Dental Executive Level Hiring During the Pandemic  

Uncertainty is the driving force for innovation and risk.   There has never been a time in our business lives where this has been put to the test more than the present.  While the pandemic continues to cause uncertainty throughout the world in all facets of life, one thing that remains constant is the need for strong leadership within organizations and the ability to connect top opportunities with top talent.

From our firm’s perspective, we have found that adapting our standard interviewing processes and procedures during this time has strengthened our abilities to find top candidates for specific roles.  The biggest difference we have seen is the potential of remote working capabilities.  We are seeing virtual meetings becoming a larger part of the process and more structured, productive, and accepted.  This has allowed us to expand search criteria for roles that may not have been open to this idea previously.

Over the past six months, we have been fortunate enough to perform searches for both private equity-backed and privately held groups.  Based on their needs and risk tolerance we have seen our clients take a direct split in approach during the current environment.  Both come with positives and negatives and present unique opportunities for not only leadership roles but for candidates as well.

On one side there are groups doing what they can to simply survive.  Although they have had to make adjustments or cuts due to economics, they have focused on retaining their top employees and potentially “upgrading” certain positions.   The positives for this are the potential to bring in leadership who introduce fresh ideas allowing groups to perform based on their “new” goals.  The negative is this ultimately puts extra responsibilities onto their “top” performers due to the decrease in leadership roles and support around them potentially causing frustration and a feeling of being taken advantage of.

On the other side, we are seeing groups that focus within the growth mindset.  They are expanding their teams by preparing for future opportunities and roles that fit into the “new” vision of the group.  These groups are looking at the backside of the pandemic as an opportunity to grow by partnering with offices or smaller groups who may have struggled this year.  The positives for this are creating new executive roles for growth, integration and training.  The negative side may be the risk of adding economic stress with no definitive timeframe of when these roles will perform.

From a candidate pool perspective, we are seeing an overall increase in the marketplace.  These are not just candidates who were let go, but candidates who were retained and have had a large amount of workload thrown on them.  These are the passive candidates mentioned above who may feel disgruntled or taken advantage of and are looking for a change.

One thing in the era of COVID-19 is for sure, everyone has established their own level of risk tolerance.  Each group and opportunity are unique and we are certain that the right candidate and opportunities are out there.  You may just have to look a little harder.

Written by Jon Fidler.
Jon is the founder & CEO of Fidler and Associates. Connecting the dental industry, Fidler and Associates is a dental specific executive search firm partnering with DSOs and multi-location groups of all sizes by providing guidance and search services for building leadership teams.

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