Engaging Your Medical Staff

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Once you've hired the staff for your medical practice you have to make sure that they are engaged in their jobs and day to day responsibilities. Some practices do not take the time to check in with employees and make sure they are interested and staying on task throughout the day. Every employee should feel like they are a valuable member of your team

The practice will be busy throughout the day leaving very little down time for employees so they need clearly defined roles from the onset of employment. Job responsibilities break down into two groups: clinical and non-clinical. Clinical staff should have a set of policies in place for them to follow and non-clinical staff should have their own set of policies as well. The office should run smoothly on a day to day basis. One of the best ways to engage employees is to ask key questions during the interview process to make sure they are going to be a good fit for the practice. The better you know your own practice, the better you will be at marketing it to prospective employees. Provide training for new employees to give them the skills they need to excel and increase value to the practice. Training for employees is highly appreciated and will give them a probationary period where they know they are learning the ins and outs of the practice.

During the interview process you can get a better feel for the type of employees you will be hiring by asking specific questions. Ask them about their accomplishments in their previous positions and the amount of time it took them to complete tasks. You should see if they prefer jobs where they were given a lot of responsibilities or more highly structured positions with more supervision. Employees who are engaged have greater commitment to the practice and they go above and beyond their basic job descriptions. Having weekly staff meetings will increase office morale and keep employees interested in their jobs.

Think of staff meetings as an investment; you want to keep your staff informed about what is going on in each department. Set up an agenda for the meeting in advance so everyone knows what topics you will be covering. Including them when it comes to decisions for the practice is another way to keep staff engaged. Maybe you're thinking about switching to a new EMR system or about creating a practice website, discuss this with your staff so they can give feedback. Don't just listen to their feedback; utilize it to better the practice. Be consistent with your communication; employees want to know that if a problem arises you will be able to take care of it in a timely and professional manner.

Keeping employees engaged starts with the hiring process and marketing your practice to the right people. Communicating effectively with clinical and non-clinical staff, scheduling regular team meetings are simple ways to make the office run more efficiently and give every member of your staff the opportunity to be successful.