Prioritizing employee appreciation boosts morale and also reduces turnover—saving your organization the time and cost of having to recruit staff.
Prioritizing employee appreciation boosts morale and also reduces turnover—saving your organization the time and cost of having to recruit staff. Practices has changed dramatically. Gone are the days of writing a job description defining roles and responsibilities, describing desired qualifications of education, training and experience and listing the starting salary and benefits. Boring. No hook. And current potential employees generally consider all of that information as secondary.
What the individuals who are looking for a job in a medical office want to know is:
- What will my life be like if I work here?
- How much will I have to work each week?
- Will I have some flexibility in my work schedule?
- What is the work culture like?
- Who (or what types of people) will I be working with?
- What are the opportunities for learning and growing?
- What difference will we be making in people’s lives?
The world of work has changed
“Working” is different than it was five years ago, and what work was like 10 years ago is viewed as ancient history by current applicants. If your perspective on the process of having to recruit staff, especially if your process hasn’t changed, you are in for a big surprise.
Let’s start this exploration by delineating a number of potential obstacles to successful recruiting in today’s world of work.
Obstacle 1.
Having an inflexible approach to defining the position.
Yes. You are the employer, and you can define the position as you see fit. However, that approach will result in a frustrating experience either because you will not find anyone willing to take the position as you have structured it, or you will experience numerous “false starts,” with new hires leaving after a short period of employment. (Note: These outcomes are often associated with the “This is the way we’ve always done it” perspective.)
Obstacle 2.
Not considering the changing nature of the workforce.
The context of those looking for employment is not the same as in the past, and the resulting expectations of applicants have changed significantly. (This is true whether you are a Millennial, Gen X or Boomer.) The most obvious factors are the rise of remote and hybrid work, what employees want from work and the rise of advanced technology in all areas of work.
Obstacle 3.
Not understanding how the work of work has changed.
Someone who wants to work full-time often does not want to work “full-time” as defined in the past. They may want to work four days a week or six hours per day for five days (30 hours/week). Those not involved in direct service to clients (for example, accounting or filing insurance) may want to work remotely or at least with a hybrid schedule. For some roles, a team member could be an outsourced service provider from another state or country. And you need to remember, your competition for hiring is no longer just other chiropractic (or medical) practices, but your applicants may be considering working for Amazon.com, Uber or other positions where they make the same (or greater) wages plus have the flexibility and lifestyle they desire.
Obstacle 4.
Having unrealistic expectations when recruiting staff.
Due to the hard work they have put in to complete their chiropractic training and then develop their practice, DCs tend to have high goals and expectations for their career (and themselves). They can bring these expectations to the way they want their practice to run (and probably based on expectations developed in the past). This can lead to thinking about what the ideal candidate would look like or basing their expectations on “what we’ve done before.” Over time, they may soften to “this is what we’d like or prefer.” With a period of unsuccessful hires, it can decline to “this is what we need” and even to thinking about “what do we need to survive short-term.” If you haven’t experienced this reduction of expectations yet, don’t get overconfident.
What team members want
Potential employees want to earn enough money to support their current (or near future) lifestyle. However, the main characteristic most want is flexibility. Flexibility of their work schedule (and time off). Flexibility in where they work. Flexibility in their responsibilities over time; they want to learn and grow (not do exactly the same thing for the next two years). Employees also want a sense of purpose; how does what we do impact others and the world? Those who work for you want to be known as people and valued for characteristics beyond what they accomplish at work. They also want (and need) a sense of connection with those with whom they work.
How to overcome hiring obstacles
Develop a creative, flexible approach to defining the position, the roles and responsibilities and the accompanying benefits for the job (think beyond the financial realm). Clearly, considering different types of scheduling flexibility is a key factor for many applicants. Also, becoming the type of workplace where people want to work is another.
Retention is the most successful form of recruitment
Keeping the team members you already have is almost always far easier and provides better results than the process of having to recruit staff. Consider the lost effectiveness between when a team member resigns to when they actually leave plus any time the position is not filled. Then add lost productivity while training a new team member and the disruption it causes with your workload and interactions with other staff. Don’t forget to consider the impact on relationships (with clients, other staff, insurers) created by the transition to a new employee.
Research has shown (repeatedly over the past two decades) that the vast majority of employees don’t leave to earn more money elsewhere. During the Great Resignation of 2022-2023, employees who quit their jobs cited a lack of appreciation as the main reason they were leaving (three times more frequently than financial benefits). Earlier research found 79% of employees who quit cited not being appreciated as a key factor to their decision to leave.
The logical deduction? Make sure your employees feel valued and appreciated. This will go a long way in avoiding the hassles of having to recruit staff members, but be aware of the following three facts:
- Not everyone feels appreciated in the same ways.
- More than 50% of employees cite being appreciated in other ways than words as their preference.
- Younger generational employees want to be appreciated by their colleagues as much as by their supervisor.
Final thoughts
Don’t carry the weight of responsibility entirely on your shoulders; teach your team how to show authentic appreciation to one another. Add this to developing a flexible approach to defining the position you are hiring for, and you’ll recruit staff successfully. Paul White, PHD, is a psychologist, speaker and leadership expert who “makes work relationships work.” He has been interviewed by the New York Times, BBC News and other international publications. White is the coauthor of the best-selling book, “The Five Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace,” which has sold more than 575,000 copies with Gary Chapman, author of “The Five Love Languages.” For more information, contact paul@drpaulwhite.com or visit appreciationatwork.com.
