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.
