Many physicians search for years to find the magic key to a successful and profitable practice. Often, though, the secret resource they are looking for lies right within their grasp and within their practice. The number-one resource business owners have today is their employees, the people whom they have chosen to represent their corporation, their mission and their desired culture.

All too often in the ophthalmic industry, we see business owners who fail for reasons such as:

• An unwillingness to realize the worth of experience and successes in past performance.

• A propensity to sacrifice quality people who demand a higher rate of pay in turn for a less-than-optimal performer who needs training and will work for a lesser salary.

• A mindset that does not allow room for seeing the value of recognition and rewards for exceptional performance.

• Promoting from within based principally on tenure. A common misconception is that promoting from within saves money by offering a cheaper salary for the new position. This most often creates a position that fills the skill set of the present employee but most often does not fit the needs of the practice.

• Avoiding conflict and confrontation by being inconsistent with employee reviews and raises. Such avoidance can create a resentful environment, where strong employees pick up the slack.

In this article, we're going to offer some suggestions—with varying degrees of expense—on how you can change the culture within your practice to create a world-class environment in which people will want to come to work every day.

Hitting Home

It would be utopia if we could get every business owner to understand both the value of promoting a reward-based program, and the loss of money from employee turnover. When employees leaves the practice, they take the skills acquired and knowledge gained, which was provided to these employees at great time and cost. What's most difficult for practices to face is that the one loss is compounded by the additional expense of replacing the employee. Studies show that replacing an employee can cost more than three times the employee's annual salary. For any practice, a lost employee is lost money. Among other costly factors are absenteeism and general internal dissension that can drain profitability just as effectively.

The Road to Success

Understanding your employees is the key to your success. Your challenge is to see that your employees are your customers who ensure that your internal systems run seamlessly. Having confidence in your employees and committing to facilitate a positive working environment will support your business growth. By embracing employee recognition, employees will be more motivated to do a better job for you.

According to research by James Oakley, Purdue University assistant professor of marketing, a direct link exists between employee satisfaction and motivation and company's profits. After studying 100 employees of U.S. companies and their corporate culture, Mr. Oakley concluded that engaged employees are inspired to provide good service and answer customers' questions, which he says "gives the customer a voice inside the company." With that voice, the customer drives profits by being a repeat customer and referring new customers by word-of-mouth.¹

Employees indicated they favor recognition from managers and supervisors by a margin of almost two to one over recognition from other sources. And nearly seven out of 10 employees say non-monetary forms of recognition provide the best motivation.

Committed employees develop loyalty to the organization, adjusting their performance to higher standards of accomplishment.²

Invest the Effort First

The solutions need not be elaborate to be successful. The cost of employee rewards and recognition is nominal, the results, abundant. To appreciate an employee for loyalty and performance requires only a simple thank you. That is free. To reward employees for work beyond expectations may slightly dent the pockets of the employer, but the benefits are priceless. Employee recognition and performance rewards drive individuals to work harder and smarter. Every employee embraces recognition regardless of their position. Your staff is the key to your success.

Special Needs

The levels of positions that are held within a practice require varied degrees of experience and education. It is clear there are people working in your practice whose life goals do not include your office as their ultimate career path. To take that one step further, not everyone who works in your practice is internally motivated or inclined to advance in their career. With that in mind, understand and accept that some of the necessary positions within your organization do not allow for advancement. How do you create a challenging and rewarding work environment for each member of your team? How do you create an organization that shows it values its employees and its customers? Positive change starts with the top-down theory; the direction must come from you.

Overcoming Your Resistance

The goal is to create an environment in which employees and patients have fun, and work performance still exceeds expectations. The practices that embrace this culture have seen not just world-class service, resulting in overall increase of patient referrals and overall practice profitability, but also decreased turnover and the elimination of workplace drama. The challenge comes with eliminating the mindset of ruling by an iron fist, the "work because I pay you" mentality. Successful practices approach leadership in a different way. 

Ms. Lapointe is a marketing and practice development specialist with IntraLase Corporation. Contact her at clapointe@intralase.com. Ms. Watson is a clinical applications specialist with Alcon Laboratories. Contact her at Jan.Watson@alconlabs.com.

1. Managing Training & Development, Jan 2005, Vol. 5 Issue 1 p8, 2p
2. Business Press, 11/13/98, Vol. 11 Issue 27, p41, 2p