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Practical management
Make Employees Great
If you nurture and support your employees,
they can achieve greatness.
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Never underestimate the value of staff!
How great you are is a reflection of the people you employ and
how you treat them. Here are some simple steps you can take to
develop great employees!
Hire right
The most common hiring mistakes people
make are selecting the wrong candidate and not giving the new
employee the support he needs to succeed. Everyone wins when
you do it right.
Begin your quest to hire
the right employee with the job description (JD) for the
departing staffer. To ensure it reflects how the position
currently functions in your office, review it with the
departing employee and determine if revisions are needed. Once
the JD is finalized, use it as the criteria to objectively
evaluate résumés that come across your desk and
determine which applicants you may want to consider for the
position. This, combined with the opinions gathered through the
telephone screening, the interview process, and checking
references, will improve your odds of selecting the best
candidate.
Once you’ve made a
hiring decision, take time to develop an orientation and
training plan for the new employee. It should include:
• Preparing the first day’s
orientation schedule
• Determining what steps will be
taken to make the new employee feel welcome
• Developing a training schedule
outlining the training method and objectives for each of the
first four to six weeks, based on the JD
• Selecting an official trainer
• Deciding how informal feedback will
be given and received, i.e. morning brief
• Scheduling a 30-day progress
dis-cussion and a 90-day performance review
Give these important decisions careful
consideration to ensure your expectations are realistic and
that you are properly prepared to give the new employee
additional support if needed. Once you have developed the plan,
review it with the assigned trainer.
Before the new hire is on
the job, designate her work space and make sure it is cleared
of the previous employee’s items. Provide a list of the
physicians and employees that includes each individual’s
job title and telephone extension. A token welcome gift at her
desk is a thoughtful way to make your newest employee feel
special—a small investment that will pay big dividends.
A good start
When the new hire arrives on the first
day, introduce her to everyone on the practice team. This
includes each doctor and staff member. Those doctors and staff
members who may not be in the office should take the initiative
to introduce themselves to the new employee the first time they
intersect. This will help the employee feel valued and foster a
sense of belonging.
During the first month, the
manager should meet with the trainer and the new employee
weekly for a briefing to discuss her progress. This is vital to
getting the employee off to a good start, keeping her informed,
building her confidence, communicating your needs, and letting
her know how she is progressing.
Continue to provide
guidance during the initial 90-day period, ending it with a
formal job appraisal so she clearly understands your
expectations—where she excels and where she needs to
strengthen her skills. Her confidence in herself and yours in
her will be far greater. She will be set up to succeed!
The poor performer
Once an employee is integrated into the
staff, your goal is to keep everyone working well together and
doing what is expected. However, even with the best of
intentions, there are occasions when an employee’s
performance slips or there is a change in attitude. It’s
your job to create an opportunity to improve, but hold the
staffer to your high standards. Even if he has the skills you
need, if he isn’t committed or simply isn’t a good
fit, it’s best to deal with it as soon as possible. One
employee’s poor performance impedes the productivity of
others. If it’s an “attitude,” it can poison
the well. Other staff members’ attitudes will quickly
deteriorate, resulting in plummeting overall staff
morale—a costly price for tolerating inferior
performance.
Begin the formal process of
resolution. First comes the verbal warning: Outline the
unacceptable actions and determine how they must be corrected.
Following this, if the employee does not meet the performance
criteria you established, proceed to a formal write-up and
disciplinary action. This means letting him know the
seriousness of his actions and the consequence if the situation
is not resolved. Set a time frame for resolution and follow up
by holding him accountable. This is difficult, because if he
does not hit the improvement mark, you must proceed to the
third and final action—termination.
Too often, physicians and
the manager warn the employee, but fail to follow up with
termination when the problem goes unresolved. When this
happens, you give the employee permission to continue his
offending actions. It is unfair to employees who do their jobs
and compromises both morale and productivity. It is your
responsibility to create a no-tolerance policy when it comes to
unacceptable performance.
Great performers
At the core of guiding employees to peak
performance is the ability to create a culture that nurtures
and values them. When employees have the potential and the
right attitude, you can mold them and lead them to greatness.
Start with the simple
things that make employees feel valued. Always say ‘good
morning.’ If someone’s been out sick, ask how she
feels on her return. Don’t end the day by walking out the
back door without saying goodbye to those who are left behind.
If you strengthen new employees and create a culture that
values their contribution, you will be amazed at the results.
It’s also important
to show appreciation when employees do well. When employees go
out of their way to help one another, are willing to work
overtime in a pinch, or take extra time with patients, say
‘thank you.’ Let them know you noticed and that you
care. Too often in our busy lives we get absorbed in the moment
and fail to do the little things that remind people how much
they are valued.
Reward employees when they
have gone the extra mile. If you’ve gone through an EMR
conversion that was stressful or relocated to a new facility
that required a lot of effort and patience from everyone,
celebrate when it’s behind you. Perhaps you can have a
party or give everyone a set of four tickets to the movies.
Encourage your manager to
join professional associations and participate in their
activities—at your expense. Membership and meetings fees
are reasonable with the Professional Association of Health Care
Office Management, www.pahcom.com. And tie a pay increase to
his becoming a certified medical manager with PAHCOM. For a
larger group, Medical Group Management Association,
www.mgma.com, is a good choice. There are other organizations
for nurses and coders. When staff members attend professional
conferences, they bring valuable information back to the
practice and become part of a powerful network of
professionals.
Stay in touch
Keep communication open and you will
discover hidden opportunities to nurture the practice team.
Managers need to walk the floor and notice when someone is
doing something exceptional and comment on it. If a staffer is
experiencing a workload he can’t handle, dig deeper and
help resolve it.
Have regular staff meetings
for group discussion and team-building. Let the staff know your
vision for the practice over the next year and how everyone can
contribute to achieving it. Staff meetings should be organized
with a written agenda. Beyond this, it’s an opportunity
for you to get everybody talking and contributing ideas that
improve the whole practice.
Finally, the annual
performance appraisal is your time to let the employee shine.
This is when you can honor an employee by giving her your full
attention. Let her tell you how she feels about the job and her
performance. Give praise when appropriate but don’t fail
to communicate if there are areas where progress is needed.
Review the JD as criteria for how well she is doing. Probe to
be sure you are in agreement that the JD reflects what is
currently expected of the position and whether or not you have
provided the support needed to develop a top performer.
Conduct your appraisals
when they are due. Failure to do so will imply that neither the
review nor the employee is important and can leave staff
members feeling discounted and undervalued.
Remember, employees are
your number one customers. It’s the simple truth. If you
create and maintain a culture that supports and fosters this,
you will be on your way to having great employees and a great
practice.
Judy Capko is a health-care consultant
with more than 20 years experience and the author of
“Secrets of the Best Run Practice.” Her focus is
practice operations, staffing, finance, and marketing. Judy is
based in Thousand Oaks, CA and can be reached at judy@capko.com
or through www.capko.com
