A Canadian-born doctor who'd spent years working in the
southern US returned to Ontario for personal reasons and
set up a practice in Windsor. It took him several months
to fully appreciate the ins and outs of the provincial
billing system and the challenges of running a Canadian
practice. He hired an efficient ancillary team, including
an excellent receptionist-cum-administrator and felt he
was finally settling in when she dropped a bombshell.
She'd had a better offer from a nearby clinic and, though
she enjoyed working with him, unless he matched the offer,
she'd have to leave. The doctor figured it'd be no problem,
but his accountant thought otherwise. The money just wasn't
in the budget for anything more than a token increase.
If you were in his shoes would
you just let her walk away? That would be a grave mistake.
As a doctor, your time is your scarcest resource and
letting a competent worker go would be tantamount to
shooting yourself in the foot. But don't despair if
the coffers are low. A little bit of creativity can
help keep your first-rate crew intact during a financial
pinch — at little or no cost. All you have to do
is be flexible, honest and thrifty.
FLEX
TIME APPEAL
If your practice is busiest on Mondays and Fridays it
would follow that the workload on other days tends to
be a tad lighter. Why not offer staffers the choice
of staying longer on the busy days and leaving earlier
on others? Depending on how imperative it is that they're
at the office at any given time, you could even offer
them complete autonomy in setting their schedules provided
they put in their hours and do their job. It's quite
impossible to quantify the monetary value of having
a day a week to sleep in or to knock off early to spend
time with the kids — but suffice it to say that
it can be worth a great deal.
Offering flexible work schedules
won't cost you anything and it will buy you a great
deal of employee good will — but it sure requires
trust on your part.
Of course, if you can afford it,
actually granting more time off in lieu of a raise is
an even better way to defuse any ill-will that might
come your way if a staffer doesn't get the raise he
or she was expecting.
OPEN
BOOK
Don't underestimate the intelligence of your ancillary
staff. If you just say, "I can't afford to give you
a raise," it's going to sound like a pronouncement coming
down from Mount Olympus. What you need to do is brief
your staffers on the financial big picture of the practice.
You'll find that being open with employees has a consoling
effect; in a sense when you talk candidly with staff
about money, you're offering your trust as a bonus.
They'll appreciate the straight talk and transparency.
GOOD
FOR THE GANDER
If you find yourself in a situation where you can't
offer employee raises it's utterly imperative that you
don't flash money around. This is not the time to buy
plush waiting-room chairs — even if they're tax
deductible. And it goes without saying that this is
a terrible time to shower yourself with gifts like top
of the line golf clubs and designer finery. This would
be liable to send your staff on a shopping spree themselves
— for spiffy new job interview clothes. You'll
really want to convey the point that a rising tide of
revenue floats all boats in the practice — not
just yours. If you have a particularly brilliant support
staff that you're terrified of losing, you may even
want to take a small pay cut to set an example.
BE
NICE OR THEY'LL LEAVE
Ultimately, if you want to keep your staff intact without
sweetening the compensation pot, you're the one that'll
need to sweeten up. This is the time you have to go
out of your way to thank employees for a job well done
because if they feel undervalued as well as underpaid
your practice is in for some trouble.
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PATIENTS & PRACTICE
