{ the dental team } by Toni Talbot, SPHR


Nepotism: Don’t let it cause a crack in your practice’s team dynamic


QUESTION: My office manager wants to hire her daughter as a receptionist. She worked for me last summer and things did not go well. She did a fair job but there always seemed to be conflict between her and her mother. In addition, other employees felt uncomfortable working with the daughter. They felt if the daughter did anything wrong they could not go to the office manager to complain because the mother would always defend the daughter, so they came to me. I was thinking about putting into place a “hire no relatives” policy, but my wife and daughter occasional work for me. What do I do?


ANSWER: Although I often tend to advise the importance of strong policies, this is a case where a policy may not be necessary. Your prob- lem is solved through your resolve.


It is your choice who you hire and who you do not hire. If you feel that you do not want to hire her, don’t. I know this sounds rather simple, but it is true. You need to advise your office manager that you do not want to hire her daughter. I know this will not be as simple as I have stated. You do want to maintain a positive relationship with your office manager. You need to talk to her in a manner that does not cause too much of a riff. So now the question is how do you tell her?


Explain to her your concerns over her ability to effectively manage her own daughter, identifying the conflicts they had in the office and the disruptions they caused. Be sure to listen to her concerns, yet advise her that you have decided against the hire. Ask her to support this decision and remind her that as the office manager she represents your decisions to the staff. It will not be an easy conversation—you must handle it respectfully and professionally by sticking with the facts, which were the office manager’s conflicts with the daughter and the impact they had on the work place.


Now, although you indicated that the daughter was a fair employee, would you want to rehire her if she was a good employee? Was the problem the daughter or the mother? It seems to me that your office manager failed to separate her role as a mother from her role as a supervisor.


If your office manager was having an inappropriate conflict with one of her employees, even if the employee was her daughter, then this is


24 focus | MAR/APR 2013 | ISSUE 2


the problem. If you wanted to retain or even rehire the employee, you would need to deal with the behavior of your office manager.


Let’s go back to the ad- vantage and disadvantage of a nepotism policy. The main reason I do not like a policy that says “we do not hire relatives” is that it may eliminate potentially good


employees for your practice. There are reasons to have a nepotism policy, especially if you have a large practice. This policy should not exclude the hiring of relatives, but should rather address reporting relationships, thus eliminating the ability for an employee to control the wages of relatives.


You also should make sure there are no relatives who are handling both the check and balance for your financials. For example, the receptionist who takes the money from patients should not be related to the bookkeeper.


When you implement a nepotism policy you need to understand it applies to all relative employee relationships, even your family members. Anytime a relative is hired, all need to understand that the relationship at work is purely professional. Personal and family issues are not brought into the workplace. All too often, family relationship conflicts cause other employees to feel ill at ease. You also need to treat all employees fairly, whether or not a relative. This means that you should not give your relatives favored schedules, job duties, etc. This prevents animosity between your employees and encourages a team environment. f


TONI TALBOT, SPHR is owner and general partner of Human Resource Management Services, LLC. Her designation of Senior Professional in Human Resources, certifies she’s an expert in her field. She has more than 20 years’ experience in all facets of Human Resource management and can be reached at www.hrmservices.biz.


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