In the unpredictable job market we’re experiencing, industries find themselves doing everything it takes to make a lasting first impression on highly skilled jobseekers.
The dental industry is no exception.
If you’re wondering how some of the leading and well-established businesses were able to snag the best candidates, here’s a secret of theirs: they have a great online reputation.
By leveraging your online presence on job hunting platforms like LinkedIn and Glassdoor, social media like Facebook and Twitter, third-party review sites like Yelp and Google, and of course, your own dental website, you’ll be attracting future employees in no time.
Plus, creating and maintaining a positive reputation can provide a sense of authority.
Whether you’re presently in need of folks to fill a couple of job vacancies or not, you’ll find this post incredibly useful. We’ll be discussing what online presence is, the ways your practice’s online presence impacts hiring, as well as several proven strategies to give it a boost in order to help you with your employer branding and recruitment marketing.
Without any further ado, let’s dive right in!
Online Presence: What Is It & Why Does It Matter to Your Practice?
Online presence, in a nutshell, refers to any activity and content a business (or individual) has under their name on the internet – a virtual representation, if you may.
Regardless of the size of a business or which industry it belongs to, having an online presence is essential to its growth and success. It makes it easier for prospective patients to find you, know more about your dental practice, and most importantly, trust you to fulfill their needs or solve their problems.
Many companies assume that having a strong online presence only requires creating a professional site, social profiles, and business listings.
However, there’s more to it. You can’t just build a profile and then forget about it later on. It’s a form of communication that should be maintained and monitored regularly. Otherwise, you could end up hurting your practice.
How many times have you made a purchase decision based on online reviews? Or discovered a newfound favorite brand based on a Google search? Or perhaps, chose a certain coffee shop just because it was consistently posting photos of its customers?
That’s the power of online presence.
How Does Your Online Presence Impact the Hiring Process, Though?
As much as we’d love to tell you more about how your digital presence can attract new dental patients, that should be a topic for another day. We’ll only be focusing on the hiring aspect here as promised.
So, how exactly can online presence make a difference in hiring and improving the workforce of your dental practice? Find out below!
1. It’s Your Time to Shine
Creating and strengthening an online presence allows you to show your potential employees why your business is the real deal.
It presents an opportunity for you to stand out as you have the freedom to highlight your company culture, the things that make you unique, and why you and your team are a joy to work with.
2. Interested Jobseekers Read Reviews First Before Applying for the Company
Online reviews are an essential part of your reputation in the virtual world. The more positive feedback you display, the higher your odds are of enticing aspiring dental specialists or staff to submit their CVs.
On the other hand, having negative reviews is obviously detrimental to your hiring process. In fact, one of three interview candidates has turned down a job offer right after seeing negative feedback about a business, according to Fractl’s American Workplace Survey.
Unless someone’s desperate to secure any job, no candidate wants to be associated with a business known for its poor image.
3. More People Will Know About Your Practice
What does this have to do with hiring, you ask?
Well, a strong online presence can help improve your SEO efforts, which means your website will rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).
You’ll be able to reach local searchers who haven’t heard about you, and there’s always a chance that you’ll encounter those who are actually looking for a dental job.
And, once they explore your website and are impressed with your dental services as much as your core values, or see that most reviews about you involve wonderful things from satisfied patients, they’ll definitely want to be a part of your team.
4. You’ll Establish Trust Among Future Employees
Having a good online reputation makes potential patients and employers alike feel more comfortable about your dental practice. As with those who are looking for a dental specialist to take care of their oral health, job seekers will also do a quick online search to determine their legitimacy.
When hopeful candidates find little to no information about you online, they might become suspicious, thus blowing your chances of having them in your workforce. Who knows, they could’ve been an excellent addition to your team!
Quick Tips to Improve Your Practice’s Online Presence
Now, for the fun part – let’s talk strategies.
Strengthening and maintaining a commanding online presence may sound intimidating, but the truth is, it’s quite simple. You’ll probably agree with us after learning what these pointers are below!
Don’t Skip the “About Us” Page
It’s crucial to remember that your website’s “About Us” page isn’t just for patients, but it’s also for job seekers who are eager to learn more about you.
That said, consider your company story from the POV of job seekers as well. Make sure to keep your bios and leadership team photos up to date and appealing.
Take time to think about any additional information that could help you win new team members. Lastly, see to it that you include something like a “Join Our Team” section which eventually takes readers to your “Careers” page.
In case you don’t have a “Careers” page yet, you may take a look at ours for inspiration.
Add a Certain Feature to Your Homepage
If you’re hiring urgently, test a banner at the top of your homepage to notify web visitors in case they’d be interested, or they know someone who would be.
Link directly to your “Careers” page rather than letting them do the navigating on their own. You might also want to add a pop-up to ensure that everyone gets the message.
Manage Online Reviews
Job seekers will certainly want to know more about you, and one of the first things they’ll do is to read what your patients are saying about your dental practice and services.
Aside from Google and business review sites, they’ll be hopping over to your social platforms and peruse comments coming from your followers.
Although you can’t necessarily control what people will say about your business – particularly disgruntled former employees – you can still recover from a negative review by responding publicly in a professional manner.
Such an action might even convince them to edit or remove their belittling comment.
Encouraging or even incentivizing current staff to post wonderful reviews also works, as increasing the number of good ratings can help drown out the occasional grumpy ones. Then again, you don’t have to force everybody in your team to leave a review, especially those who (unbeknownst to you) might not be seeing eye to eye with you.
Keep Your Content as Authentic as Possible
Point out the things that make your practice different from everyone else. Stick to story-based content so job seekers won’t perceive you as a dry or generic brand.
Also, don’t make your content all about work. Collect and publish real stories that took place in your clinic. Seek out employee growth, passions, and success stories that have happened outside of the workplace too. Nothing attracts quality candidates more than acknowledging a healthy work-life balance.
Here’s a guide showing you some of the top content marketing hacks for your dental practice.
Need Professional Assistance? We’re Here for You!
Running a successful practice is your number one priority. Ours is to ensure you have the most qualified team to do just that! Our team at Arthur Marshall provides fast and efficient recruitment processes in different fields.
We’re proud to partner with Digital Resource, an award-winning internet marketing agency dedicated to creating growth strategies for practices across the nation. Digital Resource’s team of experts can assist your dental practice by boosting your search rankings, managing your online reputation, and attracting top tier talent and prime cases.
To learn more, visit their website.
