DSOPro: How long have you been doing this, and do you recruit nationwide?

I was recruiting solely in Arizona initially, and now I recruit all over the country. It’s really dense in Texas and the east coast—New Jersey, Virginia, Pennsylvania, and some other states.

I began working in dentistry in 2008 and started job placement assistance in 2016 and recruiting in 2022. I took this position with Squire Dental in January 2024.

DSOPro: Tell us about Squire Dental.

I’m the recruitment lead for Squire Dental. We are a dental partnership group with 20 locations across the east coast and Texas. We’re growing very quickly – it’s definitely an exciting time! I manage the entire recruiting and onboarding process for Squire and our partnered offices.

DSOPro: For which roles are you recruiting, and do you approach them differently?

Anything from the front office to clinical to the leadership team. Because there is a large pool of front office and dental assisting staff available, you sort them by the quality of the candidates, and make sure you reach out to as many as possible because you don’t want to judge somebody by their resume alone. Indeed takes a lot of the enhanced features away from a resume and makes it basic. So, the real key to recruiting success is talking to people and evaluating them from that initial phone call. It does take a lot more time, because you are connecting with so many individuals. This approach goes for any role you’re trying to fill. And you need to be quick about contacting them, getting them on the phone, and then sending them into the office to continue that fast, streamlined outreach.

The office must respond quickly, too. There should be less than a 48-hour turnaround between the office connecting with candidates and getting them in for an interview. This is versus recruiting dental hygienists and associate dentists. There, you’re not working with as large a pool of candidates, so you really need to go deeper into sourcing and finding new avenues to locate those people or their resumes.

Many recruiters will stick with what they’re most comfortable with in terms of outreach. They may rely only on Indeed or their own applicant tracking system (ATS). But if you are, you’re reaching out to the same people too often and coming back with the same result. You’re putting all this effort in, but you’re not getting a return on your time.

The trick is to think outside the box and find new avenues for reaching those providers. It could be a new dental website. It seems like every month there’s a new job board specifically for dental professionals. Make sure you keep up with developments like that so you can reach as many candidates as possible. And as I said earlier, you want to connect with everyone. You should be talking with anybody you get a response from and evaluating them from there.

It’s also important to be a human with them—don’t just slam questions down their throats. Find out if they know all the basic functions and if their personality will mesh with a particular office. Then start expediting the interview process and keep the candidates updated. Today, everything in recruiting must be expeditious. You can’t drag your feet. We live in a time of instant gratification and updates. We can track the progress of a food delivery or an Amazon package, so people want to see that speed and updates within the recruiting process as well.

It’s such an exciting time in their life when they’re looking for a new opportunity. If there is more than a day of silence with no updates, they get nervous. They start looking for other avenues or people to connect with because it’s like they’re feeling rejected even though you’re just working it out. Maybe it’s been a busy day, or you can’t pin down the doctor who needs to be involved. But it’s really important to minimize gaps of time between any part of the interview process, all the way up to the offer. You’re increasing your potential offer acceptance by, honestly, over 60% just by streamlining and providing updates throughout the whole process.

DSOPro: What different approaches do you use when recruiting leadership?

While it still needs to be expeditious, with leadership roles, you must go into more layers during the interview process. They will be managing, directing, and leading so many different teams that you need to make sure you are evaluating them efficiently.

That includes every step, from a simple phone screening to the entrance interview, and panel interviews. I always ask leadership candidates to provide some sort of written interview as well. I want to see how they display themselves in writing because there are so many emails, follow-ups, and recap processes they will need to do effectively both virtually and in writing.

DSOPro: Do you look outside dental for leadership candidates?

I look within the dental community. I love to lean heavily on referrals for any role, especially for leadership roles, because while the dental community is large, it is also very close-knit. You can get a great referral for a leadership role, or any other role in the dental field.

DSOPro: What kinds of changes or improvements have you seen in recruitment techniques?

The biggest changes I’m seeing are about compensation. With inflation, we’re seeing a high increase in compensation across all roles. It’s important to keep up with market trends. If you offer competitive compensation, you’ll get quality candidates.

DSOPro: Are there still major staffing shortages?

I think it’s getting better. You can find quality candidates out there. You still have to look at it as a competitive market, but more candidates are coming in at this point than there were a couple of years ago.

DSOPro: Any advice on finding a good fit for your DSO’s culture?

It depends on the office. Every practice has a different personality or culture. We like to do “working” interviews for dental hygiene and assisting roles and have the team spend the day together. We also tag on some personal time. We make sure that the team is sitting down together during lunchtime and talking with the candidate. We evaluate how they are hanging together as a team, so we’re not deciding just based on how they deal with patients. That helps streamline the interview process, while providing a more complete evaluation.

Working interviews might be more difficult for other roles, such as the front office or an associate position. For front desk positions, it’s good to extend the interview to include shadowing someone for an hour or so if possible. Some offices are equipped for that, and for some, it just doesn’t work out.

For associate roles, we encourage the doctors to go out for dinner, a long lunch, or a weekend brunch so they are connecting more on a personal level and talking through clinical protocols and their overall goals for the office. Being outside of the office setting helps align and evaluate the personal fit and your needs.

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