Employee evaluations are not meant to be punitive, although they can feel that way sometimes. All too often, employee evaluations can become a dumping ground of everything a staff member has done wrong over the last year; but it shouldn’t be this way.
Providing feedback to employees regarding their performance is essential to their continued growth and longevity with your practice. Unfortunately, without clearcut metrics and goals, you are probably evaluating your employees’ personality traits rather than their capabilities. This should be done before you hire them, not after.
Implementing measurable metrics that can be objectively assessed will help your staff have a clear understanding of what is expected of them and allow you to provide objective comments during your evaluations.
Choose Objective Metrics
The standard employee evaluation process requires you to sit down and think back over the last 12 months of an employee’s work, trusting that you remember specific examples when the time comes. This simply isn’t a viable method.
Your memory can’t possibly hold every interaction you’ve had with each employee over the course of a year (or even 90 days for new employees!). Because of this, your evaluations can be less productive. They can seem superficial and to concentrate on the employee’s temperament and personality instead of their actual qualifications.
An employee evaluation that doesn’t include measurable metrics but focuses on soft skills can seem like you are providing them with a subjective opinion vs. facts. Without a clear target to shoot for, your employee morale will suffer, and your turnover rate will likely skyrocket.
Instead, each staff member should receive feedback based on specifically defined measurable metrics (ideally, tied to their job description). Then, during your employee evaluation, provide performance feedback with actual examples to prove out your data.
Before an employee ever walks into their evaluation, they should know the exact metrics they are being measured on. Here are some examples of measurable metrics you might use to gauge the performance of a receptionist in your practice:
- Answer incoming calls in fewer than 3 rings
- Transfer calls to the appropriate person within 45 seconds
- Take accurate, detailed messages with an error rate of less than 5%
- Greet patients within 45 seconds of arrival by smiling and offering to help them
- Enter new and updated patient registrations into the computer the same day they are received
- Patient registrations should be entered with an error rate of less than 5%
Each of the above criteria can be given a number score so you can objectively rank the employee on each factor. Additionally, this type of employee evaluation allows you to get input from members of your leadership team and see whether your assessment falls in line with theirs.
This method of performance evaluation can work for just about anything – as long as you can measure it. For example, if punctuality, time off, or attitude are concerns, you also can include measurable metrics to track their success.
- Late to work fewer than 3 times in the calendar year
- Employee received fewer than 2 viable written complaints from other employees or their manager for conduct and attitude
- Employee asked for fewer than 3 schedule adjustments per calendar year
- Employee was willing and eager to step in to help when asked
Note: If you need help determining what qualifies as “late to work” or anything attendance-related, check out this blog: Curb Employee Absences with 5 Proven Policy Tips.
These objective measurements not only help to remove some of the bias, but they allow you to track each individual’s progress year over year. An employee whose numbers remain consistently high or whose numbers improve over the years is likely to be a solid member of your team; someone whose numbers decrease, however, may need some more intervention and help on your part to keep their job.
Set Goals and Deadlines
Using the data you’ve collected in your
Take your front desk receptionist for example. During her evaluation, you noted she has a higher-than-ideal error rate when it comes to recording patient data when registering patients and setting appointments.
A good goal for her might be “Reduce patient registration error rate from 15% to 12% within 90 days.”
This goal ticks all the boxes for the SMART method of goal setting:
- Specific: The goal tells her what she needs to do (reduce her patient registration error rate from 15% to 12%) with clear numbers and a clear timeframe (90 days).
- Measurable: You’ve attached numbers to it that can be measured.
- Attainable: The error rate decrease is enough of a stretch to challenge her, but not so much that it would be impossible to achieve.
- Relevant: Too many errors in registrations lead to confusion, potential billing problems, and patients missing appointments. Reducing the number of errors helps your practice run smoothly.
- Time–Based: You’ve given the receptionist 90 days from the date of her evaluation to reach the goal.
Document these goals in the employee’s personnel record, and put follow-up dates on your calendar so you don’t forget to check in.
If the employee meets the goal, then you’ve successfully used the employee evaluation process to help your team level up their performance. In cases where the employee doesn’t meet the goal – and doesn’t reach out for assistance if they’re struggling – this can be documented as a reason to pursue corrective or disciplinary action.
Note: Don’t wait for an employee’s annual review to discuss their progress on goals. These reviews should be done throughout the year and, if progress hasn’t been what was expected, you can look at other ideas to help the employee succeed.
The employee evaluation process starts from the very beginning: Hiring the right people for the right jobs. Your front desk staff is key to setting a friendly, professional impression for patients. Get all the tips you need to hire the right members of your front desk team the first time with Healthcare Training Leader’s online training, Front Desk: Head Off Hiring Nightmares. In this 60-minute session, Deron Bibb, MBA, walks you through the process of hiring the right front desk staff to set your practice up for success. Access this immediately available online training today.
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