The Clear Perspective with Kelly Francis

Had so much fun chatting with Kelly Francis in this episode!
We discussed everything about Human Resources! 

Get in touch with Kelly
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/performancesolutionslimited/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/psolutionsbm/
E-mail: [email protected]

Allison: Hey everyone. It is Allison here, and we are on the clear perspective today with one of my great friends, mentors, and clients, Kelly Francis from performance solutions. Great to have you here today. Thank you so much for joining me.

Kelly: Oh, thank you. I'm thrilled to be part of this.

Allison: So I'm going to give an introduction to those that don't know you.

Kelly is with me in Bermuda. We are both in Bermuda, um, together right now, which is amazing. Kelly started her career in HR consulting in the U S and then started working at Ernst and young in Bermuda's HR consulting practice. She has over 25 years of experience in management and HR consulting with a focus on human resource strategy, organizational development and change management.

She started performance solutions in 2000 and has built it up through a strong referral network of loyal clients. So thank you so much for being here today. And I personally have to say we started working together. Because I was helping you with your social media and honestly, just through your copywriting, through helping manage your page, I personally have learned so much from you.

And so I'm really excited to have you on here today to kind of talk about a really, really important topic in today's world, especially in the dental industry. And that is HR. So thank you so much for being here.

Kelly: Oh, thank you. Appreciate the kind words. It has been a joy working with you. And, um, you know, as much as you've learned, I have learned, so is a definition of true partnership.

Allison: I love it. I obviously love it. So really excited to have you on your chain. I asked you to come onto this podcast specifically because there is a pandemic in the dental industry, outside of virus that we've been dealing with for the last years and that. Team and staff that, um, you know, the world has changed so much.

And what we're finding in dentistry right now is that practices are having a really hard time finding team members and keeping them. And so I would love to kind of, if you could give me like your top tools or tips to help businesses. Find attract and retain really quality team members. So you can give some like insight on that.

That'd be amazing. I'm

Kelly: sure. I mean the dental industry. You know, finding, um, that we just don't, we don't have enough local dentists or hygienists, um, or anybody or technicians to staff, the dental practices here. Um, so I can't imagine what it's like worldwide because it's just, there's just a shortage. Um, so being really clear on what you are recruiting for and.

You know that what that opportunity is going to look like, because those who are qualified, those who have are great at what they do. And most importantly love what they do in the dental industry are going to be employed. So if you've got to come with your best game. I think that's really important. You've got to be able to say, this is our brand.

This is what we do. This is our, our ethos. This is how we treat and we're there and celebrate our clients. This is how we keep those clients. And this is what you would be joining. You're not just coming in for join the commission for a job you're coming in to join our team and be part of the great work we do for our clients.

Um, so being clear on. Your messaging and making it look. Like they're joining more than just coming in to be for a job. I think that's going to be important because like I said, those are good. Those who love what they do right now, the world is their oyster. They can work down the street, they could do to another state, they could move to another country.

Um, so, so that's number one. Um, how you recruit. You know, where the, where you guys have great networks and associations and all of those things. So the, where you go and advertise is less, less something that I can speak to, but the, how you do it and your brand when you're putting out those ads, that it, that the person is getting a little glimpse.

Hey, I wonder what they're about. So that's sort of step number one and then. You know the packaging and say, you're starting out. Let's say you're a small team. You know, if you can't offer high on the dollars, make sure you can say what else you're bringing to the table and what else they will be benefiting from.

Um, so cause it's not all about money. It is about the home that they're, that you're creating for them. Um, so that's important. Um, and then making sure your infrastructure, your back office, how they're onboarded, how they are managed, you know, if they're going to go on glass door and say, And get reports that, you know, you don't pay on time or your, this was delinquent, all those sorts of things.

You need to make sure that your HR infrastructure back office or whatever you want to call it is also on point. If you're trying to recruit top 10,

Allison: I love that. And so what I'm really hearing, and this was kind of a message that I've been sharing with my personal clients lately is like, we have to do better now as employees, as businesses, um, to retain the team that we want to have for our business.

And so what would you say like outside of money? Because like money is one thing, but we both know it's not everything. What are some of the things that. Like you could tell practices to start offering that would make their package a little bit sweeter, like knowing who they are and knowing the mission, the purpose, the vision, having people be a part of something is important.

What else could they put into an offering that would make that package a little bit?

Kelly: You have to put in the, well, the benefits, number one, um, not just, you know, your insurance and things like that, but you know, what are you, what's your, what are your leave benefits? What is your, how do you value family life work, balance pieces?

How do you. How do you communicate what your culture is around those sorts of things? Um, that's important and making sure that you back it up. I mean, if you are a six day a week operation, um, what do you expect from your team? What do you do when T you know, team members have emergencies? How do you support and all those sorts of things?

B or more, not just benefit but benefits, but also the culture behind how staff are valued. That is what you've got to come up. You've got to come up with your value. Add package, I think is important. Um, you've got your salary, you've got your insurance and 401k or whatever those sorts of things are. Um, but what are your value ads?

That's your. Work-life balance, your family friendly, some places now, maybe not so much in the dental industry, because you don't want hair flying into mouths, but pet-friendly, whatever those things are that show that, that anybody under that roof is valued. That is what you've got to come with. And then you've gotta be able to back it up.

It can't just be in the offer letter and then it's something you're going to get to, it's gotta be in place. Um, and then transparent. Transparency once the person is in to start to retaining value. You'll hear me say that word a lot, but transparency of communication, real-time communication, um, you know, honoring those original agreements, all those things are essential because right now it is, and, um, an employee's market, you know, they move around.

So, you know, making sure that they're putting down roots. With your organization is important and that's how you're gonna to. Yeah, we want the notion of, of leaving, being different.

Allison: I love that. And some of the things that you've taught me in terms of like work-life balance and like just, you know, walking the talk really like it's one thing to say, like we believe in work-life balance.

We believe that we take care of our employees, but some of like the smallest nuances that you've taught me. Don't send an email at 9:00 PM at night, schedule it for 8:00 AM the next day when the practice is open, like these little things really matter. And it's being able to walk that talk. When you say like, this is who we are also like being that leader, being that person.

And so I think these things are all really important to think about, especially right now. So, how would you say, um, how would you say leaders, um, business owners are sabotaging their teams right now? Like how, what do you think the teams that are losing staff, not able to keep staff like, what do you think they're doing right now?

Um, that they might not even be aware of.

Kelly: Yeah. I mean, I think the dental industry. Is particularly difficult because you're the leaders, the owners, the heads are also performing the work. So the time, you know, with all the will in the world, you know, there may, you know, you get in, you start seeing patients, you start, you know, and.

You know, the back office stuff, that stuff that you would love to be able to do. When are you going to do it? When are you going to fit in? So one of the things that is for leaders, business owners, practice owners to do is to make sure you carve out that time for that relationship management with. And all of those associated bits that go with it because it's too easy to be in the work it's too.

It's, you know, it's, you know, and then a week's gone by a, month's gone by a quarter, has gone by and you guys have all been working flat out, but have you been, have you been. Fertilizing the relationships. Have you been fertilizing those things that keep you as a team? You know, those are the, those are the bits that can get, you know, not intentionally, you know, I don't think anybody wakes up as a practice owner and says I'm going to come in and be an impatient jerk today and pay nobody any mind.

If not, it's not. But, you know, even if at three in the morning you were thinking, gosh, I really need to sit down and have that one-on-one with Roselyn. Um, the day comes and goes so it's making sure that you have buffered firewall protected, tattooed on you, whatever it is that time to have that, because those are the things that are going to matter.

Yeah. The patients smile is one thing, but it's that anchor to. To the business itself, to the practice owner itself, then that needs the word

Allison: a hundred percent. And you and I have had a conversation recently, even about my business. Like I'm bringing on team and you waved a red flag for me. And you're like all of a sudden, like you're working with.

Like on your you're working in your business and not on your business and you need to spend that time. And that was a big insight for me. I was like, oh my gosh, I need to actually block time as a business owner to sit down and strategize how I want my team to feel what their priorities are. Like.

There's so many things as business owners that we have to do and we can get so caught up in working in our business, that we're not working on our business. And those are the things that I call like small fires in the business. You have a disgruntled teammate. Um, and you're like, it's fine. It's fine. I don't have time to deal with this, but pretty soon that small fire becomes a big fire and then you've lost an employee.

And so if we can like set aside time, ahead of time to be able to kind of like solve these problems before they're problems and be intentional about it, we're going to be able to not even have to worry about looking for team because we'll keep them

Kelly: the other thing is you know, to be realistic. So if you can't do it.

Then put up a resource in place, whether it's an outsource resource insourced, you know, somebody who can be that offer that confidant that at de escalator of small things that, you know, listening ear put, find some, find some way to provide that support, that connection, to show that your staff are valued, that there is a listening ear.

There is a, um, you know, resource available. To deal with those things. And, you know, if you, if you know, based on my. Surgery scheduled, for example, you know, I am my Lord. I'm, I'm going to be AWOL for the next six weeks, you know, and that happens every quarter. Then make sure you look at the resources available to your staff and make sure that those things, those needs that they have can still be met.

And that you have somebody who can say, Hey, listen, you got to pay attention to this because this is something that's going that's that's building, or we need you to. Put that to the side and be focused internally, you know, somebody, you need that thing. So if you can't do it yourself and we can't all be everything to everybody in every facet of it, that regardless of all the will in the world, it just doesn't happen.

So then you look at what resources you have and what resources you can provide.

Allison: I love that. I think that's so wise because I think it's something that can be overlooked where we're like, it'll be fine, but it actually isn't. Do you know what the cost of an average like staff turnover is for, you know, not even in the dental industry, but just like an average cost for losing a team member hiring a new one.

Kelly: It's about, um, I don't have it in dollars, but it's about three months productivity. You know, from, because you've got the, from the note from you've got the. Before the person who resigns, they're thinking about it. So they're distracted, then there's the resignation. Then they're starting to check out. Then you're trying to do all the recruitment and get somebody in.

Then you may or may not have that handover period. And then you've got that ramp up. Period. Three months is average in some cases, even longer. Um, so the loss of productivity can be loss of revenue, loss of this loss of patient care and relationship management and just on and on and on and on.

Allison: Absolutely.

And yeah, no, and I think that's something that I like to talk to my doctors about, like, when we're looking at like, how are we going to keep your team happy? And sometimes the costs that the cost of that comes up, that, that discussion of like, well, that's expensive. I don't know about that. And like, well, what is, what is the cost of losing a team member right now?

Kelly: I've had a case cases where, you know, The person, the manager or owner or whatever it is might, you know, they are getting all, what about that half a day or that $750 expense or that one day conference that the person's asked for or that sports day they want to go to or whatever those things are. And they get very focused on, I can't believe they're asking for this for this is so inconvenient or this is not out in within policy, but sometimes you've got to look at that bigger picture.

That could be the derailing point. For that individual, that could be the click. I have turned off. I will perform my job within the parameters and my mind is gone. My heart is gone. And at some point my body will go. So, you know, look, yes, there's policy. So yes, there's parameters that everything has to work, but you can't be absolute.

And you can't, you've got to look at the potential knock on effects of these short-term decisions that, and sometimes you've got to just. Be strategic. And when you say yes or no, or when you, you know, agree or disagree to something, because it could be that light switch moment for somebody.

Allison: Yes. That makes total sense.

And so if we have like doctors watching this right now and they're thinking like, I think everything is going well in my practice, I really don't know what are some of the ways that we can do a touch base with our team to kind of like unearth any of the things that might be out of going under the surface that we just haven't had time, or we haven't paid attention to until.

Kelly: Yeah,

there's a few different things. Number one is, um, you know, what are your current practices? You know, um, after somebody, you know, because if you strip out everything HR, as long as somebody's hired, paid, and you're paying and you're meeting your tax or benefit responsibilities, everything else can slip away.

So w you know, when, what is your structure? From a HR structure, point of view, meaning do you do touch points? Do you do performance reviews? Do you do, um, state went with business, one guy, um, Dick Gregory, who has a book on stay interviews rather than waiting for somebody who's miffed and having an exit interview, they.

Suggest having quarterly stay interviews. How's it going? What's working. What's what's, what's making you frown right now. Anything I should be aware of, you know, and doing those a few times. If those touch points a few times a year to keep that door open for communication. Um, so what are your general practices?

That's like the first thing you can do, like a little audit. What your current HR practice people management practices are. Um, then the next thing is feedback. What is, you know, what are the channels that your team can give feedback? Is it once a year in a performance review? Is it you have an open door policy?

Is it that you have. Fridays from four to six that, you know, there's no patients in and it's just, everybody's sitting down together and having a cup of tea, latte, wine, whatever it is that you like to do, you know together, what is that team culture fostering piece that keeps communication open? Um, it could be a little things like at the end of every meeting saying what anything else I should know.

So that the door is always open, you know, making. So, so somebody wants to see what they're not getting. It's like when's the last time someone actually pointed out something to me. You know, if you go in to the, um, does it sound, may sound silly, but if you go into the restroom and there's no paper towels, does anybody bother to tell you.

You gotta wonder why there's that disconnect that they're not associating the practice, your brand people's perceptions and that with themselves, cause a disconnect. So little things like that, you start paying attention to, you know, how connected am I. And then how open are, am I to getting the feedback and, you know, do people, do people care?

What's my cares. What's the care quotient amongst my team? You know, are they here for the job or are they, um, you know, are they part of my team? And they're two different things. So if you don't have the basic structures in place, you should have them in place. If you don't have those informal channels for communicating.

In place. You've got to start looking at how you can open them up if you've been busy and not dealing with your teams and not doing all that. And it's not a light switch, you can't suddenly say, Hey guys, I'm here. Talk to me. It's put in place the formal structures and you work everyday on the informal.

Allison: I love that.

And I think that's something that it's really important for my doctors to hear, because you're so right. Like in dentistry, it's such a unique business operation where the owner is also the one that is performing with services and it can be very challenging. Do you notice these little things in terms of like time in terms of energy, in terms of just being where you need to be to see them.

And so having an office manager, having somebody in your practice to be able to do that work for you, I think is so important. So I know. I've just been writing down, like all these like tips and tools that my teams can use. And I, I honestly could talk to you about this for hours and days, um, and still be learning, but I want to respect your time.

I want to make sure, um, that we wrap up on time. So I'm going to finish with one question that I am really curious to know, and that would be. In your zone of genius. And, and what you do and every day, what is your definition of success in terms of HR culture, practice management? Like what is success to you

Kelly: success?

Um, I don't think it's such a multi-layered question. Um, success is. Knowing that I've helped detangle something that was troubling, helping, helping clients move forward, get out of their own way. Having them feel rewarded by the things their teams do. Um, having them say, wow, that really worked well, or this was the absolute best hire for us.

Or, you know, this, you know, this additional benefit they gave has been so appreciated. It's. It's seeing them flourish, I think for me. Um, and then when there's problems, making sure they've got the right advice for handling them, you know, not every staff thing is going to be, you know, rainbows and fairy dust.

You know, there's going to be problems and things and making sure that, you know, I'm seen as a partner so that I am working through this problem with them. I am helping firewall them against it. Getting any worse. I am coming up with those wins. Um, so that both the, you know, the departing aggrieved person and the practice still, you know, both feel like, you know, they they're.

Okay. So those sorts of things it's, it's, it's that satisfaction and the confidence that. The companies that I work with get over time that they're doing things right. And seeing them grow in their staff management, their internal relationship management management, their confidence that they are an employer of choice.

You know, those sorts of things make me feel good.

Allison: Oh, my gosh. I want to acknowledge you for everything that you do in the industry. Like I know just working with you for the past year, I've learned so much and been able to see things from a totally different perspective on how to manage a company, your team, and really be able to be intentional about the way that you're designing your business.

And I think that's so important. And so. If you, I work with Kelly in many ways. And one of them is if in Bermuda or even outside of Bermuda, if there's a dental practice that I'm working with, that needs support with policies, with contracts, with any of the things that as dental providers. We have not been formally trained in these things.

And I think they become more and more important in the last couple of years. So I always go to Kelly and her company to be able to do that professional service for my practices. And if you are a dental practice looking, watching this, I highly recommend you reach out to her, reach out to me, um, because she can help you so much really like solve problems before they're problems, like set things up the right way.

Before they become an issue and, you know, save yourself a lot of time and stress and money on the backend. And so I've linked her Facebook and her Instagram, her Instagram always has really insightful tips, tools, strategies, videos, training all the time. So go and check her out. And I just wanna acknowledge you for being here today to give my practices some insights.

Um, so thank you so much.

Kelly: I love to be part of this so glad you invited me. Um, and. To all of your listeners. I hope this was helpful.

Allison: It absolutely was. I even, it was even helpful for me. So thank you guys so much. Have a wonderful day and we'll talk to you soon.