The California Dental Association (CDA) has launched a recruitment campaign, Smile Crew of California, designed to highlight careers in dental assisting and create a pool of qualified candidates to help CDA members who are seeking to fill hundreds of dental assistant job openings.
The campaign targets candidates displaced from service roles with transferable skills and to match them with member dentists who have job openings in their practices.
Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CDA said, it was working to address a shortage of dental assistants throughout California. In recent months, the CDA added, the need to recruit dental staff has become even more prevalent as practice owners recover from massive layoffs and furloughs.
While dental practices are stabilizing and have been able to rehire most team members, staffing remains well below demand, according to the ADA Health Policy Institute.
The Smile Crew of California initiative launched with a social media campaign including Facebook and Instagram, website, and media placements on Spotify, Pandora, and iHeart Radio. Slated to run for 12 weeks, it also features testimonial videos highlighting the day in the life of a dental assistant.
The campaign encourages potential candidates to “join the smile crew CA” and brings awareness to the dental assisting profession and job opportunities that are currently available to candidates looking to advance or reestablish their careers, the CDA said. It aims to recruit interested candidates by providing:
- Detailed knowledge on the responsibilities, benefits, and growth potential of a dental assistant
- Guidance on where to find job openings and how to seamlessly transition into the dental profession through on-the-job training
- Resources on how to move up the dental career ladder and create a lifelong profession in dentistry
The campaign’s website links to open roles posted on CDA’s Career Center, which offers practice owners and job seekers an intuitive and easy way to connect through job alerts, customized profiles, a resume bank, and more, the CDA said.
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