30 Ways to Avoid Resignations and Engage Your Team

Has ‘The Great Resignation’ affected your practice? If so, you’re not alone.

While patient demand rebounded from the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic, practices across the country have faced additional challenges as employees resigned or failed to return to work.

In addition, some of your team members may be looking for greener pastures. According to a recent Gallup analysis, nearly half of all US workers are actively looking for another job.

Aside from burnout, the most common reasons for leaving include a lack of appreciation, feeling connected to co-workers, advancement/training opportunities, and/or flexibility.

With this in mind, Alphaeon Credit has compiled a list of low-cost ideas successfully implemented by practices across the country to motivate, encourage, and keep your team happy and productive!

30 WAYS TO ENGAGE YOUR TEAM

Download as a PDF

Show Appreciation

1. Send flowers to the office on a new employee's first day of work and/or on employees' work anniversaries.
2. Handwrite thank-you notes to new employees on their one-month anniversary and/or current employees annually.
3. If your employees are on LinkedIn, endorse them or write a recommendation.
4. On social media (LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok), celebrate by announcing when new employees have joined your team and/or celebrate current employees’ anniversaries and/or birthdays. Social media automation tools, like Buffer or Later can make this easier.
5. Always take time to greet your team members during the day no matter how hectic.
6. Ask doctor(s) to attend team meetings to build more meaningful connections with the employees.
7. Share patient testimonials during team meetings and post where employees can read them such as the break/lunchroom.
8. Ask patients to write a review if a team member went “above and beyond”. To encourage participation, you can incentivize patients by holding a $100 raffle for those who participate. Once reviews are gathered, you can share them during team meetings and provide some type of small reward or token to acknowledge the praised employee(s).
9. Ask employees to vote for employee of the week or month and reward the winner with a certificate and a gift.
10. Pick up coffee and bagels for everyone occasionally on your way into the office.
11. Provide quarterly perfect attendance awards with the prize of a 1/2 day off.
12. Discuss and celebrate small milestones such as achieving weekly or monthly practice goals. Share your practice's monthly or quarterly goals with your team and if achieved, schedule an afternoon or day off each quarter (outside of their paid time off).
13. After a year of employment, let team members choose a procedure, treatment, or service for free. Not only will these individuals be better equipped to speak about their experience with prospective patients, you can also have them review your process, from call to consult as a typical patient, to identify areas of improvement within your practice.

Create Community

14. Have a “Friday Fun Day” with a trip to Top Golf, bowling, an escape room, karaoke, laser tag, arcade, or paintball.
15. Host a “Because You Make Our Patients Feel Great Day” at a local spa with massages or treatments for your team.
16. Treat the team to an afternoon at a sporting event like a baseball game - bonus points if you can make it a surprise and/or provide practice branded baseball caps.
17. Get out of the office and into nature by taking your team to a beach, a lake, canoeing/kayaking, a cruise, horseback riding, skating, or even out on a hike.
18. Celebrate holidays rarely celebrated like "Say Something Nice Day" or "Working Parents Day". See a list of more holidays here.
19. Host a monthly team lunch outside of the practice.
20. On a slow afternoon, bring in ice cream treats for your team or hire an ice cream truck to come to your location.
21. Host a team dinner at a restaurant (or your home) and toast each employee individually and share why you appreciate them.
22. Host a holiday party for your team and their significant others so you can get to know them outside of the practice.
23. Celebrate birthdays by providing lunch for the team with the birthday employee selecting the restaurant.
24. Celebrate personal milestones such as engagements, weddings, and any new additions to your employees' families (including those with fur).

Provide Advancement/Training Opportunities

25. Provide timely and daily feedback on performance, such as "Great job converting that patient today!"
26. Recognize improvement, not just performance.
27. Continually provide educational opportunities, such as learning more about a particular procedure or treatment, as it helps those who aren’t as involved such as front desk or back office employees feel included. Plus, they can speak to patients with greater authority. Bonus points if you can make this fun by turning it into a game like Jeopardy.
28. Offer cross training opportunities internally and externally by allowing them to participate within the industry such as at tradeshows or with groups/forums.
29. When introducing a new employee to a current employee, mention something great he or she does on the job.

Be Flexible

30. Be as flexible as possible with work arrangements to avoid burnout and because it is always easier to retain an employee than recruit a new one.

Even with employee recognition and work/life balance accommodations in place, employers must realize that many team members will not stay forever. And not every resignation is a bad one, especially if you recognize that employees need to move upwards and onwards in their careers (and occasionally that means a new place of work).

Next month, we'll look at ways that Alphaeon Credit can automate and simplify your patient financing process, reducing your team’s workload and making their days a little easier.