You must ensure that your staff members provide excellent patient service and effective communication for the smooth day-to-day running of the practice. It is crucial for your staff members to get along with one another to create a positive working environment. Any issues between staff members can lead to mistakes and errors in service delivery, which will ultimately be detrimental to your patients‘ service and negatively impact your dental business. Working in a negative environment could demoralise your staff, lowering their productivity and increasing their sick leave. It could also lead to formal complaints from staff members being submitted to the practice. Disputes between staff can harm the wider working dynamics too. Finding solutions when disputes arise between staff members is therefore paramount to ensuring a successful dental practice.
When a dispute arises between staff members, it is important to first identify that there is a problem. It is inevitable that issues will occur between staff members due to differences in backgrounds, working styles, and personalities. According to a CIPD report from January 2020,1 the most common cause of conflict is differences in personality styles or working. Other reasons for disputes can include misunderstandings, one staff member's behaviour irritating others, unclear job duties, and mismanagement of staff. It is crucial to remain vigilant about how staff members are getting along. You may notice problems between staff if you observe changes in their behaviour patterns, such as increased staff absence or decreased engagement in work.
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