How To Run Your Staff Meetings Like a Boss

Regular meetings can keep your practice team on track. Here’s what to include in every confab.

Consistent staff meetings are essential for defining and refining your practice’s culture. By having the team regularly come together to collaborate and evaluate the practice’s goals, staff meetings promote a sense of all-in attitude, deepening your employee’s commitment to the practice, the patients, and you.

THE BOTTOM LINE

Helping to define practice culture, establish standards, and educate staff are just a few key goals for staff meetings. Establish a consistent “template” and be sure to maintain a regular schedule for meetings in order to derive the most benefit.

WHAT IT TAKES

After leading weekly staff meetings for more than five years, here is what we learned works to make our meetings productive, meaningful, and something our employees look forward to:

Welcome Notes from the Owner.Your staff will feel deeply valued when they hear directly from the owner and visionary every week.

We invite the entire staff to share articles and topics that they’ve come across in the medical and general literature. It empowers our staff to be up-to-date on the latest research and trends, so that they can best explain innovative technologies and new findings to our patients.

Welcome Notes or Reminders from the Manager. A 2019 study report shows that the average office worker receives 121 emails per day, so having regular meetings helps to ensure attention, compliance, and clarity regarding office operations and/or changes, because when your staff is informed, they are less likely to make mistakes.

Revenue Data. We review our goals via graphs and charts to see how we our doing in terms of our overall monthly revenue and retail goals. This financial transparency creates an “all-in, no-excuses” effort by the staff and sets them up clearly for earned staff incentives.

Patient Reviews. We review patient feedback that they have shared with staff; the surveys we send patients immediately after their appointments; and public reviews shared on Google or other online platforms. These reviews help us to continually monitor our client service so that we can deliver on what we promise. And we only expect the best, so even a 9/10-star review from a patient prompts us to closely examine the patient’s perspective.

Before & Afters. We believe before-and-after photos are the most important marketing tool in our field of aesthetic medicine. Therefore, at every staff meeting, we review the latest before-and-after photos from our practice and together discuss how to confidently highlight and market the results to our patients.

Staff Spotlight. Each week, we recognize a staff member for going above and beyond. Employee appreciation keeps them feeling valued and committed to your practice.

Nichols Dermatology Team Meeting, pre-COVID

Team meeting during COVID closure (same time and day only… we are on Zoom!)

Tip: Employees like to be recognized but they also like to give recognition. Have the staff member that was nominated for the previous week’s Staff Spotlight be responsible for nominating the following week’s Staff Spotlight.

At the end of every meeting, one staff member leads a 10-minute presentation on anything in their area of expertise within our office. This initiative was created to help support professional development of every staff member in every position. We have an organized rotation of all the staff members, so everyone knows they are expected to lead and when. We have had presentations on everything from how beauty trends differ across the world, how to use Stamps.com, and “Molluscum 101.” After their presentation, that staff member sends the other employees a short quiz on the information shared. The staff enjoys this initiative because for every five quizzes they complete, they earn one of our skincare products.

Post-COVID meetings: wearing masks, separated in our largest common space

ALERT, REFRESHED, AND MOTIVATED

Since staff meetings promote positive work culture, productivity, and teamwork, they should be regular. At our office, we have found Mondays to be the best day to host our weekly meeting because it sets the tone and expectations for the week ahead and dissipates any lag attitudes or weekend vibes. We stay to a strict 60-minute staff meeting and present the meeting in the form of a PowerPoint for visual cues and learners. Although the information changes weekly, the template is the same, which helps us to stay on topic and within the allotted time frame. So, by the time our first patient arrives, we are alert, refreshed, and motivated to see patients and make our goals for the week ahead!