Mara
Welcome to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. I’m one of your hosts, Mara Shorr. I’m a partner in the medical practice management company. Yes, Shorr Solutions. Who’s the other host you may ask? Easy answer. That would be my father, our founding partner, Jay Shorr. Together we have an amazing team and clients from across the country. Listen, as we chat, converse, strategize, and commiserate over life and the aesthetic medical industry.
It’s time for you to listen, learn, and be inspired as we help you kick start your practice, because who doesn’t want a little more help? Welcome to Shorr Solutions: The Podcast.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. I am your host today, Mara Shorr, one-half of the partners here at Shorr Solutions. The other half is my father and business partner, our founding partner, Jay Shorr.
So, Jay will not be on the episode today. You will just get me. It’s another solo episode and we are really doing a series on human resources and employees, all that good stuff.
So, one of the things that we’re hearing most, and I wanted to address in today’s episode, is having to deal with employee benefits and the great resignation. Now, you have likely heard me talk about the great resignation in previous episodes. Basically, we’re talking about how the employee, based around the world (so staff members around the world, this is not particular to only our industry or only your city-state), but even here in the U.S., employees are leaving at an incredibly rapid rate. And this is due to everything that transpired in 2020: dealing with COVID, dealing with shutdowns, and employees saying we want more, we feel we deserve more.
So, we want to take a hard look at what it is, as employers we need to be doing and what you need to be doing in your practice because again, that medicine is a business, and we need to treat your practice like the business that it is. So, we want to take a look at what can be done to increase employee retention through stronger employee and team benefits.
Now, you will often hear me talk about your employees, your staff members as your team, and certainly how we refer to our team here at Shorr Solutions. We think of them as our teammates. It is truly what we believe, and I like to think that treating our teammates and our team members fair, is why we have a strong retention rate as we do and we want to, I want to, share that wisdom.
I would say that first, you want to make sure you do have an employee handbook. All the things I’m going to be talking about today, along with all of your workplace and employee policies, should be going in the employee handbook. If you don’t have an employee handbook, please feel free to contact us. We can work together on that. So, you’re welcome to contact me either. Hit pause on this podcast episode once you’re done listening and you are welcome to contact me info at Shorr Solutions that you want to make sure you have an employee handbook. That is where all this information is going to live and I encourage you to save it as a PDF, make sure everybody has a copy of it, and signed copies so we know who received it and that there are no surprises down the line.
Now I’m going to go down the line of a few benefits. Some are more obvious than others. One is making sure you have fair PTO. Now PTO stands for paid time off, so we want to make sure we have a fair amount of paid time off. I personally advocate Jay and I both feel the same way that we let our part-time members accrue paid time off as well.
I also truly, truly believe everybody is human and I am not a fan of it unless you are a partner in the practice. I’m not a big fan of saying that one position gets more paid time off than another. I think everybody deserves a fair amount of paid time off, now stagger so that for example, they get a certain amount.
The first year we say it’s years one, three, and five. So, when they hit one year it increases. When they hit three years it increases and when they hit five years it increases. So, you want to make sure you’re continuously rewarding longevity. That is something to be celebrated and what better way to celebrate it than with paid time off. So, make sure that you are doing that also.
Now I can look into your state guidelines. So, there are certain states, California, being one of them, that has very specific state guidelines. Others don’t require any time off. Some do have certain requirements, but I say that we want to make sure we’re looking at a fair amount of paid time off.
So that is one of them. Number two, we want to make sure we’re paying competitively the days of being able to pay somebody or front desk minimum wage. Those days are gone and as food chains, they are paying far above minimum wages. Make sure that you are paying competitively for that position. Reach out to coworkers. What is it that they’re paying now?
Obviously, a position in Los Angeles or within New York City that pay is going to need to be higher cost of living than in other states. So, of course, we understand that. We want to make sure that something we are truly focusing on is competitive pay. Now, what I also encourage is that we look at how can everybody in your practice achieve a bonus?
Now, look at what a bonus structure looks like for positions within your practice. Team members are going to have more access and more influence over products that are sold in your practice, and over treatments that are performed. Make sure that you are compliant it comes to anti-kickback laws. But we want to make sure, we really want to make sure, that you are looking at what the bonus structures look like, making sure that they are realistic, that they are achievable, they are based on past data, past sales and so we want to make sure that they’re achievable, but that they’re also a little bit of a stretch. We can absolutely help with that. We do with our clients all over the country.
Now, if you are a small practice, you likely do not qualify for a group plan. And we totally understand that you may have team members who are on Medicare, you may have team members who are covered under a spouse’s plan or covered under a parent’s plan, and therefore when you break it down, you may only have two team members that are actually eligible for an individual or for a group plan and require health insurance on their own. We’ve seen that before and we completely understand that.
So, if you are going to offer a health care stipend, then what we want to look at is the average cost of an individual plan and what is affordable to the practice. So, is that a reimbursement? So, what you would do is have that team member go out, get health insurance on their own, and then once you receive the receipt that has been paid for, so we know that there is no tax liability to you. If you could consider it a write-off, then we want to make sure that we are able to then issue that reimbursement to the team member. I say that we want to make sure we are reimbursing so that if you claim it as a write-off and they’re just pocketing the cash because they have chosen not to have health insurance, there aren’t, you know, some suspicious issues down the line.
So, we want to make sure we’re looking at what a health care stipend looks like for you. We’ve often seen between two, $250 per month offered to the team members within our clients’ practices.
We are going to take a slight break, a slight intermission, because what kind of business freebie if we didn’t tell you about our own services, I want to take a minute and talk to you about the Conversion Cascade Course and all that it has to offer. We want you to be trained to acquire loyal patients and boost your revenue and your aesthetic practice.
Now, with our Conversion Cascade Online Course, you and your team will be able to master two key things important to growing your asset in practice and becoming successful in acquiring patients and retaining new patients. So, let’s talk about a couple of things as step by step. Sales, funnel, training, the courses designed specifically to help you and your team attract more patients, convert more calls to consults, convert consults to treatments and procedures, and to keep your patients coming back for more.
Not only will our Conversion Cascade Course help to strengthen and develop your team’s phone and sales skills in order to acquire, convert and retain loyal patients, but it will also serve as a valuable onboarding training tool for every new team member that joins your practice. Yes, every new team member joins your practice. Plus, in the course, you will receive downloadable marketing checklists, phone scripts, conversion tracking tools, and more.
So, sign up for the course to get started on increasing your revenue and acquiring and retaining new and existing patients. Yes, how to acquire and how to keep them coming back for more. It only takes approximately 4 hours to complete. You can finish it at your own pace, and you’ll have lifetime access. Yes, that is for the lifetime of the course. And a special thank you for being our podcast listener. We’ll give you 20% off. Yes, 20% off. Just enter the discount code ‘podcast.’ Yes, ‘podcast.’ Start saving now. So, click on the link in our show notes to sign up for the Conversion Cascade Online course and start acquiring more patients.
Now procedures. The majority of our clients, which we absolutely love, offer complimentary procedures to their team members.
Now, this is wonderful, but we want to track it because you are still a business and quite honestly, we want to make sure that it is done in a way that makes sense, especially as you grow. So, create a policy, and reach out to me if you need a copy of what that policy might look like, but create a policy that says how many procedures, what type can each receive, and how often?
So, can you have injectables? So, we break it down into fillers versus neurotoxins, for instance. How often is each team member allowed to have that? I would say again, create a blanket policy. We all have faced so it shouldn’t be based on position, it should be based on the procedure.
So how often are neurotoxins able to be administered and for what period of time? Who needs to sign off on this? So, is it the office or practice manager? Is it the practice owner? Who needs to sign off on their approval? When does that need to happen? So, do you have one day that everyone gets their neurotoxin, or everyone gets their filler done and we block off? You know, a couple of hours and we just go boom, boom, boom, and make it happen that way? Or are they allowed to stagger their appointments as needed? Is everybody on a different schedule? We also want to look at the approval, who’s approving it, and make sure that they are clocking out and that they’re not getting paid as a team member and not on the clock while they’re also getting their treatment.
That just doesn’t seem quite right to the business. So, how is this being logged, making sure that every single team member- yes, they’re a team member, but they’re also a patient. So, they should have a chart. Yes, a chart. So, we want to make sure that we have protocols in place allowing them and offering them those procedures.
This goes for several reasons. One, they then become a walking billboard for your practice. They’ll talk to others about how much they love working for you, and they just will sing like a happy, happy kid. So we go, that is another and really another benefit that you’re able to offer that quite honestly, a self-care stipend.
Now we offer to our team members a certain amount of money per month reimbursed to do something for themselves, that is self-care. For some people, this is a manicure or a massage or a fancy water bottle. They wanted to make sure that they were drinking enough water. Little things like this are self-care and we want to make sure we’re taking care of ourselves.
You want to make sure your team members are taking care of themselves. And so, it’s something small, but I truly encourage it. Is that a gym membership, whatever that looks like to them?
Finally, offer a flexible schedule. Offer the ability to work from home if the position allows. No, your providers cannot work from home. But if you, for example, have a marketing position where two days a week they’re able to work from home, look at what that looks like. Make sure that they’re able to do that because we’re seeing so many employers that are losing amazing team members because they choose to go elsewhere when they have a position that is able to work from home.
For example, I come back to the marketing position in your practice. You’re not necessarily competing with other medical practices for that team member. You’re competing with any other marketing company. So, we want to keep that in mind, but again, have a policy in place if they work from home. What does that look like? How do they remain head in compliance with software? What usernames and passwords, check-in systems throughout the day, et cetera do they need? So, those are just a few examples.
When we talk about how to take a hard look, update what each of your employee benefits looks like, and really think through what you can make a possibility without just ruling it out altogether. It’s going to truly help with your employee retention and overall office morale.
Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast and I hope you’re going to be really increasing your employee retention. Remember, you are welcome to contact me with any additional questions. Email me at info@shorrsolutions.com. Thank you so much.
So, acquiring, converting, and retaining new loyal patients is easier than you think it requires you to master the sales funnel in your aesthetic practice. How is it that easy, you ask? Well, it’s easy because we teach you to step by step, and our Conversion Cascade Online Course is a fun, and results-driven course that you and your team can finish in less than 5 hours. Yes, less than 5 hours because we know y’all are busy. We provide you with six training videos that walk you through attracting new patients, converting calls to consults, consults to treatments, and keep your patients coming back for more. All of this while learning how to talk to your patients about additional treatments and procedures to achieve their dream results. And bonus, boost your revenue and have them singing your praises to others.
With our course, you also get tangible tools to help you succeed, such as downloadable marketing checklists, phone scripts, a conversion tracking spreadsheet, sheets, and more, all of which are completely customizable and editable for you and your practice and your team.
Get started and sign up for our Conversion Cascade Online Course today and as a special thank you for being a podcast listener, we’re giving you 10% off. Yes, 10% off. Just enter the discount code ‘podcast.’ Yes, the word ‘podcast.’ Click the link in our show notes to get started. Increase revenue and acquire more patients for your practice today.
So that wraps up today’s episode of Shorr Solutions: The Podcast. If we mentioned any links in our show notes, be sure to check them out for the easiest way to discover your best solutions. You can find them, yep, in our show notes.
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