Schedule a demo

The Must-Have HR Forms for Your Dental Practice

The Ultimate Guide to HR Forms for Dentists: What You Need and Where to Find It

Have you ever wondered why you need to keep records of each activity in your dental practice? This process allows you to have proof of each transaction and interaction with your team. Without proper records, it will become tricky to address complaints in your practice and abide by all regulations. For example, if employees say you didn’t pay their full wage, how can you prove that you did?

HR forms, especially in electronic form, are ideal to ensure that all activities go smoothly. With these documents, it’s easier to keep track of all activities and transactions related to your team. Are you wondering which records you need in your practice? Continue reading this guide to discover all you need to know about HR forms.

Table of Contents

The Benefit of HR Forms and Templates

If you run a small or medium-sized dental practice, you may wonder, “Why do I need all these HR forms and to keep proper records of them?” While this process is a headache for most dentists and managers, it has many benefits.

First, having HR forms allows you to have a reasonable idea of all the training and certification everyone holds.

Do you find it hard to track the performance of your employees? Are you interested in learning more about how team members deliver services and use their working hours? Having HR forms like timesheets is the perfect way to track productivity.

These documents allow each employee to record what they do throughout their day. Using them, you can identify how they allocate time to different tasks. Based on the analysis, it’s then possible to reduce time wastage. Additionally, you accurately determine the hours shift-based employees work and pay them accordingly.

Have you ever had a dispute with your employee and found it hard to solve? For example, you might have reduced their annual break by the number of off days taken during the year. This matter may have then caused a dispute when the employee demanded a full leave.

Without proper records, it’s tricky to solve such issues. Luckily, it’s possible to avoid them by using HR forms to track all days your employees miss work. You may then present this evidence to help them understand why they have less time for their leave in such a case.

While forms are helpful, there is also a regulatory component that can’t be ignored. Many HR forms/documentation are legally required (i.e. timekeeping records, employee personnel forms, etc.), so it is important that you ensure all your recordkeeping is compliant.

Below are examples of HR forms you need in your dental practice.

Recruitment Forms

Adding new members to your dentistry team is often a headache. You need to advertise the role, sift through applications, screen candidates, etc.

You also have to plan the entire recruitment process to identify all the skills you need and ensure that you have the right process to choose the best person for each role. Having different recruitment HR forms and templates is a perfect way to avoid all this stress.  Recruitment forms need to be standardized and legally compliant regarding the requested and collected information. Finally, the plan for the recruitment process needs to be applied consistently across all candidates and positions.

Recruiting Plans Forms & Templates

When hunting for new employees, you need a solid strategy. It will guide you in attracting suitable applicants for your dental practice and shortlisting before you fill the role.

One HR form you can use for this process is a staffing and recruiting plan, which is a document that outlines all the steps of the hiring process. These plans include creating an effective job description, giving a timeline for filling the vacant role, and establishing the various stages of the interview process you will have. It also lists the methods you will use to advertise and reach your target audience.

Do you find it hard to keep track of each applicant’s name and the role they are interviewing for? You should ensure your practice has an easily accessible location for all employment applications, ensuring that this form meets state/federal requirements. This will help you maintain the details about every candidate.

While the application should include all the required fields, you can also add open-ended questions to help you learn more about the applicant.

The Must-Have HR Forms for Your Dental Practice

Additional forms you can use for recruitment include contact lists, intern agreements, a guide to hiring interns, and onboarding forms.

If you are looking for specialized assistance, we can offer it. At HR for Health, we have specific forms, including sample interview questions and an employment application that we can help you customize for your needs. Furthermore, you can store all documents and easily manage and access them with our cloud-based document storage. 

Job Descriptions and Application Forms & Templates

After planning the recruitment process, you need HR forms and templates to help you with potential sourcing after planning the recruitment process. For example, you will need a comprehensive job post and a detailed job description. You’ll need expanded descriptions for the various roles in your dental practice, including dental assistants, dental hygienists, and receptionists.

With these, you can provide more details about the role in question. Besides, you’ll reduce the nagging calls and emails made by interested people who want to know more about the position.

To avoid the hassle of writing descriptions when advertising new roles, consider obtaining ready-made documents. Use HR software such as HR for Health’s all-in-one solution to maintain job description templates. Some sections you’re likely to have in the sample are the job title, ID, date listed, position details, and department.

Most job applicants use cover letters to inform you about their qualifications. Unfortunately, reading many of these can be exhausting and tedious. With digital, automated, and centralized recruitment forms from a single software service, you can avoid the hassle of sifting through endless stacks of paper (or multiple applications). 

Interviewing Forms & Templates

Conducting interviews for your dentistry is crucial, as it makes it easier to narrow down shortlisted candidates. As you plan for this process, it’s vital to use several HR forms to streamline it.

For example, maintain a document that contains sample job interview questions to reduce preparation time. It’s also beneficial to create job interview forms or have templates ready. HR for Health clients have access to interviewing resources, making the process easier.

More HR forms for conducting interviews in the dental industry are:

  • Candidate screening trackers
  • Reference Check documents
  • Interview evaluation forms
  • Employee background checks

Sometimes, you’ll do in-person interviews for your employees. In instances like this, it’s best for you to have objective questions, thus allowing all candidates to be on the same playing field. This ensures that you can compare all candidates evenly. You can then store all answers in document storage if there are questions about the interview at a later date.

Hiring Forms & Templates

Do you find it challenging to write emails offering jobs to qualified candidates? Consider using formal job offer letter templates for regular and temporary employment. These will guide you on the information that should be included. This includes vital information pertaining to employment, including start date, schedule, compensation, and documentation requirements to make the role more appealing.  If you want to learn more about writing the best offer letters, read this article.

Once you communicate to your potential employees, you also need to notify the other applicants who didn’t qualify. Consider using a templated response to save you time in the future. 

Onboarding Forms and Templates

Another category of HR forms you need in your dental practice are those for onboarding. After a new team member reports to your practice, show hospitality by sending the employee a welcome letter or email. Apart from that, use various documents to gather essential details.

These details include, but are not limited to:

  • ID number
  • Social security number
  • Tax details
  • Resume
  • Certificates/licenses
  • Bank account details

Having a new hire checklist helps you avoid missing any of this information. Other HR forms you may need in this stage include employee announcements, onboarding checklists, and emergency contact forms.

Offboarding Forms & Templates

Some employees may not meet your performance requirements. Hence, you might need to let them go to hire others and build an outstanding team to grow your practice. On the other hand, some may choose to leave your practice once it’s time to take their next career step.

When releasing an employee, you may wonder, “Do I need to keep records of their exit?” The short answer is yes, for both legal and professional reasons. Having various HR forms allows you to streamline the process of releasing members of your dental team.

When letting an employee go, you need different termination forms depending on their position and state. Use an employment termination letter template for guidance if you don’t know what to include. If you use HR for Health’s software, we have the appropriate customized documentation for each state, ensuring that you don’t have to worry about creating a brand-new document. 

Other HR forms you may need for offboarding are transition plans, resignation forms, and reference letter samples.

Payroll and Scheduling Forms

Handling payroll is a challenge for most dental practices. This issue is even worse if you don’t have staff that manages payroll, and your team consists of both full and part-time employees. You’ll also want to consider whether or not you manage payroll electronically or manually. Getting payroll and scheduling HR forms is the ultimate solution to most issues associated with paying your team. In many cases, outsourcing payroll can make your life much easier, as it reduces the steps needed and automates record-keeping. 

Read on to determine the types of documents you should ensure your practice has.

Scheduling Forms and Templates

Did you know that about 74% of employees have fluctuating working hours throughout their week? Unfortunately, lacking a clear working schedule can have many adverse effects.

First, it lowers the productivity and working morale of your dental team. It also can make it hard to track the number of hours each employee works. One essential document for dental practices is an employee work schedule. HR for Health can provide you with a robust HR software that can help you properly track all hours worked. You should also have time and attendance forms to help you track off days and the number of hours each employee works. Thankfully, electronic timekeeping can assist you in this otherwise difficult and time-consuming process.

Other scheduling HR forms you can benefit from include employee timesheets and attendance trackers.

Recommended Reading

Why You Should Never Adjust an Employee’s Timesheet

Payroll Forms and Templates

The frequency you pay your team may differ. For example, you may have a team member you pay biweekly and a bookkeeper who gets their wage at the end of the month. With varying schedules, handling payroll can get pretty crazy.

If you don’t plan well, you may miss some payments or provide the wrong amounts. The best way to ensure you pay everyone on time and avoid issues is by using the correct payroll HR forms. These will allow you to keep track of all wages and determine your spending on employees’ payments.

One document to use for this purpose is an expense tracking worksheet. This one allows you to record all spending and earnings, then budget for the balance. Using it, you can avoid a financial crisis that may happen when you spend all the money meant for paying your employees.

More HR forms and templates for payroll are:

  • Direct deposit authorization forms
  • Payroll forms
  • Expense reimbursement forms

Another HR form to ease your job is a payroll tracker. This one will capture all transactions you make to your employees during a particular period. Since recording these details manually is tricky, we highly recommend using HR for Health’s all-in-one software solution. With such a solution, you’ll get all the forms and templates you need for payroll.

The tool can also automate processes like tracking payments and paying your dentistry team, saving time. Besides, it’ll produce reports and paystubs to help your employees understand all deductions. For more information on using HR software to handle payroll forms, visit this page.

Employee Relations Forms

Conflicts are common in many dental practices. Still, some matters may be significant and require the intervention of an HR Coordinator.

The Must-Have HR Forms for Your Dental PracticeFailure to solve employee relations problems can affect morale. In particular, studies show that about 22% of people engage less when at work due to previous conflicts. Using HR forms allows you to keep track of such issues and resolve them. You should have regular performance reviews and use performance review templates and disciplinary action templates. You’ll need to document these issues and have a standard practice for them, but don’t worry: HR for Health can help with this process, as we have the software, forms, and templates that can allow you to manage this entire process. 

Are you wondering what you should use to improve relations in your dental practice? Here are some forms you should make sure you have for better management.

Incident Report Forms and Templates

Keeping proper records of all reported incidences allows you to track the behavior of particular employees. One document you should have for this use is the complaint form. This one allows the affected person to give a clear account of how the conflict happened.

You should make sure that you connect this documentation with your employee compensation provider. You can use HR for Health’s cloud-based storage to store any records.

You should also obtain an incident report template with written-out sections. With such, it’s easy to guide your team on the details to give after an altercation at your dental practice. 

Your employees may have some concerns about how you handle your dental practice. For example, they may feel that the working hours aren’t flexible enough. Others may wish to have an improved working environment or better pay.

It’s crucial to document conversations around employment disputes. If you don’t know the details to include in these documents, you can obtain pre-filled templates.

Investigation Forms and Templates

Once an employee files a complaint against a colleague, you need to investigate the matter. This is how you can collect the facts and understand what happened in the situation. Ensure you have a process to gather details about all lodged complaints.

For example, create an investigation plan template to help you know how to go about the matter. Design the template and fill in the sections during all investigation steps.

If you’ve never handled issues with employee relations, you may not know where to start. Luckily, you can quickly get an investigation report sample online or store forms and templates in HR software for guidance. 

More HR forms you may need for confirming such matters are follow-up checklists and a summary form.

Disciplinary Action Forms

After investigating a complaint, you may find the accused person wronged the other. It’s crucial to take the necessary action to avoid such issues in the future, including disciplinary action. Of course, to do this, you should ensure you use a template to keep the process streamlined. 

An effective template ensures that you have captured all the essential details of each situation, including:

  • Date of the incident
  • Description of the matter
  • The type of warning given
  • The warning decision
  • Consequences of repeating the action

Depending on the level of disciplinary action, you might need to write a formal letter. With HR for Health’s violation templates, you have the ability to issue varying levels of disciplinary action. Additional HR forms you can use are employee discipline aids and disciplinary procedures.

Training and Development HR Forms

Every dental practice needs to train its employees. This step will give your team new skills and help them identify ways to improve their services.

Apart from that, you should also assess your employee to gauge their productivity in your dental practice.

Here are the HR forms you can use to manage training, evaluation, and development:

Training and Evaluation Templates

When planning to enhance your team’s skills, you should have a goal planning worksheet. This one will help you list the objectives of the process. It can also simplify assessing whether the training was helpful or not.

Another must-have HR form is an employee evaluation template. Here, you can outline all the metrics you’ll use to gauge the value each team member adds to your practice. You may also use the document to reference when appraising performance and considering an employee for promotion.

Performance Review Forms and Templates

When running a dentistry, it’s critical to appraise each team member. Use HR forms like self-assessment documents and performance review templates for this purpose. Moreover, have appraisal forms and send them to your team periodically or when reviewing their contracts.

Since filling in all these HR forms is tricky, consider getting a digital program to simplify the task. You can say goodbye to manual processes and paperwork with HR for Health’s robust software. Our software comes with a paperless performance review process, reducing the amount of time spent on the administrative side of the performance review process.

Survey and Feedback Forms

Engaging your employees is a perfect way to improve your dental practice. Using various HR forms, like recruitment evaluation surveys, you can confirm if your team liked the hiring process. If not, use feedback forms to determine ways to improve the working environment.

The Must-Have HR Forms for Your Dental Practice

With our software, your dental team can send documents – such as a survey – to your entire team at one time. This can be done easily and quickly, with just the click of a button. A team member can take the survey, sign the document, and send it back to you. 

More HR forms you should have in your practice for reviews include employee satisfaction, HR survey, and suggestion documents.

Workplace Safety and Policies

Your dental practice needs policies to keep the entire team safe. Many of the necessary regulations come from agencies like the Centers for Disease Control and the Occupational Safety Health Administration. HR for Health can help ensure your compliance by giving you access to in-house experts who can ensure that you follow all necessary procedures and laws. We can also store any documents related to said compliance. 

It also requires strategies to ensure that employees serve patients well and stay compliant. HR forms are an ideal way to guarantee that your practice prioritizes safety. Using them, you can also find new ways to maintain a healthy work environment.

Workplace Policy Templates

Workplace HR forms are some of the most important documents in your dental practice. For example, you need a code of conduct to control your team’s behavior, including how responsibilities are handled, how conflict is managed, and how relations with patients should be maintained. When balancing duties and documentation, you may find it tricky to safeguard the well-being of your team. Having HR forms like workplace safety policies and checklists allows you to implement preventive measures. You can also use the documents to check if the policies are working well.

Alternatively, create an employee handbook to outline your compliance with recommended safety measures, then distribute it to your team. Here, you can include all legal information related to specific roles on your practice’s goals and mission. Fortunately, at HR for Health, we can create a handbook for you, adding customized policies based on your unique needs and location. 

Other workplace HR forms and templates needed in the dental industry are social media, dress codes, and violence prevention policies.

How HR for Health Can Help

Keeping track of all the discussed HR forms can be a nightmare. One mistake may lead to noncompliance or even frustrate your employees. HR for Health provides you with all the help you need to manage your team while avoiding tedious paperwork.

Our software can ease handling payroll, hiring and termination, managing employee performance, and timekeeping. Besides, we offer cloud-based documentation, which allows you to avoid the cost of printing many HR forms. Using this, your team can sign various documents electronically to provide approval or consent. To learn more about our solutions, contact HR for Health here.