Taking the ‘crown’ for top small team

Indigo Dental Practice Small Organisation winner

THE phrase “small but mighty” may come to mind when looking at Indigo Dental Practice. 

The local dentistry business took home the award for Best Small Team in the recent Jersey’s Best Workplace initiative. 

The team, made up of four full time dentists, two dental therapists and ten full time nurses and receptionists, shared their thoughts, views, and feedback for the practice, which landed them first place in the category for businesses with under 40 employees. 

The win showed that life at the practice wasn’t all “pulling teeth”, in fact, quite the opposite. 

The business has been around since the 60s, and Chris Martin, director at Indigo Dental Practice, has been at the helm for the last 13 years. 

He shared that he was “proud” of both the win and the team. 

“We’re proud that we were recognised by our staffers to be building something that we always hoped was the case; a nice place for them to work,” he said. “It's nice to formalise that." 

During the feedback process, the team shared that they feel “valued” and like they were part of a “big family”. 

“I liked hearing that, because that's the feel I always wanted to create with the practice,” said Chris, “where nobody feels stressed going to work.” 

He added that no matter what job you do, everyone feels that “work is work”,

but knowing that his staff can “turn up and feel happy” is a bonus. 

"Having that close-knit, family vibe, was a standout because that's exactly what we've been aiming to do.” 

Chris celebrated the low turnover rate at Indigo Dental Practice as an indication of how happy people feel at the practice, having not experienced any staff changes since 2020. 

“When I joined, we had four members of staff and two of those four are still here now,” he shared. 

That, paired with the fact there remains a small number of team members, was what he felt contributed to their success under the initiative.

“We've all been together for such a long time which helps us tailor what we do for those individuals, because we've got to know them over the years,” said Chris. 

Indigo Dental Practice also picked up the Spotlight Award for Wellbeing during the Jersey’s Best Workplace initiative. 

Asked whether he thought the good footing in the Wellbeing category had anything to do with the Best Small Team win, Chris agreed, adding that it played a “massive part”. 

Wellbeing was especially important in the team’s line of work, he said, because many people find visiting the dentist “daunting”. 

“In our job, you get a lot of nervous patients and patients who don't love going to the dentist coming in. 

He said there was “nothing worse” than seeing an unhappy staff member behind reception during a dentist visit. 

“I always say that the most important people of dental practice are really your reception staff and nurses.” 

He joked that the dentists are “less important” because they’re “not answering the phone or welcoming patients in”. 

“I think it's really important that our staff feel looked after and happy themselves, because they project that onto the patients when they come in,” he added. 

“Happy staff who feel as if their wellbeing is looked after, look after our patients better.” 

The practice has always invited feedback from its patients to improve and build upon its service, and the Jersey’s Best Workplace initiative has allowed it to do the same for its team. 

“Every patient gets a questionnaire to fill in, which gives you insights,” Chris explained. “If there's a little problem beginning somewhere, it pre-warns you." 

He said it was a similar approach to getting feedback from staff during the initiative, in that it “flags anything slightly negative”. 

“It's important to be happy for the positive things,” he said, “but it’s also important to pick up on any little negative things that you can see from the results.” 

And Chris shared the value he saw in employee feedback, especially in Jersey’s job market. 

“Jersey is competitive, so being able to keep your staff is the most important thing,” he said. 

“And should staff decide to move on or move away from the Island, it’s important to have a good reputation to employ new staff and attract really good candidates.” 

Going forward, Chris said that he will use the results from the Jersey’s Best Workplace initiative as a “monitoring tool” to make sure they were “getting things right”. 

“We've been doing it for years with patients, which gives you a really good insight,” he added. “There's no reason why we shouldn't continue the same thing for staff members.”