What are they thinking?

What does your staff think of your practice? Are staffers proud of their work? Do they think you offer good services and that you provide value? Do they enjoy working for you? Do they want a career with you, or are you just a temporary paycheck? What do they see as your strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats? Will the answers from lay staff differ from those of associates?

Table 1:These six questions can tune you in to what your staff is thinking. Confidentiality is key.

The best way to know these answers is to ask for them. Some employees will be intimidated if you sit down with them face to face, but they might respond more honestly to a short questionnaire that you ask them to complete. When I do practice management consultations, I ask the owner to have every employee fill out the form shown in Table 1 and return it to me. Names are optional, and confidentiality is promised. I later review the essence of the comments with the owner.

Explain the concept

If you choose to use this approach, then take some time to explain why you are doing it. Call your staff together; hand out the sheet, and review each question. Give them examples of what you are seeking. For instance, under possible strengths you might cite practice location, physical office, staff, equipment and clients as possibilities. Try to give possibilities without leading them to list what you want to hear.

Tell your people that you will be completing the form as well, and when all have been turned in, you will review them and give every comment serious consideration. Encourage each person to turn one in. Give them one week to do so. Remind them after five days. This allows enough time for them to give the questions serious thought and also provides opportunity for reasonably fast response. Be sensitive that writing might not come easy to all of your staff, so invite them to visit with you one-on-one if they prefer.

Gauging results

So, once you have them all back, what do you do? First of all, follow through on your promise to give them all serious thought. Don't dismiss any of the responses as silly or irrelevant. Each reply came from one of your staff taking time to write down his or her opinion at your request. It then behooves you to show respect for that opinion.

After reviewing all of the comments, decide how you want to proceed. I suggest you list them all along with your written response to each comment. Two or more people might make the same comment. If so, then make a notation of how many gave that statement. Provide affirmation in your replies. For example, if the observation is made that a strength concerns attractive, functional practice vehicles, your reply might be: "Thanks for listing this. I agree that modern mobile units help us to serve clients and improve our working conditions."

Handling criticism

Of more importance is how you reply to negative comments. Suppose someone writes under weaknesses that the owner is resistant to change and only concerned about making money. How are you going to reply to that comment? Reply you must because the person who wrote the comments probably has told others, and they are all wondering how you will respond.

Begin by asking yourself if the comment is fair. Is there some truth to it? Something has prompted one of your staff to make that observation. What actions have you done that would lead someone to that conclusion? Look at yourself through the eyes of your people. Have you vetoed most new ideas? Do you frequently make comments about practice profit or lack thereof?

If after some soul searching you honestly believe the comment is not an accurate assessment of your management, then you must consider which employees are acting disgruntled or with whom you have recently clashed. Do you have a person who is deeply disgruntled and made the comment simply to be hurtful?

After this reflection, you still must respond. Simply be honest. Explain that, that particular comment caught you by surprise because you do not perceive yourself in that manner. Say you will be watching yourself in the future, and you will try to be more open to suggestions and less focused on finances. Invite the person who made the comment to approach you privately so that you can better understand his or her point of view. By taking this approach, you will let your staff know you really did read and consider all of the comments that they recorded.

The last part of your reply must be an action plan. Set some goals to use the strengths, improve the weaknesses, capitalize on opportunities and minimize the risks.

Involve your staff in this process. This does not mean you will act on every item listed. It does mean that their time in filling out the questionnaire had some impact on the future of the practice.

Decide who is going to do what and when. If a threat was listed that the number of dairy clients is shrinking, then design and implement a plan to expand and improve services to those who remain. Make it clear how your staff fits into this strategy. Let your receptionist know that the manner in which she talks to clients on the phone is important. Make sure your professional staff is motivated to spend more time and create billable hours with each farm call.

Take-home messages

There should be several benefits that come from this short questionnaire. First, you will get valuable information about how your staff sees the practice. Second, staffers will perceive that you value their opinions. This will increase their feelings of importance and self-esteem. Finally, you will get more support with the changes you decide to implement when they believe you are responding to input from them. It is all part of communication and involvement, which leads to improved performance.