How to cure veterinary team members' job-related boredom

It's been said that 75 percent of jobs can be learned in three years. For some people, doing the same thing every day is fine. For others, it's boring. Some quit and leave. Others quit and stay-and in doing so, lose their mojo and enthusiasm for the job. 

One of the best ways to make work more interesting and satisfying is through job enrichment. The goal is to energize your team by focusing on their strengths, what they like doing and what they do best. That's the key to unlocking discretionary effort, job satisfaction and loyalty. Look for those times when team members are operating at peak performance, radiating energy and showing total engagement. Then to the extent possible, provide more of these high-performance opportunities in their daily routine.

The question you may find yourself asking is, "Who will do all those tasks your high performer doesn't want to do?" Ideally, someone else will like to do those or at worst, won't mind doing them. If so, the problem's solved. If not, give those tasks to low performers or part-timers, or outsource them, or hire temps to do them. Let the best people do, what they do best. It's that simple.

Additional action steps:

> If there are job responsibilities a team member would like to have, begin training him or her for those responsibilities.

> Provide opportunities for the person to attend continuing education programs and learn new clinical or business-related skills.

> Involve team members in the planning and implementation of projects to improve the practice. For example, instead of purchasing new equipment or technology on your own, have a staff meeting with those who will be using it. Get their input and recommendations. Make them part of the decision-making process. Let the team try out models from various manufacturers at convention exhibits or if possible, with in-hospital demonstrations. Listen to their feedback and come up with a purchase decision together. The team will be much more excited and accepting of the technology when they help make the decision to buy it.

Providing job enrichment to valued team members will energize them and greatly increase their morale, motivation and productivity. And with that, everyone wins. 

Veterinary Economics Editorial Advisory Board member Bob Levoy is the author of seven best-selling books including 101 Secrets of High Performance Veterinary Practice.