For private practice office managers, hiring and recruiting is a time-consuming, expensive and, quite frankly, frustrating endeavor. From finding the right talent, to ensuring new hires are properly trained, getting the right employees in place requires a great deal of business resources. Not to mention, it’s pricey. It costs 20 percent of a worker’s $50,000 salary to replace them, according to the Center for American Progress.

That’s exactly why reducing turnover is so imperative to the success of private practices, and it all starts with keeping your people happy. To help you retain your best staff members, and avoid the stress of hiring, consider these helpful tips office managers like you can use to make your private practice the best place to work.

Set Up Quarterly Reviews

Annual reviews are a great opportunity for your staff members to share their feedback, and to provide assessments of your own. However, a lot can happen in the 12 months between meetings. Sure, you might throw a “how are things going?” their way every once in awhile, but do you really think employees are going to divulge their grievances in the hallway between exam rooms?

The only way to truly get a beat on the practice’s staff is to ask them in confidence. Schedule quarterly meetings with everyone on the team, from the highest paid physician’s assistant to the entry-level receptionist. Most importantly, when they provide feedback—use it.

Re-assess Your Hiring Strategy

If you’re not drawing in the right professionals, it’s time to inspect the roots of the issue. There’s a chance you’re marketing to the wrong crowd or not assessing applicants effectively. To get started, ask yourself the following questions:

• Do my job ads accurately reflect the positions for which I’m hiring? Let others with similar roles review the ads to see if they can provide additional insight.
• Do my job ads shine a light on my practice’s unique culture? Does your staff dress up for Halloween? Order catered lunches on Fridays? These seemingly insignificant bits of information can make a big impact on potential candidates.
• Am I adequately assessing personality? Even if a candidate has the best resume you’ve ever seen, if his personality doesn’t fit, he won’t last long.
• Am I marketing through the right channels? Find out where your best candidates spend their time, and use those channels. For example, if you don’t have an online hiring strategy then you’re missing a major opportunity.

Provide Employees the Right Tools to Succeed

According to an Inc.com list of the top 10 things employees want, number four is autonomy. Good employees want the same thing as you: to be productive and successful. They want to be empowered to make choices on their own. However, they can’t accomplish this without the right tools. 

The tools your employees need depend on their position. For example, your administrative employees may prefer better automation and more user-friendly EHR systems while the nursing staff may be interested in patient comfort measures, such as ethyl chloride. Look for ways to make your team’s jobs easier, and they’ll use their extra time to help you grow and improve the practice.

By focusing on employee satisfaction, you can reduce churn rate, save money and keep top talent longer. Additionally, the happier your employees, the better the working environment. Everyone wins!

Now that you know how to keep employees happy, get the product that will keep patients happy, too! Learn about our most tried-and-true product: Gebauer’s Ethyl Chloride.