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The Strategic Value of Staff Training and Development Dr. Doug Depew, DMD, MS

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As practicing orthodontists, we are all faced with business dilemmas and one that often surfaces is staff training and development. How much of our practice budget should be allocated? Where and when should we have training? What resources are available? And most importantly, what is the ROI on my training expense?

It may be best to start with a quote from a leading success speaker, Zig Ziglar. He once said, "What's worse than training workers and losing them? Not training them and keeping them." We can all agree it's frustrating to help improve the skills of our employees only to see them leave for a modest increase in pay with a nearby competitor. However, what justice are you providing to your practice to hold someone mentally hostage by not providing her or him the resources to become the best possible employee?

Orthodontists are living proof of Benjamin Franklin's statement, "An investment in knowledge pays the best interest." Our profession is about extended education, elite performance, and specialization. Intelligence is the primary catalyst to even get into the profession. Orthodontists need continuing education to keep up to date; should we expect any less from the people we employ and who represent us? Not only is standardized and highly structured training critical for new hires, continuing education on advanced techniques, customer service, and new treatment modalities are vital for veteran team members as well. As business managers, we must continue to adopt progressive concepts to further differentiate from ever-growing competition and the dental specialty expansion.

Orthodontists are well known for their adoption of new technologies, and this movement continues today. As technology advances, we must ensure that our teams are equipped to handle the fast-paced challenges of today and tomorrow. Most practices claim to have training and development and most of us appear prepared, but we also fall short of being satisfied. In today's world, how do we keep up and appropriately manage a training or development program?

The first step is to make education a visible priority and mission of the practice. It should be published in the mission of the practice, clearly communicated to your patients and very openly discussed in your regular staff meetings. Regardless of the size of your practice or experience level of your team members, designating a training director is the first step you should take. This could be a clinical manager, office manager or even the doctor.

A training or development director should be responsible for the entire program. He or she would handle the administration, scheduling, event planning and resource allocation for your entire practice. At a minimum, two to three percent of your annual expense budget should be spent on training and employee development. Rather than focusing on the expenses, focus on the positive impact this type of R&D will produce. Keep in mind that training and development is not exclusive to the clinical area and that most practices need more fine tuning in other areas of the business. Areas often overlooked include: soft skills, customer service, computer skills, public relations, sales training and marketing. These are common areas that need continuous improvement.

As the technology age unfolds, we have to be prepared to adjust our communication models with technology and our own human resources. A few examples could include team building, treatment coordinator seminars, email, Microsoft Office, social media, blogging and other technology-related modules.


As each member of your team becomes more efficient at his or her particular role, more job duties can be taken on and shared by the same employees. Instead of hiring more employees, current employees are enabled to do more and feel more important. Experience has proven that most individuals want to do more, want to make more, and want to be a part of the overall success of the practice. Of course, there are employees who don't meet this profile and that's okay. It's important that you understand who is the right fit and who isn't. Compensation or reward models should be designed with this in mind so you never give more work to an employee without proper rewards, i.e., expanded job titles, perks, time off, benefits and even monetary supplements.

We are not IBM, but we can learn from the IBM white paper, "The Value of Training, and the High Cost of Doing Nothing." IBM's founder, Thomas J. Watson, Sr. said, "There is no saturation point in education." This applies to the health-care world just as it applies to technology or even service companies. It's no secret that untrained workers cost significantly more to support and maintain than well-trained workers.

Once you commit, spend a day with the director laying out a 24-month schedule of events, proposed venues, budgets, resources and rewards. Meet with the team regularly to review the progress and evaluate successes and failures. Often, more learning and advancement will come from failures and the valuable lessons we learn from them. Keep it on the front cover of everyday life in the practice. Conversations should encompass your desire to see the team and individuals grow as employees or professionals. Stick to the calendar at all costs and never let it slip in priority.

Seek out certifications, regardless of the state mandates (which you should follow), to find personal value in your team's individual accomplishments. Certificates can include marketing or sales certifications, web design or computer certificates, customer service or team-building programs or clinical programs that reward those for furthering their knowledge. These certifications can be found easily and affordably online, without having to pay for expensive travel or seminar excursions.

In our office we require newly hired clinical staff, including those with prior experience, to undergo a 14-lesson online certification program. They must pass the course in their first three months of employment to remain employed. This ensures that all assistants have achieved the same minimal level of knowledge in order to provide high-quality patient care. Thereafter, staff members receive a minimum of 20 hours of continuing education each year. This comes in the form of advanced online lessons, office training sessions, and attendance at meetings and conferences. For the in-office training sessions, we meet in the morning once a month. For part of the morning, I meet with the clinical staff. We may review topics pertinent to issues we may have, such as improving bond failure rates or improving our skills with lingual appliances. We may even review an online course together. The office manager meets with the non-clinical staff at the same time to review one or more things more pertinent to their tasks. We meet for a part of the morning as an entire team to discuss topics that pertain to everyone. This is always planned in advance with input from staff members.

A variety of options are available: classroom, on-site group training, consultants, mentoring, conferences, online webcasts and e-learning modules. Deciding on the right format is up to each individual practice and the available resources that can be applied to employee development. Regardless of the choices, a combination of two or even all of the above options will provide a well-rounded training program. As with any training program, relying on the didactic portions alone will not complete an individual's learning objectives. Training and education provides the foundation, but putting that knowledge to work in a real-life working environment will be the only true test of knowledge retention and perfection. Nothing beats on-the-job training; the challenge is making sure bad habits are not continuously passed from one employee to the next. Too often trainers teach how to do things, but do not have the knowledge base to teach why. By giving staff access to a standardized and structured program, you can be assured they are learning the fundamentals and the core science that explains why.

Training is invaluable, tough to administer and even tougher to value. It is undoubtedly one area that can produce extensive rewards in morale, efficiency and overall patient satisfaction in your practice. Andrew Walker, a research director with technology research and advisory company Gartner, said, "You can tell training is not valued if it keeps getting cut. That sends a message to people that you don't value training."

Your greatest assets are not only your people but the knowledge that they carry with them each and every day. Make it your next key objective to get on board with a training program customized for your practice and invest in the greatest asset of your practice: your people.


Dr. Douglas Depew completed his dental training at the Medical College of Georgia and received his master's degree and Certificate in Orthodontics from Baylor College of Dentistry. He is the founder and academic director for Trapezio. Trapezio offers online training programs, including the Academy of Orthodontic Assisting (for clinical staff), which is endorsed by the American Association of Orthodontists, as well as training for non-clinical orthodontic staff members.
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September 2025
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