“If we hire people worse than ourselves, we become
a company of dwarves. If we hire people better
than ourselves, we become a company of giants."
---David Ogilvy, marketing legend
Motivating your medical staff employees into joining your medical practice business marketing success efforts is exactly what almost all doctors and other professional healthcare providers ignore, and you should definitely do today. Believing that your employees shouldn’t know about your deeply held medical practice business plans and medical practice marketing strategies is a formidable business mistake.
One of the most consequential lessons a physician can learn about change is that change begins at the very top of the business. It must start with you, not your employees. If you don’t demonstrate to your employees what you want them to do, it will never happen.
Saying you want more employee productivity, engagement, and communication is not good enough. You must not only be a living model of what you preach, but also you have an obligation to teach your employees how to do what you want done.
Employees brought into the inner circle of your medical practice business management and business strategies or structure is a move that has a remarkable tendency to increase their own importance in their own eyes to the business and to you, for many reasons. Their loyalty
is increased.
Their job commitment moves to a higher level of focus and productivity. Their “positioning” in the business understandably reduces their threat of being let go, while increasing their probability of a raise in salary (attributes for employee retention).
The fact that you are willing to trust and rely on your office staff to learn and be part of your efforts not only to increase income for the medical practice business, but also your employees understand that what you teach them and what they learn under your direction adds enormous knowledge and benefits to their value and employable qualities for the rest of their lives.
Can you imagine that what you offer and require of them in your employment adds remarkable confidence, self-esteem, personal satisfaction with their skills growth, pride in their advanced abilities and knowledge, and realization that they, because of you, have provided that education free of charge and was not just for your own selfish attitude.
Smart physicians understand the importance of hiring employees that have enough medical office experience and knowledge to allow them to adapt to the increasing responsibilities necessary for supporting your long-term practice plans (employee incentives are key).
Previously, I have covered the issue of “Hire slow, Fire fast.” Meaning, you must be extremely selective during your recruitment process, which takes more time than you want to spend. Otherwise, you end up with an ongoing turnover of medical office personnel, which wastes much more time and money than hiring employees of higher quality to begin with.
Whatever the cost to you, you are not trying to reinvent the wheel, but need only to focus on finding experienced employees you don’t have to educate, train, or hover over. Isn't that the dream that physicians have for their private medical practice management?
Understanding What Your Employees need...
Employees require certain personal factors about their job, which stimulates them to be creative, attentive, efficient, productive, and happier with their job duties. Managing employees with attention to engaging employees relative to their needs is important.
1. Need to contribute--They have to know, not take it for granted, that their thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and contributions to your business management are valuable to your medical practice business. Avoiding criticism, listening to their issues, inviting their suggestions and repetitive complimenting their work, are approaches, which bypass all negativity.
2. Need Freedom--At the very least, employees need to have to freedom to express their ideas and complaints without the fear of being fired, or severely criticized by their boss. They also must be allowed to extend their creativeness and productiveness beyond what’s expected of them in order to test their own ideas and theories for improvement of the business. Consider their mistakes as a learning experience (Employee recognition for ideas is essential).
3. Need a challenge--An employee without a challenge quickly loses interest in their job. It leads to boredom, lack of motivation, and decreased productivity and if they don’t quit, they’ll need to be let go. Completing challenges gives them a win. People want to solve problems, find solutions, and be recognized for the effort. Challenges bring out their creativeness and motivation to do more. (the importance of employee development)
4. Need self-improvement--Employees love to learn, get ahead, and make a better life for themselves. They desire to better themselves personally and professionally. When business owners and managers take the time to provide the tools necessary for employees to expand their talents, knowledge, skills, and ambitions, (employee empowerment is reinforced) their lives and work are much more fulfilling. Provide the updated equipment, supplies, and business training they need.
5. Need advancement--Most employees light-up when they see their efforts are appreciated and make a difference to the business. Hope is a feeling they normally have. They hope that their work will be rewarded with advancement to a higher level of responsibility, increased salary, increased benefits for employees, or higher position in the business. (The incredible value of
employee satisfaction.)
Employees understand that each job they have improves their skills and knowledge so that when and if they move on to the next job, they will be increasingly qualified as well as experienced. It’s a win-win situation for the doctor and the employee.
Job interview questions used for employee assessment and evaluating an employee’s marketing capabilities...
- What experiences you have had in marketing a business? If none, ask...
* How would you define what marketing or does?
* How would you describe advertising?
* What are your thoughts about the importance of advertising or marketing?
* How would you describe your ability to learn new job functions?
* What are you likes or dislikes about having to learn business marketing and strategies?
- What are your feelings (likes or dislikes) about being a salesperson?
- What are your thoughts about helping people make good decisions?
- What business courses or business learning resources have you learned from in the past?
- How would you describe your ability to be persuasive?
- What part of marketing a business do you like to do best?
- Why would you accept a job position that involves your doing marketing for a business?
- What do you know about the financial problems physicians are having now?
- How would you feel about part of your medical office duties being to help the office
team carry out business marketing strategies? - How would you describe your creative abilities?
- What would you say about your ability to be a team member and work with a team?
- How do you handle criticism from peers or from supervisors?
(Continued in Part 2 about Training your employees in marketing for you and tips about implementing your employees into the marketing process.)
----Professional Probe----
"Employees that lose their head easy, that
bury their head in the sand to avoid work,
that prefer to be at the beach instead of your
office working, and those who dislike any
form of criticism are not good employees."
Articles © 2013-2022/CGG INVESTMENTS LLC. All rights reserved. #22 3-16-22
