A secretary can make or break any office. A good secretary can keep an office running smoothly even while dealing with any number of problems. On the other hand, a bad secretary can pull down an otherwise impeccable office. This is true regardless of the type of office in question. Because of this, it is vital to hire a secretary of incredible excellence. Thankfully, there are ways to ensure that you are hiring a secretary of the utmost quality. While many of these tips are universal and can be used to acquire the best secretary available, there are also certain aspects that are unique to different industries. Here, we will be discussing specifics as well as general tips to help you find an excellent secretary for a dental office. You will find tips for searching for applicants, ways to narrow down your options, and what to look for in candidates as well as other relevant information.
The first thing that needs to be done is making a list of attributes and qualifications that you will require your new secretary. This can potentially include anything. One thing that should be required of any secretary, especially in a dental office is personability. A secretary in a dental office spends a great deal of time dealing directly with patients. The secretary is the one that speaks to patients over the phone to schedule appointments, review test results, discuss procedures, and many other things. They are also the first person patients talk to when they enter the office, the one to field any initial questions. In this same vein, a great dental secretary needs to be friendly, attentive, a good listener, and an excellent conversationalist. Customer service is the heart of any office and the office secretary is often the heart of customer service. Also, it is important for a secretary to have some skill with numbers. This is important because the secretary is generally the one that handles billing which means that they have to deal with numbers on a regular basis. Because of this, it is important for them to have at least basic skills with numbers. Industry-specific knowledge is also a must. At any given time, medical lingo is flying around a dental office and any in the middle of the conversation is expected to understand what is being said. Therefore, it is vital to find a secretary that has, at the very least, a cursory knowledge of medical lingo and other technical information. Also, potential patients will need to be able to receive directions and other information, which means that the secretary should have a decent knowledge of the area. People will often be searching for a dentist in a specific area, for example, they might be having trouble finding a dentist in midtown manhattan they will find the office number and ask the exact area when the office is located.
Once you know exactly what you want out of your new secretary, you can begin your search. The best to start is by taking a bit of time and spending a bit of effort on preparations.
For example, many businesses find it extremely helpful to create a separate email account dedicated to nothing more than receiving applications and resumes. This way they will all be in one place and you do not have to be concerned with losing some in the midst of other daily emails. if you decide to take this route, be sure to use a similar address to your regular office email with the addition of a reference to employment, job opportunities, or applications. Also, it is incredibly helpful to create a spreadsheet that you can use to keep track of applicants and information related to each one. The beauty of using a spreadsheet is that you can add as many sections as you need to and label them any way you choose. You can add any pertinent information and highlight any section. Spreadsheets are very versatile while still remaining structured. It is also recommended to create a file on your office computer where you can store all digital applications, scan in any physical ones, and keep your spreadsheet along with any other relevant documents.
After you have completed all of your preparations, you can begin the actual search. Because this is not the type of position that can be filled by a telecommuter or freelancer, you will have to stick with methods of reaching local citizens. Once that meant relying solely on newspapers and posted flyers, but now there are many options for finding a dentist now. To get the biggest response, it is best to use a mixture of traditional methods and modern methods. The more methods you can utilize the more responses you are bound to get. First, place ads in all local newspapers. This is an incredibly analog method, but it is still extremely effective. Also, most newspapers have a digital version which means that your ad will be seen both by those that read physical newspapers and those who solely rely on digital methods. Next, you need to utilize online job boards. This will allow you to reach locals looking for a job as well as people from other locations that are planning on moving to your area and are looking for a job to start once they arrive. There are quite a few different job boards to choose from, look for the most popular ones to place your ad on so that you will be certain that it will get a great deal of traffic.
Social media is also a fantastic tool to utilize when looking for someone to fill a position. Some platforms such as Facebook are now offering their own job boards where companies can post openings and users can apply directly from the platform. Also, there are often many groups within social media platforms that are dedicated to certain professions as well as those that are specifically for a certain profession within a certain geographic area. Any of these have the potential to be of great help.