12 ways for your management team to improve employee output

Your business goals take many forms: revenue, profitability, surgical volumes, and the like. But one of the most important, foundational goals is how well and efficiently you are using the most expensive resource in your company: your staff.

Practice owners, administrators, and department managers have a variety of methods available to monitor staff productivity effectively, ensure that tasks are completed efficiently, goals are met, and performance is aligned with organizational objectives.

It’s important to strike the right balance between closely monitoring and directing performance, and allowing each worker a degree of autonomy. Micromanaging has the long-term effect of diminishing staff ambition, morale and performance.

Here are 12 ways managers can monitor and improve employee output.

1. REGULAR CHECK-INS AND ONE-ON-ONE MEETINGS

Schedule periodic meetings to discuss progress, challenges and goals with department-level managers and individual team members. Use these sessions to provide feedback, offer guidance and address any concerns.

Also, hold monthly department meetings to encourage team collaboration and identify areas for improvement as a group.

Use this opportunity to listen and learn. Sometimes the barrier that prevents goals from being met or tasks being accomplished is not obvious to the assigner of the task, until you dig deeper.

2. TRACK KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS

Benchmarking and tracking key performance indicators (KPIs) provide an opportunity to compare your practice and each department with peer practices. But data collection alone is not enough. When clear KPIs are established for each department (and align with organizational objectives), each employee is provided a better vision of how their individual performance impacts the whole.

These metrics include things we’ve written about in these pages for years, such as the percent of practice collections spent on staffing (typical figures are around 32% these days), and the total number of staff hours worked each month divided by the number of patient visits (about 2.5 hours per visit in an efficient general practice.)

Regularly review and communicate these metrics to gauge performance and establish expectations for improvement.

3. CONDUCT PERFORMANCE REVIEWS

Conduct formal performance evaluations at set intervals to assess achievements, provide constructive feedback and set future goals.

Some practices find annual feedback is sufficient. Others find quarterly reviews helpful. The goal is to promote and encourage excellent performance, help employees succeed and ultimately provide stellar patient care and patient satisfaction through each employee.

4. USE PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS

Practices have a lot of moving parts. Administrators have hundreds of responsibilities to track and follow-up. One way to stay organized and timely is to utilize project management software to assign tasks, track progress and monitor project timelines.

These tools provide visibility into individual and team contributions. For smaller projects or practices, an Excel spreadsheet and Gantt chart may suffice. For larger needs, purchasing a project management software may be better, such as Trello or Asana.

5. TIME AND ATTENDANCE TRACKING

Monitor employee attendance and work hours using time-tracking software.

The key here is to ensure compliance with work schedules and company policy. A Time and Attendance policy needs to be clear and enforced consistently and fairly to all employees. Be sure your employee handbook and policies are reviewed periodically by a labor attorney.

Common issues we observe in practices are low employee morale caused by perceived favoritism for scheduling time off as well as no consequences for excessive absenteeism or tardiness.

6. USE TASK AND WORKFLOW TOOLS

Use task management tools to monitor and track assigned tasks and projects. Tools like this offer transparency and accountability for work assignments. Another name for this type of tool is accountability document.

An “action grid” is a type of accountability document that our clients find very useful. This simple four-column document displays the task or project, responsible party, deadline, and dated progress notes. Place it on a shared drive so managers can see what each other is working on and how it may impact their department. Practice owners can stay informed (and not have to wonder if someone is working on certain tasks) by reading this document regularly.

7. COLLECT CUSTOMER SERVICE AND PATIENT FEEDBACK

Collect and analyze customer feedback to help assess staff performance with customer service. Use this information to address issues and recognize exemplary service.

Many practices depend on automated methods to collect patient satisfaction data. A simple alternative is to have a staffer call five random patients per doctor each month with specific questions that can reveal issues that electronic surveys cannot. Some examples: “How did your time with the doctor go?” “Did she answer all your questions and address your chief concerns?” “At check-out time, were you clear about when you should next come back for an appointment?”

8. PRIORITIZE TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

Offer training sessions, workshops and skill development opportunities to enhance staff competencies. The stronger your staff’s skills, the stronger your practice becomes.

Also, monitor the success of the staff education provided in your practice. For example, how long does it take for a technician to function independently? What can the practice do educationally to speed this up or help fine-tune skills? Being intentional about processes like this is the way to improve them.

9. CONDUCT EMPLOYEE SURVEYS

Distribute anonymous surveys to gather feedback from employees about their work environment, job satisfaction and suggestions for improvement.

Once the data is collected, it is critical to share the collated results at an all-staff meeting. This transparency, especially when some of the comments are hard to hear, builds trust and teamwork. Take the time to discuss in the meeting the actions already taken as a result of the feedback and future plans for other changes (once you gather more information, etc). Repeat this process annually.

10. REMOTE WORK MONITORING

Since the pandemic, there has been a definite upswing in remote work. In the past, there was the occasional biller working offsite, usually after originally having worked for the practice on-site. Now it is more common for numerous positions to be handled remotely.

To feel confident about productivity from an off-site worker (billing, insurance liaison, bookkeeper, history-taking workup tech), use technology to monitor remote employees’ tasks, productivity and communication.

Focus on outcomes rather than micromanaging work processes. By setting output standards and expectations, you can evaluate productivity daily or weekly. Providing a specific list of tasks and deadlines is important for clarity.

11. CROSS-TRAIN EMPLOYEES

Another way to increase productivity is to cross-train employees into different roles to broaden their skills. This makes the practice less vulnerable to gaps in attendance or during position vacancy periods. Assess the successful utilization of cross-trained employees so it is not just an exercise but becomes a valuable and functional asset.

12. MOTIVATE PERFORMANCE

Acknowledge and reward outstanding performance and achievements to motivate employees and reinforce desired behaviors. There are numerous ways to recognize employee performance, ranging from simply saying, “Thank you,” to elaborate reward systems. Choose approaches that work best in your practice.

CONCLUSION

It’s important for administrators and practice owners to approach staff performance monitoring with transparency, fairness, and the intent to support employee growth and success. A balanced approach helps create a positive and productive environment. OM

Corinne Z. Wohl, MHSA, COE, is president of C. Wohl & Associates, Inc., a practice management consulting firm. Corinne earned her Masters of Health Services Administration degree at The George Washington University and has over 30 years of hospital, physician practice management and management consulting experience. Her latest book, co-authored with John Pinto, is “UP: Taking Ophthalmic Administrators and Their Management Teams to the Next Level of Skill, Performance and Career Satisfaction.” For information on how to purchase this book or other inquiries, she can be reached at czwohl@gmail.com or 609-410-2932.

John Pinto is the founder of J. Pinto & Associates, Inc., an ophthalmic practice consulting firm established in 1979. He is the most published author in the world on the subject of ophthalmic management and economics. The firm serves organizations worldwide, ranging from solo practices to high-volume market leaders, teaching centers and medical product companies, providing strategic planning, financial benchmarking and analysis, operations enhancement, and marketing counsel. He can be contacted at pintoinc@aol.com or 619-223-2233.