We’re pleased to announce that 2023’s “Powering Dentistry’s Growth: The Definitive Dental HR Conference” will be held October 13-14, 2023 in Denver, Colorado, at the Embassy Suites Downtown.
We look forward to welcoming you this year for more relevant, timely, and valuable thoughts and strategies from the leaders in dentistry and human resources. The event’s agenda and lineup of world-class speakers is listed below. Please feel free to reach out at any time with questions!
See you there!
Course Descriptions
The Traditional Performance Review is Dead
Presentation by – Jennifer Schultz
(Managing Performance in a More Effective and Contemporary Way)
Performance reviews are often seen as the dreaded, procrastinated conversations that leave both parties feeling unheard and frustrated. While the intention is good; the outcome leaves a lot to be desired.
Yet without self-motivated team members, it is challenging to run a great practice. Today’s workplace requires a new, more relevant, meaningful, and productive approach. A new method of goal setting, ongoing feedback, and accountability is the contemporary method of choice for effective performance management.
In this session, you will learn why traditional performance reviews are dead, and how to confidently and effortlessly communicate with your team members in a way that motivates and inspires them to achieve objectives, goals, and desired growth.
You will also learn:
- Successful ways for communicating (dialoguing) and monitoring performance
- How to implement a mutual goal/feedback model for performance management
- Ways to monitor and track performance that produce positive outcomes and instill accountability
The personal insights gained will help build a more effective workforce by opening and enhancing lines of communication, resolving conflict more effectively, creating more productive and cooperative teams and self-motivating people to follow through and achieve their potential.
Pre-Employment Assessments: Increasing the Odds and Stacking the Deck in Your Favor
Presentation by Fran Pangakis & Robyn Reis
No management function is more critical than the ability to hire, train, motivate, and effectively manage qualified and competent people.
- Ever wonder what you could do to increase your success in choosing a new team member?
- Ever wonder how to discover whether an applicant really has what it takes to be successful?
- Ever wonder what you could do to take the guesswork out of hiring?
Pre-employment assessments represent a proven way to fast-track the “get-to-know” and go “behind-the-scenes” stages with prospective new hires. Incorporating pre-employment assessments increase hiring success to 75%, reduce turnover and minimize employee-related stress.
Web-based, user-friendly assessments quickly evaluate an applicant against a known composite profile for high achievers in the same type of position, i.e. hygienist, assistant, or administrative. The benefit to you is an accelerated insight into evaluating job applicants with competencies and personality traits that are needed for job success in your practice.
This presentation will help you:
- Understand the ‘why” of pre-employment assessments
- Know how and where to incorporate pre-employment assessments in the hiring process
- Focus on attitude, compatibility, emotional intelligence, and “fit” within the practice
- Incorporate job-specific core competencies to stack-the-deck in your favor
- Know which “hiring” tools are legal and valid for use in recruiting and hiring process
Trust or Bust
Presentation by Cindy Ishimoto
Trust is the life blood of any relationship. Trust is the essential foundation of a healthy, high-performance organizational culture. And trust, therefore, is a precondition and essential element for establishing a high-performing dental team.
While ensuring a safe and trusting work environment is a foundational principle, it is often ignored. When people feel trusted, believed in, partnered with, involved, and have increasing responsibility, you have people who are more engaged and will want to perform at their highest level.
It may seem like an abstract or emotional concept, but trust can actually be understood, and achieved, as a process. Now for the hard part; how can you go about building it? Join us to learn:
- Key elements for establishing and building trust
- How is trust lost? Can it be rebuilt? How?
- The value of trustworthy behavior
- The difference between trust and loyalty
Dentistry's Revolving Door
Presentation by Cindy Ishimoto
Have you ever considered that retaining employees might be a better business strategy than constantly finding new ones? The turnover you experience is “data” you can evaluate. And a more truthful look at the “why” is of fundamental importance for long-term success.
Simply blaming a lousy economy, COVID, or bidding wars for employees does you no good. Yes, these are contributing factors and can cause stress, but buying into them only keeps you stuck and does not represent action to improve or fix the human capital challenges facing practices today.
Turnover creates a shift in team culture, work inefficiencies, difficulty aligning priorities, confusion around expectations, difficulty communicating, and difficulty building or maintaining trust; all detrimental. A dental practice’s focus must be to stop spending on attraction and instead focus on retention.
Leaders who create more leaders increase the capacity of their practice to change and grow. Having a team of leaders increases agility, efficiency, and effectiveness. So, it stands to reason that focusing on creating a group of self-directed leaders is an investment in expanding the ability of the practice to succeed.
During this presentation, you will learn:
- Root causes of turnover
- Strategies that ignite employee passion, engagement, and long-term retention
- What prevents teams from having a high-performance workplace
- Principles for creating leaders
Compete With Culture: Building a Practice Worth Working For
Presentation by Kara Kelley
In an era where quality team members seem to be in high demand but in short supply, dental practices are finding it difficult to compete for top talent. When the cost of everything is increasing – and insurance reimbursements are decreasing – how do we survive in a tight market? It’s more important now than ever before to make our practice culture a positive part of our employer brand.
Learning Objectives:
- Understand how your practice culture impacts your bottom line.
- Learn best practices for attracting and retaining talent in the post-pandemic environment.
- Reimagine how you onboard and train new hires – and keep them!
- Understand the benefits of benefits and what team members are expecting.
- Know what motivates your team members, the role of practice leaders in the psychological contract, and how to communicate expectations for a successful team.
It’s Time to Implement a Bonus and Incentive Plan that Works!
Presentation by Tim Twigg
Does this sound familiar? You’d love to pay employees more, but you worry about affordability and the bottom line. You try to implement change to accomplish your goals, only to be met with resistance, resentment, and/or back-biting from those your success relies upon?
A well-implemented bonus plan is a proven way to overcome these challenges. Simply put, bonus plans are not about people not doing their jobs, but rather about a way in which everyone, through accomplishing more, shares in the growth and financial success of the practice.
During this presentation, you will learn the “whys” and “wherefores” of implementing a successful bonus and incentive plan in your practice, including:
- Common bonus plan pitfalls and how to avoid them
- How a well-implemented plan protects the practice’s cash flow and overhead
- Components of an easy-to-use, understand, and administer plan
- Shifting from an all fixed payroll to a combination fixed-variable model
- Creating a stakeholder mentality with “psychic ownership”
With a good bonus plan, employees know what it takes to make more and you are secure knowing that staff overhead will not increase without a corresponding increase in profits. With a good plan in place, you will be smiling every time you issue bonus checks.
Employee Engagement
Presentation by Adrienne Twigg & Kay Huff
News flash: Hiring new employees takes a lot of time, is expensive and stressful!
Employee engagement has been shown, time and time again, to be a positive factor in long-term retention, thus reducing the need to recruit and hire
The question is: Is working in your practice rewarding, fun, and fulfilling, in other words, “engaging” for everyone, including you? How much conscious effort goes into employee engagement that supports those things?
Successful practices have an established budget for employee engagement. They know the benefits and return-on-investment are well worth it and that an engaged workforce, i.e. team, today is the true competitive edge. These same practices proactively work to increase employee engagement, providing employees with a greater sense of purpose and belonging.
Join us to learn:
- What is meant by employee engagement
- How do you benefit from better employee engagement
- Strategies for increasing the level of employee engagement
- The relationship between employee appreciation and recognition, and employee engagement
How To Lose A Team In 90 Days
Presentation by Geri Gottlieb
The data today on employee retention is pretty bleak. In fact, the data tells us that 75-85% of employees “quit” within the first 90 days! Organizational success is about people’s success. And when it comes to people’s success, hiring is only half the battle. The other half is retaining them. How we welcome in and onboard our new team members is critical.
Good people are necessary to consistently deliver the quality care and the culture you strive for – you can’t do it alone. Finding good people and retaining good people is more challenging than ever. Just throwing money at the problem won’t solve it or make it go away.
Statistically, when effort (time and energy) is put into effective onboarding, increased job satisfaction, performance, engagement, and long-term employee retention result. That’s a smart use of your time and energy—that’s a smart investment!
During this session, participants will learn:
- How to successfully onboard with multiple generations – Like the pros do it
- Building blocks of successful onboarding
- Key questions for developing a robust onboarding program
- Important onboarding considerations when merging or acquiring practices
Join us for an informative, fun, and fast-paced presentation. You will come away with a ‘blueprint’ or framework for your own improved, more and successful onboarding process. Including insights and ideas for more effective onboarding, people success, employee engagement, retention, and resulting organizational success.
Developing Your Talent
Presentation by Eric Vickery
Nothing contributes to a practice’s consistent, long-term success like a truly effective and cohesive team.
Developing your talent (yours and others), along with talent retention, are fundamental aspects of achieving that success. Gone are the days of being able to hire perfect, already experienced and talented team players. Without an effective and cohesive team, patient care suffers, stress levels are high, and the bottom line is negatively impacted.
Successful practices identify and develop talent, individually and collectively. Join us as we explore key elements that contribute to talent development and talent retention—thus avoiding the emotional and financial toll of turnover—and creating greater long-term results, elements like:
- Why develop ourselves and others?
- Overcoming obstacles that get in our way
- Developing a “Champion Mindset”
- Understanding the Results/Growth formula
- Becoming a more confident and effective you
Coveted employees aren’t interested in working for practices that don’t provide motivation, growth opportunities, or trust. Successful practices today provide employees with a sense of purpose and belonging. You will come away from this presentation excited and motivated, with greater self-initiative and desire to grow and succeed.
Panel — Learning from the Experts: What Does the Future Hold for the Dental Profession?
Panel — Learning from the Experts: What Does the Future Hold for the Dental Profession?
Help is here, and talk about a powerful panel! What does the future hold for practitioners today? We are convening a panel of experts on the topic of: What Does the Future Hold for the Dental Profession?
It is a great time to be in dentistry. Dental care continues to be elevated as one of the most important aspects of whole-person health, and digital technology is improving patient outcomes. Independent dental practices are thriving and both large and small DSOs are growing alongside them. There remains huge potential for innovation, improving patient care, and growth opportunities.
Join us for a high-level strategic panel discussion about the future. Not only will we gain from the insights and perspectives shared by our panelists, attendees will also be able to get answers to specific questions and/or concerns, and get ideas to help develop strategies to make decisions for a more secure and sustainable future.
Moderated by Tim Twigg
Panelists:
- Chuck Cohen, Managing Director, Benco Dental Company
- Abe Kasbo, CEO, Verasoni
- Rick Huot, Founder, Beachside Dental Consultants
- Cindy Ishimoto, Founder, Cindy Ishimoto Consulting
Panel — Learning from the Experts: Benefits Matter!
Panel — Learning from the Experts: Benefits Matter!
Help is here and talk about a powerful panel focusing on Employee Benefits! When it comes to employee benefits, it is important to know the trends and generational considerations happening with benefits.
This panel will dive deeply into best practices and norms. The discussion will include the different types/kinds of benefits to consider (the basics to out-of-the-box ideas). What benefits are expected and wanted, what benefits provide “stickiness”, as well as post pandemic overhead implications.
Gain up-to-date views, insights and strategies, and, most importantly, answers to your specific questions. This panel will help instill a greater understanding about how to be successful in today’s challenging labor market.
Moderated by Tim Twigg
Panelists:
- Tammie Maddy, Certified HR Consultant with Bent Ericksen
- Tonya Lanthier, CEO, DentalPost
- Michelle Allen, Human Resources Specialist, Bent Ericksen
- Steve Adams, Founder, Tiger Medical Institute
- Andrés Romero, CEO of E2E Financial, LLC
Leadership Imitates Life: Lessons from the Stories of Our Lives
Presentation by Shawn Peers
Leadership is a skill that many have not been taught. Yet many in dentistry find themselves as “leaders of people”.
It turns out that life teaches us many of the most important lessons that are essential for effective people leadership. By paying attention to these stories of our lives, we can more readily understand and easily develop many of the positive skills that will make us better leaders. All we have to do is take the time, pay attention, and heed these life lessons, many of which are universally applicable and easy to embody.
Join us to learn how your stories form the foundation for effective people leadership by:
- Sticking to your principles
- Being supportive, yet firm
- Heightening empathy and understanding
- Developing self confidence
The 5½ Secrets to Dental Practice Leadership
Presentation by Chuck Cohen
Leadership is be a tough topic. It’s broad and often difficult to define. Some people believe that leaders are simply born, not made, while others call leadership one of those ‘I can’t define it, but I know it when I see it’ topics.
Leadership takes many forms when owning and running a dental practice. Think of it like wearing different “Leadership Hats” depending upon varying circumstances, for example:
Strategic, Situational, Transactional, and Visionary. And one of the most important is “People Leadership”, which includes Mentor/Coach.
In this session, participants will learn secrets to effective leadership in the dental office, from an industry veteran who has visited more dental offices than he cares to admit. Key components include:
- Why dental practices are different than most other businesses, so dental practice leaders need different skills to be successful.
- Definitions of ‘leadership’ and ‘culture’ that are simple, actionable, and drive change.
- Why effective communication is key to effective leadership, and a few ideas for communicating better with the dental team.
- How to devise a simple people plan that will improve outcomes, culture, and the satisfaction of team members.
- Why long-term thinking is the secret weapon in dental practice leadership
Tentative Schedule
Friday, Oct. 13 – Day 1
| 7:30 AM | Registration |
| 8:15 AM | Welcome & Opening |
| 8:30 AM | Dentistry’s Revolving Door – Cindy Ishimoto |
| 9:30 AM | Leadership Imitates Life: Lessons from the Stories of Our Lives – Shawn Peers |
| 10:00 AM | Break |
| 10:15 AM | Pre-Employment Assessments: Increasing the Odds and Stacking the Deck in Your Favor – Fran Pangakis & Robyn Reis |
| 11:15 AM | Break |
| 11:30 AM | How To Lose A Team In 90 Days – Geri Gottlieb |
| 12:45 PM | Lunch |
| 1:45 PM | Trust or Bust – Cindy Ishimoto |
| 2:45 PM | Break |
| 3:00 PM | Developing Your Talent – Eric Vickery |
| 4:00 PM | Break |
| 4:15 PM | Panel: Benefits Matter! |
| 5:15 PM | Closing & Wrap |
| 5:30 PM | Reception |
Saturday, Oct. 14 – Day 2
| 8:00 AM | Welcome Back |
| 8:15 AM | 5½ Secrets to Dental Practice Leadership – Chuck Cohen |
| 9:00 AM | Compete With Culture: Building a Practice Worth Working For – Kara Kelley |
| 10:15 AM | Break |
| 10:30 AM | It’s Time to Implement a Bonus and Incentive Plan that Works! – Tim Twigg |
| 11:30 AM | The Traditional Performance Review is Dead – Jennifer Schultz |
| 12:30 PM | Lunch |
| 1:15 PM | Employee Engagement – Adrienne Twigg |
| 2:15 PM | Panel: Future of Dentistry |
| 2:30 PM | Break |
| 3:15 PM | Closing & Wrap |
Speakers
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Thank you all for joining us in 2022!
