Orthotown April 2021 - 71

EDUCATION AND CAREER GROWTH
Employees who value education and
career growth above all else are typically
the cream of your crop-the ones with the
innate drive to learn and grow. They want
opportunities to develop beyond just current
job skills; they want to improve themselves
and their lot in life by building a career. By
learning more, and with mentoring and
coaching, they know they can contribute
more, thus become more valued and more
valuable and, yes, earn more. The question
to you is, do they have those opportunities
within your business, or do you regularly lose
good people because they find it necessary
to go elsewhere to get their needs met?
Most commonly referred to as " training
and development, " let's look at them separately, because they are actually different.
Training is used to make people more
productive in their current job. They need a
minimum skill set just to get the job done,
but training expands on those skills and
builds both individual and team capabilities
so they can do the job most efficiently and
to the best of their ability (and to the high
standards you set). For example, your front
desk team can do the job in an OK manner
or they can deliver a " wow " experience from
the moment the patient enters. Only by you

investing in training can team members
learn what " wow " looks and feels like, and
gain the skills needed to deliver it.
Development is oriented to preparing
individuals for their next job or set of responsibilities. In small businesses, promotions aren't
always possible, but even top performers will
stay if you provide opportunities to learn and
grow professionally and personally. Offer
opportunities to take on greater responsibility
or lead projects, for example, and reward your
best people with off-site learning opportunities
such as seminars and conferences. Through
win-win incentives and bonuses, position
them to earn more in return for the added
value they're bringing to the organization.
Through development, you fully leverage
the talents of employees by pushing them
to strive for their full potential, and you
enable your superstars to shine. Leadership
development in particular is a high-return
investment because you equip others to oversee
daily practice functions, freeing you up to
focus on other business-building priorities.

Your team values training-
so you should too!
Training and development is valued by
team members. Some even want it more

than a higher paycheck, recognizing it
as a tangible form of compensation for
working at a practice that's committed
to helping them build better careers and
futures for themselves. The benefits to your
business are well documented: performance,
productivity, engagement, loyalty, retention
and recruitment, to name a few. It awakens
people's potential in ways that positively
affect your bottom line and the long-term
growth of your practice.
By combining pay with training and
development within a culture of pay-forperformance, recognition and appreciation,
you convert your largest monthly expense
into an investment in your largest asset with
a guaranteed return. Training elevates the
capabilities and the attitudes of your people
so they can-and want to-perform at a
higher level, be held accountable to meet
objectives that increase their own earning
potential, and partner with you to support
growth and profitability goals.
In short, training and development
is an investment that creates win-winwins: for you and your business, for your
employees, and for your patients, who are
the ultimate beneficiaries of a high-performing team. ■
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Orthotown April 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Orthotown April 2021