Practice Plan Regional Support Manager, Lou Bone, looks at what you can do to motivate you and your team following a tough few years….
It’s safe to say that practice staff really have had a tough time over the last few years, and the changes in regulations and restrictions, plus prolonged periods in heavy PPE have really taken their toll.
Reception teams have also been rushed off their feet, dealing with new enquiries as well as abusive patients who maybe don’t quite understand why they can’t get an appointment on the NHS. Practice managers have also come under increased pressure as they try to spin multiple plates and keep their teams together.
So many people can be forgiven for losing a little bit of their motivation given the situation they are working in. With that in mind, I’ve put a few ideas together to help you not only motivate your staff, but help motive yourself as well.
Getting the team together and giving little gifts.
One way you can keep your team motivated is by holding regular team meetings. Getting them all together to talk about the current situation and inform them of any regulation changes can be really beneficial, and it creates that togetherness among the team.
You can also combine the meetings by getting the staff lunch and using it as a session to find out how the staff are doing. Taking those five minutes out to just see if your staff are okay can really help with their motivation and show how much you value them.
There are a lot of other ways that you can help keep your team’s motivation up, such as random bunches of flowers on a Friday afternoon, little packages with popcorn and prosecco delivered to staff members’ houses etc. Those spontaneous gifts don’t cost a lot of money, but they can be really beneficial.
Book time off.
It is hard for owners, practice managers and staff, and one of the most important things you can do during this period is make sure you book time off. We’ve heard so much over the last 18 months about the importance of a work-life balance and how key it is, and it really is important for your well-being.
As a staff member, make sure you have time in the diary to get a break from the practice. As owners and managers, you need to do the same and have some personal time, but also some time to concentrate on the business and plan where you want to be in maybe the next three to six months, or in a years’ time. Because it is so busy, you will have struggled to find time to look ahead to the future, but it is a must to also avoid burning out.
Keep things going into the future.
I’ve listed quite a few things in this blog that can help pick your staff up and boost their morale and their motivation after such a busy period. What is important moving forward is that those things become part of the fabric and culture of the practice because it will only benefit you and your team.
As well all know, there are issues around recruitment in the industry at the moment with many people choosing to leave; having a happy and motivated team is as important as it has ever been.
So, as well as taking these tips on board to remotivate your staff after a tough period, you can use them to keep your staff permanently motivated and avoid being in a tough recruitment situation like some others are.