Evaluate Your Needs
It’s that time of year once again. You’ve prepared your kids for school, but have you taken a moment to evaluate your needs as well? Your own development is crucial if you are going to be a viable member of the team.
Does your office have an Employee Development Program? If not, it’s never too late to start one. The key steps in this program should be as follows:
1. Employee Self Assessment
The first step is for the employees to do a self-assessment of the kind of development required. The assessment will be based on the person’s job scope and performance plan for the year. Based on this, the employee can review both internal and external training programs and identify those best suited. In addition to this, opportunities to work/train in specific areas should also be included such as cross-training for the front office. The employee should also consider the future role and function that he or she aspires for. The intent is to share this future plan with the office manager/HR or employer so that they can also plan for the employee’s future aspirations. All these should be documented in a self-assessment form.
2. Document The Employee Development Plan
The office manager will meet each of the staff members, to go through the completed assessment form by the employee. This provides the manager with an opportunity to review and provide feedback on the employee’s plan.
The office manager also has the opportunity to suggest other training programs that the employee may not be aware of. This includes opportunities to work with another team member as part of skill development, since the office manager probably has a broader view of the various activities.
This exercise provides the office manager with an overview of the training costs. Each staff member will be able to identify the training programs that are already scheduled and block it off in their calendars.
Feedback should also be provided on the employee’s future plans. Knowing this helps the office manager in various ways. In the immediate future, he/she could arrange for the staff member to be assigned to some other project to gain experience and exposure on his or her desired future role.
An employee development planning form should be used to document the training and development plan details. An action plan should be included with planned dates for the training ans subsequent reviews of the plan.
3. Periodic Reviews
An employee development plan can be effective only if it is regularly reviewed to ensure that the planned actions are being done or changed as required.
Even if the plan is done with the best of intentions, the daily activities take over and unless these reviews are done, the development activities will not get the priority that they should get. The employee development plan should be reviewed quarterly or at least every four months.
It may sound like a laborious task, but doing these steps streamlines the employee development exercise. The employees also feel that the practice cares for them.
The book title “The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch’em Kick Butt” by Hal Rosenbluth and Diane McFerrin Peters describes very well the need to invest time in your staff.
Well-planned and executed employee training and development brings benefits to both the organization and the employee. This, in turn, will benefit your patients who ultimately decide the continued success of your practice.
*Our Dental Office Management Program includes a unit pertaining to just this subject including templates that you may use in your office. Take a moment and check out our other courses available for each and everyone of you.
The Warschaw Learning Institute has grown to become the leading online dental office training among today’s dental professionals, adults changing careers and high school seniors. ———————————————————————————————————————————————-
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www.WarschawLearningInstitute.com
(888) 822-0917
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