Join Dr. Richard Offutt as he sits down with Kara Kelley, founder and CEO of Clinical HR, to discuss how dental practices can strengthen their teams and reduce turnover through strategic HR. Kara shares how culture, compliance, and communication can be powerful tools for recruitment and retention—especially in today’s competitive dental job market.
Learn why “competing with culture” matters more than competing on pay, how to create systems that support your people, and how simple communication can transform team loyalty and performance.
Episode Navigation
00:00 – Welcome and guest introduction
01:15 – How Kara found her way into HR and dentistry
03:25 – The evolution of HR awareness in dental practices
06:30 – What today’s employees actually want from benefits
09:30 – Balancing rising costs and team expectations
11:20 – Using HR as a recruitment and retention tool
13:15 – Building culture and compliance together
15:25 – Competing with DSOs through culture, not dollars
18:40 – Retaining employees in a shifting job market
20:35 – Educating your team on total compensation and benefits
23:10 – The importance of recognition and appreciation
25:30 – Lessons Kara wishes she had learned sooner 28:00 – Final thoughts and how to access Kara’s free resource
Key Takeaways
Strategic HR Matters
HR isn’t just paperwork—it’s a foundation for team culture and stability.
Awareness of HR compliance has grown; small practices must stay informed.
Culture Over Compensation
You can’t always compete on pay, but you can compete on culture.
Flexibility, appreciation, and communication often outweigh raises.
Retention Through Recognition
Employees stay where they feel valued and supported.
Consistent feedback and appreciation improve morale and loyalty.
Education & Transparency
Use total compensation statements to show the full value of employment.
Clear communication prevents misunderstandings and builds trust.
Featured Discussion Topics
The evolution of HR in dentistry
Recruiting and retaining dental teams
Competing with DSOs and corporate practices
Culture, compliance, and communication
Total compensation and employee education
Recognition and leadership in dental practices
Meet Our Guest
Kara Kelley is the founder and CEO of Clinical HR, a consulting firm that helps dental practice owners build compliant, people-first teams. With a background in HR and business development, Kara specializes in strategic solutions that help dentists recruit, retain, and engage great employees.
Connect With Simplify Dentistry
Website: simplifydds.com Podcast: Available on all major platforms
Topics: dental HR, team retention, dental culture, employee appreciation, HR compliance, dental recruiting, leadership in dentistry, practice management, dental business strategy
Transcript
00:00:00:00 – 00:00:14:21
Speaker 1
Welcome to the Simplify Dentistry Podcast. Join us as we discuss clinical, operational and financial aspects of your practice. Hope you enjoy life and dare to simplify dentistry.
00:00:14:23 – 00:00:40:22
Dr. Richard Offutt
Hello, I’m Richard Offutt,. I’m your host today on the Simplify Dentistry podcast. We’re joined today by Kara Kelley, founder and CEO of clinical HR Clinical HR is a consulting firm that provides HR solutions to dental practice owners to help recruit and retain quality employees. We have a special thanks. Of course provide bank and NSK. Kara, welcome. Glad you were here.
00:00:41:00 – 00:00:43:04
Kara Kelley
Well thank you, Richard. I’m happy to be here. It’s an honor.
00:00:43:07 – 00:00:53:20
Dr. Richard Offutt
I’ve, I’ve talked a little bit about you. Tell me a little bit about yourself. Tell me how you know you don’t wake up as a 12 year old and go, I’m going to be an HR specialist, you know? How did you get there? Oh.
00:00:53:22 – 00:00:59:14
Kara Kelley
No, you don’t. Although I do say that I have every teenage girls dream job. I get paid to talk.
00:00:59:16 – 00:01:01:07
Dr. Richard Offutt
Yeah.
00:01:01:09 – 00:01:17:07
Kara Kelley
No. Both. With HR in with dentistry. I kind of fell into it. I was actually going for a marketing degree. I had been self-employed in a completely different field, and I thought that would be a good degree to kind of help with my business. And when I was doing my general business credits, I took an HR course, fell in love with it, and switched my major.
00:01:17:07 – 00:01:39:14
Kara Kelley
So I kind of fell into HR that way. And then at the end of my four years, I was I was looking at other things that I could be doing or what I could do with this degree. I knew that this was like in 2012, when we didn’t just hire the first person who showed up on time and sober that, companies wanted to look at people who actually had worked for other individuals for their companies before, and not just been self-employed.
00:01:39:14 – 00:02:00:07
Kara Kelley
There was kind of a little bit of a stigma that, well, you can’t be an employee if you’ve been self-employed, you won’t want to follow rules or whatever. So I decided to go work for somewhere, anywhere for a year and a half or two years, whatever it turned out to be while I finished my degree. And then I could go work in corporate and do you know the whole climb the fortune 500 ladder, start as an HR coordinator, generalist, work my way up?
00:02:00:07 – 00:02:20:02
Kara Kelley
Yeah, none of that actually ended up happening. I landed at a dental CPA firm, and that’s how I kind of fell into working with dentists. I was they were doing marketing of all things. And my boss at the time had me come in and sit with some of the meetings and the clients and, you know, listen to the advice that he gave so that I could do, you know, a good job with the marketing side.
00:02:20:04 – 00:02:30:02
Kara Kelley
And clients were asking questions that I didn’t have the answer to because they weren’t finance questions, they were HR questions. So I answered them because apparently I can’t help myself.
00:02:30:04 – 00:02:36:10
Dr. Richard Offutt
And, well, that’s good. Yeah. You know, you got a lot, you know, it’s like it’s like it’s like so many words and they got to come out.
00:02:36:12 – 00:02:54:10
Kara Kelley
You know? So yeah, that’s kind of how I really fell into dentistry. Serendipity and adaptability, just landed in those meetings and started advising clients, ended up building myself into a role as an HR and business development consultant at the firm and or thereabouts one and a half years, and started my own thing because I kind of got tired of being mistaken for an accountant.
00:02:54:12 – 00:02:57:03
Kara Kelley
And, really wanted to focus on the HR side. Yeah.
00:02:57:03 – 00:02:59:09
Dr. Richard Offutt
And they’re not fun people to hang out with. Anyway.
00:03:00:12 – 00:03:01:10
Dr. Richard Offutt
Sorry.
00:03:01:11 – 00:03:03:09
Kara Kelley
I work a number. I learned a.
00:03:03:09 – 00:03:07:11
Dr. Richard Offutt
Lot, and I apologize to all my accounting friends. But if you love.
00:03:07:11 – 00:03:08:23
Kara Kelley
Spreadsheets, they’re lots of fun. Yeah.
00:03:09:00 – 00:03:25:18
Dr. Richard Offutt
Oh, yeah. They’re good. Well, well, let’s let’s kind of. That’s interesting. So. So you you have a vast background in, in the HR, unless you saw the whole accounting side, CPA advisory advisory side of the business, that’s that’s super. I didn’t know that.
00:03:25:20 – 00:03:42:14
Kara Kelley
I think like benefits it’s not a oh, you should love your team and give them everything they ask for and left. And it’s like, actually, here’s the business case behind why you’re tripping over dollars to pick up nickels right now, because you don’t want to give five days of PTO to a first year team member. And that’s why you can’t get people kind of kind of actual businesses.
00:03:42:16 – 00:03:55:12
Dr. Richard Offutt
Yeah, well, well, here I’m going. So let’s get into this a little bit. How how has HR changed? I know the vast part of my career. It was pretty simple. How is it changed?
00:03:55:14 – 00:04:11:15
Kara Kelley
I think our awareness of it has really changed. I don’t know that it itself has changed. There’s a lot of things that I still see. I call them myths, myths and HR and industry that people believe like you can tell your team that they’re not allowed to talk about their pay, or you don’t have to pay them for attending training.
00:04:11:17 – 00:04:31:00
Kara Kelley
That’s not been true since, like the 1930s. There’s there’s some like 80 or something year old laws that are really different than what you would imagine they were, and they were those things back then. It’s just that there wasn’t as much of an awareness of them. There wasn’t, I guess, as many audits being conducted or people didn’t and got enough trouble at that point.
00:04:31:02 – 00:04:46:02
Kara Kelley
And now you have more people who really are aware that there are these laws that actually apply to everybody. You don’t have an excuse because you’re a small practice. You don’t have an excuse. You know, depending on what state you’re in, there are different head counts for different things that apply. There’s also some that apply to everybody.
00:04:46:02 – 00:05:09:20
Kara Kelley
Every employer that’s out there. And so I think that awareness has definitely changed. I also think the job market has changed. I know a lot of people want to blame the pandemic. I personally feel that the pandemic compounded these problems that didn’t necessarily create these problems. But I think that has really, definitely had an impact over the last few years, hopefully, you know, tapering off to some extent, although we do have some other things going on, you know, at the federal level right now.
00:05:09:20 – 00:05:26:23
Kara Kelley
But at the same time, I really feel like that’s that’s something that’s definitely changed dentistry from a long term perspective. I also think the people coming into practice, ownership have changed. You’ve got dentist that are, you know, coming in with a lot of student loan debt. That wasn’t the case before. The practice notes are going to cost more.
00:05:26:23 – 00:05:43:17
Kara Kelley
The buildings cost more. All the expenses cost more. And so, you know, they’re not taking home as much as what you would have starting or buying a practice 20 or 30 years ago. So really just kind of a well rounded everything has changed a little bit in some way. That’s given us the situation right now.
00:05:43:19 – 00:06:05:02
Dr. Richard Offutt
It’s no, not long ago, I wrote a piece for our simplified dentistry, Facebook platform and, and I talked a little bit and I was bringing up H.R. And which, you know, my, my, the demographics that I’m in as a practitioner. You know, I’ve kind of bridge that time from when nobody really talked about anything to where.
00:06:05:02 – 00:06:32:13
Dr. Richard Offutt
And now it’s kind of a comprehensive, you know, you have you have H.R. Consultants. Right. And and it used to be, you know, if you provided, PTO and health care, you were good, you know, you were, you know, two weeks of vacation or a PTO time, and you’re good. Talk a little bit about how that has changed, because, I mean, what are what what are what are, employees looking for when they when they, they, they apply to the dentist down the street.
00:06:32:13 – 00:06:34:19
Dr. Richard Offutt
What are they looking for?
00:06:34:21 – 00:06:53:14
Kara Kelley
So you’re right there. There did used to be a little bit of a break when it came to benefits to team members. I know, you know, probably before even you started, there were a lot of team members who were part time. Maybe it was like moms that were looking to work while their kids were in school. People that only want a couple of days a week.
00:06:53:14 – 00:07:08:06
Kara Kelley
And so it was very easy to say, well, benefits apply to people who work 30 hours a week or more. You’re only here three days. It’s only 24 hours, so you don’t get any benefits. And that made it a lot easier. And then for the ones that did get benefits, it was a little bit of PTO was good enough.
00:07:08:08 – 00:07:12:00
Kara Kelley
You know, health insurance, which was remarkably cheaper back then.
00:07:12:00 – 00:07:12:20
Dr. Richard Offutt
Right?
00:07:12:22 – 00:07:31:19
Kara Kelley
So much easier to, to provide health insurance. I think this last year that, my some of my clients reached out and they’re like, our insurance cost has gone up between 18 and 24% this year from what it was before. Like, how can we do that? Because we’re having to pay more on our side. The team members are paying more when they pay their 30 or 50% on their side, and so they feel like they’ve gotten a pay cut.
00:07:31:19 – 00:07:47:15
Kara Kelley
But I can’t afford to pay them more because I’m also paying more on my side. It’s it’s definitely far more expensive now to offer health insurance than it was in the past. And then as far as paid time off goes, you have a very large handful now of of states that are requiring mandated sick leave, mandated paid time off.
00:07:47:17 – 00:08:08:19
Kara Kelley
There’s even some time off that we haven’t seen before, like New York, for example, in, you know, January 2025 rolled out their prenatal leave of 20 hours that applied to all employers. And so that’s a difference. And so far, no one, none of the other states that I’m aware of are offering, and Illinois has changed their sick leave to pay leave for any reason.
00:08:08:21 – 00:08:24:21
Kara Kelley
And so there’s a big shift in regulation when it comes to that. And some of that is, you know, the, the organizations that weren’t giving any kind of time off whatsoever, it might have been restaurants might have been manufacturing, retail. You know, those have kind of created that situation where the states are feeling like they have to regulate.
00:08:24:21 – 00:08:44:07
Kara Kelley
But that does have an impact on on the industry. And in fairness, there are still some dental practices, if their state doesn’t require that aren’t offering paid time off for six months, 12 months, if at all. I recently worked with a practice that was an acquisition, and they were only doing the state mandated leave. They did no paid holidays, no paid vacation.
00:08:44:09 – 00:09:01:19
Kara Kelley
The doctor was taking off like 3 or 4 weeks per year. And I told my client coming in, the one who was purchasing this practice that like this is going to be relatively easy for you to come in and be the best boss ever. Because if you can give some of these basic things, you’re already going to be like miles ahead of where the seller was because he wasn’t offering anything.
00:09:01:19 – 00:09:05:18
Kara Kelley
He did have health insurance, but it wasn’t. It was not a comprehensive package.
00:09:05:18 – 00:09:29:00
Dr. Richard Offutt
And so that takes me down another path that I hadn’t actually planned to talk about. But I like that you brought that up. Is is the generational changing sometimes in practices. And, I guess as you said, you don’t have to be that good, but you’re better than the other guy, right? So so is, I mean, is but how is the how are costs driving those decisions?
00:09:29:00 – 00:09:39:00
Dr. Richard Offutt
So, if you’d ask, you know, most dentists, they say, golly, I love these people, but I just I just can’t afford it. How do they what are you seeing in the market for that?
00:09:39:01 – 00:09:56:04
Kara Kelley
Well, some of them truly can’t. And they end up with turnover issues. Others the ones that are smart, that really don’t have the budget because they are either a startup or they just have a massive amount of student loan or practice no debt. Or it’s just a very high overhead. Whatever the case may be, they’re asking their team what they want.
00:09:56:06 – 00:10:16:21
Kara Kelley
I had I saw a post in one of the dental groups recently that the doctor, was talking about how much the hygienists want for pay, and somebody had commented saying that that their hygienist, he really wishes he could, but he just he really can’t afford to pay more than what he is right now. And so he talked with her about that and basically told her that, you know, she’s she’s definitely worth more, but he can’t offer that unfortunately.
00:10:16:21 – 00:10:31:17
Kara Kelley
And so he said, you know what? What would you be willing to accept? He asked, you know, if she wanted a raise, how much that would be like what was what would she want? She came back and said that she just she wanted some flexibility in her schedule. She wanted to be able to, like, pick her kid up from school or take him to school or something.
00:10:31:17 – 00:10:45:12
Kara Kelley
That something about the kid and the schedule shifting by like an hour on one side or the other. And he’s like, I don’t even know how I got this lucky, you know, that somebody would accept that. And I, I responded to him and I said, it’s because you asked. And you gave her the flexibility that she wanted.
00:10:45:14 – 00:10:57:03
Kara Kelley
You gave her something that mattered more than money. And I think we’re we’re not taking the time to really ask those questions and understand what our team really wants, because sometimes it is not just a paycheck.
00:10:57:05 – 00:11:25:06
Dr. Richard Offutt
The communication, the communication of of those of that of that question, you know, bye bye bye. The doc and and her being willing to be candid enough to say, you know, this is what I really need. You know, this is what I want to make my life feel complete. So that kind of takes me to this HR as a as a recruitment tool, as a team builder, as a root, as a retention tool.
00:11:25:08 – 00:11:51:04
Dr. Richard Offutt
Talk a little bit. What is well, how is that going on in a, in a what I would consider the most competitive, employment market that I’ve seen in dentistry, and I’ve been in it a long damn time. So, you know, what do you how do you talk about. Well, how do you encourage your doctors to to use HR as a tool for, as I said, recruitment and retention, building a team building.
00:11:51:05 – 00:12:10:00
Kara Kelley
So to have it first of all, recruitment selection, all of those things are components of HR. And so just by doing that you you have HR tasks that you’re doing. You’re not necessarily doing it well in every case. You’re not necessarily doing it compliant or not necessarily doing it with a strategy in mind. But you’re still doing those things whenever you’re hiring people.
00:12:10:00 – 00:12:36:12
Kara Kelley
So if you’re using HR as a tool to find and train and retain the best people that you possibly can, you’re going to first of all, start with a strategy. One of the conversations I’ll have whenever somebody says I’m having trouble hiring is we actually look at where in that process you’re having trouble. Is nobody responding to your ad is nobody responding to the ad after you reach out like they apply and you reach out and say, hey, I want to invite you for your interview, and they go to you.
00:12:36:12 – 00:12:54:00
Kara Kelley
Are they not showing up to the interview? Did they not show up first day, or are they not staying past a couple of weeks? Past a couple of months? Every component, they’re like, there’s different pinpoints that I can say, this is probably what we need to work on, or maybe we should take a look at this, or this might need to be tweaked based on that diagnosis of that process.
00:12:54:06 – 00:13:15:08
Kara Kelley
And that’s because I’m coming at it from a strategic point. I’m not just saying, let’s throw money at it. I’m not just saying you’re doing everything wrong or, you know, do this, cancel that. I work with everybody else. I actually look really kind of what specific to that situation? As far as retention goes, there are definitely benefits that can help both, you know, attract and retain, team members.
00:13:15:08 – 00:13:32:15
Kara Kelley
But some of that has to deal with, whether or not, again, you’re using that strategic lens of how do I really give my employees what they want, reward them for longevity, and invest in my people and show them that I actually care about them and not just what they can produce for me or not just what our bottom line is.
00:13:32:17 – 00:13:46:05
Kara Kelley
People want to want to work with places where they feel at home, where they feel like this is a great culture to work in. They feel positive feelings toward work. They don’t show up on Monday morning and sit in their car going, oh my God, I don’t want to go inside. Today. I can’t deal with that patient.
00:13:46:05 – 00:14:03:17
Kara Kelley
I can’t deal with my boss. I can’t deal with my coworker. And so creating that space where people can give give positive feedback, creating the space where you’re actually doing what you say you will, whether that’s a bonus structure or performance reviews, raises, whatever the case may be, the time off that you had promised, holidays you’d promised, sometimes that all impacts things.
00:14:03:17 – 00:14:21:08
Kara Kelley
But all of that comes from HR. It comes from the strategic side of how do we really build this practice that’s worth working for, that people want to stay, but I don’t have a problem hiring because people are lining up the door to work for me because my employees love it here so much. They tell our patients, they tell their friends, everyone wants to come work here because you’ve built that space.
00:14:21:12 – 00:14:27:21
Kara Kelley
That’s all strategic HR. It’s not punching payroll buttons and, you know, throwing out job ads.
00:14:27:23 – 00:14:43:16
Dr. Richard Offutt
In the strategic HR. I what I hear you saying help me with this is is you have to get the culture right. The culture the culture of the practice. You know is that what is that what you’re saying?
00:14:43:18 – 00:15:13:19
Kara Kelley
That, to me is the most important part, is the culture side. The next slide would be the compliance part, because it doesn’t matter if you build a practice everyone wants to work for, if you end up getting, you know, audited by the Department of Labor or the EEOC or the IRS or whatever comes in and, you know, disrupts everything, making sure that you have everything on the same page, making sure you have policies that are in writing ways that you can help lead your team and make sure that everybody understands what what they should expect from you and what you should expect from them, I think, is part of that culture.
00:15:13:19 – 00:15:25:05
Kara Kelley
And so if you’re building that culture and then building it on a foundation of strong compliance, again, this is part of that strategic HR side. That’s more than just the transactional approach to hiring and retaining people.
00:15:25:07 – 00:15:56:00
Dr. Richard Offutt
So is, you know, you hear this all the time from doctors when we’re talking to them. And I talked to a lot of dentists every week, both when I was practicing and maybe I might communicate, maybe with more random folks. Dentists now that doing simplify. You know, we talk about the dentists are saying, you know, I, I just, I just lost I just lost my hygienist to, the, the big corporate office down the street, and I don’t feel like I can do anything.
00:15:56:03 – 00:16:07:09
Dr. Richard Offutt
So talk a little bit about that. And, and I like the, the strategic the strategic air I like that term. I think that’s phenomenal. Talk a little bit about that.
00:16:07:11 – 00:16:29:22
Kara Kelley
Well, if you’re losing people to dollars, you may have, first of all had the wrong person on your team. If they’re going to leave for $2 more down the street to whatever corporation, that’s one thing. Now, if you’re if you’re competing against what some in corporate practices can offer when it comes to like the big benefits, the premium benefits, you know, the higher level of health insurance, the 41K matches, you know, that that can be a challenge.
00:16:30:00 – 00:16:48:03
Kara Kelley
I have an e-book that I wrote, and I’m actually working on turning it into a book. Book? Called compete with culture. It’s my keynote. It’s a full day workshop that I’ve done for several organizations. At this point in several practices I’ve worked with and my my thought on compete with culture is that you can’t always offer all of the things.
00:16:48:03 – 00:17:08:22
Kara Kelley
And I’m not just talking about the DSO as I’m also talking about the way that the world works. Now, you have, you know, administrative team members who could work from home making more than what they’re making now, getting better benefits, getting them, you know, health insurance and two weeks of PTO from day one while they can, you know, still pick their kids up and fold their laundry on their lunch break and not have the commute and not have to pay for all the extra clothes and so on.
00:17:09:00 – 00:17:38:14
Kara Kelley
So there’s other other things you’re competing against. Other companies are competing against in other jobs, in other workforces, work structures. That isn’t just the business across the street or even the corporation that came to town. Whenever you’re losing people to to those organizations, you really have to focus on what you can compete with, which is the thing that’s 100% in your control, which is that culture, because you will find those people who don’t want to leave for a couple dollars more because they know how stressful that environment may be.
00:17:38:16 – 00:17:57:08
Kara Kelley
You know, we always know the grass is not always greener on the other side, whether that’s going to another private practice or a private practice. And so you’ve got some, some companies that are running, you know, double hygiene. They’re burning people out faster. They may be able to offer higher pay, but it also is because they know that it’s not as easy of an environment, or it may not be as positive as a culture.
00:17:57:08 – 00:18:19:23
Kara Kelley
And in some cases. So really, again, like focusing with that strategic side and building that practice that people really want to work for and that they don’t want to just leave is going to be as good as you possibly can get if you’re still struggling after that, if you’ve got a great culture and your team, you know, making business decisions for themselves and their families decide to to leave for, you know, benefits that they wouldn’t get with you or pay that they wouldn’t get with you.
00:18:19:23 – 00:18:41:13
Kara Kelley
And that is something worth looking out of. What can you do? Can you think outside of the dental box? Is there something that you can give them, like we talked about earlier, with the flexibility that they won’t get from corporate, that they can’t buy somewhere else and that other practices aren’t doing? How can you build that practice that isn’t just, you know, a positive place to work, but that might offer something that they won’t get anywhere else in dentistry.
00:18:41:15 – 00:19:09:05
Dr. Richard Offutt
How about education? And, educating these folks about what what this all means? I mean, you know, for so long, the folks would just look at the number on the check every other week. And if that number was, you know, that was all that was the decision making tool, right? So I love the I love the strategic air that you’re bringing in in terms of, of of building that.
00:19:09:05 – 00:19:30:00
Dr. Richard Offutt
I’ll talk a little bit about that. I mean, the education of, you know, how do you how do you coach your clients on, it’s, you know, you know, you know, for example, I’ll never forget this is I’ll never forget this. And this is, this is shame on me if we’re crummy communication. But we were really busy. We were, you know, adding a fifth office.
00:19:30:00 – 00:19:50:12
Dr. Richard Offutt
We were, you know, a bunch of doctors. We were all kinds of things going on. And and I had a tremendous I was a periodontist, had a tremendous surgical assistant. And I had just gone ahead and given her a raise. Okay. And stupidly, I didn’t talk to her about it. I just did it. It showed up on her check.
00:19:50:14 – 00:20:11:09
Dr. Richard Offutt
You know, the next month, she comes and sits down. She says, you know, hey, doctor, I, I really, I really think I need a raise. And and I’ve been working here doing this, doing that. I, you know, I show up early, I stay till the deal is done. I do, you know, and I said, well, you know, I gave you one last month and, and she didn’t realize it because I didn’t communicate it.
00:20:11:11 – 00:20:35:22
Dr. Richard Offutt
And, and it was just, you know, just, mess. And so, so everybody felt bad, you know, but she feels embarrassed and, you know, and I was just saying I was. I’ve been in this game long enough. I should have communicated that. So how how do you have your clients educate, their people about what what’s what their what they have their.
00:20:36:00 – 00:20:56:22
Kara Kelley
Total comp and benefit statement. And I’m happy to share that as a resource if you want to send that out. It’s an Excel spreadsheet, very easy to populate. The one that I have, I updated it actually this year. So it has, a column that’ll show prior year as well. So you can show what the increase has been, either in the expense of health insurance or the expense that you’ve maybe paid more for CTE or whatever other benefit you’re offering.
00:20:57:00 – 00:21:13:21
Kara Kelley
But that helps you break that out in a way that they aren’t going to see that just looking at, you know, in your dental post with all of the job posts out there, they just see the dollar per hour, right? Or the salary, they don’t always see what benefits are available. Even if the job post shows that there are benefits available, it doesn’t always tell the full story.
00:21:13:21 – 00:21:29:17
Kara Kelley
And so whenever you’re able to really break that out for them, especially for the team members who might not be as numbers inclined or may not be quite as analytical, not everybody loves a spreadsheet like I do. It helps you kind of give it to them in a, in a very easy way to look at things.
00:21:29:19 – 00:21:37:22
Kara Kelley
And so I’m like, I’m happy to share that as a resource. That’s one of my number one tools for educating the team on what what the value to the practice actually is.
00:21:38:00 – 00:22:00:23
Dr. Richard Offutt
That would be fantastic. So at the end of our conversation here, we’ll put all of your information up and people can email me and I will make sure that they get it, to your, your, total compensation and benefits page. I think that would be phenomenal because so many doctors, they, they they’re sitting there and, you know, they don’t talk about it in the office.
00:22:00:23 – 00:22:24:16
Dr. Richard Offutt
They talk about it over a beer somewhere and they go, golly, you know, by the time I add this, this, this and this and this, this, this employee per hour is very, very expensive. And and so, that would be a great offering. I appreciate that for all of our listeners. Is because that education of what, what is actually goes into the mix is, is is is very important.
00:22:24:18 – 00:22:31:05
Dr. Richard Offutt
And I know the doctors would feel the doctors would feel much better with that being out there.
00:22:31:07 – 00:22:35:06
Kara Kelley
And definitely communicate if you’re going to give them a raise, if you’re giving them a bonus.
00:22:35:08 – 00:22:49:17
Dr. Richard Offutt
That’s right. I said shame on me on that one. Right. I, you know, I mean, I, you know, I, I felt like I’d been in this game long enough. I said, certainly, certainly she’ll look at her check you know, the she was it was an hour employee. Certainly she’ll look at that hourly rate and say boy that’s different.
00:22:49:20 – 00:22:50:13
Dr. Richard Offutt
But no.
00:22:50:14 – 00:23:06:06
Kara Kelley
And I mean it depends on how much, you know, people may not notice a dollar or two, but they’ll certainly notice like five or, you know, or whatever, have you? I’m not saying go give people that much of a raise that if you if you do have an increase, that’s significant. Generally people will ask us, they’ll be like, did payroll make a mistake?
00:23:06:08 – 00:23:07:09
Dr. Richard Offutt
Yeah, yeah.
00:23:07:11 – 00:23:08:16
Kara Kelley
So I need to give the money back.
00:23:08:18 – 00:23:11:23
Dr. Richard Offutt
Yeah. That’s right. His reply back in this free.
00:23:12:01 – 00:23:36:18
Kara Kelley
That’s your that’s your opportunity though to first of all appreciate your team. And second really highlight the fact that you are recognizing what they’re doing and you are trying to give them more than what they had before. Take that opportunity, whether it’s a bonus, a one time thing, whether it’s the monthly bonus or whether it’s a, you know, raise going forward, make sure you take the opportunity to appreciate people, because that’s one of the other things that that they don’t often get.
00:23:36:18 – 00:23:56:19
Kara Kelley
And I sometimes work with leaders, both in healthcare and outside of health care. I do have some some coaching that I do and some workshops that I run for, supervisors and leaders outside of health care. And I find those individuals and you might know a few of them that feel like people are here to do the job, and that is good enough, and they don’t need to be praised.
00:23:56:19 – 00:24:13:07
Kara Kelley
I don’t need anybody to tell me, thank you. I don’t need a gold star. I am perfectly fine without the adoration and standing ovations that some people seem to need. And just it’s just I don’t have to do that. And so they don’t feel like they need it for themselves, and then they turn around and don’t appreciate their team.
00:24:13:09 – 00:24:33:15
Kara Kelley
And people have different ways that they prefer to be appreciated. Just like with motivation, just like with, you know, compensation. Everybody’s so unique in some way in how they prefer to really receive that appreciation. And some people do want that, you know, a round of applause at the Morning Huddle, whereas other people just want that nice quiet, you know, handwritten notes and a soft thank you.
00:24:33:15 – 00:24:50:19
Kara Kelley
And they would love, you know, any time you can throw a little extra, extra bonus their way. And they don’t want a public event out of it. Some people want to see their post on social media, and other people don’t want to be on social media at all if they can help it. Like, everybody has a little bit of a different opinion on what really makes sense for them when it comes to appreciation.
00:24:50:19 – 00:24:58:01
Kara Kelley
So doing what you possibly can and, and certainly any time that you are going to give them more money when it’s going to cost you more.
00:24:58:03 – 00:25:26:10
Dr. Richard Offutt
I always ask this, of everybody that everybody that comes on and, and I always ask them, you know, hopefully as we all go down this journey and, and that gain experience that we, we learn from the process. So I always ask this, of all of most of my guests that if, if, if you knew then what you know, now, would you have done something, anything differently?
00:25:26:12 – 00:26:00:09
Kara Kelley
I would have done this sooner. And I’m sure you have some associates listening or practice owners that were associates listening that might have said the same thing, that they waited too long to start doing this thing on their own. I, I think I spent maybe not too long. Like I said, it was great experience. I did have a very broad business background working for a CPA firm, but the information that I know and the value that I can provide for practice leaders, and the love that I have for helping people start and grow and retain employees and, and doing what I get to help them do as a as an HR
00:26:00:09 – 00:26:10:16
Kara Kelley
business partner. I wish I had started that a lot sooner. I as it were, I started in really February of 2020. So that was a stellar time.
00:26:10:17 – 00:26:12:15
Dr. Richard Offutt
Right? Good time to go on your own.
00:26:12:21 – 00:26:21:10
Kara Kelley
You know, I was like, well, I’m not sure if this is either the best time or the worst time to start a major consulting firm because, I don’t know if they need HR when they don’t have a team, but. Right.
00:26:21:11 – 00:26:29:21
Dr. Richard Offutt
That’s right. That’s what we have. No. No employees, no patients. Right. The only thing worse than the beginning of 2020 would have been March. Right.
00:26:29:21 – 00:26:48:07
Kara Kelley
And and really, like, three weeks later, we had a pandemic. But you know what? I ended up doing something like 40 presentations that year on fCRA and, Dol and IRS regulations for everything and all the alphabet soup that went along with that, helping people break that down, understand it, helping people at their teams go, helping them bring them back.
00:26:48:08 – 00:27:09:22
Kara Kelley
I, I actually really it was the best time for me. I don’t like to, you know, say that I, like, capitalized on a tragedy there, but it was a really good time where HR got highlighted as something that’s very, very necessary, and that, you know, I think going forward has been beneficial for practice leaders as well as, you know, for me personally, of course, but it’s something that I really do wish I would have started early.
00:27:09:22 – 00:27:26:09
Kara Kelley
If you’re asking like what? What would I have done? I would have probably had a little bit more confidence in my ability to step out on my own and really own. Being an HR advisor for health care, for dentists, for practice leaders, a lot sooner than than I probably did. I think I was a little nervous to do that.
00:27:26:11 – 00:27:30:21
Kara Kelley
You know, there’s always liability concerns. Of course, I make sure we always think about that.
00:27:30:23 – 00:27:41:13
Dr. Richard Offutt
That’s right, that’s right. Dentist. Not so much, you know, that’s that’s why that’s why we’re very glad that there are that there are, people like you here.
00:27:41:15 – 00:27:53:11
Kara Kelley
We think about it, but you already have the the dental board compliance and OSHA compliance and have a compliance and cybersecurity. And by the time you get down to all the bottom of HR, you’re kind of burnt out on it and you’re like, well, I’ll just deal with that when it comes. Problem.
00:27:53:13 – 00:27:58:07
Dr. Richard Offutt
Yeah. Yeah. And ultimately may. Right.
00:27:58:09 – 00:27:59:07
Kara Kelley
I guess.
00:27:59:09 – 00:28:21:16
Dr. Richard Offutt
Yeah, I bet so I bet. So we’re we’ve been speaking with Kara Kelley, CEO and and founder of clinical h.r. Cara, I want to thank you for coming on to simplify Dentistry podcast. And I also want to thank you for offering, your total compensation and benefits page to any of our listeners that they care to do that.
00:28:21:18 – 00:28:41:00
Dr. Richard Offutt
We’ll put the the information for getting that. I’m going to have them email me and then I will will. And if you want us to handle it I’ll be glad to or they can just I’ll refer them to you and you can send it to them however you want. But I think that’s a tremendous thing to be able to, to see, because dentists talk about that all the time.
00:28:41:02 – 00:28:52:20
Dr. Richard Offutt
Kara, I want to thank you for joining us. And, and, I appreciate your, your information and I and your, your vast experience. And, I hope that we can do this again sometime.
00:28:52:22 – 00:28:57:21
Kara Kelley
Oh, absolutely. And I’m honored by the invitation. Thank you so much. This is such a pleasure. I enjoy having a conversation with you.
00:28:57:23 – 00:29:13:01
Dr. Richard Offutt
Oh, thank you, thank you. You can receive Kara Kelley’s employee Total Compensation and Benefits Statement Excel spreadsheet as a free gift. Email Richard@SimplifyDDS.com.