Building a winning TEAM incentive program (aka Bonus Structure)

Why incentive program is important? In the last 6-8 months I visited a lot of practices across the country and it's always surprising to me that doctors have same if not bigger expectations to their team members as if they own a dental practice software. I understand the perfectionism and being type A, however, please remember your team members will work hard and put their 100% if they inspired and feel appreciated. This is where a well designed incentive program will be important. Trust me, it's not the amount that matters, more of an act of appreciation for a going above and beyond.

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There are plenty of resources regarding building an awesome incentive program. However, we are interested in the one that involves overhead and dental supplies. So far we were able to find one that is designed and tested by our great friend Dr. Mark Costes, DDS and it serves a lot of great purposes.

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We have seen in our client offices a difference that bonus system can make. There are couple of aspects of designing a well accepted system:

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• Simplicity - if it takes you longer than 20 seconds to explain it, it’s too complicated and will send a message “I really don’t want to create one, but here you go, take it…”.

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• Covers the areas you need improvements and you can measure success. Before you start handing out bonus checks, your system needs to be easy to track and have tangible end results (in supplies, staying under 5% of the collections)

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• Follow through - the biggest issues that I have seen is when the bonus is promised, goals are met, and the owner of the practice (dentists) decides to “We will pay them out in Christmas” when it’s only July in the calendar. This is the easiest way to lose your people and lose respect to you as a leader.

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This podcast will cover most important aspects of the incentive program and I really hope you implement one in your practice.

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‍Link to Dr. Costes' podcast on team incentives.