Hire at will

Opening day is looming for your new practice, but do you have the crew to run a tight ship? The third instalment of Starting a Practice looks at picking the best people to steer your business to success.

As this series has highlighted, getting a dental practice off the ground in the Middle East can be a protracted affair. But while delays can prove frustrating, they offer hidden benefits in one area: employee recruitment.
For those in the healthcare industry, staffing is never an overnight job and the licensing process can prove equal parts red tape and tedium.

Casting the net

Dentists need to be part clinician, part juggler, when striking out alone, keeping several projects in the air at once. Although clinic design and style issues may seem more pressing, leaving it late to pick your staff is a big mistake.

Healthcare professionals are generally wary about taking a leap into a new role without preparation. And when you consider that moving to the Middle East typically involves a change in country for candidates, an early start is advisable.

Mick Whitley, commercial director of healthcare recruitment firm HCL International, knows all too well the problems dentists face when sourcing candidates.

"There are a lot of hurdles facing new practice owners, not only in terms of licensing but in terms of finding people willing to move to the region," he says. "While moving to the Middle East can offer certain attractions such as tax-free salaries, there a lot of other considerations."

One of the trickier aspects of recruiting expatriates is balancing concrete job offers, often made well in advance, against a fluctuating market. Frequent changes in exchange rates and cost of living increases mean the attractiveness of a job package can change on an almost monthly basis.

"In the Middle East things can change very quickly in terms of salary packages and contracts," Whitley admits, "and if you are from North America, for example, you will probably not be used to that."

The current downturn in the global economy is unlikely to make the situation any easier. "It is a double-edged sword," he notes. "Some dentists might be pensive about leaving a secure job to start out in a foreign country and all the risks associated with that.

"However, there is a relative financial security in the gold and oil-rich areas of the region, cushioning it from the immediate impact of the global economy. This might prove a draw."

Expatriate dentists will also want to be assured that making the move will not halt their professional development. As a recruiter, it is vital that you can convince potential clinical staff that taking the step to the Middle East is not going to stall their careers.

"A big draw for staff is if you can give them access to hi-tech equipment, research and continuing education," recommends Whitley. "So if you can't offer them that, you should be prepared to fly physicians to those events. In the long run it will not only benefit them, but your practice as well."

Of course, practitioners don't necessarily have to look abroad for their staff. There are many local dentists already working in the region that might see the new practice as a positive career move.

With established dental schools at Ajman and Sharjah, the UAE has a large base of fresh graduates on course for the job market. While some expatriates will look to move on and find work closer to home, there will be many who want to stay on in the Middle East and build their career here.

New graduates can prove a useful investment to a new practice owner. Firstly, salary expectations will not be as high as those among established dentists and, secondly, the new graduate is likely to be more pliable to the practice's way of working than a dentist with set working habits.

As well as undergraduate candidates, the region has newly established postgraduate specialist courses starting up. With organisations such as Boston University Institute for Dental Research and Education opening their doors, the region will have a new source of postgraduate talent.

Thomas Kilgore, chief academic officer at the Boston facility, believes that the output of its first postgraduate course will be worth the investment. "Our students are certainly going to be extremely marketable when they finish," he says. "They will have a very highly respected specialty degree and will be a benefit to dentists that are hiring in the region."

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