Top 5 Qualities to Look for When Hiring an Office Manger

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When recruiting an office manager, you’ll need to make sure your new hire has skills including initiative, character, experience, communication and a positive attitude. Making sure you hire based on these traits will put your dental practice and staff on the road to success.

A Healthy Attitude

When the going gets tough, it helps to have someone with a balanced and healthy attitude leading your team. When a patient has a toothache and a low pain tolerance, it’s common that his or her mood may be affected, which can lead to communication struggles between your practice and the patient. Having an office manager that can deal with difficult patients on a regular basis is the difference between a successful practice and one that lags behind the competition.

Taking Initiative Is Part of The Job

Initiative is what will move your practice forward. Sure, you need someone diligent who will dot the i’s and cross the t’s but your practice requires more. An office manager who is willing to go above and beyond the call of duty and do his or her job without your constant direction, can take the weight off your shoulders.

A Hardy Character

Hire a manager with a resilient character who is able to work with difficult patients and vendors.

Employ an office manager with a tough character who won’t go to pieces every time someone complains or who isn’t easily overwhelmed when the phone rings off the hook. Check out the recruits’ EQ before hiring and you’ll spare yourself many headaches in the process.

Experience is Critical

Your dental practice manager is essentially the face of your business, and if that person is inexperienced, it will show. What kind of experience are we talking about? The answer is varied experience, which ranges from your practice management software, finances, and patient records.

It All Starts with Effective Communication

A good dental practice exhibits effective communication, and before you can convey this to the patients, it has to take place internally. An effective office manager can use his or her discretion to gauge which incidents need to be conveyed to you and which can be handled without sounding the alarm.

Of course, for this decision-making to take place it helps if your new office manager is empowered and knows where they stand with you and your dental practice.

Once you’ve decided which traits are most important to you and your practice, structure your interviews so your candidates can effectively demonstrate their capabilities. Ask how they would perform in certain situations and make your hiring decisions based on their answers.