Employee wages should not be viewed in a vacuum, but rather as a comprehensive benefit package.

First, How Do Your Wages Compare?

It’s common to look at an hourly or annual wage for an employee to determine if they are adequately compensated in the realm of your organizational structure.

Employees similarly look at just these wages in comparing their compensation to other friends in the industry. It is the easiest apples-to-apples comparison to make between companies. 

There’s more external pressure coming from the political arena to influence this free-market concept in the form of increasing the federal minimum wage. The majority of states have a minimum wage in excess of the federal rate and a handful of states have already established one matching the federal proposal. 

How Does this Affect Your Dental Organization?

As wages increase to a level comparable with your entry-level wages, it will become harder to recruit to those positions without increasing the pay rate you are offering. To recruit talent, you will need to offer and communicate a full benefit package that employees can translate to a “dollar per hour” rate. Sometimes, simply the access TO, rather than compensation FOR, such benefits, is a deciding factor for a potential team member to join or remain with the organization. 

Alternatively, if your employees don’t perceive value in any of the benefits offered, you should evaluate whether it makes sense to keep offering them.

There are a multitude of benefits that team members evaluate when looking for the best employment opportunity. What is the company leave policy, and does it include sick time and vacation time? Does the employee have access to:

• Health Insurance
• Vision Insurance
• 401k
• Short Term Disability Insurance
• Life Insurance
• Continuing Education

The Dollar Amount is Often Less Important than the Access to the Benefit

Most employers assume that the payment of the benefit is required. Often, the access to such a benefit is perceived as equally as valuable by the employees.  

Health insurance has become a crucial, determining factor for many existing and potential team members, particularly due to the consistent rate increases and inconsistent access to coverage due to political influences. 

It’s assumed that the amount of the premium that the company contributes is the driving factor. However, the reality is that often the team members wouldn’t have access to more affordable health care, regardless of the contribution from the company for the monthly premium. 

The same can be said of other benefits. Do employees want a 401k match, or just access to a 401k plan where they can make contributions? With the growth of large dental organizations, an option to contribute to a qualified retirement plan is becoming more of the norm, but as the company grows, a company match is more expected.  

There are many benefits available that can add perceived value at a minimal cost, whether it’s paid for by the company or the participant. 

Have You Considered Adding Life Insurance?

The easiest is an employer-paid group life insurance plan. This typically pays a multiple of the annual salary of the employee upon death, which would minimally cover funeral costs for any employee, in addition to a residual benefit for any beneficiaries. While this is often considered morbid to even discuss, it can be a peace of mind for employees at a minimal cost. 

Similarly, access to other benefits, be it life insurance, disability insurance, eye insurance, or other for coverage for conditions that may be particularly sensitive to your team members, can go a long way. This speaks nothing of the benefit of providing high-quality dental care to employees for a minimal cost. Lastly, there are many out-of-the-box options, whether it’s student loan forgiveness, licensure, or continuing education that is a perceived benefit, but also can have a financial return for the company.

Factoring in Time Off

One of the hardest benefits for organizations to balance is their time off policy. 

Successful dental organizations define the 2 most important elements of their organization as their patients and their employees. Whether it is PTO, Vacation, Sick Days, or any combination of these, leaders are forced to balance patient access to care with the timing and length of employee leave. 

This gets easier as organizations grow, at which point they can pull help from other offices or have a temp employee “bench” to draw from and mitigate any affect on patient care. However, this is not necessarily the case for small organizations without these resources. Many providers also prefer to have certain dental assistants and hygienists work when they are there so they can be most efficient, making it hard for those employees to take their earned time off. 

Today’s working population continues to evolve to a more flexible and balanced lifestyle, which is often counter to service industries that focus on access and convenience. Structuring your organization to cater to these desires can be a huge differentiator in the labor market.

Communicate the Extent of Your Compensation Package

Ultimately, the standard wage paid to individuals is representative of the value you place on their delivery of patient care. The benefits above that wage are what establish a security in your team to deliver EXCELLENT patient care. 

The ability to explain your total compensation package with excellent communication is typically necessary for employees to appreciate the value of those benefits. With external pressure on wages, this will be even more vital than it has been historically. What works today should be constantly evaluated to make sure it works tomorrow.

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