Dangle a tasty carrot 5 ways to motivate your staff
By Michelle Geller-Vino

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to walk into your office every day and be greeted by a group of motivated staff eager to go that extra mile? For some chiropractors, this is a reality.

Unfortunately, this is not the norm in most chiropractic practices. According to James Linder, author of “Understanding Employee Motivation,” published in the Journal of Extension, recent statistics show:

• About 50 percent of employees only put enough effort into their work to keep their jobs;

• More than 70 percent of employees are less motivated today than when they were first hired; and

• An estimated 80 percent of employees could perform significantly better if they wanted to.

These statistics suggest that most chiropractic offices are not functioning at an optimal level.

So what can you do to motivate your employees to help them become the best they can be? Do you believe that a bonus or some other incentive might do the trick?

Wrong! Bonuses and incentive programs boost employee morale temporarily, but they do nothing to increase long-term job performance. Financial incentives may work in the beginning.

Eventually, however, employees no longer view money as a reward for a job well done. Rather, they see it as an entitlement. To avoid developing an entitlement mentality in your employees, award bonuses randomly for boosted job performance.

As the owner of a chiropractic practice, you play the two important roles: doctor and manager.

Your responsibility as a doctor is to tend to the needs of your patients. Your responsibility as a manager is to tend to the needs of your staff and your practice. That requires understanding and using motivation.

SOME IDEAS TO MOTIVATE

Here are several things you can do to provide a motivating environment:

1. Motivate yourself. Your employees aren’t going to become moved to work harder or smarter if you’re not enthusiastic about your job. Set the example.

Ask yourself what turns you on. Is it praise, recognition, success, learning, achievement, or health? Come up with a list of 10 things that motivate you and write them down.

Then, ask yourself what you can do to better motivate yourself, how your job supports your motivations, and what you can do to maintain them. Write the answers to these questions down as well.

This motivational exercise gives you the opportunity to learn some-thing about yourself. It also gives you a good perspective on how to support the internal motivations of your staff.

2. Find out what motivates your staff. How are you going to push the right buttons of your employees if you don’t know what buttons they have?

Complete a similar exercise as you did for yourself with each of your employees. Sit down with each employee and create a list of three to five things. Ask the employee to rank the list according to importance.

After each meeting, write down how you will modify your style with each employee to meet his or her needs.

Tip: One-on-one lunch meetings are ideal for these meetings. Spending “alone time” is motivating in itself.

3. Reward the behavior you want. This is called positive reinforcement. People often feel unappreciated in their jobs, which results in a loss of motivation.

When employees are doing a good job, “catch” them in the act and offer praise, recognition, and feedback. Do this not only in your weekly team meetings, but throughout the day when you see it. “Sooner is better” is the first rule in positive reinforcement.

The second rule is, “Be specific.” Simply saying “good job” is not as effective as saying, “I like the way you were able to multi-task the rush of patients and all the phone calls.” This shows your staff that you truly are paying attention to what they are doing and that you take the time to tell them so.

4. Keep them on their toes. This idea follows the same principle as random bonuses.

Although verbal recognition is a good form of motivation, it can be quickly forgotten. Written praise is a more permanent and powerful motivational tool. Send your staff thank you cards, which they can keep to remind them they are appreciated. For an even grander gesture, have a beautiful bouquet of flowers sent to the office and write a special note on the card thanking them for all their hard work.

For one of your weekly meetings, surprise your staff by hiring an omelet chef to prepare a delicious brunch for them. This will add some fun and variety to their routine. Keep in mind, though, that this should be done randomly, to avoid making it an entitlement.

5. Get your patients involved. It’s one thing if an employee wants to work hard for you; it’s even better if an employee feels motivated to work hard for your patients.

Ask some of your patients for feedback about your staff (both positive and negative) that you can share anonymously with them at a staff meeting.

Invite patients to write testimonials about your staff that you can include in your office newsletter.

You can even ask patients to vote for a “team member of the month,” who will earn a special night out for two or some extra time with family. In addition to building employee motivation, it also serves as a message to patients that you go out of your way to make your office a positive, rewarding place to work.

Each member of your team has the potential to be motivated. All you need to do is find and use each person’s natural ability. Learn to understand your employees’ personalities and work habits in order to choose the tools that are best suited for them.

Remember that employee motivation is an ongoing process. Motivating yourself, finding out what motivates your staff, rewarding positive behavior when you see it, keeping your employees on their toes, and getting your patients involved are great ways to motivate your employees.

When you strive to keep your staff motivated, your practice will be successful and everyone will be happy.

Michelle Geller-Vino is director of marketing services for The Masters Circle. She specializes in training chiropractic assistants in marketing techniques and provides both group and one-on-one training. She can be contacted by phone at 800-451-4514, ext. 147 or by e-mail at mgv@themasterscircle.com.