Can you identify the Most Valuable Players (MVP) in your eyecare practice? Many practice managers are hesitant to compare staff members in case it causes tension. However, there is a way to initiate healthy competition without losing the camaraderie that your staff naturally builds when relying on each other day-to-day. That's why we turned to this Review of Optometric Business article that explores the expertise of scientific research on productivity in teams.
According to Price's Law and the Pareto Principle, you can measure which team members are productive and, spoiler alert, it isn't every member of your team. Keep reading to explore how these scientific findings relate to your practice staff.
How do you influence productivity in your optometry staff?
Price's Law
If you take the square root of the total number of people on your team, that is the number of people doing 50% of the work in your practice. For example, a team of 16 would have 4 MVPs accomplishing 50% of the work.
As your team gets larger, this number does not increase in proportion. Is that why many practices can benefit from having a cross-trained, small staff? Also, if this is the case, how are you making sure that the MVPs who are accomplishing a majority of the work aren't going to burnout?
We believe the best way to avoid work gravitating to those who are most effective at time management is to have clear, separate SMART goals. We've discussed SMART goals before, but many practices still don't implement them for staff members who aren't tied to sales. For example, a measurable goal for your front desk may be reducing the percentage of no-shows by X amount. This way, every staff member is owning a part of their role and receives credit for their productivity.
Pareto Principle
The Pareto principle applies to many aspects of life, but essentially it's the theory that 80% of the work is done by 20% of people.
This is a bit easier to swallow, although it's still not ideal in preventing burnout. Now, we theorize that the Pareto principle applies well to the teams within your practice such as opticians, associate ODs, etc. Sometimes the work ends up being allocated to those who work through projects quickly, whereas other instances it's given to those with the most experience.
In order to create new MVPs, you'll want to make sure the entire team receives a bonus based on whether they collectively meet their goal and a larger bonus if they exceed the goal by X percent. This makes opticians and front desk staff work together. You can have the MVPs train green staff members, especially if they know they're not in competition with each other.
There aren't enough guidebooks for running an optometry staff. So we made one. Read it here.
