Dental Tribune U.S. Edition

Dental Tribune U.S. Edition | January 2012A4 Practice Matters HR 101: Tees and tats causing a stir Too often dentists look at human resources polices as an expense rather than a necessary investment By Sally McKenzie, CEO McKenzie Management Sally MCKEnziE is CEO of McKenzie Management, which provides success- proven management solu- tions to dental practition- ers nationwide. She is editor of The Dentist’s Net- work Newsletter at www. thedentistsnetwork.net, the e-Management Newsletter at www.mckenziemgmt. com and The New Dentist™ magazine at www.thenewdentist.net. She can be reached at sallymck@mckenziemgmt.com or (877) 777-6151. A mber is an assistant in Dr. D’s office. She’s what you picture when you think “free spirited.” She likes to color her hair a new shade every month: bleach blond, jet black, fiery red, etc. She has a few ear piercings. It’s a somewhat edgy style but not offensive … until recently. Her lat- est dye job is pink and green. She’s now sporting a large circular ring in her nose, a bar in her eyebrow, sleeve tattoos wind their way up both forearms and the let- ters J-A-M-E-S are now tattooed on her knuckles. Dr. D. is about to drop dead. His prac- tice is in Manhattan … Manhattan, Kan- sas, that is, in the heart of the Midwest. Even in this college town, it’s fair to say that there is a somewhat conservative view of individual style. Dr. D has been in practice for 25 years and has many aging boomers who’ve long since forgotten the concept of free spirit and the psychedelic revolution. The dentist is hoping appropriate dress is covered in the employee policies and procedures manual. There’s just one problem: He never actually got around to finishing and distributing the manual. There is no policy on appropriate dress or anything else. Truth be told, the dentist never really thought he would need the manual until, of course, he needed it. Too often dentists look at human re- sources polices as an expense rather than a necessary investment in protect- ing the practice from potentially costly litigation. In other cases, a dentist may purchase a practice that has an existing manual and then simply assume that it is OK, that everything that should be ad- dressed is … until the dentist discovers otherwise. Lawsuits on the rise When the economy tanked in 2008, the number of discrimination and wrongful termination lawsuits skyrocketed. When the economy is good and people can find jobs quickly, they don’t bother pursuing litigation. In this environment, it is much more likely that an unhappy employee will sue or file a complaint than it was five years ago. It’s essential that employ- ers have policies and procedures in place. Certainly, dress and appearance are big issues in today’s workplace. Dentists need a dress code and a policy. You can say that everyone is going to wear scrubs. You can say no jeans are allowed. You don’t have to tolerate offensive or off-color attire, T- shirts with inappropriate sayings, crazy hair, etc., but it’s essential to have policies in place. However, dentists do need to be aware that if the clothing, such as a head scarf, is worn because of the employee’s religious practice, it is protected. McKenzie Management’s HR Solutions division encourages dentists to work with a professional to create a “policies and procedures manual” that is specific to the individual needs of the practice. The manual may cover as many or as few issues as the dentist chooses, but would probably serve its purpose most effec- tively if it included key practice policies, including those listed below: Equal opportunity statement: This states that the employee’s religion, age, sex or race will not influence hiring, pro- motion, pay or benefits in any way. Definition of the work schedule: This indicates that all employees are to be at assigned work areas and ready to provide care for patients at a certain time. Salary/payment policies: This details when the employee can expect to be paid, how wage increases are handled, over- time, etc. Professional code of conduct: This sec- tion clarifies the practice’s expectations regarding employee dress, punctual- ity, use of tobacco, alcohol and drugs, as well as policies regarding personal phone calls, Internet usage and personal visits. Time-off policies: This section explains policies on vacation, parental/maternity leave, illness, military, funeral, personal, jury duty, holidays, personal days, etc. Performance review policy: This section explains exactly how and when employee performance is evaluated, including sam- ples of performance evaluation forms. It may also spell out the practice’s policy on progressive discipline and unsatisfactory performance. And it may list those in- fractions that could result in termination of employment. Terminating an employee is something that many dentists will go to great lengths simply increases the circumvention chal- lenge. Most of the thieves we see can easily adapt. Because shoplifting is a crime of oppor- tunity, control systems such as video cam- eras and radio-frequency identification tags on merchandise are effective at help- ing to prevent pilferage; however, such deterrence is unlikely to work in a dental practice. The other point I will make is that fear of punishment seems to be virtually ineffec- tive in deterrence. Embezzlers we see are well aware of the consequences of their ac- tions, which include loss of livelihood and potentially, loss of liberty. Because of the needs of each group, we should not expect punishment to deter either the dishonest or the desperate fraudsters. Are there any effective deterrents? My suggestion is that deterrence strate- gies that provide no collateral benefit (i.e., are done only to discourage fraud) are a waste of resources; instead dentists should focus on early detection of fraud. I will again disagree with much of the collective “wisdom” that exists on dental embezzlement when I say that for a den- tist or advisors to try to confirm fraud by some form of audit or analysis is unpro- ductive and possibly dangerous. Because there are many possible ways to steal from a dentist, without considerable knowledge and some specialized software, this activ- ity is looking for a needle in a field of hay- stacks. Fortunately for dentists, even though there are myriad ways to steal, the behav- ior of embezzlers is remarkably consistent. With the right knowledge, identifying em- bezzlement through behavioral analysis is painless and reliable. We have a behavioral assessment ques- tionnaire requiring less than five minutes to complete, which dentists can request from our website. How does an economic downturn affect dental-practice fraud? Difficult economic times create more of these desperate people I mentioned earli- er,whichcreatesmorefraud.Wedidnotice a much larger incidence of fraud in the De- troit area after the auto industry downsiz- ing a few years ago. What are the first critical steps a dental practice owner should take if he or she sus- pects internal fraud is occurring? Unfortunately, intuitive steps are not al- ways the right ones at this point. Dentists try to conduct their own investigation, bring their CPA into the office, or call the police. Doing any of these will likely alert a perceptive thief to your suspicions. The overarching objective is not to tele- graph your suspicion to the suspect. When fraudsters think they are about to be dis- covered, their strong urge is to destroy evidence. This invariably causes collat- eral damage. Destruction might consist of wiping the computer’s hard drive and destroying all backup media. In one spectacular case, the victims did not engage us but began their own (clum- sy) investigation. The thief, once alerted, burned down the office! This is really the point where expert guidance is needed. We have an “immedi- ate action checklist” for dentists who sus- pect fraud in their office. They can request the checklist from our website. Our investigative process is completely stealthy. I promise never to send a nerdy- looking investigator to your office. This helps ensure that evidence is protected, and also that working relationships are not destroyed in the event that suspicions are groundless. What is the most unusual fraud case you have encountered? About once a month we see something in- novative. The alteration of receivable bal- ances after the server crash is one I think of — we suspect that the thief caused the server to crash. By placing a magnet inside one of our lab computers, we could repli- cate the crash quite easily. DaviD HaRRiS has had the pleasure of hearing many cell doors slam shut on thieves he has caught. He is president of Prosperident, the only company in North America specializing in the de- tection and investigation of embezzlements com- mitted against dentists. He is a member of the Academy of Dental Management Consultants and has been called the “The Dental Fraud Guru.” Learn more at www.prosperident.com. Istherespecificinsuranceownerscanbuyto protect their business against loss to fraud? Is such insurance worth getting? This insurance is either included in the ba- sic insurance package that offices already have or an “employee dishonesty” rider can be added. I don’t have cost details, but understand that it is quite inexpensive. Based on what I said about the probability of fraud in offices, I think everyone should have this coverage. How much of a problem is external fraud involving customers, vendors, suppliers or other business relationships compared with internal fraud? It certainly happens. We see a fair amount of identity theft from people trying to make use of someone else’s insurance cov- erage or to obtain prescription medication. However, the financial and other damage that this type of activity normally causes pales in comparison to the damage caused by embezzlement. ” Continue on page A6 “ Page A2