Take the Time to Reflect
Don't Sweep 2020 Under the Rug Just Yet
Yes, you read that right and yes, we too were all too eager for 2020 to come to it’s bittersweet end. And while the ringing in of the New Year was different this year, it did mark the end of a chapter and gave us a blank page for 2021. But what good author finishes a chapter and doesn’t go back to look it over? If you haven’t already, set aside some time to reflect on 2020. Reflecting can be as simple as taking a few moments to yourself. However, if you have someone to do this with you, such as your family or work family you’ll realize there were a lot more positives that came out of 2020 than you may have originally thought.
It seems the news today is filled with negatives, so we wanted to share a few of our brightest moments in 2020 with you.
Take the Time to Reflect
By Rae Senger & Rayanne Johnson
Appreciate What You Learned
2020 was a WILD ride! We saw literally every placement we had on the books from mid-March to the end of May fall off. And then, when offices across the Midwest opened in June, we had more than 1000 hygiene days on the books in the matter of a few days! We had requests for general dentists, endodontists, and orthodontists. To get our staff ready to go back to work during a pandemic, we carefully navigated ADA, CDA, and state guidelines for COVID best practices for infection control. We put processes in place for staff members’ safety and for the safety of our clients’ teammates and patients. We hosted an infection control seminar for our staff and clients, we put together PPE kits for our staff, and we updated our website with ADA and CDC resources. Not only that but we implemented a pre-assignment process for staff to check-in to attest they are in good health to care for patients in your office. It was a HUGE undertaking, but so worth it for everyone’s safety! We feel through all of this, we really got to put all of our OSHA and infection control knowledge to practice, and learned even more along the way.
We also employed the service of steadfast locums who covered for doctors who were at high risk and unable to work. We had providers who stayed on assignment to be the emergency contact during shelter at home mandates. We still have many providers out there covering for their colleagues who have retired or cannot work. And while the wild fluctuations seemed to have evened out, we continue to employ a robust pool of dentists and hygienists who are busy covering maternity leaves, illness, vacations, and transitions. The processes we put in place in 2020 are serving us well as we move into 2021 connecting our staff with your offices.
Reflect on Your Growth
In 2020, we celebrated the addition of SEVEN new corporate team members. Due to the influx of staffing shortages we saw mid-pandemic nationwide, we bolstered our recruiting team to address the ever-expanding hygiene demand! We also now have dedicated staff support to work on our new VBA contract doing veteran dental evaluations in private sector dental offices.
With growth comes change, our past software programs were slowly become less of a go-to and we knew there were better software available to help us streamline many processes. Near the end of 2020, we started the process of creating operational efficiencies by running recruiting, human resources, credentialing, staffing, customer service, staffing operations, and accounting from just ONE computer platform. We are greatly appreciating this change as everyday we learn a new trick that allows us to better serve our staff and clients!
Remember the Small Victories
Small victories are often overlooked in a normal year. But since 2020 wasn’t a normal year, a small victory felt like a ray of sunshine breaking through on a cloudy day. In 2020 we made an investment in technology to improve processes for staff on-boarding, time collection and approval – something we are very excited to be using now. We also helped fill well over 1,400 positions for our clients nationwide! While these are just a quick sentence to read, the behind-the-scenes action our team did is OUTSTANDING!
Lastly, we cannot forget about one of our biggest victories – and while it is not a small victory we are including it in this blog because our award winner didn’t let us know so we didn’t get to do a formal post regarding it… So without further ado, we would like to give a big congratulations to Lisa, our Co-Owner and President, for receiving the Female Entrepreneur of the Year Award from Databird Business Journal. We are so proud of her and all the work she had done. A couple of snip bits from our staff are below speaking true to the impressive woman Lisa is:
“I have had the opportunity to work with Lisa for the past two years. We are in sync when it comes to accomplishing things we need to get done in the office. Lisa is very amicable, driven, approachable, and open to new ideas. When help is needed in other departments, she dives right in to help get the job done. She is very particular about every little detail and is very passionate about her business. When it comes to people in need, Lisa is compassionate and has the biggest heart in supporting the community. I have the utmost respect for her.” – Julie Kopp (Human Resources Coordinator)
“I have been so impressed with Lisa’s unwavering vision to keeping the company successful while keeping our corporate staff feeling as safe and supported as possible during this unique pandemic. I joined the staff in midst of the COVID situation and the culture that Lisa created here of a family feel atmosphere has been apparent even though our socially distanced closed door offices. Her creativity and desire to keep the team cohesive has led to some fun weekly video chats, and Lisa ensured that while we wouldn’t have a traditional holiday party we still shared many laughs together through our webcams. She is the type of person who can smile through her voice and has a way of making everyone she encounters feel welcome. I look forward to seeing where Lisa continues to lead us in the future!” – Adam Stefanik (Recruiter)
Complete Dental Staffing can help you with your bounce back plan.
If you would like to learn more about working with CDS or having our staff in your office, please call 608-492-5752 for more information. Or, email rae@completedentalstaffing.com to let us know how we can help.
