After you expend the time and resources to hire someone, how do you develop your new team member to ensure she/he meets your expectations? Just because a new hire has experience doesn’t mean that person understands your practice.
Team development is critical. Consider these words of wisdom from Larry Bossidy, former Honeywell CEO. “I am convinced that nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day you bet on people, not on strategies.”
If you are betting on a new hire to succeed, I recommend you meet with the new team member Day One and outline your expectations. What are the job duties, and within those tasks, what is unique to your practice? What are the training steps and timeline for getting the new person up to speed? What parameters will you use to measure performance?
A common mistake is to turn the new person loose and gauge performance based on the number of complaints you receive. I see too many doctors experiencing lackluster performance because the team lacks the training and development needed to excel.
Give the new addition to your staff the opportunity to meet your expectations from the start. Put the extra effort into team development; it’s the best commitment of resources you can make.