LAST month, Novartis Animal Health announced the winners of the Best Practice Employer Awards, set up to recognise those practices that uphold the highest employment standards, and to share the lessons they provide with the rest of the profession.
We also heard what one of the winners, Emily Holbrook, thinks are the most important ingredients for a happy and effective practice team. Now we hear from the other three winners: Garth Tozer, Dr Richard Dixon and Kenneth Davison.
Garth, who runs Pet’s Choice Veterinary Centre in Telford, said: “I think the most important thing is to treat the nursing staff as being as important to the practice as the practice principal.
“They and the receptionists are usually the first faces seen and voices heard by potential or existing clients. That first impression is crucial: if clients are put off at that stage I’ll never even get to see them!”
He added: “Making the staff feel important obviously encompasses many other things such as listening to all new ideas and responding constructively, taking into account flexible working hours as far as possible and being interested in their professional development and personal lives, to name but a few.”
Garth sees clear benefits to his practice in having fulfilled staff: “If they take pride in the practice as ‘theirs’, know that they have your support, but also realise that the clients effectively pay their wages, then they’ll make every effort to make the practice inviting and the clients feel at home. This is appreciated by the clients and leads to increased client numbers through personal recommendation, number of visits and consequently turnover.”
As head of the emergency care provider Vets Now, Dr Richard Dixon has slightly different HR issues to contend with, but the principles are more or less the same: “I think the most important thing is giving my team autonomy to make their own decisions, and allowing them to make a genuine difference to how the business grows and develops.
“This also means allowing the team to make mistakes as, of course, not everything they do will work out the way they hoped.
Broad framework
“The commitment, passion and dedication we have from our team is quite irresistible, and I am convinced that most of it stems from not telling them what to do, but trying to give them a broad framework in which to work, some strategic setting (so they know where they fit into the bigger plan) and then telling them to go off, work out what to do, and then make it happen. We get massive commitment in return.
“Of course, it isn’t a complete free-for-all, there are company values that are non-negotiable, there are some rules that are just plain good practice and must be worked within. However, the framework is generally quite loose, giving a lot of opportunity for the team themselves to turn Vets Now into their organisation.
“We call this concept ‘responsible autonomy’; the team have autonomy to do things the way they see fit, but within certain constraints of responsibility. As a group, we vets are typically control freaks and giving away decisionmaking doesn’t always come naturally.
“In my experience the upsides vastly outweigh the poor decisions that are inevitably made from time to time. It also avoids the team feeling like they are being told what to do. I am still waiting to find anyone in our profession who values that particular management approach!”
Be available
Ken Davison from Inglis Veterinary Centre was Novartis’ final winner. He said: “The single most important conscious step I take to keep my team happy is to be available!
“If staff know that when they ask you something or need a hand, you will try your utmost to help them immediately, it creates a team ethos of co-operation and flexibility.
“This in turn leads to a happier, less stressful workplace and is reflected in better client service which, in the long run, benefits our business.”
Ken also highlighted the importance of training, so that you can delegate more and give greater responsibility: “The next most important step is to encourage staff to acquire more skills through internal training or external CPD and then to praise them when these skills are put to use in the practice.
“In our practice, if a dehydrated rabbit needed IV fluids I would not even attempt to place a catheter in the ear vein but would get one of the nurses, probably Laura, to do it as her IV catheterisation skills far exceed mine. This is just one small example of how we use our nurses’ skills to best effect.
“I have been at the coalface since qualifying from the Glasgow vet school 30 years ago and every year the professional skills of trained veterinary nurses have made my job easier and less stressful.”
Rachel Smithson, marketing manager at Novartis, said: “There seems to be a consistent message that comes from all of the winners of the Novartis Best Practice Employer Awards, and that is quite simply to empower your staff.
“Give them responsibility. Allow them to make mistakes. Praise and thank them for a job well done. In some cases, that might be worth more than any pay rise you could offer.”
