The training, aimed at helping the recruiters close deals more effectively, is “very fresh and new for our team”, IDH resourcing manager Matt Reeves told Recruiter.

“We spend hundreds of thousands of pounds on golden hellos, and spend money on signing fees left, right and centre. There must be more we can do in closing the deal,” Reeves said.

IDH has grown from one to 300 dental practices over a decade, and may acquire as many as 50 new practices this year. “We recruit more than 300 dentists a year and there’s a candidate shortage,” Reeves said.

Candidates are recruited from Bulgaria, Hungary, Portugal, Romania and Spain, in addition to the UK, and 65% of IDH’s workforce comes from overseas. IDH has 120 vacancies at any given time for dental staff to work in the NHS, private sector and specialist areas. Annual turnover is about 20%. “Retention is a key initiative for us in the next 12 months,” Reeves said.

Not helping IDH’s recruitment drives is a widespread perception of corporate dental groups as sweat shops, Reeves said. He added: “Dental students are advised, ’don’t work there’.”

However, career development is one of the key benefits that IDH can offer its candidates, and the corporate dental group emphasises in its outreach campaigns that professional dentists working for them can practise dentistry without the distractions of having to carry out support functions, such as administration work.

Reeves has a recruitment team of 10.