By Susan Crawford - Reprinted with permission from Admore Publishing / Medical Office Manager / july 2009, page 11
No raises to give out this year? Worried productivity is going to suffer? Most people don't leave a job because of money. Neither do they stop being productive because of it, says practice management consultant LYNN HOMISAK of SOS Healthcare Management Solutions in Seattle.
What most encourages productivity is something that carries no dollar sign at all - appreciation and
respect from the employer. That's what makes people anxious to come to work each morning.
Conversely, without appreciation and respect, no amount of money is going to keep people on board - or spur them to productivity.
Here are 10 ways to keep a good staff even when the raises are not there to give out.
recognize staff's little extras
One element managers tend to forget about is the need to be aware of and recognize all the work each staffer is doing.
Many times a staffer takes a job a step further "and nobody notices," Homisak says. There's no appreciation for it, so the staffer slowly becomes dissatisfied.
The best way to find out what's going on is the tell staff to be prepared to toot their own horns at review.
An easy way for them to do that is to keep their daily or weekly to-do lists in folders and right before the review make notes of all the things they have done. That way, each person can come into the review saying "this is what I have done for our practice." A staffer might say, for example, "I drew up this form and it brought in X more patients" or "I analyzed our patient satisfaction surveys and found out where we need to change our hours." Or it could be something as simple as "I'm the one who's been changing the paper towel rolls in the break room." No matter how small the contribution, let an unsolicited task go unnoticed and the staffer feels unappreciated.
Appreciation is a tremendous productivity builder. She cites one client office where a staffer told her "I would clean the toilets if I knew the doctor appreciated it."
cite the specifics
Make the expressions of appreciation believable by telling the staffer exactly what it is that's being appreciated. Homisak gives the example of telling a staffer "I really appreciate what you do." The staffer says "what do I do that you like?" and the manager's response is "I don't know."
People want more than a slap on the back. They want to know specifically what's appreciated, and that in turn tells them what to continue doing.
four times a day, every day
Be generous with the appreciation. Give it out "every single day." Managers "are quick to tell staff what they're doing wrong" but not so quick "to stop to say thank you." Homisak tells her own clients to start off each day with four quarters in the left pocket and move one to the right pocket every time they compliment a staffer. At the end of the day, all four should be in the other pocket.
give a rundown of the money
Show staff all the compensation they are actually getting. People calculate their salaries by their paychecks, Homisak says. They don't take into consideration all the other things they are getting - from insurance to free lunches - and they don't realize "that their employers have quite an investment in them."
Draw up a compensation worksheet and lay out what the office pays for. (See sample form below.)
Homisak recommends including a disclaimer on the form that the numbers are estimates and are subject to change and that there is no guarantee any benefit will continue.
a little token plus a note
Tokens of the manager's appreciation also go a long way toward keeping staff productive. There are two caveats to that, however. The first is to include with the token a hand-written note telling the staffer what the reward is for and what the manager appreciated about it.
The second is match the token to what the staffer likes. A Starbucks coupon is a nice treat - if the
staffer like coffee. And opera tickets are good - for somebody who doesn't prefer baseball.
Finding out each staffer's likes and interests, she says, is part of being a good manager.
a public compliment
Another good moneyless motivator is a compliment given in front of a patient such as "Patient A, you're in good hands with Staffer B here." That serves the office two ways. It encourages the staffer, and it gives the patient confidence in the office.
Compare that to "Oh, Staffer B can't to do that. I'll have to take over." That immediately destroys both the staffer's ego and the patient's confidence.
lend a good ear
Yet another motivator: a good ear. When a staffer is talking, listen. "That's a huge thing to do," Homisak says. It tells people they are appreciated.
On the other hand, not paying attention or cutting somebody short says the manager has no respect for what that staffer has to say.
let staff do some marketing
Get staff involved in the marketing. Brainstorm with them, and let them participate in the activities.
Volunteer to speak at schools and at PTA meetings. The physician might talk about a clinical topic, then the manager might talk about the services the practice provides, and then a staffer might talk about insurance coverage.
Choose the audience to suit the practice. If it's a pediatrics office, offer to talk with children about
what vaccines do for them and have the nurse there "to lower the level of fear" children have about going to a doctor.
That's effective marketing because it gives people several faces to connect with and several levels of information.
get staff involved with collections
Involve staff in getting the money in. Show them how to collect it. Many staffers, for example, don't know what to say to patients about copayments. Show them what not to say: "Your balance is $X.
Do you want to pay that now?" (The patient can say no and walk out the door.)
Then show them what they should say: "Your balance is $X, and we accept checks as well as credit
cards. Which do you prefer?" (A no answer is not an option.)
Also tell them when to say it: when the patient comes in. Wait till the end of the visit and the patient
is apt to say "I'll call you about that."
give some hope with the bad news
Then there's the question of how to announce a no-raise year and still maintain a motivated staff. And the answer is to balance the bad news with some good.
Announce that there will be no raises but in the same breath give some type of nonmonetary compensation that tells staff the office appreciates their work.
Time off is a good option, perhaps a full day off or an option to leave early on Fridays.
Be honest about what's happening, that like other businesses, the office is going through a rough time. Then emphasize the positive side of the picture - that at least everybody can be thankful for still having a job.
And then give staff something to look forward to: "if you can hang on and help us bring in more
patients, we will hopefully be able to give everybody a raise down the road."
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