Building a Culture of Appreciation: Starting the Year with Recognition for Dental Practices

With another year gone and burnout levels high across the industry, the new year marks a fresh opportunity to show your dental team how much their hard work means to you and your patients.

Scroll down for helpful tips to recognize your peers that we have found extra-meaningful this time of year.

But first, what role does celebration play in the culture of your practice?

 

Why Team Celebration Matters in Dental Practice Culture

Human brains have a negativity bias — unfortunately, this means we remember the hard times more than the good. 

So how can you use this psychological fact to your advantage? Try to create positive memories with your team that will encourage them to look back on the year with a smile. A better culture will also pay off to the business’s bottom line. Over time, building these positive experiences will build morale, which is linked to higher retention rates. Win-win. 

Celebrating your team also reinforces the fact that you value them as people beyond their role in the office. They’ll feel appreciated and a sense of mutual support. It might even strengthen the interpersonal bonds between team members. With a more positive culture in your workplace, your colleagues will be less likely to experience workplace stress and burnout. 

More positive workplaces may also mean that your team members are more motivated to set ambitious future goals for the year ahead.

 

Measuring Success Beyond the Numbers

We know that workplace success isn’t just a quantitative measure. How you treat your patients is a marker of business sustainability and can be a cause for celebration. Here’s how you can build pride in your colleagues by spotlighting successful patient care:

Round up stories and statistics that remind your team how many smiles they’ve created through their work. Here are a few ideas: positive review milestones, patient referral achievements, successful case completions, patient retention rates, and treatment acceptance improvements.

Or maybe you want to look beyond the four walls of your office. How are you and your colleagues contributing to a community that is healthier with you in it?

Creating Healthier Communities

To measure the work your team does in the community, consider highlighting community impact initiatives, pro bono case completions, community outreach participation, dental health education events, charitable giving campaigns, and established local partnerships.

Turning inward now, look at all your team has done this year.

Professional Development Achievements

Set up a dashboard or go old school with a bulletin board and take stock of this year’s:

• Continuing education completions
• New certification attainments
• Advanced technique mastery
• Cross-training accomplishments
• Leadership development progress

Read on for those building upon individual professional development work to reach office-wide milestones.

Teamwork & Clinical Excellence Milestones

If you’re building a newer or more efficient team than you were last year, this might be time to mark these potentially less exciting, but crucially important milestones:

Efficiency & Communication: How has your team upped its game? Things to consider:

• Successful implementation of new protocols and improved morning huddle effectiveness.
• Enhanced communication systems and streamlined workflows.

Compliance & Maintenance: It’s also important to recognize the nuts and bolts that help your office stay compliant and maintain clinical standards. You could highlight crisis management successes, infection control compliance records, sterilization protocol perfectionism, instrument maintenance excellence, treatment room turnover efficiency, and clinical documentation improvements.

With these standard ways of recognition out of the way, let’s now delve into the fun stuff.

 

Creative Ways to Celebrate Your Dental Team

Novelty makes for long-lasting memories.

Office Awards Ceremony With Custom Categories

Sometimes it feels necessary to get a little silly in the way you celebrate. Consider holding a ceremony with recognition for achievements like: "Golden Explorer" for exceptional attention to detail, "Patient Whisperer" for outstanding patient comfort, "Team Spirit" for best attitude, "Innovation Champion" for process improvements, or "Sterilization Superstar" for instrument care excellence.

Consider a rotating trophy, plaque, or badge to ensure your team feels special after the ceremony.

You may even want to mark the celebration in a more formal way.

Team Appreciation Dinners or Events

A well-fed team is a happy team, right? Let food do the talking to show your appreciation. You could hold catered office celebrations, make restaurant bookings and invite their plus-ones, or take a cooking class for team building.

You could also lean into a more experiential way to reward your team: Offer a spa day or do adventure activities together like escape rooms and painting classes.

 

Budget-Friendly Recognition Ideas

If your workplace doesn’t have an ample budget to say thank you, don’t let that discourage you.

Start a Success Wall or Digital Recognition Board

It takes little more than some effort and thumbtacks to create a recognition wall that could include impressive before/after photos of patients treated by your staff or highlighting accomplishments like training completion or glowing patient testimonials.

Offer Perks

Sometimes, it makes sense to lean into the perks you have at your disposal to make your team’s lives a little easier. Could you implement "Employee of the Month" parking, birthday half-days, or extended lunch break privileges? You might also want to offer more options on how your team structures their workday, like flexible schedule options or their choice of assignments or duties.

Most importantly, giving your team a boost shouldn’t be a once-a-year thing.

 

Making Celebration a Year-Round Priority

Celebrations won’t feel tokenistic when they are regular and heartfelt. You can schedule meaningful moments throughout the annual calendar for year-round reflection and fun. Maybe it’s a monthly work anniversary shout-out, a goal achievement party, seasonal celebrations, or off-site team activities.