I was driving home from a clinic earlier this week and heard on the radio that unemployment had reached an all-time low of about 3.7% nationally. The AVMA has confirmed that it’s even lower in veterinary medicine at around 1.6%. This means that most people who want to be employed, are. To most of us who own or manage practices, this means that it’s increasingly more difficult to find good team members. Couple that with our industry’s turnover rate of nearly 30% across all positions[3], and we’ve got a problem our industry’s mantra of “hiring fast and firing slow” only exasperates.
The value of getting team buy-in
I’ve blogged in the past about the value of team buy-in. I’ve witnessed first-hand, in both my own hospitals and those of clients, the positive impact a “bought-in” team has on medicine, culture, client experience and profitability.
When themes like “empowerment” and “engagement” became the stuff of industry publications and conferences, I applied them in my practices and sure enough, I noticed a positive difference. In hospitals where team members never had a voice, where they didn’t feel empowered and engaged, taking that first step was a monumental leap toward gaining team buy-in. Once we had that buy-in, it was up to us as owners and managers to funnel it into productivity, better patient care and reduced turnover.
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