to be her primary responsibilities.

Upon conducting our usual due diligence, it was quite easy to see that there were even bigger problems than anyone expected, but the proof was in the numbers, and with comprehensive research we uncovered a myriad of unsettling issues.

Pre-determinations were filed, approved and tucked away with no appointments scheduled and apparently no follow-up calls even made to those patients that had their paperwork submitted and returned. There were 9 pages of problematic insurance issues that were never addressed where many simply needed an additional x-ray or even a simple narrative. Some claims that were discovered dated back to 2015!

Then there were the statements that had not been generated for a couple of months. And did I mention the major ADA code discrepancies? These were bogus codes obviously fabricated by past employees that were used periodically and sat in the system for years. No one seemed to know the origin of this.

Once we delivered our findings to the doctor (and administered his CPR), I knew it was time for us to now take charge and get his practice back on its feet again. Unfortunately, we had to dismiss the 2 team members, but we had clear documentation that they couldn’t defend, and apologized for not asking for help. They left the practice with the understanding that it was time.

To support the doctor, he like so many others in my experience hired quickly without properly checking to be sure the knowledge required to fill the positions was present. He also neglected to check on status, reports, numbers, etc. He loved his dentistry, was good at it, and felt he could count on his team to handle the business segment of his practice efficiently. This too is not uncommon. No strong hiring protocols, hiring with no formal systems, no information tracking, no period reviews and basically assuming all would be well.

I knew the caliber of candidates we needed to locate, and although it took about 6 weeks to find two great team members, the 2 we were fortunate to find were both perfect for the position. Both had ideal skill sets, terrific attitudes and worked extremely well together! We conducted our interviews with all my “road tested” systems in place, dotted all of our “i”s and crossed all our “t”s. Yes, it took time, but it was so worth it.

Here we are 2 weeks into the Superstar Front Office Team’s partnership and I got a report today. You see, we track the progress and we make sure the team members track their activities as well. We look at the challenges acquired and meet them head-on.

The main concerns were the time-sensitive issues, such as insurance re-filing. I spoke with the person who is managing the insurance this morning, and in only 2 weeks time she has recovered $6,000 of back claims and took the print-out list down from 9 to 7 pages! She has managed more in two weeks than the prior business team handled in 2 years. They actually moved the production back rather than forward.

This is an example of how increases are deserved and earned without a second thought or hesitation from the employer. My Progressive Salary Program is built around this premise and Suzie (not her real name) hit her first benchmark, exceeded her first goal, totally hit it out of the park . So…Suzie’s next pay check will reflect her first 2-week increase!

Deb Roberge has been coaching and writing about dental team development and related areas for the past 25 years. During her onsite visits to numerous periodontal practices, she quickly recognized the very specific challenges that were prevalent in this particular specialty. She felt it was important to step up and support not only these clinicians, but the team members that work alongside of them, as well as the referring generalists and their teams. Ourperioteam cloud-based software was created with Deb’s input along with perio practices and teams across the country. OPT is changing the way both periodontists and their referring generalists interact, as well as how they measure their mutual successes.