It’s Spring! Time to tend to our . . . staff

This month I want to talk about our most valuable resource as business owners: our staff. I’m writing this at a time when I’ve been balancing annual vacation requests, some schedule changes, a request for a raise and some accommodations for health reasons.Next month I’ll talk about working on vs. working in your business, but to even consider changing how you approach business you must consider how your patients approach your business. What are they looking for? In my experience: care and consistency. And who can deliver that besides you? Your staff. Taking care of your staff means your staff take care of your patients. And, if they’re really good, your business.But what do I mean when I say take care of your staff. Pizza? Well, no. (But also yes.) Some of the perks of being employed at Kristen’s Pharmacy include a matched RRSP program and a health spending account. These are becoming more industry standard. So how are we different? Paid sick or personal days—five annually, available for any reason. Birthdays off, paid. This one is such an easy policy: we don’t generally up-staff for the day, so it doesn’t cost extra; and who doesn’t love being off on their birthday? Another thing we do here is that every 5-star Google review means a free staff lunch. And while pizza doesn’t fix everything, they do love getting the text “another 5-star review, lunch is on me!” (they also get to pick what we order for lunch—and it’s rarely pizza!). For registered staff, we include provincial advocacy organization membership and unlimited CE (as long as they can relate the CE to the business).To me, the biggest perk I provide is empowerment. I’ve empowered my staff to come up with solutions to problems within a budget. If they can solve a problem for $200 or less, they don’t need to check with me. Among the results of this policy: a date stamp that makes one of my pharmacists very happy; some acrylic baskets for holding things; a gooseneck lamp for the compounding hood. All solutions for problems that don’t bother me but impact staff daily.But I think a reality check is required as well. Along with the death of hustle culture (see my previous article), we need to acknowledge that what really motivates people these days is…money. Asking staff to set stretch goals, to make work their life, to do a needs asessment survey, trying to find ways to motivate them, etc. just doesn’t fly anymore. We need to pay people what they’re worth. And if your first instinct is to say that you can’t afford to pay more, remember it takes so much more time and money to train someone new.We should all be paying our staff a living wage. A living wage is the hourly rate a worker must earn to cover essential expenses and participate in their community. The United Way puts out an annual chart showing the living wage for each geographic region; do you know what it is in your region? Are you paying your staff enough? Staff who aren’t rushing to second jobs or visiting foodbanks to make ends meet are happier staff. Happier staff give better care to patients which pays back in dividends in your community and in your business.There are always swings in the employment environment. In 2021 and 2022 the inflation on wages was profound. But so was the inflation in life. It was an employee market. Things have quieted down a bit and there are more job seekers out there. But I still believe the best staff are worth paying for and worth treating well. We expect to need to tend to our buildings, our technology, our processes. We need to remember to tend to our staff. Without my staff my community pharmacy would not be successful—and neither would I.Kristen Watt owns and operates an independent pharmacy in rural Ontario and is a strong advocate for community pharmacy as clinical practice.