This Is How To Improve The Productivity Of Your Veterinary Practice

In this article, we discuss some of the ways in which you can improve the productivity of your veterinary practice. 

1. Identify Your Team’s Motivators 

Employee motivation is intrinsically linked to productivity. 

Not only do motivated team members improve the profitability of a business overall (by a staggering 21%), but they also have a much higher retention rate than less motivated ones¹. 

However, according to a 2018 Gallup poll, only 2 in 10 employees believe that their workplaces motivate them enough to do outstanding work².

So how can you effectively boost team morale?

Involving the team in executive decision-making, embedding a strong vision into the workplace, and creating intrinsic/extrinsic rewards are all ways to up productivity. 

2. Invest In Proper Training

If you want a productive team, you’re going to have to invest in their training and development. Highly skilled veterinary teams know what they are doing in the workplace. And so tend not to waste time muddling over simple things, and they make fewer mistakes as a result of their superior training.

3. Identify Communication Gaps 

Any successful manager, director, or practice owner knows that communication is key if they want a smooth-running business.

This is why plugging communication gaps in practice is so important. Misunderstandings over work responsibilities, workload, and customer care can all waste a lot of valuable time, creating a particularly unproductive space.

Heavy reliance on email alone as a communications tool is to be avoided. Instead, think about what information needs to be shared with which people.

Then consider the best communication tool for the job. In small teams, verbal communication backed by other tools is likely to remain very important. Scheduling regular, effective meetings is a hallmark of practically every well-run practice.

4. Refine Your Appointment Scheduling Process

Poor appointment scheduling can be the enemy number one when it comes to practice productivity.

Overbooking procedures can perpetually put veterinary clinics at the risk of disruption and overwhelm when inevitably an emergency shows up. Teams are then left ‘chasing the day’, running behind schedule, irritating clients, and irking team members who have to work overtime or miss breaks to make up.

Ways to improve scheduling include creating proper booking protocols, investing in scheduling appointment software, and setting up reminders to prevent clients missing or turning up late to appointments. But also foresight in how much work is pre-booked into each day.

5. Stop Micromanaging! 

Micromanaging is as unproductive as it is demoralizing.

Many leaders really struggle with this aspect of management, spending a lot of time doing the work of others for them (instead of trusting their people to do the jobs they are paid to do).

Aside from being annoying to the staff, it creates another problem as the leader’s time is swamped and there is little time for the really important leadership tasks like vision creation, culture farming, and strategic planning (you can read more about this in our report here). 

Instead of wasting time by nitpicking, take a step back and look at the big picture. 

You need to manage your expectations and set clear (but realistic) goals for your team. If you want a specific outcome, be clear in your instructions, and trust that you have given your team enough guidance to reach the ‘right’ outcome without your oversight.

In time, they’ll get better at understanding your standards, and achieve them without coddling. 

The Bottom Line

In this article, we’ve covered some of the key ways you can improve productivity in your veterinary practice. 

Once you have implemented some of these strategies, you will be able to work with confidence knowing that your team is working to their full potential.

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References

1-‘11 Need to Know Employee Motivation and Engagement Statistics.’ 11 Mar. 2020, https://edume.com/blog/employee-motivation-statistics. Accessed 30 Sept. 2021.

2-‘Why Leaders Need To Embrace Employee Motivation – Forbes.’ 20 Jan. 2018, https://www.forbes.com/sites/christinecomaford/2018/01/20/why-leaders-need-to-embrace-employee-motivation/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2021.