Thursday, February 2, 2012

Enhance Productivity!

As fee-for-service increases its reach in our industry, organizations must ensure they are maximizing the revenue potential of their clinical team. Rather than hiring additional staff, one option is getting the most out of the staff you already have. Adopting a performance-based compensation model can sometimes be the best way to ensure that you are getting the best return-on-investment (ROI) when it comes to your staff (see Maximizing Staff Productivity: Considerations in Developing Performance-Based Compensation Models premium members).

Performance-based compensation enables an organization to align its goals and objectives with the goals and objectives of individual clinicians. With the metrics and data reporting necessary to manage this system, you are able to objectively measure the performance of your clinical staff then reward the high performers. Hopefully this leads to an improvement in the general performance of the organization (see Using Information Systems to Develop Clinical Performance Scorecards: Reporting Behavioral Health & Social Service Clinical Team Performance premium members).

And by being able to clearly recognize who is struggling in their position, and who shines, you will be better able to align your staff with your organizational needs. As the motivation of your staff is properly focused, you are likely to see greater input on setting new standards, shifting responsibilities, and improving processes and procedures.

Performance-based compensation creates an environment where staff clearly know what is expected of them in their position and allows them to have some control over how they are rewarded. The de-motivation that results in rewarding everyone the same is gone. High performers are rewarded and this sets a higher standard for other staff to follow.

Not that this approach is ever going to be an easy process - some of your staff will thrive in this type of performance-driven environment, while others will be unable to adjust. You may lose employees; but hopefully, the end result is a more driven workforce that is focused on your organizational goals (see Looking at Staff Performance 'by the Numbers' all members).

To learn more about performance-based compensation, join me at the OPEN MINDS Best Management Practices Institute in Clearwater Beach, Florida on February 16, where I will team up with Jonathan Evans, President & CEO of Safe Harbor Behavioral Health, to present "Clinical Productivity Management: How To Promote Executive & Clinical Collaboration."

Sincerely,
Rejean Carlson, MBA
President, OPEN MINDS

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For another free resource, see: Staff Recognition: More Important Than Ever all members 

This is free for the next sixty days to all registered OPEN MINDS Circle members.

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