FTC Announces Expanded Business Education Campaign on 'Red Flags' Rule
“To assist small businesses and other entities, the Federal Trade Commission staff will redouble its efforts to educate them about compliance with the "Red Flags" Rule and ease compliance by providing additional resources and guidance to clarify whether businesses are covered by the Rule and what they must do to comply. To give creditors and financial institutions more time to review this guidance and develop and implement written Identity Theft Prevention Programs, the FTC will further delay enforcement of the Rule until November 1, 2009.”
For more details: http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/07/redflag.shtm
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
Strategic and Critical Thinking- Being Proactive Instead of Reactive
In the medical field, we are all used to the fight or flight response to problems. Often we have seen people that rush to get something done without thinking it through or only deal with problems when they absolutely have to for example instead of equipment maintenance they wait until it is broke before they do anything for it. This would be like the person who never checks the oil in the car or changes it until it completely runs out and burns out the engine, Instead of burning your engine how about handling things before they become critical.
There are many definitions and ways to define strategic planning. One of the best ways to define it is as the person that looks at the entire problem and then based upon all angles comes up with a plan. Much like a chess player who knows what moves he or she will make several moves ahead in the game, we must plan ahead. To do strategic planning first look at the problem, ask what is the problem, what can be done, what will it take to accomplish the goals, what are the resources such as time and money? Is this really needed? What impact is this going to make on the practice or patients?
Try beginning with the end in mind. That is determining what the final outcome should be and then identify the steps that are needed to get there. This will help as you systematically work through the problems and reach the solution.
Keeping a positive outlook will help as you define the answers to your problems. Things can always be worse and occasionally are, but things only last for a time. There is a time to everything and things change. There is an ancient analogy of how oaks are strong but break in the wind, a willow if bendable and adapts to the environment when the wind blows. Look for ways to adapt and change. Healthcare is always changing, but many things stay the same. You still have providers and patients with needs. Adapt, but keep your professional roots firmly in the ground.
There are many definitions and ways to define strategic planning. One of the best ways to define it is as the person that looks at the entire problem and then based upon all angles comes up with a plan. Much like a chess player who knows what moves he or she will make several moves ahead in the game, we must plan ahead. To do strategic planning first look at the problem, ask what is the problem, what can be done, what will it take to accomplish the goals, what are the resources such as time and money? Is this really needed? What impact is this going to make on the practice or patients?
Try beginning with the end in mind. That is determining what the final outcome should be and then identify the steps that are needed to get there. This will help as you systematically work through the problems and reach the solution.
Keeping a positive outlook will help as you define the answers to your problems. Things can always be worse and occasionally are, but things only last for a time. There is a time to everything and things change. There is an ancient analogy of how oaks are strong but break in the wind, a willow if bendable and adapts to the environment when the wind blows. Look for ways to adapt and change. Healthcare is always changing, but many things stay the same. You still have providers and patients with needs. Adapt, but keep your professional roots firmly in the ground.
Monday, July 13, 2009
Got a practice question?
For the past few months we have been posting on topics that we feel are important or ideas that might be helpful to a medical practice. We would love to hear your ideas for a post. Let us know your questions regarding practice management, staff training, team building or whatever. If we cannot answer the question, we will try to find someone that can. Just twitter us, send a comment on this blog, or e-mail jz@thepmsa.org
We would love to hear from you!
We would love to hear from you!
Dealing with Argumentative Patients
Sooner or later in every medical practice you will have an unruly patient. Most of the time it is verbal abuse, but can escalate into physical. It is best to defuse a situation before it gets to the point of physical violence. These can often be done by actively listening and repeating back to the patient what they feel is the problem. For example you notice that your normally calm receptionist and patient’s voices keep getting louder and louder. It is time to step in and ask the patient what the problems is, your staff and you do not deserve to be yelled at or verbally abused.
When the patient tells you why they are shouting, paraphrase it back to them for example “Let me see if I understand you Mr. Smith, you feel that you should not pay a co-pay because the physician only saw you for ten minutes and you waited an hour to be seen. You feel that we should have paid you for your wasted time in our waiting room, is that correct?” This gives the patient a chance to see that you are listening and correct you if there is a misunderstanding of his or her need. Then explain to the patient what your policy is regarding the issue. They still may be angry, but they feel that someone is listening to what they have to say. Let them know that if someone is to blame that you will look into the issue and take the appropriate action. The biggest thing is to let them know you care and that you are listening to them. You may not be able to change the problem, but they need to know that you would be willing to try if possible. By listening and empathizing with the patient this allows them to let go of their anger.
It is important to make the staff understand that the patient and their family are the customers. This is a service industry and without patients we would not be in business and I am betting your staff likes getting a paycheck. The staff needs to also understand that often the reason the patient is in the office is they are sick, in pain, and often scared of what is wrong.
Patients that have their problems and concerns are less likely to seek legal action against someone. It is hard to sue someone when they have been trying and were nice to you. Studies have shown that a good bedside manner in a totally incompetent physician is less likely to bring legal action than a rude vastly talented one.
Some patients that are vocal and pushy often are trying to get their financial obligations reduced or are looking for pharmaceutical relief from their problems. Now there will always be a very small percentage that no matter what you do still become threatening. Train your staff to have a plan of action in the event of a violent patient. Have a plan of whom and how they will contact management and the authorities. For example if a patient starts to become unruly, they immediately contact the manager. The manager can then designate a person to contact the authorities if need be. Plan and rehearse this just as you would a fire or tornado drill.
When the patient tells you why they are shouting, paraphrase it back to them for example “Let me see if I understand you Mr. Smith, you feel that you should not pay a co-pay because the physician only saw you for ten minutes and you waited an hour to be seen. You feel that we should have paid you for your wasted time in our waiting room, is that correct?” This gives the patient a chance to see that you are listening and correct you if there is a misunderstanding of his or her need. Then explain to the patient what your policy is regarding the issue. They still may be angry, but they feel that someone is listening to what they have to say. Let them know that if someone is to blame that you will look into the issue and take the appropriate action. The biggest thing is to let them know you care and that you are listening to them. You may not be able to change the problem, but they need to know that you would be willing to try if possible. By listening and empathizing with the patient this allows them to let go of their anger.
It is important to make the staff understand that the patient and their family are the customers. This is a service industry and without patients we would not be in business and I am betting your staff likes getting a paycheck. The staff needs to also understand that often the reason the patient is in the office is they are sick, in pain, and often scared of what is wrong.
Patients that have their problems and concerns are less likely to seek legal action against someone. It is hard to sue someone when they have been trying and were nice to you. Studies have shown that a good bedside manner in a totally incompetent physician is less likely to bring legal action than a rude vastly talented one.
Some patients that are vocal and pushy often are trying to get their financial obligations reduced or are looking for pharmaceutical relief from their problems. Now there will always be a very small percentage that no matter what you do still become threatening. Train your staff to have a plan of action in the event of a violent patient. Have a plan of whom and how they will contact management and the authorities. For example if a patient starts to become unruly, they immediately contact the manager. The manager can then designate a person to contact the authorities if need be. Plan and rehearse this just as you would a fire or tornado drill.
Monday, July 6, 2009
What happens when the Dr. is left waiting?
Is your provider often waiting on others? Do they have a lot of down time between patients? This is often lost revenue when the physician is waiting on staff or patients. What can be done? Training staff to do as much as possible before the visit is one of the best ways to avoid this problem. Staff should make all of their follow-up calls and do paperwork when the physicians are not in the office or at a scheduled time. This will reduce the chance that staff is caught up handling a problem for one patient while an entire waiting room sits. It is also good to have staff cross-trained to help out when one is busy and another has time on his or her hands. After a bad day, sit down with the staff and discuss what happened, ask what they think could be done different. Don’t be surprised if they have some suggestions for you as well. Consider having the staff keep track of how long it takes them do each task, then review the data and see how duties can be shifted. If might be necessary to move a job from one person to another one, move it to a different time, or stop the activity all together.
If the physician is scheduled to come from the hospital to the office, let staff know of when arriving and of any delays. Staff should relay this information to the patients. Nothing is more frustrating to a patient that has been waiting for a long time, only to learn that the doctor is not even in yet. If there is going to be a long delay allow the patient the option of leaving and coming back or rescheduling to a different day. Make sure staff asks the patient if they feel it is alright to wait. Patients will usually let you know if they need the concern addressed right away or if they want to wait, but let them help to make that decision.
Another problem can be patients being a no-show or late, this can often be avoided by having staff call and remind patients of their appointments the day before. When staff calls they can also remind patients to bring list of medications, insurance cards, co-pays, and any other information that might be needed.
Take a look at the patient schedule, maybe it needs to be adjusted. Most physicians’ average around four visits per hour, look if there are in any gaps in the schedule. If a gap does occur could dictation or something else that needs the physician attention be done? To save time dictation can often be done while with the patient, there are of course exceptions to this.
When it comes to patient education, delegate as much of this to staff as possible. Be sure that the handouts are up to date and accurate. Years ago when I surveyed patients I discovered that much of the information that they received about their condition came from the handouts in the waiting room. Many patients do not feel comfortable asking a lot of questions and feel that if the information was obtained at the physician office, it must be accurate. For that reason it is important to check the material on a regular basis and remove old data. I would also recommend a disclaimer on the rack that just because some information provided is from a pharmaceutical company does not mean that that medication is right for every person with that condition and that the physician will determine what drug is right for you.
As a manager trying to keep all of the physicians on schedule nothing is probably more frustrating than overhearing a patient ask the physician to see a family member while they are there or bring in a really long list of many problems. Over the years I have seen many different ways of handling this problem. One of the best is to have a sign out front letting the patients know that only 1 person will be seen at a time. Let the patients know that you can only see those patients that are scheduled-not the entire family. Be firm and let them know, this will avoid problems in the future, often these people are repeat offenders.
The other issue is multiple problems that they want addressed. Remind the patient that you are on a time restriction and if needed, they can be scheduled for a longer time period. Ask if there is something that they feel must be addressed right now or is it an ongoing (chronic) problem. Most of the add-on problems can be avoided by having staff going over all of the concerns and doing a preliminary evaluation prior to the physician coming into the exam room. By training the staff to do this and write it out in short notes all of the patient’s concerns can be gone over in a shorter amount of time. Have your staff fill out a worksheet and if needed they can add the additional concerns. When the patient sees you going over the list they feel that you and the office cares and is addressing their problems. By the staff writing it out you can look it over before going into the room and can get an idea of what you will need to do while with the patient and will help to know what to ask about. Another method is to have staff make a copy of the patient’s list and have the staff go over it, making notes on the copy for you to review.
The biggest thing for everyone to remember is that it can be lost revenue when the physician is left waiting. By everyone working together this wasted time can be reduced and increase productivity which can increase profits.
If the physician is scheduled to come from the hospital to the office, let staff know of when arriving and of any delays. Staff should relay this information to the patients. Nothing is more frustrating to a patient that has been waiting for a long time, only to learn that the doctor is not even in yet. If there is going to be a long delay allow the patient the option of leaving and coming back or rescheduling to a different day. Make sure staff asks the patient if they feel it is alright to wait. Patients will usually let you know if they need the concern addressed right away or if they want to wait, but let them help to make that decision.
Another problem can be patients being a no-show or late, this can often be avoided by having staff call and remind patients of their appointments the day before. When staff calls they can also remind patients to bring list of medications, insurance cards, co-pays, and any other information that might be needed.
Take a look at the patient schedule, maybe it needs to be adjusted. Most physicians’ average around four visits per hour, look if there are in any gaps in the schedule. If a gap does occur could dictation or something else that needs the physician attention be done? To save time dictation can often be done while with the patient, there are of course exceptions to this.
When it comes to patient education, delegate as much of this to staff as possible. Be sure that the handouts are up to date and accurate. Years ago when I surveyed patients I discovered that much of the information that they received about their condition came from the handouts in the waiting room. Many patients do not feel comfortable asking a lot of questions and feel that if the information was obtained at the physician office, it must be accurate. For that reason it is important to check the material on a regular basis and remove old data. I would also recommend a disclaimer on the rack that just because some information provided is from a pharmaceutical company does not mean that that medication is right for every person with that condition and that the physician will determine what drug is right for you.
As a manager trying to keep all of the physicians on schedule nothing is probably more frustrating than overhearing a patient ask the physician to see a family member while they are there or bring in a really long list of many problems. Over the years I have seen many different ways of handling this problem. One of the best is to have a sign out front letting the patients know that only 1 person will be seen at a time. Let the patients know that you can only see those patients that are scheduled-not the entire family. Be firm and let them know, this will avoid problems in the future, often these people are repeat offenders.
The other issue is multiple problems that they want addressed. Remind the patient that you are on a time restriction and if needed, they can be scheduled for a longer time period. Ask if there is something that they feel must be addressed right now or is it an ongoing (chronic) problem. Most of the add-on problems can be avoided by having staff going over all of the concerns and doing a preliminary evaluation prior to the physician coming into the exam room. By training the staff to do this and write it out in short notes all of the patient’s concerns can be gone over in a shorter amount of time. Have your staff fill out a worksheet and if needed they can add the additional concerns. When the patient sees you going over the list they feel that you and the office cares and is addressing their problems. By the staff writing it out you can look it over before going into the room and can get an idea of what you will need to do while with the patient and will help to know what to ask about. Another method is to have staff make a copy of the patient’s list and have the staff go over it, making notes on the copy for you to review.
The biggest thing for everyone to remember is that it can be lost revenue when the physician is left waiting. By everyone working together this wasted time can be reduced and increase productivity which can increase profits.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Hemorrhaging ($)
One of the most common problems in a practice is hemorrhaging profits. At this point a small band-aid may not do the trick. First we will try direct pressure, pressure points, and if all else fails we may consider a tourniquet or possible amputation. It’s easy to fix a bleed if it’s small a little band-aid and pressure and it goes along ways, but little bleeds can develop into big gushers if they are not stopped. It can happen that we don’t recognize the signs and symptoms of hemorrhagenic shock (bleeding out) until it’s too late to save the patient.
There is an old saying in EMS “all bleeding eventually stops.” However the idea is to stop it before the patient dies or in this case the business dies. Finding out that one employee has been making small errors on the charge sheet, may not seem like that much, but over time it can really add up and before you know it the employees “mistakes” have enabled her/him to take a really nice vacation at your expense. Now most mistakes are truly that, just mistakes but not always. A small clerical error can be a cover-up.
One office had this problem. Unknown to management, the two receptionists had obtained two different receipt books. If the person paid by check or a small amount of the cash this was put on the receipt book that management was aware of, but the patients that were not going have their insurance billed (paid for the test or office visit in whole, by cash) these people went into another book and were given a receipt so that it appeared upfront to the patients. This had gone on for a long time, until they slipped up and a patient was billed. The patent called the billing department and complained and sent in a copy of the receipt. It was later discovered that this had happened to an unknown number of people, and in one case a test that cost over $2500 was paid for and not accounted for on the books. As soon as questions started to come up about possibly missing cash, the two employees immediately quit, so it wasn’t until much later after they had been gone awhile that anyone became aware of the extent of the fraud. Legal action was considered, but due to several other circumstances was dropped. To prevent this from reoccurring, a policy was instituted that all of the receipt books were numbered and checked in and out by management. However, from time to time there was still a few missing payments. The next year and subsequent years the profits increased greatly with just this one fix, but there were other problems such as incorrect billing. However the two new receptionists made a vast difference in the overall profit of the practice.
Often around the beginning of the school year, many staff members think it is appropriate to do their school shopping in your supply closet. It amazes me how many pencils, pens, and other office supplies a practice can go through in the fall. In one practice, when a staff member put crayons on their supply list, I knew I had to put a stop to the shopping spree. I never did figure out why she thought I might fall for buying crayons in an office where we only saw patients over the age of 18. Then again maybe I should have supplied them for the patients as they waited for 2 hours to see the physician. Better yet the providers would have enjoyed them and judging by one of their handwriting samples the crayons might have been a good idea-only kidding!
A simple inventory list on the door of each supply closet and inside of the doors of the exam room will help keep track of supplies. It is simple but effective way to monitor the dwindling supplies. I do not recommend ever putting labels on the outside of the cabinets, unless you just wanted to make it easier for patients to clean the shelves for you. Having worked in some not so nice neighborhoods and some expensive ones, you would be surprised which offices had patients leaving with supplies stuffed in their purses or coat pockets. Why a patient would take a vaginal speculum has always puzzled me and I probably really do not want to know what happened to it once it left the office.
It is great for the physician to be able to give your elderly patient, who is on a fixed income, some dressing changes; however when the waiting room sees that she got free stuff and they did not, it always spells trouble. It is a good idea to put any samples or supplies in a brown lunch bag, they are inexpensive and no one knows what is in them. It is hard to get them to do, but having the physician or the assistant mark in the chart, billing sheet, and supply list was used helps give good patient care and will track supply charges as well as reduce inventory time later on.
The drug closet and crash cart should be run the same way with a continuing inventory list. It is especially important in these areas to check expiration dates and rotate your stock. Syringes and needles have expiration dates, but are often overlooked. No one wants to use a needle that has been sitting in a dusty drawer for the last 20 years or use old nitro that was opened months ago and is ineffective (once opened it is good for only 30 days, for that reason I always liked the nitro spray). It may seem as if you are a nag and the bad guy to the staff when you start implementing new policies controlling loss, however when they see the new system working and their bonuses go up they learn to like it or just not complain so much to your face. Either way it is quieter.
There is an old saying in EMS “all bleeding eventually stops.” However the idea is to stop it before the patient dies or in this case the business dies. Finding out that one employee has been making small errors on the charge sheet, may not seem like that much, but over time it can really add up and before you know it the employees “mistakes” have enabled her/him to take a really nice vacation at your expense. Now most mistakes are truly that, just mistakes but not always. A small clerical error can be a cover-up.
One office had this problem. Unknown to management, the two receptionists had obtained two different receipt books. If the person paid by check or a small amount of the cash this was put on the receipt book that management was aware of, but the patients that were not going have their insurance billed (paid for the test or office visit in whole, by cash) these people went into another book and were given a receipt so that it appeared upfront to the patients. This had gone on for a long time, until they slipped up and a patient was billed. The patent called the billing department and complained and sent in a copy of the receipt. It was later discovered that this had happened to an unknown number of people, and in one case a test that cost over $2500 was paid for and not accounted for on the books. As soon as questions started to come up about possibly missing cash, the two employees immediately quit, so it wasn’t until much later after they had been gone awhile that anyone became aware of the extent of the fraud. Legal action was considered, but due to several other circumstances was dropped. To prevent this from reoccurring, a policy was instituted that all of the receipt books were numbered and checked in and out by management. However, from time to time there was still a few missing payments. The next year and subsequent years the profits increased greatly with just this one fix, but there were other problems such as incorrect billing. However the two new receptionists made a vast difference in the overall profit of the practice.
Often around the beginning of the school year, many staff members think it is appropriate to do their school shopping in your supply closet. It amazes me how many pencils, pens, and other office supplies a practice can go through in the fall. In one practice, when a staff member put crayons on their supply list, I knew I had to put a stop to the shopping spree. I never did figure out why she thought I might fall for buying crayons in an office where we only saw patients over the age of 18. Then again maybe I should have supplied them for the patients as they waited for 2 hours to see the physician. Better yet the providers would have enjoyed them and judging by one of their handwriting samples the crayons might have been a good idea-only kidding!
A simple inventory list on the door of each supply closet and inside of the doors of the exam room will help keep track of supplies. It is simple but effective way to monitor the dwindling supplies. I do not recommend ever putting labels on the outside of the cabinets, unless you just wanted to make it easier for patients to clean the shelves for you. Having worked in some not so nice neighborhoods and some expensive ones, you would be surprised which offices had patients leaving with supplies stuffed in their purses or coat pockets. Why a patient would take a vaginal speculum has always puzzled me and I probably really do not want to know what happened to it once it left the office.
It is great for the physician to be able to give your elderly patient, who is on a fixed income, some dressing changes; however when the waiting room sees that she got free stuff and they did not, it always spells trouble. It is a good idea to put any samples or supplies in a brown lunch bag, they are inexpensive and no one knows what is in them. It is hard to get them to do, but having the physician or the assistant mark in the chart, billing sheet, and supply list was used helps give good patient care and will track supply charges as well as reduce inventory time later on.
The drug closet and crash cart should be run the same way with a continuing inventory list. It is especially important in these areas to check expiration dates and rotate your stock. Syringes and needles have expiration dates, but are often overlooked. No one wants to use a needle that has been sitting in a dusty drawer for the last 20 years or use old nitro that was opened months ago and is ineffective (once opened it is good for only 30 days, for that reason I always liked the nitro spray). It may seem as if you are a nag and the bad guy to the staff when you start implementing new policies controlling loss, however when they see the new system working and their bonuses go up they learn to like it or just not complain so much to your face. Either way it is quieter.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Accounts Payable Success
In a world full of uncertainties how do you keep your staff onboard with the vision and goals of the company? So many times, companies forget who they’re really servicing, who is really important. It’s not only your clients but it’s your staff as well. Now don’t get me wrong, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the client, but let’s face it, if your staff is unhappy and disgruntled so will be your clients. Even if you’ve got one “bad apple” if you allow that “bad apple” to fester in the bushel, you’re going to eventually end up with a rotten bushel of apples. How can one bad apple spoil all the good ones you ask? As I’ve consulted in many different companies both in healthcare and elsewhere, over the years I’ve come across many “bad attitudes” and I’ve seen how the infection can spread, if not dealt with promptly. It can be anywhere from someone not being promoted when they thought they should have been or having someone in the wrong capacity, meaning they hate what they’re doing. Remember the old adage, “misery loves company”. Human beings want to know they’re appreciated and valued and when they’re not, they tend to let the world know it, whether it be intentionally or not.
On my last consulting project, I came onboard a major corporation, who we’ll call XYZ, who was working on outsourcing their accounting department, which none of the staff was aware of. The goal was to get all of the accounts current, then slowly work on the outsourcing, thus eliminating the majority of the staff. Eight of the eleven employees were temporary, hoping to gain a permanent position within the company. When I was first brought on, one of my objectives was to do a major vendor cleanup, bringing over 3,000 accounts current within only two months. For years, staff had gone untrained and unsupervised, causing an accountants worse nightmare. The department had a horrible reputation and became known as the “revolving door”, the supervisor didn’t care, so why should the staff, and it showed in every way imaginable. Vendors either weren’t being paid at all or were paid thousands more than they should have been because invoices were being keyed to their account in error. When you’re vendors aren’t happy the whole company hears about it. The XYZ would call a vendor to schedule services only to hear an earful about how they had many past due invoices and refused services until they were paid. Now I won’t say that this one department brought down the moral of the whole company, but it sure did make a negative impact. Not only was the vendor unhappy but now the employee trying to schedule services is upset because they just got an earful for something that was out of their control. It’s a trickle effect and if left untreated, can cause a company of low morale.
After getting in and analyzing the situation, I quickly realized the near impossible task that was set before me. Not only did I have to figure a way to get these accounts current in two months (which took years of tangling), but I had to find a way to motivate the team, that simply didn’t care anymore, to do so. The first thing I did was I spent a whole week meeting with the team, asking questions, setting expectations of what I was going to be asking of them, and getting an overall perspective of their view of the company. The one-on-one wasn’t just to get to know the individual, but it was also to get a feel for their strengths and weaknesses. I wanted to know if their current roles were in theirs and the company’s best interest. It’s amazing how people will open up when they feel like someone in authority actually cares and is there to help and I was shocked at what I learned, if not horrified. The supervisor, who was still there but had been demoted, had run the department into the ground. The department had such a bad reputation and a horrible morale, I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew. Not only did the staff lack proper training, but there was gossiping, cheating, favoritism, tattle telling, and so on and so forth, you get the picture. I thought I had heard it all, until I spoke with a lady who we’ll call Emily. Emily was a permanent employee who had been there for five years, but had recently fallen ill to Multiple Sclerosis. She had been struggling with this illness for several years that finally landed her in a wheelchair. Emily, being a single mother, was eventually forced to work part-time. After only being on this consulting job for a few days, I quickly realized she wasn’t well liked within the department and I wondered why. When she and I had our one-on-one meeting I saw a person with a great deal of knowledge and experience, not to mention a great outlook on life, so why did she not have the best image within the department. Turns out that the supervisor didn’t like her and was trying to get her fired. Before Emily’s illness had been diagnosed, the supervisor told her it was all in her mind and she was a hypocondriac and would talk about her to the other employees. She would overload as much work on Emily as possible and then ignore her requests for help, watching and waiting for Emily to slowing sink into failure. Emily had far more experience than anyone there, including the supervisor, yet nobody was allowed to ask her any questions. In short, the supervisor ostracized Emily from the team. The team, most of them being new, began to have a negative impression of Emily without really having a valid reason. Turns out that Emily wasn’t the only person feeling this way. The supervisor had one favorite person and this individual could do no wrong, even though she had been caught in numerous lies and had basically been allowed to do as she pleased. Everyone sat there watching as this “favored” employee did as she pleased and got away with it, what kind of environment do you think this caused?
After getting a clear picture of what and who I had to work with, I started formulating a “plan of action”. The first task on the agenda was to institute proper training. This company had three different systems that the staff had to work with, two for accounting, and one for operations. Nobody had been properly trained on these systems, nor was there a training manual in place. Now I know what you’re thinking, why would you worry about implementing a training manual when they were going to outsource and in most scenarios I might agree, but we had years of cleanup to do within a very short amount of time and the cleanup had to be done right this time. The manual wasn’t fancy nor did it cover every intricate detail of “what ifs or what to do’s” but it served as a central focus point of reference for the team to fall back on. In this manual, I included a list of “who does what” and sent it out to every department within the company. A common problem was that nobody knew who to go to and vendors or internal customers would be passed around like a hot potato; nobody wanted to deal with the irate vendor but didn’t know where to send them. I also facilitated some one hour sessions of system training. Remember Emily who had been ostracized, turns out she was a wiz with the systems and knew all kinds of shortcut keys. One key ingredient to making a strong team is recognizing each individual’s talents and strengths, then allowing them to shine in that capacity. Watching Emily glow as she was once again able to contribute to the team was a gift in itself. Not only did the whole team benefit from her knowledge, but for the first time she felt appreciated and part of the team.
After I felt comfortable that the team had been properly trained and had all of the necessary tools to succeed, I implemented metrics and measurements. Imagine being told “just get it done” but not being told how much and how often it needed to be done, thus having nothing to measure against. People want to have clear expectations and to be measured on their accomplishments; a little friendly competition can do wonders for an under motivated department, as long as you keep it fun! With the metrics, we started tracking the number of active accounts we had, the number of past due invoices, and the number of invoices currently coming in. Not only did this set a clear understanding of how bad things were, but it gave us a way to track how much better things were getting. To stirrup bit of that “friendly competition” I started having weekly goals and small incentives. For example, the person with the least amount of unprocessed invoices got to leave an hour early one day. Now with this huge cleanup effort in place, the first thing to do was to evaluate what was on everyone’s desk (and hiding inside!) in order to determine if the workload was spread out evenly. Of course you will always have some employees that are stronger and faster than others, but you want to be careful not to set them up to fail by expecting too much. It’s natural that you would start leaning on an individual who always proved to be reliable, but you must be careful not to over do it burning them out, or that it comes off as having a favorite. Let them know that you want them to be challenged and to go above and beyond, but let them tell you what they can and can’t do. If you feel as though they are setting their goal too low, try some positive encouragement. Most of the time, if you let someone know you expect more out of them, they won’t want to disappoint. The key is building up their self esteem of themselves and letting them know you believe in them.
After outlining the enormous workload we were up against, I decided to lay it all out on the table for the team to see. We started having weekly team meetings and in the meeting we would discuss the metrics and where we were at with the cleanup effort, in addition to recognizing those who had gone above and beyond. Don’t forget, recognition can go a long way in boosting moral, but you’ll want to be careful since some people don’t like being the center of attention. In these cases you can find more discrete ways of recognizing someone for their efforts, but it’s still important to do so even if it’s a pat on the back. It was enlightening to watch everyone come together as a team and volunteer to help one another. A problem would be presented and the team, as a whole, would discuss how they would conquer. More times than not, a supervisor will go it alone in trying to determine a solution to a problem, but in my experiences I’ve found that if you allow the team to be part of the decision making process, they will feel as though they are partially responsible for seeing the solution come to fruition and everyone comes out on top. This approach teaches teamwork, but it also gives them the sense of feeling important and needed. Not only was the main objective met, of getting the word done, they all felt as though if one was going to fall they would all fall together.
Along the path to getting the accounts clean, the difficult task of keeping the staff on board was an ongoing issue. Remember, the majority of the team was temporary and had no idea if they would ever be hired on. Understanding so, they would frequently ask when they would be hired. For me this was an extremely difficult situation because I had an obligation to the organization to keep things confidential, which I would never have compromised, but on the other hand I am a person of integrity and didn’t want to lie to anyone. I couldn’t look them in the face and tell them they would be hired someday, knowing full well that most their positions would soon be eliminated, but I needed to find a way of keeping them onboard for as long as possible. Now if you’ve ever been in a situation like this or something similar then you know my pain. Much of my team was made up of single mothers, struggling to make ends meet, but who deserved advancement, if only someone would give them a fair shot. How was I going to build them up to succeed only to watch them fall when the outsourcing took affect? How was I going to motivate them to work on the cleanup, without compromising my integrity and making empty promises? One thing I’ve learned over the years is no matter where you’re at or what you’re doing, you should take advantage of the experience you’re obtaining; you never know when you’ll need it. I have worked at many companies and I have to say, I’ve learned something with every place I’ve been and it has made me who I am today. Even if the employees couldn’t stay in that department, that didn’t mean they couldn’t advance within the company. See, by now the team had done a complete 360 and had regained its reputation. They were now known as a team who was there to help, not only the vendors (the external customer) but also other departments (the internal customers). For once they were actually proud of working in the accounts payable department and had a sense of achievement, which they could take with them. My goal was not only to get the accounts cleaned up, but to build a strong team atmosphere. If I could ever give one piece of advice to supervisors or managers, it’s not always what you’re doing, but it’s more who you’re doing it with. Here was a team that, for the most part had always worked in accounts payable. At some point they hated their job, but it wasn’t the job itself, it was the environment. Once they came together as a team, they started learning how to work together in unison and built a strong bond amongst each other. Sure there were still differences of personalities, and an occasional disagreement, but over all they were happy and proud to work together. When I first started, I would go into an office that was dull and dreary, but overtime I would come into an office where people were smiling and laughing. What was even better was when I noticed the accounts payable team interacting with other departments, working together for improvements across the board.
On my last consulting project, I came onboard a major corporation, who we’ll call XYZ, who was working on outsourcing their accounting department, which none of the staff was aware of. The goal was to get all of the accounts current, then slowly work on the outsourcing, thus eliminating the majority of the staff. Eight of the eleven employees were temporary, hoping to gain a permanent position within the company. When I was first brought on, one of my objectives was to do a major vendor cleanup, bringing over 3,000 accounts current within only two months. For years, staff had gone untrained and unsupervised, causing an accountants worse nightmare. The department had a horrible reputation and became known as the “revolving door”, the supervisor didn’t care, so why should the staff, and it showed in every way imaginable. Vendors either weren’t being paid at all or were paid thousands more than they should have been because invoices were being keyed to their account in error. When you’re vendors aren’t happy the whole company hears about it. The XYZ would call a vendor to schedule services only to hear an earful about how they had many past due invoices and refused services until they were paid. Now I won’t say that this one department brought down the moral of the whole company, but it sure did make a negative impact. Not only was the vendor unhappy but now the employee trying to schedule services is upset because they just got an earful for something that was out of their control. It’s a trickle effect and if left untreated, can cause a company of low morale.
After getting in and analyzing the situation, I quickly realized the near impossible task that was set before me. Not only did I have to figure a way to get these accounts current in two months (which took years of tangling), but I had to find a way to motivate the team, that simply didn’t care anymore, to do so. The first thing I did was I spent a whole week meeting with the team, asking questions, setting expectations of what I was going to be asking of them, and getting an overall perspective of their view of the company. The one-on-one wasn’t just to get to know the individual, but it was also to get a feel for their strengths and weaknesses. I wanted to know if their current roles were in theirs and the company’s best interest. It’s amazing how people will open up when they feel like someone in authority actually cares and is there to help and I was shocked at what I learned, if not horrified. The supervisor, who was still there but had been demoted, had run the department into the ground. The department had such a bad reputation and a horrible morale, I wondered if I had bitten off more than I could chew. Not only did the staff lack proper training, but there was gossiping, cheating, favoritism, tattle telling, and so on and so forth, you get the picture. I thought I had heard it all, until I spoke with a lady who we’ll call Emily. Emily was a permanent employee who had been there for five years, but had recently fallen ill to Multiple Sclerosis. She had been struggling with this illness for several years that finally landed her in a wheelchair. Emily, being a single mother, was eventually forced to work part-time. After only being on this consulting job for a few days, I quickly realized she wasn’t well liked within the department and I wondered why. When she and I had our one-on-one meeting I saw a person with a great deal of knowledge and experience, not to mention a great outlook on life, so why did she not have the best image within the department. Turns out that the supervisor didn’t like her and was trying to get her fired. Before Emily’s illness had been diagnosed, the supervisor told her it was all in her mind and she was a hypocondriac and would talk about her to the other employees. She would overload as much work on Emily as possible and then ignore her requests for help, watching and waiting for Emily to slowing sink into failure. Emily had far more experience than anyone there, including the supervisor, yet nobody was allowed to ask her any questions. In short, the supervisor ostracized Emily from the team. The team, most of them being new, began to have a negative impression of Emily without really having a valid reason. Turns out that Emily wasn’t the only person feeling this way. The supervisor had one favorite person and this individual could do no wrong, even though she had been caught in numerous lies and had basically been allowed to do as she pleased. Everyone sat there watching as this “favored” employee did as she pleased and got away with it, what kind of environment do you think this caused?
After getting a clear picture of what and who I had to work with, I started formulating a “plan of action”. The first task on the agenda was to institute proper training. This company had three different systems that the staff had to work with, two for accounting, and one for operations. Nobody had been properly trained on these systems, nor was there a training manual in place. Now I know what you’re thinking, why would you worry about implementing a training manual when they were going to outsource and in most scenarios I might agree, but we had years of cleanup to do within a very short amount of time and the cleanup had to be done right this time. The manual wasn’t fancy nor did it cover every intricate detail of “what ifs or what to do’s” but it served as a central focus point of reference for the team to fall back on. In this manual, I included a list of “who does what” and sent it out to every department within the company. A common problem was that nobody knew who to go to and vendors or internal customers would be passed around like a hot potato; nobody wanted to deal with the irate vendor but didn’t know where to send them. I also facilitated some one hour sessions of system training. Remember Emily who had been ostracized, turns out she was a wiz with the systems and knew all kinds of shortcut keys. One key ingredient to making a strong team is recognizing each individual’s talents and strengths, then allowing them to shine in that capacity. Watching Emily glow as she was once again able to contribute to the team was a gift in itself. Not only did the whole team benefit from her knowledge, but for the first time she felt appreciated and part of the team.
After I felt comfortable that the team had been properly trained and had all of the necessary tools to succeed, I implemented metrics and measurements. Imagine being told “just get it done” but not being told how much and how often it needed to be done, thus having nothing to measure against. People want to have clear expectations and to be measured on their accomplishments; a little friendly competition can do wonders for an under motivated department, as long as you keep it fun! With the metrics, we started tracking the number of active accounts we had, the number of past due invoices, and the number of invoices currently coming in. Not only did this set a clear understanding of how bad things were, but it gave us a way to track how much better things were getting. To stirrup bit of that “friendly competition” I started having weekly goals and small incentives. For example, the person with the least amount of unprocessed invoices got to leave an hour early one day. Now with this huge cleanup effort in place, the first thing to do was to evaluate what was on everyone’s desk (and hiding inside!) in order to determine if the workload was spread out evenly. Of course you will always have some employees that are stronger and faster than others, but you want to be careful not to set them up to fail by expecting too much. It’s natural that you would start leaning on an individual who always proved to be reliable, but you must be careful not to over do it burning them out, or that it comes off as having a favorite. Let them know that you want them to be challenged and to go above and beyond, but let them tell you what they can and can’t do. If you feel as though they are setting their goal too low, try some positive encouragement. Most of the time, if you let someone know you expect more out of them, they won’t want to disappoint. The key is building up their self esteem of themselves and letting them know you believe in them.
After outlining the enormous workload we were up against, I decided to lay it all out on the table for the team to see. We started having weekly team meetings and in the meeting we would discuss the metrics and where we were at with the cleanup effort, in addition to recognizing those who had gone above and beyond. Don’t forget, recognition can go a long way in boosting moral, but you’ll want to be careful since some people don’t like being the center of attention. In these cases you can find more discrete ways of recognizing someone for their efforts, but it’s still important to do so even if it’s a pat on the back. It was enlightening to watch everyone come together as a team and volunteer to help one another. A problem would be presented and the team, as a whole, would discuss how they would conquer. More times than not, a supervisor will go it alone in trying to determine a solution to a problem, but in my experiences I’ve found that if you allow the team to be part of the decision making process, they will feel as though they are partially responsible for seeing the solution come to fruition and everyone comes out on top. This approach teaches teamwork, but it also gives them the sense of feeling important and needed. Not only was the main objective met, of getting the word done, they all felt as though if one was going to fall they would all fall together.
Along the path to getting the accounts clean, the difficult task of keeping the staff on board was an ongoing issue. Remember, the majority of the team was temporary and had no idea if they would ever be hired on. Understanding so, they would frequently ask when they would be hired. For me this was an extremely difficult situation because I had an obligation to the organization to keep things confidential, which I would never have compromised, but on the other hand I am a person of integrity and didn’t want to lie to anyone. I couldn’t look them in the face and tell them they would be hired someday, knowing full well that most their positions would soon be eliminated, but I needed to find a way of keeping them onboard for as long as possible. Now if you’ve ever been in a situation like this or something similar then you know my pain. Much of my team was made up of single mothers, struggling to make ends meet, but who deserved advancement, if only someone would give them a fair shot. How was I going to build them up to succeed only to watch them fall when the outsourcing took affect? How was I going to motivate them to work on the cleanup, without compromising my integrity and making empty promises? One thing I’ve learned over the years is no matter where you’re at or what you’re doing, you should take advantage of the experience you’re obtaining; you never know when you’ll need it. I have worked at many companies and I have to say, I’ve learned something with every place I’ve been and it has made me who I am today. Even if the employees couldn’t stay in that department, that didn’t mean they couldn’t advance within the company. See, by now the team had done a complete 360 and had regained its reputation. They were now known as a team who was there to help, not only the vendors (the external customer) but also other departments (the internal customers). For once they were actually proud of working in the accounts payable department and had a sense of achievement, which they could take with them. My goal was not only to get the accounts cleaned up, but to build a strong team atmosphere. If I could ever give one piece of advice to supervisors or managers, it’s not always what you’re doing, but it’s more who you’re doing it with. Here was a team that, for the most part had always worked in accounts payable. At some point they hated their job, but it wasn’t the job itself, it was the environment. Once they came together as a team, they started learning how to work together in unison and built a strong bond amongst each other. Sure there were still differences of personalities, and an occasional disagreement, but over all they were happy and proud to work together. When I first started, I would go into an office that was dull and dreary, but overtime I would come into an office where people were smiling and laughing. What was even better was when I noticed the accounts payable team interacting with other departments, working together for improvements across the board.
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