Is Your Practice Ready for the Gen Alpha Employee?

Alison Werner (00:05)
In the next four years, orthodontic practices will welcome a brand new generation into the workforce, Gen Alpha. Raised in a fast-paced digital first world, these upcoming team members consume information in rapid, bite-sized pieces and have no patience for traditional dusty paper manuals. To successfully recruit and retain them, Orthodonic Practices must prepare to completely shift their approach to training and communication. Welcome to the Orthodonic Products Podcast. I’m your host, Alison Werner.

In this episode, we are exploring why practices shouldn’t wait for Gen Alpha to begin making these changes. Many of these workforce shifts from rejection of paper manuals to employees confidently advocating for their value and compensation are already happening with Gen Z. Practices should have already been transitioning to meet these digital and cultural expectations for their Gen Z hires. Joining me today to help under us understand how to build a practice that is ready for both Gen Z and

And the incoming Gen Alpha is Cassie Kellner. Cassie has over 20 years of experience in orthodontics, taking on diverse roles from clinical team member and leader to consultant, lecturer, and practice coach. She is the owner of Everbloom, which works with ortho orthodontic practices on team dynamics and operations. By preparing for Gen Alpha today, orthodontic practices are really just catching up to where the modern workforce already is. We’ll discuss how to implement microlearning.

with training videos under two minutes, how to provide the constant feedback younger generations require, and how to build structured growth pathways that satisfy both Gen Z and the incoming Gen Alpha. Here’s our conversation.

Alison Werner (01:43)
Cassie, thank you so much for joining me again. It’s really great to see you.

Cassie Kellner (01:46)
my gosh, this is so fun. Thank you so much for having me.

Alison Werner (01:50)
Okay, so we’re gonna talk about Gen Alpha. to start off, who exactly is Gen Alpha and when can orthodontic practices expect them to begin entering the workforce?

Cassie Kellner (02:03)
Okay, so Gen Alpha are my children, which is like really wild to be raising two Gen Alphas. my kids are are six and seven now. but essentially their birth years, depending on where you’re getting your research, they’re like 2010 to current, right? so they’re in it. So right now they’re like zero to sixteen ish. And I say ish because no somewhere you look, maybe they’re 15, maybe they’re

Going on 17 to rights, but they’re like ish, right? They’re in the 16

Alison Werner (02:32)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (02:36)
range and below. and so I feel like people are not talking about Gen Alpha enough because

Alison Werner (02:44)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (02:46)
they’re gonna start hitting our workforce. Well, one, if they come straight out of high school and we hire, let’s say, a stereotech at 18 years old, we have a couple

Alison Werner (02:50)
Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (02:54)
of years until they’re walking into our practice. And they are, which

is really

Really fascinating because we’ve talked about this, Alison, this whole generation. You’re

Alison Werner (03:04)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (03:05)
Gen X, I’m a millennial.

Alison Werner (03:07)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (03:07)
but they are children of Gen X and Millennials, typically, right?

Alison Werner (03:12)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (03:14)
so it’s really, really fascinating to kind of watch it because Gen X and Millennials are typically in leadership right now,

Alison Werner (03:22)
Right.

Cassie Kellner (03:23)
and our kids are now gonna be coming into the workforce.

And they grew up in a very different world than Gen X and Millennials.

Alison Werner (03:30)
Right, right, yeah.

Cassie Kellner (03:33)
so that’s kind of where they are right now. And I mean, to be honest, they are they’re growing up digital, right? So I would say within the next five years, they’re really gonna be in our practices, like immersed entirely. And within 10 years,

They’re gonna be in leadership roles, which like ten years goes by

Alison Werner (03:57)
Right. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (04:00)
very quickly.

Alison Werner (04:01)
Yeah, yeah. I can remember a few years ago talking about Gen Z. So how is Gen Z or Gen Alpha different than Gen Z?

Cassie Kellner (04:09)
Yeah, I think they’re different. I we don’t really know what that’s gonna look like in the workforce yet. What I

Alison Werner (04:14)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (04:15)
can say is, you know, I can’t I can’t tell you from like a a personality type, right? We don’t know that quite yet, though I’m sure

Alison Werner (04:22)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (04:25)
high schools would have a very different,

Alison Werner (04:27)
you

Cassie Kellner (04:28)
very different look on this and how they’re they’re operating in schools right now. However, I think the massive difference that we’re seeing is

Gen X, I’m sorry, Gen Z had access to digital. Like they grew up with that. That that was natural to them. It was innate. It was like,

Alison Werner (04:50)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (04:52)
but but Gen Alpha is on an entirely different way wavelength w when it comes to digital aspects, right? So very digital and they are like going to push push forward.

In this digital age, that I think none of us can even relate to. you know, like for example, my son is seven, he got a Lego set for his birthday a couple of years ago, and it came with a QR code where I had to scan something and he it you downloaded an app and he got to swipe through to put the Lego pieces on as opposed to like a

booklet and and they have booklets too, right? Where you’re like, okay, put this piece now, put this piece. But

Alison Werner (05:35)
okay. Right. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (05:39)
like, and then he could maneuver it to see on the the app if he was building

the Lego the right way. And like the way that

Alison Werner (05:48)
Okay.

Cassie Kellner (05:48)
he I’m I’m I’m gonna come out and say we’re not an iPad family. I’m not against iPad families like you do you. But the way that

Alison Werner (05:54)
Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (05:58)
it it was so quick for his brain to

Alison Werner (06:01)
almost like innate.

Cassie Kellner (06:03)
Yes. To to

Alison Werner (06:04)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (06:05)
like turn and move and maneuver, you know,

Alison Werner (06:07)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (06:08)
I think it’s really, really fascinating to see how quickly they adopt to the digital world.

Alison Werner (06:16)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (06:17)
I think it’s gonna be like nothing we’ve ever seen, truly.

Alison Werner (06:22)
Okay. So why is it critical for orthodontic practices to start thinking about this new generation that’s going to be in their workforce?

Cassie Kellner (06:32)
I think, well, first and foremost, I think onboarding and training is I talk about this probably too much, Alison, because I’m really passionate about it. And you know, 22 years in this field for me, from being a team member boots on the ground to

Alison Werner (06:51)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (06:52)
being a clinical systems consultant for eight years and now owning Everbloom, watching these

Alison Werner (06:56)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (06:57)
teams in the things that we currently build for teams.

building playbooks, onboarding and hiring is and building SOPs in a digital format is so incredibly important because I believe that this generation will not tolerate, I’m gonna use that word, will not tolerate being thrown to the wolves and they will expect more than sink or swim.

And if we

Alison Werner (07:28)
Mm, okay.

Cassie Kellner (07:29)
are not ready for that and how to do

Alison Werner (07:32)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (07:32)
the job and how to do it incredibly efficient and how to do it in a digital way, I think we’re we’re doing ourselves a disservice in orthodontics in this industry to not have that ready for when Gen Alpha comes in. Because quite honestly, Gen Z expects it. And

Alison Werner (07:54)
True. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (07:55)
if we’re not ready for them, they go,

I can’t do this because I don’t have a path that I can really follow. And then they’re out. And we’re gonna lose really,

Alison Werner (08:05)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (08:07)
really, really great people if we don’t really embrace the digital aspect of bringing team members on.

Alison Werner (08:18)
Yeah. Okay. So when we talked before, you talked about kind of the death of the paper manual.

So you’ve got many

Cassie Kellner (08:23)
Mm.

Alison Werner (08:24)
practices who are still relying on those traditional paper manuals or

Cassie Kellner (08:27)
Yeah.

Alison Werner (08:28)
even long training videos for onboarding.

Cassie Kellner (08:30)
Yes.

Alison Werner (08:31)
So why does this approach cause that immediate burnout, I guess, or anxiety for these younger hires? So let’s talk about Gen Z. We’re just going to group them in now with Gen Alpha and what should practices be doing instead?

Cassie Kellner (08:47)
You know, it’s kind of funny because we I think we’re so used to, I mean, we’ve talked about this too, even just you and I about how we’re like,

Alison Werner (08:55)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (08:55)
remember when J millennials came in and they were like, we’re millennials, you know, we like got this. They’re

Alison Werner (08:59)
Yes.

Cassie Kellner (09:02)
like, millennials are so entitled, they’re so this. Like, I feel like every

Alison Werner (09:05)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (09:06)
generation and then Gen Z came and they’re like, they don’t wanna work. You know, like we we kind of lump them in with something. Gen Alpha is

Is going to have something. I can’t wait to see what that is. Like it’s gonna, it’s gonna happen and it’s okay. You know, it’s just like the

Alison Werner (09:19)
Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (09:24)
evolution of bringing in a new generation into the workplace. But I think what’s really crucial to what you’re saying is, and I think like I say the the hand the the the paper handbook is dead, but it’s been dead for a really long time. Like it was dead in the hands

Alison Werner (09:42)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (09:43)
of

Gen X, it was dead in the hands of millennials. Just because we had it doesn’t mean we were using it. And I say to

Alison Werner (09:50)
Mm-hmm. Mm.

Cassie Kellner (09:52)
the people that may feel defeated right now, sitting in their cars listening to this, the paper manual, you are one step ahead. So just because you have a paper manual doesn’t mean you’re not prepared. We can take that paper manual and put edits to it and make it digital. Like in the world

Alison Werner (10:08)
Mm.

Cassie Kellner (10:08)
of AI and and and this digital.

Everything, every digital platform at our fingertips,

Alison Werner (10:15)
Right.

Cassie Kellner (10:15)
great. Let’s take the the quote unquote dead paper manual and make it digital, right? I there’s nothing wrong with that, but I will say, I don’t really I don’t think it really matters what generation you land in. You could be a boomer, you could be Gen X, you could be a millennial, you could be Gen Z. No one these days in this quick scroll world is going to read.

an 89 page paper manual where we are just not, you know. I think

Alison Werner (10:44)
Absolutely.

Cassie Kellner (10:48)
we now if somebody is sending me a seven paragraph email, I’m skimming, which is awful by

Alison Werner (10:55)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (10:57)
the way. Admittedly, it’s awful. My but my brain

Alison Werner (10:59)
Same.

Cassie Kellner (11:00)
is like, I can’t like I leave out the fluff, let’s let’s go, right? Like we’ve got things to do. I have a short amount of time

Alison Werner (11:07)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Cassie Kellner (11:11)
Tell me what I need to do and in what needs to happen. And I live in bullets. I even write my emails in bullets, like what you need to do, right? Is in

Alison Werner (11:18)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (11:20)
bullet format and short form. And and

Alison Werner (11:23)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (11:23)
so I think that the paper manual is dead. However,

Alison Werner (11:28)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (11:29)
if people have one, they can very easily turn that into digital format and shorten and and

So that we can make sure that teams are actually using this stuff. And when it comes to videos, man, if someone says me a five to s if someone sends me a seven minute video, Alison, I’m like upping the time so they sound like the energizer bunny. Yes! You know, like it’s

Alison Werner (11:58)
chipmunks Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (12:00)
like boop-bo-bo-bo-b-buh. And I’m and then I’ll slow it down when I get to what I really need. and

Alison Werner (12:04)
Right, right.

Cassie Kellner (12:05)
so like short form content, I mean, think about YouTube shorts.

TikToks, even reels, you know, everything is

Alison Werner (12:13)
Yeah, right.

Cassie Kellner (12:15)
about 90 seconds. And if we go longer,

Alison Werner (12:17)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (12:18)
then we’re really interested. But if we go longer,

Alison Werner (12:20)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (12:21)
we’re typically, which is wild, reading captions. Like, are we really paying attention? Are we scraping to go forward or back? You know?

Alison Werner (12:29)
Mm-hmm, right.

Cassie Kellner (12:31)
and I just think it’s the world we live in. So if we’re not preparing ourselves for that for anyone who’s coming into the workforce,

Alison Werner (12:38)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (12:39)
Gen Alpha is gonna be like, listen, guys, it’s time to change. And

Alison Werner (12:42)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (12:43)
so like, why not get ready now? Instead of saying like, they’re here. Here’s all the things that we’re struggling with. Why not

Alison Werner (12:49)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (12:52)
know that we’re about to live in a very digital world and prepare our practices for that?

Alison Werner (12:58)
Yeah, no, absolutely. So I know when we talked previously, you kind of talked about this idea of like micro learning. So,

Cassie Kellner (13:04)
Mm-hmm.

Alison Werner (13:05)
you know, so say you have that seven minute video. So instead of it being seven minutes, the whole process, maybe you’re chunking it into

Cassie Kellner (13:13)
Yes.

Alison Werner (13:14)
shorter training videos. And I think you had said something like under two minutes, keep it under two minutes and then, you know, just roll them out and I can watch each of those

Cassie Kellner (13:23)
Yes.

Alison Werner (13:24)
two minutes. But that’s more acceptable. And I got to admit, even for me.

I’m with you.

Cassie Kellner (13:28)
Yes.

Alison Werner (13:29)
I don’t want to watch a seven minute video. I will double the time or I’m going to skip ahead to what I actually need. So that micro

Cassie Kellner (13:34)
Yeah. Yeah.

Alison Werner (13:36)
learning.

Cassie Kellner (13:36)
Yeah. Microlearning, I think, is so incredibly important. And that’s why I say bullets, remove the paragraphs. You know, I’ll use just to kind of relate it to our industry. Let’s say someone

Alison Werner (13:46)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (13:46)
is creating a training video on how to do a full patient bonding, right? and we’re putting braces on. Like we can break

Alison Werner (13:56)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (13:57)
that video up into little segments.

Like how to put in the retractor, one video, what this should look like, how to put it on the

Alison Werner (14:03)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (14:04)
suction, how to isolate, next video, how to etch, right? How to remove the etch what you need to look for when you’re removing all of that. Next video. How to bond

Alison Werner (14:15)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (14:15)
and prep, right? What that looks like. Next video. If you’re doing an indirect bonding, you show that. If you’re passing instruments to your doctor chair side chair side, you do that.

And then we move on. Like these can be all mini segments on how to do this as opposed

Alison Werner (14:30)
near.

Cassie Kellner (14:31)
to because all of that information in a bonding video is incredibly important, right? But

Alison Werner (14:37)
Mm-hmm, right.

Cassie Kellner (14:38)
having a 10-minute video, that’s tough. But if we can break this into five mini micro learning sessions,

Alison Werner (14:48)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (14:49)
why not? Why not?

Alison Werner (14:51)
Then the added bonus

is that if there’s something that someone is tripping over, they can immediately go find that segment and just watch that segment over

Cassie Kellner (14:59)
Yes.

Alison Werner (14:59)
and be like, that’s what I missed instead of having to sit through a whole long and they’re not maybe picking up each

Cassie Kellner (15:04)
Exactly.

Alison Werner (15:05)
individual detail as they would the micro learning process. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (15:08)
That’s exactly right, right? I mean I think we all want that, you know?

I th I think it’s incredibly important. And why not start now? Why not? Now’s the time.

Alison Werner (15:18)
Mm hmm. Yeah. Yeah. And then just

create a learning repository somewhere on your, on

Cassie Kellner (15:24)
Yes.

Alison Werner (15:25)
your server and have all those videos. Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (15:26)
Right. Yeah.

I mean, and there’s so many platforms that people

Alison Werner (15:32)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (15:32)
can use too, Alison, to even get it out of their server, out of their desktop,

Alison Werner (15:34)
Mm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (15:36)
or out of their shared drive, you know,

Alison Werner (15:38)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (15:39)
that they can use for onboarding and training. There are dedicated companies. We use many of them to build playbooks, that

Alison Werner (15:45)
Okay. Okay.

Cassie Kellner (15:48)
w we can keep people accountable and we can update when needed

Alison Werner (15:51)
Mm, okay.

Cassie Kellner (15:53)
and

We’re not finding fifteen different versions and looking

Alison Werner (15:57)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (15:57)
for the most current one, right? you know, there’s so much out there that that people can use.

Alison Werner (16:04)
Okay, that’s good to know. So when we talked before, you kind of talked about how younger generations are kind of known for wanting to understand the why behind a task before doing them. How can orthodontic managers adapt their onboarding to provide that context without just slowing daily operations

down?

Cassie Kellner (16:26)
Yeah. I think it’s I mean SOPs, like SOPs, SOPs, SOPs, right? Like

Alison Werner (16:33)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (16:34)
really and and meeting I think if if teams can really bake in some team training and team meetings and go over very specific SOPs and choose

Alison Werner (16:47)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (16:48)
SOPs for these team meetings.

I think it is so important. you know, I will use my experience as an example. When

Alison Werner (16:57)
Mm hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (16:58)
I was s first starting in orthodontics, I started with Dr. Rick McLaughlin in San Diego, who was a teacher. I did not know at the time, but he was is the most incredible teacher. And

Alison Werner (17:10)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (17:11)
we had so many lunch and learns and team meetings to really understand.

the why and the mechanics behind what we’re doing in this practice. And I

Alison Werner (17:20)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (17:21)
think if you guys, if if people are really teaching the why, there is such an incredible well-oiled machine that people understand how to do this and why they’re doing it. And I think it just, it’s, it’s everywhere. It could be in any industry, honestly.

Alison, like if if you think about the why behind what you’re doing, there’s so

Alison Werner (17:42)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (17:43)
much more passion, there’s so much more buy-in that you move a lot quicker because you understand

Alison Werner (17:46)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (17:50)
why this matters. and so if people are really doing true training and connection points collectively as a team, I think

Alison Werner (17:57)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (17:59)
it it truly changes everything. And and I can say that as it from experience.

Alison Werner (18:04)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (18:05)
and not only being a manager in a practice, but also being a learner. I if if I understand the why behind what’s happening, everything falls into place.

Alison Werner (18:14)
Right, right. Yeah, it’s interesting. I had a conversation with someone recently about a program that the AAO is offering that gets to this idea of the why, why you’re

Cassie Kellner (18:25)
Mm.

Alison Werner (18:26)
doing what you’re doing and why you’re in this profession to prevent burnout.

Cassie Kellner (18:28)
Yeah.

Alison Werner (18:29)
But then it’s also, it’s about creating a team that’s going to want to do the work and be there. So, yeah, yeah.

Cassie Kellner (18:36)
Yeah, absolutely. I think

if if they have purpose, if anyone

Alison Werner (18:41)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (18:42)
has purpose in what they’re doing in their career,

Alison Werner (18:44)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (18:47)
the longevity that someone wants to stay because they understand big, big grand picture and the why

Alison Werner (18:53)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (18:53)
behind what they’re doing, I think for anyone

Alison Werner (18:56)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (18:56)
as humans, I think we’re like, I get it and I’m in. That’s

Alison Werner (19:02)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (19:03)
it’s that simple.

Alison Werner (19:05)
Yeah, I know you’ve been, you you work with teams, you’ve been working with teams for several years now. And, you know, we talked about the transition to Gen Z and them entering the workforce. What have kind of been your takeaways and seeing how they interact with the team and how they join an older team? How has that kind of

Cassie Kellner (19:24)
Hm.

Alison Werner (19:24)
shaken out and what are kind of the lessons learned from them for, you know, adapting to a new generation in the next couple of years?

Cassie Kellner (19:31)
Yeah, I think that I think Gen Z has done a really good job at getting in there and creating a space for themselves. I also think that there’s something about Gen Z where they’re true advocates for themselves in the workplace that I don’t think we’ve seen before, and I think it blows our mind a little bit and people

Alison Werner (19:55)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (19:55)
are taken aback b by it and

I it’s hard to lump a whole generation into like one conversation because there can be

Alison Werner (20:02)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (20:03)
really good individuals and really bad seeds in all of it. I’m just saying as a whole, you know,

Alison Werner (20:07)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (20:10)
I have a niece who is Gen Z and she’s right smack dab in the middle of it. We speak Alison very different languages. Like, let me tell you. We she’ll

Alison Werner (20:18)
Mm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (20:20)
tell me a scenario and I’m like, You said that? She’s like, Yeah. And I’m like, what?

You know, like we speak very different languages. And and I think good for you for advocating for yourself and not cowering down like maybe us elder millennials and Gen Xs who just take

Alison Werner (20:39)
Right.

Cassie Kellner (20:39)
the punches and you know, we we

Alison Werner (20:42)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (20:43)
we are we pick up, you know, our our bootstraps and we move forward. I think Gen Z has has this kind of silent empowerment to

Advocate for themselves. I think that Gen Z also has a lot of learning to do, as we all did in our 20s.

Alison Werner (20:58)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (21:00)
You know, I think as humans, we’re just kind of figuring it out. And they they that will come with time as they as they grow and they age. And, you know, I would say 25 year old Cassie and 41 year old Cassie, we are very different Cassies, you know?

Alison Werner (21:18)
Right. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (21:20)
and so

Alison Werner (21:19)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (21:20)
I think that they’re still in that phase of still figuring it out. And I think we have to give them some grace, but

Alison Werner (21:27)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (21:28)
also have real conversations with them. And I think that they expected more and they expected more digitally. They expected I wouldn’t I I think that they get put into a category of like they expected to be that there would be more hand holding. And I don’t necessarily think that’s the

Case, maybe it is for some, but I think

Alison Werner (21:50)
Okay? Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (21:52)
that they expected more training on boarding the how, the why, not the welcome, here’s your chair, good luck, right?

Alison Werner (22:06)
Right, yeah.

Cassie Kellner (22:08)
they were like, no, no, I I need more. I want to know how and why I’m doing this. And

Alison Werner (22:13)
Yeah, yeah.

Cassie Kellner (22:15)
we kind of probably were really taken aback by that.

because

Alison Werner (22:19)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (22:20)
for years we hadn’t done that and and people were okay with it. I think we’re gonna see more

Alison Werner (22:25)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (22:25)
and more of that as you know, Gen Z and Gen Alpha start to really, really, really enter the workforce.

Alison Werner (22:35)
Yeah, no, I would agree with that one. You you talked there about how they advocate for themselves. That actually turns into them maybe advocating more for themselves in terms of compensation or even like pointing out that a new task is outside the original job description and then asking for compensation. So how can practices structure growth pathways or tiers to keep

these conversations constructive and clear and not spiral out of control.

Cassie Kellner (23:09)
Alison, this could be its own topic.

Alison Werner (23:12)
Hahaha!

Cassie Kellner (23:13)
for everyone listening, it this is a passion of mine, and it’s something I’ve been talking about at least for the last 18 months, like deep diving into this with my team. Because I think

Alison Werner (23:23)
huh.

Cassie Kellner (23:24)
what we we haven’t typically done in this industry, which plenty of other industries do this, but is create growth pathways for teams to be able to go, hey, you start here.

And then once you

Alison Werner (23:36)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (23:36)
accomplish all of this, you get to move here and then you get to move here

Alison Werner (23:40)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (23:41)
and then you get to move up here. And I think,

Alison Werner (23:43)
Right.

Cassie Kellner (23:44)
you know, creating a a clear pathway of the benchmarks that these individuals need to hit in orthodontics, depending on the role, I think everyone

Alison Werner (23:54)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (23:54)
should be really thinking about this for 2027, if I’m being honest. and re and create real clarity on what are the expectations of this role and how do you grow.

Because I what I have found over my time in this industry is that people aren’t really thinking. I think we’ve talked about this too, but it it’s been a while since we’ve gotten to connect. But I think people use dentistry as a whole, people that as as they don’t think of it as a career. And I don’t like that. I you know, I think they think of it as like, I’m gonna start here and then I’m gonna go to hygiene school, or I might go

into nursing.

I’m just gonna start here. And then I think they realize like orthodontics, I’m an ortho nerd. So for those listening, take it for what it is. But I think

Alison Werner (24:43)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (24:43)
it’s the most incredible industry. I you know, I’ve spent 22 years in this industry and I don’t plan on going anywhere. And

Alison Werner (24:51)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (24:52)
I think it’s incredibly powerful. And I think that if we really do create growth plans for individuals, they will no longer think of this.

this industry or their role as a stepping stone to something higher. We can actually

Alison Werner (25:05)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (25:07)
grow them in our practices because there is so much opportunity for them in practices to be able to grow. We just have to build it and show it.

Alison Werner (25:18)
So what would be an example of a growth path? Let’s say someone on the clinical

side.

Cassie Kellner (25:23)
Mm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So I always start with tiers and people can build this out. We’ve built this out for practices in many different ways, but I

Alison Werner (25:31)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (25:32)
always start with tiers. So it’s like you start at tier one. This is where you are. And we list out all of the roles and responsibilities that they are responsible for. We put in all of the KPIs and benchmarks that they need to hit in tier one, right? In order

Alison Werner (25:47)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (25:48)
to be compensated to move up to tier two.

So instead of somebody being backed against the wall, this when it when someone comes in and says, Hey, I’d like a $4 raise.

Alison Werner (26:00)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (26:00)
There’s nothing behind it. they know that they they need it. the the individual knows that they need it, they but they’re trying to kind of get higher. Okay, great.

Alison Werner (26:11)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (26:12)
Let’s look at your growth pathway and see where you are in all of the benchmarks that you’ve hit and see if we can move you to the next tier.

And so that they have something kind of tangible to base those compensation increases to an actual growth pat path, right? And everyone

Alison Werner (26:30)
Right. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (26:31)
will look different. Every practice looks different. The demographics are different. The cost of living is different. You know,

Alison Werner (26:35)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Cassie Kellner (26:37)
we have a lot of Canadian clients too. That’s all an entirely different world. But I think it’s so important that we have a very clear path.

So that we can have really structured conversations of the things that people need to hit going forward.

Alison Werner (26:54)
Yeah, okay. So another aspect of this generational change is kind of the old school management philosophy of no news is good news doesn’t

Cassie Kellner (27:05)
Mm.

Alison Werner (27:06)
seem to work anymore. So why do younger team members view silence as disapproval and how should practices restructure that feedback and those check-ins to compensate for that?

Cassie Kellner (27:22)
In this wholeheartedly. And I will just say this phrase, which I think is so important for everyone. Clarity is kind. Like being very clear on feedback, on uncomfortable conversations, that is kindness, leaving people

Alison Werner (27:39)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (27:40)
in the dark and having one meeting a year, which we call an annual performance review, which by the way, I think are dead.

Okay, I’m just gonna say it. Having

Alison Werner (27:50)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (27:53)
a growth plan, a growth pathway, and continued conversations is the way to go. Right? How can we say,

Alison Werner (27:59)
Mm-mm, yeah.

Cassie Kellner (28:01)
it looks like you you were struggling entering contracts or your numbers as a TC is not where we need to be and hasn’t been for the last six months. Why did we not have a conversation six months ago of how can I help you get here?

What is going on? These are the reports. These are the KPIs that you need to hit. This is the structure, right? creating something for them that is incredibly tangible and continuing the conversation. I think it’s so important. and it it it should be real meaty stuff and not not a therapy session, right? I do want to know that

Alison Werner (28:41)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (28:41)
mentally you’re okay, right?

Alison Werner (28:44)
Yeah, yeah.

Cassie Kellner (28:44)
How are you?

How is everything going in the practice? Making sure that our culture is not toxic. But I also want to say, hey, let’s use a lab tech, for example. Hey, this is how many retainers we’ve made. You’ve been on time. You’ve done so many same days. You are pulling these reports. We’re getting this everything in on time. Our outside lab work is incredible. Like, right? You’re getting those scans. You’re pushing this out. If you’re doing 3D printing, this is what your entire flow is working on.

Or it’s not, right? And we can have the conversation of

Alison Werner (29:14)
Mm-hmm. Right.

Cassie Kellner (29:17)
it looks like we’re scrambling. How can we help? You know, we’re we’re we’re having true, meaningful conversations on the the role. And that’s where coming back to like clarity is kind. And it’s sometimes really hard to have these uncomfortable conversations. I don’t care who you are. No one wants to have

An uncomfortable conversation with anyone. Some people are more comfortable having them than others, and that’s okay. That’s actually great. But a lot of

Alison Werner (29:41)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (29:44)
people aren’t. and so my advice would be make sure that they are continued conversations. We’re not just doing them once a year. and honestly, go digital. I say this to everyone. Use a digital form as a feedback form that your team can fill out.

And so we’re sending that out via email or via text. Hey, it’s time to, you know, it’s your quarterly check-in. And it it’s an entire form that they get to submit. And then we get to have a very productive conversation in it. you know, get rid of the paper. Create a process.

Alison Werner (30:22)
Well, that kind of ties into my next question, because I was going to ask you, know, Gen,

Cassie Kellner (30:25)
Mm.

Alison Werner (30:26)
kind of about the AI aspect of it all. So Gen Alpha is growing up entirely digital and they’re going to be AI fluent, whether we like it or not. How

Cassie Kellner (30:35)
Mm-hmm.

Alison Werner (30:35)
can orthodontic practices lean into their high level of tech comfort? Both how should orthodontic practices use that? Because in their daily clinical operations and maybe even like in marketing or the practice management side, how

Cassie Kellner (30:51)
yeah.

Alison Werner (30:52)
should they utilize those skills.

Cassie Kellner (30:54)
So, okay, I have to tell the story because this is actually wild. So my son, as I said, is seven and he went to a summer camp this this year. It was a just a day camp. And

Alison Werner (31:03)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (31:05)
at the end, they had this big performance, and each one of the can’t the groups, his camp groups, and my daughter was there too, they get to do like a performance. They either sang a song or they did a skit. And

Alison Werner (31:19)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (31:19)
I would say that the there was a

blown I’m like, how they’re 10, right? Roughly 10, 11, depending.

Alison Werner (31:42)
huh. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (31:45)
And they’re doing a skit.

About ChatGPT. It was really funny. They had the Chat GPT logo printed out on a piece of paper. They did an entire thing with it. It was brilliant. How

Alison Werner (31:55)
huh. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (31:57)
in the world I could not wrap my 41-year-old brain around the fact that first they they knew what this was. They knew

Alison Werner (32:06)
Right.

Cassie Kellner (32:07)
how to create a skit out of it. They were so much more advanced. I’m thinking about myself in the fifth grade. What? Like

Alison Werner (32:14)
Yeah,

right.

Cassie Kellner (32:15)
I was

still playing with Barbie’s Let’s Get Real. I was not living this life. And

Alison Werner (32:17)
Yeah, yeah. Right, right.

Cassie Kellner (32:20)
so I was so blown away that I was like, this is this real? Like, whoa.

Alison Werner (32:25)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (32:27)
And they nailed it. They did such a cute job. But like,

Alison Werner (32:29)
Mmm.

Cassie Kellner (32:30)
it’s happening right now. I have nieces and nephews that are in college, that are in high school. Like it it’s it’s real. And

Alison Werner (32:39)
Uh-huh.

Cassie Kellner (32:39)
AI is real. And whether we like it or not, it’s it’s happening. And I think that.

One, if people are comfortable, they embrace it. They embrace it like crazy and they

Alison Werner (32:50)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (32:52)
use it to their marketing advantage. I mean, there’s so much that you can do from a marketing perspective. Just start there. I mean, to

Alison Werner (32:59)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (32:59)
be able to connect your Claude account with your Canva account and create incredibly beautiful images that have actually n nothing to do with patient care or, you know, just

really promoting your team and your culture

Alison Werner (33:15)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (33:16)
and who you are and why you do what you do and you know

Alison Werner (33:19)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (33:21)
using AI to to your advantage listen I we use it at Everbloom you using AI to create SOPs for your practice. You know, I said this we we host a meeting called the Ortho Society and I said I I kind of ended it with listen, the reality is

In 2026, there is absolutely no reason why people should not have standard operating procedures because you can plug this into an AI LLM and you get an

Alison Werner (33:54)
Mmm.

Cassie Kellner (33:55)
SOP in a matter of seconds, right? you yes, you know, I

Alison Werner (33:57)
Right. And then you just adapt from there. Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (34:01)
think SOPs, and I’m I’m talking even outside of patient care. There are plenty of things that you can use.

That are HIPAA compliant, like applaud for

Alison Werner (34:09)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (34:10)
your exam notes or clinical notes, you know. but using an AI LLM to create SOPs, there’s no reason not to. There is no

Alison Werner (34:20)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (34:20)
reason not to at this point. So for anyone out there is like, where do I start? That’s where you start. You

Alison Werner (34:26)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (34:27)
start with marketing, you start with SOPs, you know. I I mean, take so much off your team members are still there.

They’re still the ones creating it. You have to be able

Alison Werner (34:35)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (34:37)
to know how to talk to these you know, models. But

Alison Werner (34:41)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (34:42)
once you get it, it’s an absolute game changer and a time saver.

Alison Werner (34:47)
Yeah. Well, it almost seems like, you know, we’re talking about Gen Z and even Gen Alpha. They, like you said, they know how to use this technology. They know how to use these tools. Like I have a nephew and a nephew’s 15 and two nieces who are 11, almost going on 12. And they know how to use these creative tools. Like I’m not so sure they’re on Canva, but they can, you know, they know how to use filters. know how to, they know.

to do this stuff. So it’s almost like, you know, here’s an opportunity. We talk about like, you know, these shorter form videos, they all know how to do it. It’s,

it’s natural to them. Like they know how to

Cassie Kellner (35:27)
Absolutely.

Alison Werner (35:28)
create a short little video that has a beginning, middle and end, because that’s

Cassie Kellner (35:32)
yeah.

Alison Werner (35:32)
the kind of content that they’re encountering and that they’re creating with their friends. So it’s almost like, you know, if you need someone to create your, your digital learning library, or, you know, these training videos for two minutes.

Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (35:48)
absolutely. And they want to do it, right? Like so many

people will will kind of recruit. Maybe they have a an assistant or a lab tech or you know, somebody

Alison Werner (36:01)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (36:02)
that’s, you know, 21 in their practice who can

Alison Werner (36:04)
Mm hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (36:06)
manage TikTok with their eyes closed.

Alison Werner (36:07)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (36:08)
Why are we not using that?

Alison Werner (36:11)
Yeah. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (36:11)
To our advantage and and getting

on these platforms, they’re already doing it at home. They’re doing it

Alison Werner (36:16)
Right.

Cassie Kellner (36:16)
on their own accounts. They could do it much faster than we can. And then that that’s like full circle here, Alison. Like, if you are going to do that, if you are going

Alison Werner (36:23)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (36:26)
to ask a clinical assistant or anyone else in your practice to run social media management, well, then their scope just got bigger. So now

Alison Werner (36:32)
Mm-hmm. Mm.

Cassie Kellner (36:35)
their growth plan changes. So then their compensation their compensation changes, right? Like,

Alison Werner (36:38)
Right. Right.

Cassie Kellner (36:40)
We want to be able to grow these people and there are so many things that we can do in these practices to make that happen.

Alison Werner (36:46)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. Okay, so final question. If an office manager wants to kind of ensure that their practice is Gen Alpha ready or even Gen Z ready at this still

Cassie Kellner (36:56)
Mm. Mm-hmm.

Alison Werner (36:57)
over the next few years, what are the first two or three, let’s say digital steps they should take today?

Cassie Kellner (37:06)
I would say incorporate AI to create SOPs. If you have SOPs already, let’s take those and make them as digital as humanly possible, right? You can we use three things. You can use Asana, you can use Notebook LM, you can use Trainual, and that’s just like the beginning, right? you can

Alison Werner (37:27)
Right.

Cassie Kellner (37:28)
use like on board and hiring, getting SOPs created, getting

training videos created. you know, being able to kind of map this out, I think, is probably one of the most important things in in going digital, right? We already have scanners, we’re scanning teeth, we’re not using

Alison Werner (37:50)
Right.

Cassie Kellner (37:50)
paper charts anymore. Like we’re we’re ready when it comes to that digital aspect, right?

Alison Werner (37:54)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Cassie Kellner (37:56)
But n now we need to really focus on we we’ve talked about patient experience for

A hundred years now, right? We’ve we have the scanners, we have the digital platforms, we are

Alison Werner (38:09)
Yeah.

Cassie Kellner (38:10)
using a a remote monitoring system, we’re using aligners, we we’re there, right? Now let’s do it for our team. I think

Alison Werner (38:15)
Right? Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, right. Mm.

Cassie Kellner (38:23)
doing it for our team and putting these training, putting training and onboarding, which are two different things.

into a

Alison Werner (38:31)
Mm-hmm.

Cassie Kellner (38:31)
digital platform is what everyone should be considering right now.

Alison Werner (38:37)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Well, Cassie, if people want to learn more from you or get in touch, what’s the best way to do that?

Cassie Kellner (38:47)
social media. It’s so they can follow me at Bloom with Cassie. They can go to my website, discoverEverbloom.com. I would be so happy to connect. But yeah, website, social, all the all the things.

Alison Werner (39:05)
All right, okay, well, thank you again. It’s great to talk to you again. I really appreciate this.

Cassie Kellner (39:11)
thanks for having me, Alison.