As the owner of a chiropractic practice, you may have been here before. You have an employee that is constantly under-performing or causing issues with other staff members. Warnings have been issued and nothing has changed. But how do you know for sure that one of your employees needs to go before a meltdown at the practice takes place? Here are a few signs that it’s time to part ways.
1. You dread arriving at your own practice because you just don’t want to deal with that one employee anymore. Think about you this way: you are paying them to make you miserable. It may be that they are not doing their job appropriately or they just aren’t the right fit, but it’s important that you do whatever you can to keep your practice running smoothly. It is a business after all, and you can’t keep employees just because you feel bad about letting them go.
2. They ignore warnings. When an employee doesn’t follow procedure, you provide them with a counseling session to ensure they understand your expectations and, on the other hand, that you have provided them with adequate training. If it happens again, you give them a write-up that they sign and is then kept in their employee file. For written documentation, ensure that everything is clear. Some employees will view this as protocol and continue on as though nothing has happened. Employees like this will do whatever they please, and don’t care much about the consequences. As someone who is operating their own chiropractic practice, you aren’t trying to be the ruler of an empire. You are simply trying to keep your patients safe and healthy and foster a constructive environment in order to do so. If you reach a warning, that should be your final and the next step will be termination.
3. They abuse sick days. If your employees are truly sick, you definitely don’t want them coming in to work. However, there are some days you just know your employee isn’t actually sick. If you find that one of your employees is calling in sick repeatedly, it’s a red flag that they are unreliable. In a small practice, dependability is key.
4. They create a hostile work environment. The fact of the matter is you simply don’t have time to play babysitter when you have patients to see and a practice to run. In a small practice, it is usually one employee that creates division among employees. if you find out who it is, it may be time for that person to go.
5. They don’t do their job. You hired this person for a specific role, and they just aren’t cutting it. The stack of patients you asked them to follow-up with keeps growing and phone calls that need to be made just aren’t getting done. No matter how many times you ask them, the task just doesn’t completed. That type of employee isn’t going to catch on, and there are many others out there who will happily take on that pile of work.
It’s never easy to fire an employee, and this is just a small list of reasons as to why you might have to. We know people depend on us for jobs, and it is time-consuming and costly to train someone new. However, at the end of the day, you want to be happy in the practice you worked so hard to build and there are times when it is just time to find someone new. For more advice on how to properly handle employee interactions, contact us for a complimentary coaching call.