Saturday, March 27, 2010

Grow Your Practice With Employee Retention

Patient retention and loyalty is a vital component for building a chiropractic practice. Your marketing efforts are reduced if your patients vote with there feet and discontinue care.... no shows and a faster growing list of inactive patient charts compared to new patients.

If overhead, patient loyalty and patient satisfaction are important, then look closer at your staff.

Here's the point: if you are unconcerned with employee turnover and talent, by extension, you could care less about patient loyalty, patient satisfaction and the cost to keep your practice open.

Let me put this more bluntly, if you could care less about the skills, talent and turnover of your staff, you are comfortable with your current new patient production and patient visit average stats.

If this isn't true, in your case, then you must own employee turnover and talent, as the leader of your practice.

High turnover cost money and time for you and the rest of your staff. But, turnover has a much more far-reaching impact than just money and time.

Culture

Turnover and talent boils down to the culture of the practice and how important is it to recruit, hire and retain employees, not only because it is the right strategy, but because it will raise the bar for your brand of chiropractic in terms of being the best in patient-care and financial results.

If you view your staff as an asset, then you are on the right path. But, how valuable that asset is determined by a number of factors including compensation, continuous education and training, promotional opportunities, and even the work environment.

Consistency is king. Variation is the enemy. This is no less important with your patients. They prefer to develop relationship not only with the doctor, but with the rest of the staff. Their loyalty and satisfaction is enhanced when they interact with a well-trained, talented and familiar face.

Exit Interview

When an employee does leave.... by choice or force, you should conduct an exit interview to determine the primary reasons for the departure. The responses can be helpful for making changes in your practice, however, many will not give you the most important reason: the boss.

Some turnover is out of your control... the spouse is transferred our of the area. But, the far greater impact on turnover is often under your control.

You have control on your recruiting, screening, hiring and training protocols. In addition, your leadership skills are a major contributor to turnover and lack of skills on the part of your staff.

As the leader of your practice, it is your responsibility to field the best talent in your marketplace and retain them. You must stay abreast of changing conditions in healthcare, compensation and understanding what motivates people to excel. Continuous improvement is required.

Low turnover Danger

Maybe you have determined that this article doesn't apply to your office. You have virtually no turnover. In fact, you proudly state that some of your employees have been with you from day one!

Often long-term loyal employees can be having a negative impact on your practice. Very often they have one year's experience repeated twenty years. They never seem to grow professionally or personally. They do there job, but, the practice is not growing.

Your patient visit average hovers at the same point or even declines during the past several months or years. Your referral rate is minimal.... less than three per year from each patient. Your no-show stat is hitting 60% or lower.

If you are stagnant or declining, low performers should not be allowed to hang-around.

No one likes to fire an employee. But, if you have surrounded you and your patients with those who are not performing everyone loses including the loyal low-performing employee.

Certainly implement a new and improved plan to grow the practice and seek a passionate embrace from your current staff. But, hold them accountable and then after a reasonable time to correct their performance, replace them with new and improved!

In the end, if you are not hitting your targets, it is your fault, not your employees. It is up to you to inspire, lead and field the best talent in order to achieve your desired outcome.

Peak your practice with talent and less turnover.

By : Lawton_Howell

No comments: