Avenue Dental is a group of three dental practices on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland.

Avenue Dental realizes that a dental practice is unlikely to be the first place people think of when they think about great places to work. “I hate the dentist” is one of the most common greetings a dentist hears. Despite this stigma or rather because of this, Avenue Dental have made it their purpose “to positively transform dentistry.” Their Core Values are the guiding principles for how they strive to live their purpose and bring their core values to life on a daily basis.

Avenue Dental believes that having the best people is the key to success. Being in a service industry, the business is all about people. If the team is looked after and treated well, they will then look after the patients.

Attracting the best people has become easier over time as Avenue Dental has developed a reputation in the dental industry as a workplace of choice. Winning several accolades has been an extremely rewarding experience for the whole team. Internally it created a sense of validation for their focus on culture and values and externally it has lent credibility to aid in recruitment processes.  Another initiative that has helped significantly in establishing this reputation is the Australian Dental Graduate of the Year Award, which started in 2014.  The award is offered nationally at all Australian dental schools and aims to highlight the most talented new dental graduates by awarding a cash prize. 

Avenue Dental also offers these graduates mentoring through the Australian Dental Mini Residency so that they can strive to the same standard of excellence that is offered at their practice and spread this standard throughout Australia.

To retain talented people Avenue Dental have implemented: Individual Coaching Plans; the role of Bringing Out the Best in others; and Weekly Coaching Conversations. These initiatives aim to replace the traditional performance reviews and adopt a more proactive human resources approach.  To further develop their employees they have regular training and mentoring of the existing team through weekly team meetings, monthly clinical meetings, management coaching plans and a leadership training plan.