Be a better people manager
If you’re still not 100% convinced that you’re managing and leading your staff to maximum effect, then it’s about time you came on, ‘Managing Difficult People (and good ones too)’. This is a brilliant, positive, proactive one-day course for principals and managers run by myself and employment lawyer, Hayley Bloodworth.
Hayley’s background in litigation taught her just how damaging disputes are to organisations, and she’s built her law firm on helping clients avoid
these. Together on ‘Managing Difficult People’, we work through the seven pillars of effective people management – and although following the seven processes keeps you well within current employment law, preventing any possibility of formal disputes, Hayley also touches on the risks and dangers.
We’ve had nothing but accolades from delegates. If you can come along there are still some spaces left in Glasgow (September 22 nd
) and London (September 24 th
). See the link in the article below for for further information and please call or e mail me to book places.
I’ve heard a number of disturbing reports this year about in-practice thefts of stock or money. Some of the thefts have been quite ingenious in execution and others shockingly large in size. Sadly some of the thieves had been previously long-term trusted colleagues.
Suspicion or discovery is enormously stressful to all and the aftermath of an incident can be very damaging to trust, teams and morale.
Please make sure you have good money handling/money recording systems in place, and accurate, up-to-date management information that you review
regularly.
If you do notice irregularities, please first of all eliminate all possibilities of omission or error. In the case of theft, it is possible to flush out guilty parties – and to ensure lost monies are paid back, and there is much advice available. But you must take early action.
- Investigate any discrepancies immediately – no matter now small.
- Initially, ask for the team’s help to explain any discrepancies.
- Don’t rush to accuse until/if you can prove theft.
- Do take advice – rushing in and pointing the figure could trigger a constructive dismissal claim - one client handled this very well last year, but she had to work carefully, with employment lawyer Hayley Bloodworth to ensure she did not breach employment law and fall foul of a constructive dismissal claim.
- Your local police force can advise about measures such as invisibly marking and tracking cash and use of CCTV if required.
'Managing Difficult People ...' course details
Every American mother knows you hold your teenage child down on the rug and floss their teeth to avoid dental bills later. Why haven’t the Brits got this message?
I’ve been on a mission lately to get some enthusiasm injected into practices’ merchandise sales. Having items for sale is tangible proof that you really care about the tools patients use to remove and control damaging plaque from every surface of every tooth, every day, and they are very important to your patients. Here’s some thoughts to consider: -
- Make sure you stock every item your hygienist recommends.
- Display and price every item – better still, make up a tent card and hand write (beautifully) a little recommendation or explanation of its use. (See Waterstones or Oddbins for great examples of how staff draw in the customer to try out their own recommendations.)
- Ensure your hygienist’s recommendations filter through to reception, so reception can offer ‘the brushes Melanie was showing you.’
- Make sure the team knows the products inside out. I’m shocked at how many receptionists don’t know the difference between their eight pack tepes and the ‘supermarket six pack’ and that supermarkets don’t stock all the colours. Also how long a pack of tepes should last. Why aren’t you all offering 6 months supplies?
- Consider sending a pack of interdental brushes to patients 6 weeks after their hygiene appointment – ‘Melanie says you should need more of these by now, please have this one pack with our compliments, and please keep using them!’ (Of course the cost is built into the price of the appointment.)
- Keep your pricing competitive – and if Boots sell Sonicares at less than you can buy them at, please stop whining. Go to Boots, buy six, and sell them on at the same price! You offer a service to customers, not necessarily a discount store – and they should be back to you forever for the replacement heads (the heads, by the way, are a much bigger and more lucrative market for the manufacturers than the brushes themselves. Enough said!)
- Please don’t ever tell patients that items are better/cheaper/more plentiful/available in pink in another outlet. We all know that it’s hard enough to change patients’ habits without asking them to wait another day or so before they can buy the little gadget Melanie recommended. Even if Superdrug stocks Brauns for £10 less – your patient will get started on the right skills sooner, if he or she buys at your desk!
- Give merchandise sales to the team as a little project to manage. Ask them to run the ‘shop’ as a business, and give them half the profits, or all the additional profits generated above current levels (after tax of course). That usually stimulates some movement in stock, and encourages responsibility in buying/selling!
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