Strategies for Motivating Your Staff

Motivating and engaging your staff can seem like a daunting task, especially when you do not have a close relationship with them. As you are already aware, your staff represent your practice. Therefore, if, for example, the individual at your front desk answers the phone in a negative tone, that leaves a negative impression with the patient on the other end. Likewise, if a patient encounters a rude staff member at any time during their visit, it can also leave a bad taste in their mouth.

Team members may behave poorly because of inadequate training or, relatedly, insufficient staff engagement. Treat your staff the way you want them to treat patients. It behooves the doctor and office manager to have a clear idea of the desirable characteristics their ideal staff members should possess, get to know them as individuals, and make sure their staff have proper training before allowing them to work independently. This may only seem possible in an ideal world (because honestly, who has the time to check all those boxes?) but the effort is worthwhile. Think of it this way: It is more costly in the long term when those unhappy patients choose not to return to your practice. This article provides more food for thought on the topic.

REASONS TO MOTIVATE AND ENGAGE STAFF MEMBERS

Properly motivating and engaging your staff can help your practice in many ways. For example, it can improve your team's productivity, improve practice performance and chair time with patients, and reduce staff turnover. Also, the more time a patient spends complaining in your chair about a disgruntled staff member, the longer you are kept from seeing your other patients in a timely manner.

THEORIES ON MOTIVATION

Several theories have been postulated to improve employee motivation and engagement: Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, Achievement Orientation, Goal Setting, Operant Approach, and Empowerment. It’s important to note that Generations Y (ie, Millennials) and Z are looking for growth and development opportunities, good work-life balance, good work culture, and a good salary.^1,2 Finding out what your team members need, showing them that they matter, and offering them flexibility are important ways to increase staff engagement.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

This theory focuses attention on team members and their inclination to change their behavior for the better once their needs are satisfied. According to Maslow, the hierarchy of needs can be described using a pyramid with a bottom-up approach, starting with physiological needs, then moving upward to security needs, belonginess needs, esteem needs, and, finally, self-actualization. Essentially, Maslow’s theory suggests that leaders cannot expect to motivate their staff to expend effort at a higher level if their lower-level needs have not been met yet.³ This theory can be used by leaders to learn more about the personality and basic needs of their staff so they will have a better understanding of what it will take to motivate them.

Achievement Orientation 

Achievement orientation implies that some people are inherently more motivated than others. Individuals with a strong interest in accomplishing a task exert the necessary energy to get it done. Their ability to do so is partly because they are motivated to achieve success, which is known as achievement orientation.^4,5 These individuals enjoy tasks that provide rapid feedback and are moderately difficult, leading them to feel a strong sense of accomplishment after solving work problems or job tasks.³ Leaders should look for this trait when adding new members to their team because they will prove more likely to expend the necessary effort to accomplish goals.

Goal Setting

Goal setting involves the leader setting clear performance targets and helping their staff create plans to attain the goals.³ Goals have been shown to focus attention, mobilize effort, assist individuals in developing strategies for achievement, and encourage them to continue expending the required effort to accomplish the goals.^6-9 When goals are specific and difficult, staff members have been shown to exert higher performance effort.³ Research indicates that allowing your staff to participate in goal setting increases their commitment.³ To get the greatest level of effort, research states that feedback should also be provided.³

Operant Approach

Operant approach is an effective and popular way to modify staff behavior through rewards and punishments. In essence, rewards are offered to increase the likelihood of a specific behavior, and punishments are administered to decrease a specific behavior. When implemented appropriately, research states that rewarding staff members is an effective way to increase motivation and performance.^10-18 Incentive pay targeted at specific follower behaviors is considered the most effective way to motivate, followed by social recognition and performance feedback.¹³ (Operant Approach for Improving Motivation and Performance shows a list of ways to implement rewards and punishments.)

Empowerment

Empowerment involves delegating leadership and decision making to the lowest level staff possible.³ Oftentimes, your staff will have the most information because they are the closest to the problem; thus, they are in an ideal situation to make the best decisions.³ However, empowerment won’t work unless the staff is equipped with the resources, knowledge, and skills necessary to make good decisions.³ If you want to effectively empower your staff, make sure you determine what they can do, then enhance those capabilities and give them appropriate increases in authority and autonomy.³

KNOW AND APPRECIATE YOUR TEAM

As a leader, take the time to learn the likes, dislikes, interests, and hobbies of your staff. Learn what they are good at, then provide inspirational communication, encourage teamwork, and have them participate in goal setting—especially if it will help your patients or practice.¹⁹ To stay abreast of what is going on with your staff and your practice, consider conducting monthly staff meetings. Allow your staff to inform you of what they have noticed as they go about their day-to-day routines. Remember, you don’t have time to monitor every intricate detail of the practice because you’re too busy examining patients, so rely on your employees for help filling in these gaps.

Encouraging your staff to report their observations is also a good way to build trust. Effective leaders tend to manage by “walking around,” or going to the front-line staff members to learn what really happens on the ground from the ones “in the trenches.”²⁰

In addition, allow your staff members to offer their suggestions for changes or improvements to the practice. Take this feedback seriously, and demonstrate deliberate effort to implement their ideas in the office where appropriate. In turn, your staff will see that their ideas can make a difference, and they will be more likely to have a vested interest in the continuous improvement of the practice. By contrast, staff members may become disengaged when they feel their voices are not heard.²¹

APPLYING THE THEORIES IN PRACTICE

Showing your employees that they (and their ideas) matter will significantly improve employee engagement and, subsequently, increase employee productivity and organizational performance. Your employees are one of your most valuable assets, and their contributions are invaluable to the success of your practice. Get to know them and learn about their interests, hobbies, skills, likes, etc, because you never know how such information may be beneficial to you, your practice, and your patients.