As I See It

Seeing Your Practice as Your Employees Do

A recent staff survey was cause for self-assessment.

By Paul S. Koch, MD, Editor Emeritus

Our practice is fairly well known within the business circles in our state. As is the case in many of your practices, our doctors and administrators sit on many boards of many charities and have received a number of honors for volunteerism and good deeds. We're generally considered a good bunch of people.

Nevertheless, it was a very interesting experience when we were nominated last year for “Best Places to Work in Rhode Island.” We had a lot on our plate at the time, so we passed on the consideration. This year, when we were recommended again, we decided to accept the nomination. Whether we won or not (more on that later), it was a valuable exercise and I recommend it for any other group that has the chance.

Going Under the Microscope

The evaluation begins with a rigorous set of questions for our administrative staff — usual business stuff, including goals, missions and processes. That gives the judges an idea of who we are and who we present ourselves to be. Once this is established, the cool stuff begins.

We had to provide our entire in-house e-mail address book, as a way for them to contact every employee. Each would be asked a series of questions about their jobs, with secrecy and confidentiality guaranteed. They would be encouraged to let it all hang out, so to speak, and provide the inside scoop on what it was like to work at Kochland.

Many weeks later, we received a very nice letter informing us that we were a finalist in our division! (The 50 to 149 employee group.) That led to a very nice awards dinner where we met very nice people who ran very nice businesses and where we received a very nice plaque. We didn't win the Best Place to Work in the state, but 8th overall wasn't bad.

Later, the results of the surveys were released. We did very well in the following categories:

• Employees knowing what was expected of the staff.
• Adequacy of our staff training and supervision.
• Recognizing employees for their work and effort and rewarding for excellence.
• Promoting from within.
• Reasonable expectation that an excellent employee would be able to work up the ladder.

We learned that 96% of our em ployees would recommend working at our office to a friend or relative — which meant that one out of 25 would not. (Ouch!)

We did less well in categories related to benefits, things like scope of retirement plans, generosity of health insurance plans and so forth. In these categories, we were thoroughly trounced by the financial services companies and the law firms. While all of us in health care have had to tighten our belts as our expenses went up, our fees went down and our margins tightened, not all industries have had the same economic constraints and were able to be more generous.

Pledge to Do Better

So, where do we go from here? First, we keep doing what we're doing well: finding strong and dedicated staff, giving them a meaningful position where they can see the difference they bring to the world and providing a home where they can advance within our organization. These are the non-economic benefits that are so crucial to anyone's spirit.

Oh, and the office bowling league. We have to keep that. Even though my team seems to have a lock on last place.

Next, we have to find a way to address the employee benefits that put us at a disadvantage compared to larger companies in other sectors. We'll be meeting with our health insurance brokers and our pension plan administrators to see what we can do there.

Our goal for next year is to be a finalist again, crack into the top three in our division and be a real legitimate contender for the very best place to work in the state. We're already working on it. OM

Paul S. Koch, MD is editor emeritus of Ophthalmology Management and the medical director of Koch Eye Associates in Warwick, R.I. His e-mail is: paulkoch@kocheye.com.