The cheapest way to reduce turnover is to hire the right people in the first place. Skills can be trained; whether someone strengthens or erodes your culture is much harder to change. Hiring for culture fit — without turning it into hiring people just like you — is one of the highest-leverage leadership decisions you make.
Why does culture fit matter so much?
A skilled hire who erodes the culture can cost you far more than their salary — in morale, patient experience, and the turnover of good people around them. Given what turnover costs, hiring for fit is one of the best financial decisions a practice makes.
How do you actually hire for fit?
- Define your culture first — the values and behaviors that make your “signature experience” (ideally defined *with* your team).
- Ask behavioral questions: how they handled a mistake, a conflict, or an unhappy patient.
- Involve the team — the people who’ll work alongside the hire often read fit best.
- Use a working interview where appropriate to see behavior, not just answers.
Culture fit isn’t “people like me”
Fit means shared values and standards, not identical personalities or backgrounds. Diverse perspectives strengthen a team; what you’re screening for is whether someone will uphold your standards of care, communication, and respect — the things your culture is built on.
Frequently asked questions
Both matter, but many skills can be trained while values and behavior are hard to change. For most roles, hire for fit and character, then train the skills — a great-fit hire who needs coaching usually beats a skilled hire who undermines the team.
Executive Coach · Director of Coaching & Consulting · Certified Professional Coach (CPC) · Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner (ELI-MP)
Jeff Rutland is Dental Wealth Partners’ Director of Coaching & Consulting and an executive coach for dentists and practice owners. A Certified Professional Coach and Energy Leadership Index Master Practitioner (ELI-MP), he holds a post-graduate certificate in organizational leadership from the University of Mississippi School of Business. With decades in leadership development — including twenty years leading global training and development — Jeff helps owner-dentists lead their teams, build a culture people don’t want to leave, have the hard conversations, and get out of the bottleneck so the practice can grow beyond them.
Keep reading
- How to reduce staff turnover in your dental practiceDental turnover is expensive and common — but it’s largely a leadership outcome. The data, the real costs, and the strategies that build a team that stays.
- How to build a positive dental practice cultureCulture isn’t a poster or a mission statement — it’s what you tolerate. How to audit your culture and shape it on purpose.
- How to develop leaders within your dental practiceOne of the best retention strategies is growth. How to create leadership and development paths so your best people don’t have to leave to advance.