Snow days and Team Compensation Are You Participating?

Team compensation. Sometimes you have to wonder.

We have been watching dental blogs all week regarding the savage cold weather and how to pay your team when you are closed because of a snow day. We are appalled at the responses from dentists at their seeming lack of concern when it comes to team compensation. Some dentists see themselves as Person in Charge of Quelching Enthusiasm and Loyalty. Team compensation is the least that you can do when it comes to those unavoidable weather closures that will always affect your dental practice.

A jaw dropping comment that one Doctor said really got me shaking my head, “I pay them by the hour. They miss, I don’t pay.” Another said, “We cancelled patients. I have no production. I do not pay my staff for missing work on a snow day.” So much for team compensation.

Instead of responding in scarcity, let’s come from abundance in thinking. Pay them their wages. It’s weather. They are trying to keep warm and care for their family just as you are. Did you go without pay for the day? I can bet you didn’t.

What is sad for me is the attitude of Doctors about their staff. We cannot call this a team, as clearly, the Doctor is not a cheerleader for his or her team members. When you do look at your W-2 forms as to how much an assistant makes per year, every day is vital to their survival. Those missed snow days can go along way when it comes to living day to day.

By paying them for snow days, hurricane days and tragic times, they will pay you back with loyalty, being more focused. When you pay for missed days, your team will begin to see you as a real leader who cared about them. No, this is not written into their contract. This is a gift from you, and yes, taxes are required to be paid regardless if it is a gift or not.

Unless every day is booked to goal for the next several weeks, losing production for several snow days can easily be made up. If you were not booked to goal, why not? At Blatchford Solutions, we coach our dentists helping them book to goal each and every day. The difference between dentistry and other businesses is that patients who were scheduled on snow days can and will come in during the next few weeks. You will have some higher production days and require your team to be on their toes. If you paid your team for days missed due to weather, they will happily press the metal for you.

If you chose not to pay them during snow days, they will resent you and your stingy attitude. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a mutinous situation. Paying your team whether they are in the office or not will go along way when it comes to office morale.

Begin in gratitude. Be generous. It is not in their contract to pay for snow days so they will be very pleased you thought of your team and their families.

Dental practice management includes doing those things that you are not used to doing, and that means paying your team on weather days. You will be amazed at how productive the entire practice will be when you reward your team, even when they aren’t there.

If you would like more information regarding dental coaching or dental practice management, call or click and schedule a no obligation dental management consultation with the team from Blatchford Solutions. Paying team compensation on weather days is just part of the picture.

Call or click today and start seeing more profit in fewer days with Blatchford Solutions. You will be amazed at how much better you will feel about your dental practice.

Call or click now.