You’ve hired a new GP Associate for your dental practice — well done! After all, hiring a GP associate is a large investment of time that will strengthen your practice and grow your revenue. But how can you be sure this relationship will work out? Each new hire presents unique challenges and opportunities when integrating into your practice. Here are some tips to ensure your new hire will succeed:
- Find out their strengths and lean into them. Talk to the provider to see if they’re open to feedback and mentoring.
- If the new GP is just getting warmed up, start them off by gauging their patient communication skills and treatment planning skills.
- Ease them into the practice schedule. Start them off by performing simple exams, x-rays, prophies, and simple restorative procedures. As they become more comfortable with the facility and staff, their confidence will grow.
- Gauge their experience and skills. Offer a Continuing Education budget to help them improve and add unique new skills to the practice. Assign them more complex cases as they grow in expertise.
- Discover their weak spots and empower them to ask questions. Offer mentorship with scheduled case review and treatment plan discussion. Be supportive as they work through challenges.
- Get feedback from your dental assistants and staff on performance. Sometimes they may notice certain attributes that you won’t.
- Give them positive feedback and encourage them to share their knowledge with the rest of the team.
- Evaluate regularly. This will help you identify potential issues early on.
Your new GP Associate is of huge value to your practice. Providing support and encouragement early on will help integrate them into your practice and lead them to become a superstar GP in no time!
If you haven’t found the right GP Associate yet, or are thinking about it finding one, we highly suggest Cloud Dentistry. They are a marketplace for offices and all types of dental professionals to connect for work-hire.
