The Practicon Viewpoint by Ann Page Griffin

WOW TEAM MEMBERS WITH FULL DISCLOSURE OF THEIR VALUE TO THE PRACTICE!

The most productive dental teams are those fully aware of the appreciation their dentist has for the staff's skills, talents, and contribution to both patient care and office productivity. Offices in which staff members are made to feel valued and appreciated beyond the norm outproduce and outshine those where staff feel like hired hands, a necessity, but nothing special.

One of the best ways to let team members know the value you place on their work is to present each with a Personal Total Compensation Statement early in the New Year. The Statement is a summary of wages plus benefits broken down to per-hour dollars. Too often, team members see only the net (after tax) wages listed on their paycheck stub, and fail to understand how much is deducted from gross wages for personal income and other taxes or their employer’s payment of a portion of these taxes. I’ve actually talked with staff members who have no idea that the dentist/employer pays 6.2% of their gross wages for Social Security plus 1.45% for Medicare, not to mention worker’s compensation insurance, state and federal unemployment insurance, etc. And seldom is staff made aware of the value of benefits—health insurance, retirement, paid time off, uniform allowance, and so on. In short, total compensation is a package consisting of gross wages plus the employer's share of employment taxes and the cost of benefits.

The following list is a menu one might see on a Personal Total Compensation Statement. It is not meant to suggest that an employer should provide similar benefits, only those required under employment tax law.

PERSONAL TOTAL COMPENSATION STATEMENT FOR THE CALENDAR YEAR 20__ FOR (STAFF MEMBER’S NAME)

	Gross Wages	$__________
	Bonus	$__________
	Social Security	$__________
	Medicare	$__________
	Unemployment Insurance	$__________
	Worker's Compensation Insurance	$__________
	Health Insurance	$__________
	Retirement Plan Contribution	$__________
	Vacation - _____ days	$__________
	Personal Leave - _____ days	$__________
	Uniform Allowance	$__________
	Continuing Education/Travel Expenses	$__________
	Meals and Celebrations	$__________
	Dental Care	$__________
	Other	$__________
	Total Compensation	$__________

	Daily Wage Rate (Total Compensation divided by Number of Days Worked)	$__________
	Hourly Wage Rate (Daily Wage Rate divided by Hours Worked Daily)	$__________

Thank you! We appreciate your work as a member of our dental team, and we value the care you help us provide our patients. It is a pleasure to calculate your annual, daily, and hourly wages, realizing the totals are significantly more than net wages alone. Together, we can make this the best year yet for our practice and for our team.

In order to maintain confidentiality concerning each individual team member’s compensation, distribute the Statements in sealed envelopes, insisting that each team member read the Statement privately. The entire team must be informed that compensation is personal information, not to be shared with teammates.

I am convinced from seeing the looks of amazement and positive reactions from individual team members in consulting clients' offices that Personal Compensation Statements are well worth the time it takes to prepare them. Implement this idea in 2020, and your staff will have one more way to understand the value you place on their work and on them as professionals.