Which box are you in?

I often get contacted by practice owners or practice managers because they have a high turnover of staff and want to stop the rot. The never ending revolving doors of staff members in and out is stressful, expensive, demoralizing and extremely time consuming.

Not surprisingly there is more to solving this problem than can be addressed in on blog and let’s make a start.

Consider the people who have left your emplyment and their reasons for leaving, where do they fit on the matrix below?

What do the axes relate to?

The X axis relates to how challenging the role is. This does not necessary hard it is more a function of variety, opportunity to learn, develop, and grow and having personal responsibility for achieving goals and targets.

The y axis is engagement, how much time you and your time spend interacting this could be;

ü  Being genuinely interested in how they are personally and professional

ü Listening to feedback

ü Productive staff meetings

ü 3/12 staff achievement and planning reviews

ü Informal ‘water cooler’ conversations

ü Social events

ü Empathy and compassion

Quadrants 1 and 4 are great fun places to work, where the team interact and get on, their mantra is “communication is the key to success” The same cannot be said about quadrants 2 and 3. Where “knowledge is power” and information is never shared. When I visit practices with high engagement they are buzzing and communication is effective I am expected and all members of the team know who I am and why I am visiting and make me feel welcome as I am sure they do for all their patients who look forward to their visits. By, contrast, when I visit 2 and 3 practices, it is a surprise to the receptionist that I am expected, there is nothing in the appointment book and they have not been told and no one else knows except the principal who is generally hiding in the surgery. Often described as mushroom management, keeping everyone in the dark it - it doesn’t work   A common plea from team members in quadrants 2 and 3 is “All I want is for the dentist to say, good morning, good bye and a thank you would be nice”. The key to creating high engagement is prioritizing time for conversations.

“A Problem can only be present when a conversation is absent”

Low challenge practices 1 and 2 are generally bumbling along with very little engagement from the principal. The team make the day to day decision and the practice owner offers little if any guidance. The mantra for these practices is “This is the way we have always done it”. The danger is that practice is out of date with compliance or new clinical advances and because there is standing still in business these practices are going backwards as those around them develop and grow. “If your practice is not growing it is dying”

High challenge practices, embrace learning development and improvement, they not only stay up-to-date, they lead the way. For these practices, the mantra is “good is not good enough”

Consider the matrix for a moment which box do you think is the most sustainable from a business perspective, rewarding to work in and the one that patients want to be treated in?

Box 1

A nice place to work and no-one is using their gifts or fulfilling their potential. Conversations in this quadrant tend to be much more personal or social and far less about work, with little or any targets or accountability- Cozy and mediocre.

Box 2

Team members are less likely to want to come to work because there is little comradery and the work is not challenging. Team members are generally bored and looking forward to payday. Apathetic and boring

Box 3

This is toxic an environment with little communication and high demands. Commonly in this quadrant, practices are understaffed, under resourced and there is a dictatorial style of management, staff meetings, if they happen, are a list of what has been done wrong. Discouraged and stressful.

Box 4

Utopia a practice where there are productive conversations, share understanding and appreciation of one another. There will be a vision for the practice and program of growth and development tailored to each team members. Team members in this quadrant are loyal and stay for years and will generally only leave because of re-location of a partner. Empowered and Fulfilling.

Which box are you in?

If you recognize that your practice is quadrant 1,2 or 3 and you want to move to quadrant 4 call me on 07989 757 884 and I will show you simple and effective tools to make the transition.

If you are in box 4, you know there is still room for improvement, and I can support you in your continued growth. Call me on 0798 757 884.