The Hiring Trap: The True Cost of 'Must Have Experience'

Over the past three weeks, we’ve established that retention requires both fair compensation AND strong leadership, and that development creates the loyalty money alone can’t buy. This week, I want to challenge a hiring practice that’s creating a self-inflicted talent shortage across our industry. ## Why I Wouldn’t Have Gotten an Interview at Your Practice In 2013, I was 33 years old. I was an assistant manager at Staples and the only manager at any level in the state of Michigan to receive “exceeds expectations” on my annual review that year. I was next in line for a store manager position in my district. Then my brother James, who had joined Aspen Dental, called me: “Get off the retail hamster wheel. Come join me.” I made a decision that terrified me. In 2014, my wife and I moved from Southeast Michigan to South Carolina. We put a down payment on a place before I even knew if I’d make it through training. If I failed, I’d have to return to retail having faced the biggest professional failure of my career. I enrolled in 12 weeks of intensive training with Aspen Dental. **My dental experience? Zero.** **My qualifications?** Sales experience, management experience, and some biology and medical terminology from college. Nine people started in that training class. Only five of us made it through the rigorous process and actually got placed in the field. Aspen invested heavily in training, but they also cut their losses when someone wasn’t going to succeed. They understood that hiring wrong is expensive—even when you’re training from scratch. When I left Staples, my district manager told me at my exit interview: “We are losing a store manager, not an assistant.” He saw what most dental practices would have missed: The skills that would make me successful weren’t dental experience. They were **leadership, communication, sales ability, work ethic, and coachability.** **Here’s my question: “Would your practice have even interviewed me?”** If your job posting said “Must have 3+ years dental experience” or “Dentrix knowledge required,” I wouldn’t have made it past the screening. Yet I went on to win two Aspen All Star Awards for top-performing office managers. I learned clinical terminology, treatment planning, patient communication, and practice operations. I became successful enough that I now consult the very practices that wouldn’t have hired me. ## The Industry’s Self-Inflicted Talent Shortage Walk into any dental practice owner networking group and you’ll hear the same refrain: “I can’t find good people.” Then look at their job postings: - “Must have 3+ years dental assistant experience” - “Dentrix experience required” - “Dental background preferred” We’re all fishing in the same shrinking pond, competing for the same limited pool of experienced candidates. Worse, when we hire for experience, we often inherit a bundle of bad habits and inconsistent systems from the previous practice, making the new hire a liability. Meanwhile, talented people from retail, hospitality, healthcare, and other industries—people with the exact transferable skills we need—never even get considered. **We’re creating our own talent shortage by demanding experience instead of hiring for potential.** ## What Actually Matters vs. What We Screen For Here’s what made me successful in dental (and what makes any team member successful): ### What Actually Matters (The Unteachable) - **Communication skills** (Could talk to patients and build rapport) - **Sales ability** (Could present treatment and help patients say yes) - **Leadership and management** (Could run operations and develop teams) - **Work ethic and reliability** (Showed up and did the work) - **Coachability** (Was willing to learn and take feedback) ### What I Didn’t Have: The Trainable Skills These skills are system-dependent and can be taught in weeks/months: - Dental terminology - Treatment planning knowledge - Insurance processes - Practice management software - Clinical workflows **Everything that made me successful wasn’t trainable. Everything I didn’t have was.** ## The Cost of “Must Have Experience” When you demand dental experience, here’s what happens: 1. You shrink your candidate pool dramatically 2. You pay a premium for experience 3. You inherit someone else’s training (or lack thereof) 4. You extend your time to hire 5. You miss high-potential talent A practice owner I worked with held a front desk position open for five months to avoid three weeks of training. That is the true cost of arbitrary experience requirements. ## How to Hire for Potential Instead of Experience If you’re ready to expand your talent pool and hire better people, here’s the framework: ### 1. Identify the Unteachable Skills for Each Role *(A note on clinical positions: Your ability to hire for potential depends on your state’s regulations. This approach is most underutilized for non-clinical roles.)* | Role | Unteachable Skills to Screen For | |------|----------------------------------| | Front Desk/Patient Coordinator | Communication, Problem-solving under pressure, Empathy, Attention to detail | | Office Manager | Leadership, Systems thinking, Financial acumen, Conflict resolution | | Treatment Coordinator | Sales ability, Active listening, Empathy, Confidence in presenting value | These are the things you screen for. These are what matter. ### 2. Accept That Everything Else Is Trainable ### 3. Rewrite Your Job Postings Instead of screening people out for things you can teach them, sell them on the opportunity: *“Seeking a front desk professional with exceptional communication skills and a passion for helping people… We’ll train you on our systems, software, and dental-specific processes.”* ### 4. Build a Real Training Program This requires intentionality, not a corporate budget. Document your systems, create checklists, and assign a mentor. Aspen trained nine people but only placed five—they had standards and a process. You should too. ### 5. Extend Your Probationary Period Use a 90-day probationary period with clear milestones. If someone isn’t progressing or isn’t coachable, cut your losses early. ## The “But Training Takes Time” Objection Training someone for three months is faster than recruiting for six months, hiring the wrong person, and replacing them in a year. And here’s the leadership lesson: **When you hire for potential and invest in training, you create loyalty.** That person knows you took a chance on them. That loyalty lasts years. ## What This Looks Like in Practice One practice owner was skeptical but desperate. She hired a hotel front desk manager with zero dental experience. Six months later, that former hotel manager was her best front desk coordinator. Why? She had the unteachable hospitality skills that meant she treated patients like guests, not transactions. The dental skills? Trained in weeks. The practice owner realized: “She’s better than the ‘experienced’ dental receptionists I’ve hired in the past because she doesn’t have bad habits to unlearn. She learned our way from day one.” ## Your Hiring Assessment Answer honestly. The unchecked items are limiting your talent pool: - My job postings focus on qualities and potential, not just experience requirements - I’ve hired at least one person in the last two years who didn’t have dental experience - I have a structured onboarding and training program for new hires - I can clearly articulate the unteachable skills required for each role - I’m willing to invest 60-90 days in training the right person - I evaluate candidates on communication skills and cultural fit, not just resume bullets - I have a probationary period with clear milestones for new hires - I’ve documented my systems well enough that someone new could learn them ### Scoring **6-8 checked:** You’re hiring for potential and expanding your talent pool **3-5 checked:** You’re limiting yourself with outdated hiring practices **0-2 checked:** You’re fishing in a shrinking pond and wondering why you can’t find good people ## Your Next Step This week, look at your job postings and take action. Ask yourself the uncomfortable question: **“Would I have screened out someone who could have been great because they didn’t check an arbitrary experience box?”** Then rewrite one job posting today to focus on potential instead of experience. You might be surprised by who applies. --- **P.S.** Twelve years ago, I was that person who didn’t have dental experience. Someone took a chance on me. Now I help practices build the systems and leadership that make taking those chances successful. The talent is out there—you’re just screening them out before you ever meet them. [Get “The Root of Leadership: A Dental Practice Transformation” here.](https://a.co/d/6LvEQwO) [Have a question or topic you’d like me to address? Connect with me!](https://www.linkedin.com/in/joedeluca1/)