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8 Tips for Keeping Employees Happy and Improving Your Medical Practice

Medical offices run smoothly and efficiently when all of the employees are happy to be there and willing to go the extra mile. Learn how to make your practice thrive with these 8 tips for keeping employees happy.


Keeping employees happy shouldn’t be an afterthought. Especially in medical practice, where things can sometimes get stressful. When employees feel frustrated, overworked, and under-appreciated, it can be difficult to retain staff long term.

Luckily, giving your practice a facelift can be easier than you think, and less expensive too. Simple changes can go a long way to improve the patient experience and make your practice more appealing.

Here are some things you can do to improve your work environment for your healthcare employees.

1. Emphasize Work/Life Balance

Work/life balance shouldn’t be a myth or a benefit available to a lucky few at the top of the corporate ladder. Healthcare is stressful, and employees need to be able to get some time away from their daily grind.

These days, traditional benefits aren’t enough to keep employees feeling happy in their role. Instead, you’ll need to look at softer things like vacation time and flexibility.

In healthcare, everything runs on a schedule, but taking stock of little things like allowing parents some flexibility when it comes to leaving early or coming in late is crucial.

You’re in the business of caring, and as such, you need to extend that care to your employees–trust us they’ll pass that along to patients.

2. Address Concerns Head-On

Understanding employee concerns is an important management skill. But, the most important part of opening channels of communication is what you do with the information your staff shares.

Responding to concerns promptly will ultimately help you retain talent. Make sure you address issues with a plan of action and tell employees why you’ve decided to make specific decisions or changes.

Examples include sharing results f employee surveys and grievances and committing to solving problems.

3. Create a Path Toward Advancement

Employees feel motivated to do well when there’s a clear path toward advancement. No one likes being stuck in a dead end job. Even if you’ve got a smaller practice without much room for growth, providing ongoing training opportunities allows them to grow and level up their skillset.

While its true that employees may leave after developing new skills if they feel there aren’t opportunities in your organization, career planning should be a regular discussion with your staff.

During the training and development stage, talking with employees about how they can get to that next pay milestone or promotion. Ideally, these milestones will be within the company, so consider how you can further utilize star performers down the road.

4. Keeping Employees Happy Through Motivation

A motivated employee is a happy employee. So, how does one create the kind of environment that fosters a positive attitude?

Well, it depends on a few things. For one, satisfaction tends to come from when employees receive recognition for the work they do, as well as other things like being challenged, having goals to work toward.

Giving them the opportunity to do something they feel is meaningful, making sure they are involved in the decision-making and can make them feel like valued team members.

For this reason, it’s essential to give employees opportunities problem-solving tasks and allow them to implement solutions to organizational problems.

One of the best ways to create a satisfied employee, after you’ve eliminated those items that create dissatisfaction such as salary, benefits, etc., is to find the right person for the job.

Finally, employee satisfaction also depends on the perhaps overused term, cultural fit. Not everyone is right for every situation, and during the hiring process, you’ll need to spend extra time searching for people who share a similar set of values.

Additionally, employees will feel motivated when they’re working as a team in a positive environment.

5. Show Your Appreciation

Healthcare workers sometimes feel trapped in a thankless job. They may work long hours, caring for others, comforting those dealing with tough issues.

As a result, burnout can feel inevitable. Here, it’s vital to and contributions. Things like “employee of the month” awards, staff lunches or a gift card here and there can go a long way.

6. Make Sure Employees Are Trained

There’s nothing worse than feeling ill-equipped to do your job correctly. For that reason, it’s essential to give your employees the tools they need to deal with all the challenges that come with their job.

Not only will you create a better experience for your patients, but your staff will feel less stress when challenges emerge.

Sure, you’re in a field where anything can happen. We don’t expect you to have an answer for every situation. However, giving your staff a set of values and expectations, plus will help them deal with difficult situations with grace.

Additionally, regular training sessions will ensure best practices stick around for the long haul.

7. Communication is Key

Effective communication is critical is essential no matter what business you’re in. But healthcare staff deal with more stressful events than say someone who works in marketing or tech. As such, open communication helps keep things feeling supportive and positive.

Encourage your staff to share their personal frustrations and daily challenges openly. Talking through the tough stuff like the tragedies they may witness, or fearful patients can provide a learning experience and an outlet for stress.

8. Create a Calm Environment

Keeping employees on task and feeling serene during high-stress situations is a real challenge. But, it’s up to you to ensure that staff feels confident and equipped to handle whatever the day throws at them.

Stress often comes from the top and trickles down. Employees feel stress when they detect uncertainty and pressure coming from above, creating a toxic environment where everyone is walking on eggshells.

Prevent stress from affecting your environment by hiring leadership particularly skilled in keeping their cool.

Additionally, you may want to focus on creating a comfortable, serene workplace. If you can afford it provide some amenities, healthy snacks, and beverages, comfortable workstations–little things that add up. Maybe even buy your employees’ scrubs–this website has an excellent selection.

More Workplace Tips and Tricks at At Your Business

Beyond keeping employees happy in a healthcare setting, also looks at the full spectrum of issues facing your company. We talk training, coaching, and scheduling, and everything work. Check us out by clicking here.