Orthotown December 2022 - 24

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fesdds
Member Since: 05/22/08
Post: 12 of 48
I am very generous when it comes to allowing days off and adjusting the schedule because
my employees have a desire or need to go on a trip and buy many lunches throughout the year,
etc. But I would watch paying for a lot of unworked hours.
I used to do the same the fi rst three years in practice. If my staff had everything done, I told
them they could leave early on our short days or days I was out of the offi ce. I would still make
sure they made their minimum of 32 hours (four-day-a-week practice). They became used to that
after several years and there was more staff, and when I was not there they got a little lazy. They
worked hard when I was there, but not when I was gone. After I was out of the offi ce for three
business days in a row, I came back and many little things were not accomplished. Guess what,
everyone had worked less than a full day, every day.
At our next morning huddle, that ended. I let them know that they would be paid only for
hours they are clocked in and working. They felt bad and understood, and now six years later,
two of those three girls are still with me and there was no love lost. Unless your staff is going to
stay small, paying routinely for unworked hours could come to be a problem.
They do sound hardworking and effi cient. I was at about 1 : $276,000 last year (four full-time,
two PT, which means they work when I am in the offi ce). I enjoy a tight ship but have been
trying to add another member for months now, but the pool of applicants has been poor. It is
just miserable when someone is out with a sick kid or something. The last time I was actively
looking, we set up four interviews and the fi rst three no-showed or canceled the morning of the
interview. We hired the fourth and she no-showed her start date. ■
1/10/2013
Dr-T
Member Since: 05/19/09
Post: 13 of 48
I had a similar negative experience when I would pay for lunches and be lenient with clocking
out for lunch. Little by little, they started taking advantage of that until it got out of control.
The main thing with your management style is you have to be consistent with all employees.
For example, an employee may ask for the week off right before school starts in the summer.
Then when you say no, the employee may ask why you closed the offi ce for bike week for one
employee, but not for her. ■
1/10/2013
Dr-T
Member Since: 05/19/09
Post: 15 of 48
I think the more important stat is total staff salaries as compared to gross collections. Charlene
White used to set a target goal for staff salaries at 20% of collections, but that was more than
10 years ago. Now competition is up, fees are down and staff salaries are up. Staff salaries also
vary by region as well.
In today's economy, the best way to keep total staff salaries under control is to hire a few
full-time employees and have more part-time employees during busy hours. Employees don't like
this, but good jobs are hard to come by now. ■
1/10/2013
ucla98
Member Since: 09/28/07
Post: 16 of 48
My offi ces don't meet this $200k per employee ratio, either. This is because I charge my
patients way below the national average and I want to see my patients every four (not fi ve, not
six, not eight) weeks. I have zero business loan debt. My offi ce rents are low. I don't have to
waste my money on things like a website, advertisement, Televox automated house calls, practice
management software, digital pan/ceph machine, self-ligating brackets, fancy TMA wires, etc.
Therefore, I don't need to produce a lot. It's not how much your staff and you can produce but
how you control your overhead.
Even at such low collection-to-employee ratio, I can still easily bring home two to three times
more from my own offi ces than from my associate job at a dental chain. Sure, I can improve this
ratio by hiring fewer P/T employees and working longer hours, but I want to work only four
hours a day.
24 DECEMBER 2022 // orthotown.com

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