How Do I Stop Turnover?

High turnover is one of the most expensive and disruptive issues in private practices today, impacting production, overhead, and the patient experience. Discourse around turnover is typically dominated by hiring challenges, but the deeper issue isn’t finding people — it’s about your culture.

Instead of blaming the market, start looking inward! You’ll find that turnover is often a lagging indicator of deeper internal issues, and though you may think you can solve your problems with hiring, you cannot hire your way out of a culture problem. Instead, you need to create a culture where the right people choose to stay and thrive, by addressing these issues:

Lack of Clarity

When you have no clear roles, expectations, or definition of success, team members are naturally going to feel like they’re guessing or failing. That lack of clarity leaves them wondering if they’re doing a good enough job, so you must create clarity by:

• Establishing your Core Values and keeping them front and center
• Implementing a Function and Accountability Chart to connect ownership to outcomes
• Using data and KPIs to tell the team if they’re winning or where to implement countermeasures

Lack of Consistency

Kirk has often said that “Chronic inconsistency is the signature of mediocrity,” because when the rules change depending on the day, mood, or person, it makes accountability feel unfair, or even nonexistent. You can combat this inconsistency by intentionally building consistency into your practice:

• Hold regular meetings
• Create systems

Systems are particularly powerful, because they enable you to create consistency without relying on memory or mood. Your expectations turn into repeatable behavior, training and onboarding becomes faster and smoother, and accountability shines because you’ve clearly defined the way to do things.

Lack of Connection to Purpose

This is a huge problem, because it makes work feel transactional instead of relational. You must reinforce the bigger “why” behind the practice, so team members don’t feel like robots each day:

• Establish your Core Purpose and keep it front and center
• Show your team how they contribute to your vision for the practice
• Use data to tell the story of how you’re serving your community and taking care of patients

Your team members went into dentistry to change lives, so help them!

Avoidance of Conflict

Conflict avoidance is a disease, because it makes issues linger, frustration build, and your culture quietly erode away. No one enjoys conflict, but avoiding it compounds the problem, so you must learn to approach it with the right mindset:

• Foster productive conflict by encouraging the mindset that engaging in conflict conversations builds trust
• Use communication tools like the Awareness Wheel to approach tough subjects
• Reward consistently when team members meet expectations, and correct consistently when they do not
• Use your Core Values as the third party in conversations

Ultimately, people don’t stay because of the perks. They stay because they feel clear, valued, and part of something meaningful. Hiring is only half the battle, because if you aren’t creating an environment where people can thrive, they won’t stay.

You can get started today with one simple question to your team: “What’s one thing we do here that makes it harder to love working here, and what’s one thing we can improve starting this week?” Take that first step, and from there, make incremental progress on these four root causes — over time you’ll create a culture your team will never want to leave!

To learn more about ACT and how we can help you build a Better Practice and a Better Life, visit us at www.actdental.com!

Tune in next time and learn how to make your practice reflect who you are!