Now, before you get too excited, I’m sorry to disappoint you but Hive Business are not going to be doing their own version of Love Island. We asked around the office and, although there was some initial excitement about the concept of a dating show for dentists, we didn’t think that any of the major networks would buy into the working title of “Your Palate or Mine!” so we’ve shelved the idea for now!

In truth, I want to talk about finding (and keeping) the perfect employee. Someone that will go above and beyond for your practice. Someone that will sing your praises from the rooftops. Someone that will help you to achieve your goals whether that be better overall performance, an influx of new patients, or an improved patient journey.

Ross recently wrote about the post-COVID “Great Resignation” and how the work/life balance is less important to individuals as they now want more from life in general. With that in mind, how can you attract (and keep) new employees and get them to integrate your practice into their own lives?

It might be common sense but here are a few things to keep in mind when looking for new perfect match:

• Are you attracting the right type of candidates? Make sure you’ve explored all the different recruitment avenues. Indeed.com has its place but so do recruitment agents. Many professional individuals are now more inclined to go through agents as it’s easier for them – there’s no need for them to hunt through the job pages of the local newspaper and send out 101 copies of their CV as the agent deals with all of that for them. Similarly, an agent will only send you appropriate candidates based on your given criteria so it could also save you some of the initial CV sifting that inevitably comes from advertising to the public. Another good source of applicants may be to ask your existing workforce for help. Offering a recruitment bonus for referring a friend may be an incentive plus, with this method, it’s likely that the applicant will be already familiar with the practice and may have an easier time integrating with the team since they are already known to at least one of the other existing employees.
• Does your practice look like a nice place to work? Your practice should have a clear brand and identity and it should be reflected on your website and across all social media platforms. Not only is this important to attract new patients but it’s likely to be the first place that potential new employees will look at when considering applying for a job with you.
• Does the applicant really want the job? Whether you’re interviewing for a trainee dental nurse or a new practice manager, make sure that the individual is eager, focussed and that they’ve done their homework.
• Will the applicant fit in with your existing employees? Do your own homework. Don’t take the applicant’s CV at face value and make sure to check out their own social media presence and obtain references from previous employers. You need to be looking for like minded individuals who’ll match the practice (having a budding influencer might appear to be a good idea in the short term but will their attention be focussed on the job or building their own following).
• What can you offer new employees? It goes without saying that you need to be offering a competitive salary. Given the current cost of living crisis, individuals will be looking for a good (high) salary, but you need to make sure that the practice can afford the wage bill and still make a profit so do your sums beforehand! There are other benefits that you can offer that should make your job offer that bit more attractive – these are discussed in more detail below.

Now that you’ve found your perfect match, how can you make sure they never leave?! Staff benefits can be a difficult area to navigate so I’ve split them down in two sections – those that are taxable on the employee and those that are tax-free.

First, the taxable benefits – these are normally dealt with through the payroll:

• Salaries and regular pay reviews – The most important point here is “regular” so looking at their pay rate bi-annually (or at least annually) will go far in showing how much you value their work. Consider performance, experience, and inflation but most of all, be competitive!
• Bonus schemes – These could be linked to practice profitability, new patient numbers, treatment sales, employee performance or even just because it’s that time of year (i.e., Christmas or Eid).
• Private medical insurance – Another way to show that you are a caring employer is to provide private medical care for your employees. This could be a costly option though and the employee would have to pay tax on the cost of the premiums.
• Company cars – With the advent of electric and hybrid cars, the tax due on company cars may be less than you think. If this is something that you are considering, get in contact with your account manager and we can discuss it with you in more detail.

Then there’s the other things that you can offer to staff that are tax-free and could go a long way to making your job stand out from the crowd:

• Additional annual leave – The minimum holiday a full-time employee must be given is 28 days per year (including bank holidays) but there’s nothing to say you can’t offer more.
• Higher pension contributions – Since automatic enrolment, providing a workplace pension has been a legal necessity but you could always offer a higher rate of contribution (currently the minimum required contribution by the employer is 3%).
• Flexible working arrangements – Being able to work around your employees homelife may mean staff are more committed to you and your practice. The ability to work from home or reduced working hours to assist with childcare are ways in which you can help them and, in the long term, to help you.
• Reimbursement of professional subscriptions – Provided these are work-related subscriptions and appear on HMRC’s list of approved bodies, their reimbursement is tax-free.
• Provision of a mobile phone – You can provide employees with one mobile phone tax-free provided the contract is between you and the supplier.
• Keep the kitchen stocked – Providing hot drinks and water at work are tax-free (and if you provide staff with the odd packet of biscuits here or there we won’t tell if you don’t!)
• Provision of a bike – Lending or hiring bikes for bikes is also tax-free provided they are available to all employees and mainly used for getting to work (this includes e-bikes).
• Reimbursement for parking – Another tax-free benefit is the reimbursement for parking at / near your practice or the provision of a parking space. Very handy if your employees have to commute to the practice each day!
• Throw a party – Provided the total cost of all parties in one year is less than £150 per head and each party is open to all employees, it is a tax-free benefit.
• Give them a gift – Known technically as trivial benefits, these are tax-free provided they cost you less than £50, are not a reward for their work or performance and they are not mentioned in their terms of contact. Something like a bunch of flowers on their birthday or an Amazon voucher at Christmas would be tax-free.

As you can see there are several ways to make your job offer the most attractive and similarly several ways to keep the good employees working for you for years to come. If you’d like further information regarding staff benefits or about our payroll services in general, please get in touch.