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Published through a partnership of BSM Consulting and Ophthalmology Management.

JANUARY 2012

Welcome
Strategies for Success is a joint offering from BSM Consulting and Ophthalmology Management. This complementary electronic magazine is published monthly and provides practice management insight and useful tools on important and timely topics of interest to eye care professionals.

Feature
Survey Your Staff to Determine if You Are Compensating Them the Right Way

Use This Valuable Compensation Tool
Use BSM's Employee Wage and Benefits Tool to Communicate the Total Staff Compensation Package

Success Tip
Understand Why People Work

Visit the BSM Café...

...to obtain even more insight into meeting the compensation needs of your employees.

...to learn more about BSM
Connection
, a robust online
suite of practice management
tools and distance learning resources.

...to learn more about
BSM Consulting, an
internationally recognized
consulting firm with more
than 30 years of experience
in eye care.

Next Month's Feature:

Online Marketing:
Understanding Social Media and Reputation Management

Survey Your Staff to Determine if You are Compensating Them the Right Way

By Maureen Waddle
BSM Consulting


A typical staff expense ratio runs about 25%. That means 25 cents out of every dollar that comes into the practice goes out in staff salaries. Once you start adding staff benefits, payroll taxes, recruiting costs, and training expenses, suddenly a third of your collections are allocated to staffing. Even though staffing is the most important investment you will make, the high cost makes it critical to ensure your total compensation program is structured in such a way that you receive maximum return on the investment. Rather than assuming you are providing desirable benefits, why not take the time to survey staff members on a regular basis?

You want to invest in the benefits that will attract the types of staff members who have similar values and will create the work environment you desire. For example, if continuous learning is a core value of the organization, then investing in certification and training programs for the staff seems like an appropriate benefit investment. Employees who have similar values will indicate that they desire this benefit as well.

A sample employee compensation survey is offered at the BSM Café this month.

This valuable and useful survey is available for download in Microsoft® Word format at www.bsmcafe.com. You can customize the survey to meet your specific practice needs

A sample survey is offered at the BSM Café this month. This is available for download in Microsoft® Word format at www.bsmcafe.com. You can customize the survey to meet your specific practice needs. A survey should include the following elements:

  • A ranking or prioritization of benefits. This should facilitate getting an answer to the question: "If I could pick only a few benefits, which would they be in order of priority?"

  • Some type of value associated with benefits. Ask staff to rate the value of each potential benefit. For example, use a rating scale of 1–10 with 1 being the lowest value and 10 being the most valuable. By having both a ranking and a value rating, you can better prioritize which benefits to offer given limited resources.

  • Open-ended questions, with the opportunity for staff members to make suggested changes. Open-ended questions will give you a little more insight and provide the staff an opportunity to offer creative solutions and/or suggestions for your compensation policies.

Conducting staff surveys will ensure that you provide a comprehensive compensation program that attracts the right kind of employees, retains and motivates staff, and facilitates a best practice environment.

About the author: Maureen Waddle is a senior consultant with BSM Consulting, an internationally recognized health care consulting firm headquartered in Incline Village, Nevada and Scottsdale, Arizona. For more information about the author, BSM Consulting, or content/resources discussed in this article, please visit the BSM Café at www.BSMCafe.com.

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Use BSM's Valuable "Employee Wage and Benefits Tool" to Communicate the Total Staff Compensation Package

By Lynne Flaherty
BSM Consulting

The most important investment a practice makes is in its staff. Unfortunately, if staff members do not have visibility of the total investment, their focus narrows to only their paycheck stub. Part of creating an environment which motivates staff members includes educating staff members about their value to the practice by communicating how much the practice willingly invests in compensation packages.

Many successful practices incorporate the use of a form that delineates all of the components of a complete compensation package. This is a nice reminder to staff members of the total investment the practice is making in them. If you are not currently using such a form, there is a template available this month on the BSM Café.

The Employee Wage and Benefits Tool allows a practice to summarize the components of the employee's total compensation package. To use the tool, a manager will need to collect a few records, including total gross wages and bonuses, premiums paid by the practice on behalf of each employee, retirement contributions, and any other benefits offered. The manager simply enters this information into the tool to create an itemized summary of the amount paid for each benefit the employee receives. Providing this information helps employees understand how much the practice values them. It also helps them to remember the importance of providing their input to ensure the compensation package is meeting their needs.

Staff members value all of the benefits that make up a practice's total compensation package. In fact, few people will accept an offer for a position based on the salary rate alone. Benefits such as health and other insurance, retirement plans, continuing education, paid time off, and incentive bonuses are all designed to attract and retain good people so that physicians can build the type of practice they want. However, it can easily be forgotten during annual review time. Having the completed form available for employees during the review process provides a gentle reminder.

By aligning the compensation package with the needs and desires of the staff and clearly communicating value to each staff member, a practice will see improvements in staff productivity, a reduction in employee turnover, and an increase in employee job satisfaction.

About the author: Lynne Flaherty is an associate consultant with BSM Consulting, an internationally recognized health care consulting firm headquartered in Incline Village, Nevada and Scottsdale, Arizona. For more information about the author, BSM Consulting, or content/resources discussed in this article, please visit the BSM Café at www.BSMCafe.com.

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Success Tip: Understand Why People Work
Whatever your personal reasons for working, the bottom line is that almost everyone works for money. Whatever you call it—compensation, salary, bonuses, benefits, or remuneration—money pays the bills. Money provides housing, gives children clothing and food, sends teens to college, and allows leisure activities, and eventually, retirement. To underplay the importance of money and benefits to people who work is a mistake.


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Copyright 2012

Published through a partnership of BSM Consulting and Ophthalmology Management.


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