You Get What You Pay For-Payroll Structure, Bonus And Keeping Teams Compensated

Turn your solo practice into a million dollar-plus practice. Scale with the best teams using pay structures that pay the dentist first

Turn your payroll into a profit center

Doctor Larry worked on cutting expenses to be more profitable. He looked at front desk personnel first, trying to shrink those salaries. What he really needed to do was structure the roles at the front desk better—to make the positions he so desperately needed pay off. He needed to do that across his payroll. But he could barely get what he needed to get done chairside. How on earth could he set in motion a payroll that pays off?

Example: Phone phenomena

You shouldn’t have one person answer the phones, fill the schedule and work on treatment plans without attaching some kind of payoff for high-quality behavior in these roles. Here is a better work breakdown:

  •       A phone receptionist who must have a percentage of calls end up on the schedule to gain a bonus. He is trained to script to make sure this happens. Do you have time to do this? Probably not. Here’s where front desk managers come in.
  •       A front desk manager who is trained on the goals of her teams. They can self-diagnose and will fix what happens if they don’t get a bonus. They’re outcome-based and self-directed to hit a daily number.
  •       A person in charge of treatment plans who knows what they mean, how to gain sign-off and when the patient has questions, this person follows up with the doctor and gets an answer. This position pays for itself in a higher percentage of case acceptance—often within months.

 

Bonus round

Profits aren’t simply arithmetic. You can’t subtract expenses from production like many practice leaders think. Fact is, office expense in the form of salaries is a measurable, functioning unit that is not a simple expense. The example of a team leader is a good one. Team leaders create profits—their salary can pay for itself many times over if they are given the tools they need to succeed in their role. And when they succeed, they bring home a bonus docs will be happy to pay.

Most doctors look at production, collection and bank balance as the bellwether for how they are doing. If they are working with payroll as strictly an expense, they haven’t trained the people working there to get a return on their salary higher than they could have ever dreamed.

NextLevel dentists create a measurable plan for payroll, including bonuses for employees who are hitting goals. Accountabilities for each salary means an investment in that person will pay off many times over.

What payroll is and isn’t

Payroll isn’t writing a check every two weeks. Payroll is an investment into a process that is not an office expense. It leads to profits.

Docs tell us they are hiring more people and paying them more because the supply and demand for good dental professionals is crazy right now. The extra $3 – $4 you have to pay isn’t a drain when you work with the structure NextLevel teaches you. Learn how to measure each position to see the return on investment for team leaders, assistants, hygienists and more.

Am I paying too much? Too little?

Gary Kadi likes to say that most practice leaders are stepping over dollars to pick up rolls of pennies. Figure out how to reverse engineer how much you need to do per month, per day, per team member and factor in how much each provider wants to work and the time off they need to live their best life. Payroll overhead should be 25% in general. Do these numbers make sense? If not, call us today. It will make so much more sense after a free consultation. Before you hop on your free call, watch the webinar, Hiring, Payroll & Bonus Systems – Are You Managing It or Is It Managing You? YOUR Payroll & Bonus Questions Answered.