Creative employee incentive plans for your staff- by Jennifer Zarate

How can you reward your employees and is money the only thing that will work? Most people are surprised to learn that money is not the only way to effectively reward your employees. Talk with your employees and find new ways to set up an incentive plan. Learn what will work for them and help them to reach their goals. Together set reasonable goals and rewards. It can be as simple as increasing the number of patient accounts billed and rewarded by points to earn simple prizes such as movie passes. Look at regulations to determine restrictions on amounts and what can be given.

How does an employer reward an employee? How can you make the reward be appreciated? Does it always have to be money? All employers struggle with employee issues. Physician practices often face special challenges in this area. You want to find a competent staff that will make your practice run smoothly but often are forced to hire staff with less than stellar resumes. On the other hand, maybe the staff member looked great on paper but not so great when it came to actually doing the job. When you do find a staff member who meets, or possibly exceeds, expectations, how can you be sure that they will remain and be happy in their job? How can you keep them involved and wanting to come to work every day?

Most people believe that staff members are motivated by cold hard cash; this cannot be further from the truth. Each of the staff members have different motivators that make them excel. As an employer, it becomes a challenge to determine what each employee’s motivation is and how you can tap into what motivates him or her. In a small practice, this can often be done by simply asking each employee what type of reward incentive they would like besides money. For instance, if the staff made it possible to increase the number of patients without compromising the quality of care; one day you could have lunch catered in to celebrate their accomplishment. Another possibility is to host a root beer float or a popcorn break when the staff creates a better system of moving patients through the practice that increase your productivity. On the other hand, maybe the billing staff was able to work through the old accounts and decreased the payments for the month and you arrange for an ice cream social in the parking lot. There are also ways to reward the staff on an individual basis; if someone were to go above and beyond the normal call of duty to help a patient out with their medication problem you could offer a gift certificate to a local bath shop.

One easy and inexpensive way to encourage is by personal acknowledgement of their work. Every day the staff does little things; sometimes they just want someone to acknowledge those little things. Try to catch the staff doing something good every day and comment on it. If you can catch one person doing something good every day and rotate through the staff, in small practices you would have just commented on every person at least once a week.

Leaders should be willing to open the line of communications with their staff and get to know them and their needs. Sit down with the staff and ask what they would like to have as an incentive program; set the boundaries and create the goals. By allowing them to be part of the development process, it ensures their buy-in. Offer suggestions such as short and long-term goals and rewards for making their goals. On the long-term, consider having small prizes throughout the process. Maybe, the staff would like movie cards or gift certificates to nearby restaurants for reorganizing the supply closet. Another option could be a long-term goal of reorganizing all of the exam rooms. In the short-term, every time one of the exam rooms is completed have the staff draw a prize out of a grab bag. When all of the rooms are completed, you could consider a team-building afternoon of shoulder massages, maybe an afternoon off, or taking everyone out to lunch. Let the staff help identify the problem areas and then let them be a part of the process and have input into their rewards. This can help develop the team and make the place an enjoyable environment. Although, there may be some employees that are not as engaged in the process as you would like, try getting them involved by directly asking them their opinion. If they feel that their thoughts and ideas are important to you, they will be more likely to join in on the conversation and take part of the incentive program.

It is important to remember that rewards and incentive programs need to be well thought out in advance. It is also important to keep account of money spent, and it might be necessary to report as income if the dollar amount is very much. It would be necessary to check with local and national regulations for current restrictions on the amount allowed. Discussing it with the entire staff ensures that everyone understands the intention and use of the program. These types of programs strike an emotional chord with people and can become either a huge success or a nightmare. However, with careful planning and group involvement everyone understands what is expected and what can be achieved. It allows everyone to be involved and feel important. By feeling involved and appreciated, your staff is more likely to want to come to work every day and want to stay. Getting good staff involved and willing to stay is an incentive program for the employer. As a leader, why not make this a goal and part of a change process? As leaders in our field, we can make a difference with our staff and our work environment by the development of our staff and recognition of their hard work. After all, who would not want to be rewarded for their hard work? I know we do and part of our reward is working with happy, involved staffs. For us, that is incentive enough to develop a plan.