From the medical industry to retail, many employers complain about their employees. Not the employee as a person, but the frustration of dealing with the problems of employing people. And the unfortunate fact is that such complaints generate even more complaints as the morale within the office deteriorates. All of this leads to costly turnovers in staff.
Most business people actually under-estimate the cost of turnover. They generally tend to figure the costs of advertising for the position or paying employment firm fees, along with some amount allocated to training.
The costs are actually much higher. You can start by doubling all of the aforementioned expenses, because you are not only spending money to hire the new employee but you lost all such money spent on the departing employee.
Now to put this in perspective, let's assume that a new employee costs you $10,000 to locate, hire and train. Doubling that to account for the predecessor, your costs are actually $20,000. But don't stop there. Move on to the revenue aspect of these costs. A $20,000 expense doesn't correlate to $20,000 in lost revenue; it is much, much higher. If your practice has a 75% overhead factor, each dollar of revenue only accounts for 25 cents of profit. To earn back $20,000 in expense, you have to generate $80,000 in revenue. Am I getting your attention? Based on this hypothetical analysis, each employee turnover eats up $80,000 in billings.
So how do you retain employees and avoid such major expenses? A good start is to hire smart and keep them happy. Plus, happy employees will create loyal patients. Unhappy employees will result in patients that find other doctors.
Here are a few thoughts that may help:
1. Remember to tell your staff "thank you" and "job well done". No one likes to be taken for granted and everyone likes to be complimented.
2. Create an employee of the month, quarter or year campaign. Acknowledge them with a plaque that can be seen by your patients and perhaps a small gift. It could be a day at a spa, an extra paid day off, dinner for two at a local restaurant, etc. The minor expense pales in comparison to turnover costs.
3. Develop a solid benefits program. Good benefits are essential to employee retention. Health, dental, eye-care, profit sharing, cafeteria plan, free parking, life and disability insurance, childcare contributions benefits will pre-empt other job offers and dissuade employees from investigating other jobs.
4. Pay well. Too often employers cut expenses by minimizing salaries. Far better to pay a reasonable and competitive salary that, again, tends to help you retain current employees and make better-qualified new hires.
5. Know your employees. Pay attention to your employees and be aware of what's happening in their lives. Remember to ask how a sick child or relative is doing. Simple caring about others goes a long way in developing loyalty.
6. Maintain a team spirit. Don't foster the notion that the employees are there to serve you. Reinforce the fact that you are all there to serve the patients.
7. Watch the workflow. Too little work means that you are overstaffed; too much work means that you're understaffed. Both situations breed dissatisfaction. Make sure that there is an even workflow to keep people busy, while allowing for brief moments of camaraderie. Everyone should have a workload that can be handled by a steady pace.
8. Offer staff the opportunity to grow through continuing education. Education instills a solid sense of self-esteem amongst your employees and keeps them loyal to your practice.
9. Cross-train staff to handle each other's jobs. This makes life easier for everyone in cases of sickness and vacation.
10. Celebrate together. Anniversaries, achievement of goals, celebrations of particular victories or accomplishments these are all excellent reasons for a staff party or get-together. Remember, loyalty and retention is all based on the quality of the relationship you have with your staff and they have with you.