I hate the Gallup Organization.
They’re known for two things: getting political polls wrong and incessantly publishing “employee satisfaction surveys” that constantly quantify just how dis-satisfied everyone is with their job.
I spent 15 years of my early career as a General Manager at Patterson Dental and ran three different businesses for them over that period. Every year I’d make the trek to Minneapolis for the annual Leadership Summit where we’d all hear different presentations about the company strategy for the upcoming year. Inevitably we’d get around to the presentation from the Human Resources Department that would drop the not-so-subtle reminder that, “According to the Gallup organization’s research, a major reason employees leave their company is due to their manager – often as high as 75% of the time…”
I’d find myself thinking: “My job is hard enough. Now I have to act like I care about everyone’s feelings?!…”
Give.
Me.
A break…
Please don’t ever repeat this or let anyone know I said it, but…they were right.
Swimming Against the Tide
The statistics are what they are:
- 51% of currently employed workers say they are watching for or actively seeking a new job.
- 44% of employees say they know what is expected of them at work.
- 70% feel disconnected from the mission of the company.
- 42% of employees who voluntarily left their organization in the past year report that their manager or organization could have done something to prevent them from leaving their job.
I think you get the picture.
The bigger point is how to deal with it all – and the answer isn’t company picnics, unicorns or rainbows. It also isn’t wage increases.
Every practice owner will readily acknowledge that they’ve lost an employee (or several) to a higher wage opportunity. It happens – but not 100% of the time. The reason a departing employee says they’re leaving for more money is because they don’t want to tell the truth: there’s no compelling reason to stay. And that’s an indication of a lack of leadership.
One aspect of Gallup’s surveys that merits repeating is their characterization of the change from “the Great Resignation” post-COVID to “the Great Detachment” of today. Previously they left the workforce due to fear; now they’re staying in but are ambivalent about what they do – which is far worse.
But the Competition is…What?
We all console ourselves with the “they left for more money” statement because it helps us hide from the real reasons and makes us sleep better at night. We owe it to ourselves to confront the brutal facts as they are; not the way we want them to be. Being an effective business leader means deflecting accolades of success but owning shortcomings and failures. We can – and must – be the catalyst for the turnaround in rewarding and retaining our best talent.
All too often we focus on “what the competition is doing” and incorrectly feel like we have to play defense. We don’t. And we shouldn’t. The trust is that the competition isn’t that great – far from it, actually. It doesn’t take much to rise above the level of our competitors; little things add up to a lot. We don’t have to be great. We just have to be better than “they” are – and that’s only slightly above average in most cases.
My point here is that most of you reading this are competing with yourself more than you’re competing against some A+ company in your market. It’s time to redefine the debate…
Playing to Win
Game plans for athletic competitions are much like business plans for healthcare practices in that they have both strategies and tactics. Here are several to implement immediately.
Strategies:
- If yours is a growing business, commit to recruiting constantly – even when you don’t have an opening – because you should always plan for a “net new” headcount addition due to growth (or replacement).
- Adopt the mindset that you’re in the “talent management” business and should be constantly looking to bring on people who have greater skillsets and/or capacities than your current people do.
- Own your practice’s successes, then itemize, document and tactfully promote them in a way that reinforces to your best people that, while they may be truly great individuals, they play on a truly great team that supports them and allows them to deploy their skills at the highest level of success.
- Increase the frequency of your live, in-person communication to your entire team in an effort to convey to them the wins that everyone is creating and why the future holds greater levels of success and achievement due to their continued commitment and improving teamwork.
Tactics:
- If your healthcare practice is “far above average,” have you documented what actually makes it so? And can you accurately convey that to a potential applicant? Nobody wants to join a losing team, so figure out to create confidence in their mind that their future is better on your team than another one.
- Every one of your teammates creates “small wins” every day for your patients, for their teammates; and for the business. How often do you acknowledge it openly to everyone? Become your practice’s biggest cheerleader.
- Connect with everyone on your team on an individual basis to acknowledge their outstanding contributions, but also to tell them in no uncertain terms when you need more out of them. I recently wrote an essay on the impact of changing someone’s belief in themselves. You can do the same with your teammates. Tell them you believe in them. And tell them what your expectations are.
Here’s one final, overarching directive to communicate immediately…
Healthcare services, be it dentistry or any other, is a very personal, intimate environment. Your people are a direct extrapolation of the approach you take and the culture you create – and all of it matters at the intersection of patient care. What you do changes people’s lives for the better and often forever. Have you and your team lost sight of that? You have a pre-defined “cause” that is far greater than any widget factory could replicate. Have you reconnected your team to the outcomes they create?
In Conclusion
I said it before and I’ll say it again: the Gallup surveys are accurate.
The difference now is that I’m no longer willing to be part of their statistics. I don’t read their research anymore because that 75% figure is my target labor pool.
My questions for you is: which side of the statistic are you on?
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Discover how Perrin DesPortes, Founder of The Next Level Executive, helps healthcare leaders grow thriving, well-run practices with strategic support, leadership coaching, and operational expertise at https://thenextlevelexecutive.com/
