Finally… what you have been waiting for. My ultimate secret to creating amazing and immediate success with all new incoming team members.
Let’s back up to the recruiting process. Now, often times we take care of recruiting for our clients, so we are seeing more new hires than any one doctor could see in an entire career.
I say that to tell you that no matter how many times we have a great candidate, we can be certain there is a chance for sabotage once the new team members get into the practice. Not always on purpose but it is just what happens because there isn’t a real system to getting them up to speed and introduce to the culture.
Here are a few tips…
Make sure every team member gets to meet the new person. Talk with them and learn about each other. Let them ask questions so they can get a new perspective from each team member.
You definitely want to make sure you never hire anyone who hasn’t worked at least a day (and more if possible), in your practice so you can see that they are actually capable of doing whatever it is that they promise they can do. This also lets the team get a feel of how they are under pressure and through the heat of the day.
Once you have selected a qualified team member to add (no matter if it was a replacement or an addition), you must follow my secret strategy that creates the best team members – period.
That is the strategy of the shadow experience.
This is where you let the new team member spend a day with each team member. Here, they will be watching, observing, learning about what each team member does.
This build empathy and it helps to make sure the new person has an understanding of what everyone else goes through. At the same time, they are learning about how their decisions will affect other team members.
I recommend, for an ideal situation, one day per team member and shadow every position (or, if possible, every team member). It will be the greatest, most productive and constructive experience you could ever give this person.
And if you really want to step it up, you let them follow the doctor for a day, everywhere they go, because this is the best and most accelerated training method you could ever provide. This is a real training from the perspective of every team member and it will build more loyalty and cohesiveness between the team members. In the end, the new person will know more than you could ever train them in hypothetical circumstances.
Finally, you then have to move into their positional training tied to their daily responsibilities. This must be done by an outline of priorities that you have documented so they can be held accountable to them.
I know what you’re thinking, but I hate the excuse that there is no time to train. As if in any other business you would ever let a person get by doing a job they are undertrained for. Make it a priority – do whatever it takes for them to be an effective team member.
Now, you anchor all of this with routine team member reviews and assessments. More on that next week.
