Or you hire new staff and they seem to be doing well… then they give you their two weeks’ notice, and you repeat the cycle.
High turnover is more common these days, but that doesn’t mean it has to be common for you.
In fact, it’s not difficult to prevent this. It just takes some intentional changes to see a difference in your staff and ultimately creating a team that’s reliable.
With that said, let’s get into it!
1. Look at their track record during the hiring process
Make sure you’re looking at their track record rather than just their personality.
And by “track record,” I don’t just mean “chiropractic experience.” I’m talking about the ability to be productive and get results on their job, whatever that job was.
Obviously, you want a new hire who is upbeat and friendly, but you also want them to get results. The best way to determine their ability to get results in your practice is to review their resume and see what results/accomplishments they were able to get at previous jobs. And by the way, this doesn’t have to only be chiropractic or medical related. Results in any industry will prove to you that they’re competent and can get the job done.
Additionally, during the interview process, you can ask them specific questions to see if they’re results-oriented. Questions like, “How do you put a plan into action?” or “What was one of your accomplishments at your previous job?” are good ways to screen for this. Were they just “doing their job” or were they working towards and achieving targets?
Doing this will be a good start, but what’s next is vital.
2. Taking the time to properly train them
A great way to go about doing that is and I’ve done this successfully many times now, is I’ll pick a date. Let’s just say we’re in September of the year, and I’m going to raise my rates at the beginning of the next year.
I would start telling patients in an easy going manner:
“Hey, I wanted to let you know we’re going to be raising our rates, but don’t worry about that. We’re not doing it until January 1st. The good news is you can buy as many visits as you want right now, and you can use them how you want to over this next year. But you can buy as many as you want at today’s current price.”
And guess what? When I did this in my practice I had a lot of patients that would bite, and I’d have a good amount of cash inflow immediately. Patients wanted to take advantage of this and secure 20, 30, 40 visits at today’s price.
And so that’s an easy way to ease into the increase, because guess what? Then everyone knows that you’re gonna be raising rates. If they want to participate in saving money by buying now, they can. If they don’t, they don’t, but they are prepared.
And every time I’ve done that, I’ve lost very few patients.
At the end of the day, the very few I did lose, I more than made up for by the increase in money that was coming in on those who were paying the higher fees now. So it makes a huge difference.
If you’re going to sacrifice your body for this craft and for serving people, helping them improve their lives… you need to also value yourself. I speak with thousands of providers and sometimes it’s hard to see a provider and they don’t value themselves. How much can we help others if we are worn down and exhausted and not receiving the level of value we deserve?
3. Have a plan for their training
Along with setting aside enough time to train your staff, you want to create a plan regarding their training. If they catch onto things really fast, what’s next? If they’re slowing down at a certain point, what do you do?
You should have a plan of what their training program will look like, how they can progress on it, and what indicates they’ve completed their training.
As a helpful addition to this, hundreds of offices use our online training platform to train their new hires and existing staff. With online video training courses for every position in the practice, the sequence of training is mostly done for you. All you’d need to do is have them practice what they’ve learned to ensure they truly understand and can apply the information. You can schedule a free demo here.
4. Create a great working environment
Last, but not least, is having a working environment that makes new hires want to stay.
Whatever the reasons, something has shifted in the last two years and many people simply are not willing to put up with an unpleasant work experience anymore. They’ll go look for a different job—and lots of companies are hiring right now.
The attitude of the other staff plays a big role in this as well. If a new hire doesn’t feel comfortable in your office or gets unfair treatment from another staff member, they’re not going to stay.
Some ways you can create a good working environment include:
- Doctor and staff having a good attitude
- Sharing the goals of the practice
- Sharing the purpose of the practice and each job position
- Creating a bonus structure
- Allowing feedback from staff
- Having a good organizational structure and clearly defined roles, so there is no conflict or unnecessary stress
- Etc.
Another aspect to this is providing opportunities for upward movement within the practice, so employees can make it a career and increase their salary. If the practice has plateaued and there’s no way to be promoted to a higher position, then most front office jobs will always be temporary. So if you want to keep staff long-term and build a strong core team, your practice needs to be growing steadily. If it isn’t, request a free consultation here and we’ll help you find out why.
Summary
While high turnover is certainly a thing for many offices, there is something you can do about it. You can have a great team who are happy to be working at your office and I hope these tips can help you do just that.
If you want one-on-one help with this, you can request a free practice analysis here. Or you can call us at (888) 989 0855.
