There is no end in sight to the highest levels of turnover ever experienced in veterinary practice. There are numerous variables at work, but we have some nuggets and pointers to assist you develop trust with your staff and foster a culture where they want to learn and develop alongside your company.
The AAHA just issued a piece on how to counteract the “Great Resignation.” Why is this crucial? The “Great Resignation” of the previous year has been labeled. People are leaving their jobs, frequently because no new ones are in the works. In fact, the job market has seen an average of 3.8 million people leave each month through October 2021, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
AAHA goes on to give wonderful tips on keeping employees happy, healthy, and feeling valued.
- Make employee well-being a priority. This may mean offering mental health benefits or initiating something as simple as daily conversations about personal challenges as you deal with the pandemic stress.
- Conduct regular “stay interviews” to understand why employees stay and what might cause them to leave. Then, strengthen the former and work to alleviate the latter.
- Offer professional growth opportunities. Ask employees what their professional goals are and then, together, identify ways to support that, be it by a special project or new skill that dovetails with their goals.
Creating this type of environment is a great start, but there is more to it than just this. It’s about building trust between you and your entire team.
“Trust is like the air we breathe. When it is present, nobody really notices. But when it’s absent, everybody notices.” – Warren Buffett
Productivity increases when your team feels like they are trusted.
In high-trust companies, employees are given freedom. Managers lay out specific goals and then allow their people to execute them in the way they believe is best. Employees like being in command of their own destiny: a Citigroup poll showed that 64% of respondents would refuse a 10% raise in favor of more flexibility at work.
Creating an environment that shows employees that you trust them to do the right things is essential. Lacking direction, as well as micromanagement, are two of the most harmful productivity killers. Employees can’t commit to fulfilling essential objectives and activities when they don’t know which priorities to prioritize. Productivity drops drastically when employees are required to fill in management boxes instead of figuring out how to accomplish what needs doing.
When your employees feel trusted, they’ll work better together!
Today’s workplace thrives on collaboration. It has been demonstrated time and again that groups of people from different backgrounds are superior at tackling difficulties and coming up with innovative answers than individuals working alone.
Teams must have confidence in one another’s ability to perform their portion of the shared workload to a high standard. They also need to trust that their co-workers will be held accountable for meeting established deadlines. Because one person may not be able to rely on other group members to contribute their fair share, collaboration will not succeed.
Employees want to trust that their individual efforts will be recognized when they contribute to a team effort. There’s nothing more motivating than getting credit for your ideas, and there’s nothing more demeaning (or infuriating) than having someone else steal them. High-trust teams pay attention to the details.
Trust in your employees brings innovation to your veterinary team.
When employees are allowed to apply a variety of problem-solving techniques, fresh ideas emerge.
Trust among team members is a key element for success. Individuals will be hesitant to point out new possibilities if identifying flaws means being a troublemaker. Managers must prove their trust in workers by being open to ideas, even ones that are difficult.
When it comes to proposing solutions, mutual trust is even more crucial. Team members will be hesitant to share their ideas if they are afraid their coworkers will disregard or even ridicule them. Some of the most interesting suggestions may appear strange at first glance. If your company falters because of a lack of respect for those who provide good ideas, your business will be the loser.
Don’t wait start building trust with your team today!
Trust is possible and worth it. We are, after all, social beings. It’s natural for us to trust one another. All of our social systems necessitate it. That’s why breaches of trust feel so wrong and hurt so much; they cause divides in friendships, romantic relationships, families, neighborhoods, churches, teams, and other organizations. But those fractures aren’t the norm. They’re not what we typically anticipate. At work, we expect to be able to trust our coworkers at least as far as job performance is concerned.
Each of your workers has his or her own set of talents. When you create a climate of trust and camaraderie among your employees, talented individuals may utilize their abilities to collaborate and innovate for the betterment of your company.