A Happy Staff is a Productive Staff: How to Motivate Employees

A company's employees are one of its most valuable assets, and managing them can be one of the most important—yet challenging—tasks required of a small business owner.

Even businesses that have very few people listed in their employee payroll software still need to be attentive to how motivated, productive, and satisfied their employees are, because all of these things can impact the company's bottom line.

However, theories abound for how to increase staff productivity and job satisfaction, and some small business owners may be discouraged by thinking that they do not have enough money or resources to adequately meet the needs of their employees.

On the contrary, many employee motivation and recognition strategies require little to no financial investment, and may be simply a matter of adjusting management practices. Others require some investment, but that is often returned by boosting the company's productivity and, consequently, bottom line.

Invest in compensation packages
One of the most traditional and commonly used tactics for increasing employee satisfaction and retention is ramping up compensation packages.

This can involve raises, bonuses, or enhanced benefits such as matching 401(k) contributions, transportation reimbursement, health insurance, and vacation days.

However, not every business can afford to take measures like these, especially in the wake of the economic downturn. Businesses are encouraged to use their employee payroll software to see if the company can afford enhancing compensation packages.

The win-win incentive strategy
Benefits do not always have to be expensive—in fact, some may actually help a business increase its profit margins.

For example, incentives such as flexible work schedules and telecommuting can improve worker satisfaction by improving an employee's work-life balance, making employees feel happier and more productive. This is an especially attractive setup for workers that have small children at home.

At the same time as making employees happier, telecommuting and flexible work schedules can reduce overhead costs by limiting the amount of energy, supplies and office space needed. If a company offers transportation reimbursements, this can also eliminate some costs.

All work and no play…
Another way to increase employee motivation and job satisfaction is to make investments in corporate culture.

This can be as simple as recognizing employees on their birthday or instituting monthly cocktail hours, or can be as involved as creating a company softball team or putting an entertainment-filled break room in the office.

Whichever level of involvement is chosen, employees will likely appreciate the attention being paid to their job satisfaction, a factor which will often be seen in their productivity and performance.

In addition, corporate outings and events that aim to improve corporate culture can enhance collaboration by facilitating bonding between employees, which can thereby increase overall company productivity and competitiveness.

Corporate culture measures can also impact employee productivity and satisfaction on an additional level—tactics such as company sports teams, fitness incentives, and even company-wide fitness events such as participating in a charity run can improve employee health as well as facilitate corporate bonding. After all, healthy employees are not just happier employees—they tend to have fewer sick days and can be more focused.

More employers are starting to see the benefit of corporate culture, sometimes even more so than with compensation packages—a recent survey from human resources firm TriNet found that 36 percent of small business owners believe company culture and reputation were the most important factors in employee morale, ranking higher than compensation at 9 percent and benefits at 5 percent.

Be a cheerleader
Encouraging high performance can sometimes be as simple as rewarding it. Programs such as employee-of-the-month or other initiatives that recognize and reward high-performing employees not only make the worker feel more satisfied with his or her job, but they also set an example for other employees and encourage them to work harder.

Listen up
Some employee motivation and morale programs require no investments whatsoever. Many small business owners, faced with less money for formal incentive and recognition programs, have simply increased their communication with employees.

More face time with workers can make them feel more comfortable approaching bosses and managers with problems, which will not only increase their job satisfaction but can also cut down on errors.

Being upfront and honest with employees has become even more crucial during tough economic times, as employees that are worried about their job safety can be distracted, unproductive, and not entirely committed to their work. They may also search for other employment on the side—and even leave the job if another offer comes in—if they feel their job is threatened.

The ROI of happy employees
Whatever the strategy, small business owners are encouraged to pay attention to the happiness, well-being, and motivation of their staff. Productive and satisfied employees represent more than just good management practices—they are a crucial element to a successful business.
Taken from(http://smallbusiness.intuit.com/news/Achieving-sales-&-profitability/19439231/A-Happy-Staff-is-a-Productive-Staff:-How-to-Motivate-Employees.jsp)

BOOST YOUR PRACTICE REVENUE

BOOST YOUR PRACTICE REVENUE

Is your practice suffering from cash-flow deficiency anemia? Maybe it's time to go back to the fundamentals. Here are nine tips for achieving and maintaining a healthy inflow of cash.

GETTING PAID

How to Stop Hemorrhaging Red Ink

These nine tips will help you restore your practice’s financial health.

If you’re working harder and smarter but your revenue still seems anemic, your practice may be suffering from some internal bleeding of red ink. You may be losing money in silent, unseen ways that adversely affect the health of your practice. Here are some suggested therapies.

1. Don’t give anything away. Some practices have the unfortunate habit of neglecting to claim everything they legally can. For example, a practice will bill for a vaccine but fail to claim the corresponding vaccine administration code or bill for administering an injection but fail to bill for the substance injected. Failing to charge for services provided is like handing out money to your patients and their insurers.
2. Code appropriately. For the services you are claiming, make sure you’re claiming exactly what you did. For example, if you code a 99213 when you actually provided and documented a 99214, you’ll have given Medicare a 36 percent discount on your services. Likewise, coding an established patient office visit, rather than a consultation, for a pre-operative evaluation requested by a surgeon will minimize your reimbursement.
3. Learn to use modifiers. Modifiers can make a big difference in your reimbursement for those insurers that recognize them. Learning to use modifier –25 (significant, separately identifiable evaluation and management service by the same physician on the same day of the procedure or other service) is especially important. It can allow you to be paid for two E/M services done on the same day.
4. Use an up-to-date and accurate superbill. Also known as encounter forms and charge sheets, superbills serve the purpose of capturing all the charges that a practice provides and is legally entitled to. If the form is using outdated CPT and ICD-9 codes, you’re inviting claims denials and billing inefficiencies, both of which can cost your practice. Likewise, if your superbill doesn’t include commonly provided services, a place for modifiers, etc., it may be contributing to your problems.
5. Track your superbills. Does your practice have a process to ensure all superbills are accounted for each day? Superbills represent money, so losing one is losing money. Consider numbering your superbills or instituting some other method to track all superbills generated each day.
6. Keep a current CPT and ICD-9 book. A superbill, of necessity, cannot cover everything. Having access to current key references, like the CPT and ICD-9 books, is essential. The cost ($100-$150 to purchase the pair) is minimal compared to what it will cost you in denied claims if you’re using old editions. You wouldn’t dream of vaccinating your patients using an outdated immunization schedule; you shouldn’t treat the financial health of your practice any differently.
7. Don’t forget to bill the patient, especially at the time of service. This may seem obvious, but some practices simply fail to ask the patient for his or her portion of the bill. Most insurance plans have a patient cost-sharing feature, and if you don’t ask or bill the patient for it, you are unlikely to collect it. You should ask for co-payments when the patient checks in at the front desk. This approach is infinitely more cost-effective than generating and mailing a bill after the fact and will probably increase your likelihood of collecting. An added bonus of doing this is that your practice earns interest on the income in the meantime.
8. Look at your Explanations of Benefits (EOBs) before you file them. When an insurance company sends you an EOB, make sure someone takes the time to review it before it’s filed. Were all the claims paid? Were all the claims paid appropriately? If the answer to either question is no, some follow-up may be in order. Otherwise, you may be letting the insurer keep money that belongs to you.
9. Hire the best you can afford. Too many practices hire office managers and billing staff with too little experience and education in the areas for which they are responsible. The money the practice saves in salaries in the short run costs the practice far more in lost revenue in the long run.
Hopefully, your practice is financially healthy, wealthy and wise enough to be doing all of these things already. If not, consider a little self-assessment along the lines suggested. The results should pay dividends to you and your practice.

What job interviewers and recruiters are really assessing

Some people love going on interviews, others hate it. Some people are comfortable disclosing information about themselves, others are not. Which- ever category you fit into, interviewers/recruiters are paying attention. True, some are looking for dirt and gossip, but mostly they want you to succeed so they can hire/refer you and get on with their busy lives.

In preparing yourself for the interview stage of a work search, be sure you have done all your venting and released all your anger and negative energy of your past employer before you even begin to put yourself in front of a hiring manager or recruiter.

Have an agenda when you go into an interview. Prepare specific points you want to make and don’t allow yourself to get derailed. If the tables get turned in an interview with poor questioning be prepared to highlight your strengths and bring the conversation back to what you can do for the company.

“In an interview, the focus is about you, not the organization you just came from,” says experts. “You should have control over your search, not your search have control over you,” they both declare.

You theme yourself. Identify your accomplishments and achievements, but also leave the interviewer with the correct image and perception of who you are and what you can bring to the position. You pick one of 12 themes such as creativity, people skills, innovation or problem solving and then help you thread it through all your responses. This common thread, this continuity, should leave an impression which is of importance to the company and their value system or work ethic.

Know what a recruiter wants to see when you meet them for the first time:

    1. A candidate has to know the company directives and their values. If possible, network within the company to come up an insider’s perspective of the business. Ask the interviewer what the company’s values are and make the connection between your values and theirs. Don’t expect an interviewer to make the co-relation, you need to do it for them.

    2. Illustrate that you have a sense of purpose, a goal for your career path. Know the answer to where you want to be in 5 and 10 years from now.

    3. Show an interest in the job, that this is the job you want.

    4. Express yourself in such a way as to sell your passion without using passion words. Smile, use positive verbiage, use your hands when you talk, ask questions and show enthusiasm.

    5. Last but not least, be yourself, and be honest.

And what behaviours turn off recruiters/hiring managers:

    Poor eye contact
    Poor grooming, dressing and posture
    Swearing/slang/poor grammar
    Not listening and inappropriate reactions to questions
    Taking too many notes
    Cockiness or chit chatty
    Inappropriate use of personal physical space
    Not staying focused

Getting too familiar with an interviewer is to your disadvantage. Keep a comfortable guard up, remember this is a total stranger and they don’t need to know you intimately at this point in time. There are some smooth operators out there whose sole purpose is to get you to relax, trust them and dish the dirt. Stay alert in an interview, be cautious but warm and discerning and you’ll be sure to leave a positive impression and hopefully a call back.

Working with your Team

When you reach certain position not necessarily departmental head you may have to lead at least a small group of people. To achieve performance you are also depending on their performance. Therefore it is also a must that the group of subordinates working under you as your team must be molded to suit your style of working and achieve performance or complete the work or task in time and quality. For the above you may have to take some initiatives.

Bosses like people who show the inclination to be future leaders. By taking initiative you will be doing just that. People who come up with new ideas or take new ventures are deemed to possess leadership or management skills, which is viewed favorably by top bosses.

When you take an initiative you understand your office environment. If your boss and colleagues support you wholeheartedly you’re in the right place, otherwise you might have to think about shifting offices. As a rule, organizations that support new initiatives have more successful and happier employees.

Taking initiative helps us not only in our professional life but also in our personal and social life. And, at times even a small step can do wonders.

When you take the initiative to do something new you step out of your comfort zone and challenge yourself. This is a very important for both personal and professional development. The entire exercise of attempting something new and executing it helps you grow faster, which is the key to success.

Sometimes you run out of ideas to advise your team as to how to go about further in completing a task. At such   juncture, taking an initiative can help you revive interest in your job. You can start off by taking a small initiative, say by organizing an office picnic and move on to bigger things. By doing this, you will soon finding yourself getting out of the rut and thinking anew.

You can go on and on about the successful team building. After all, there’s no fixed rule to what makes a group of people click together.

It’s very important for a team leader to be honest to his / her team. S/he should tell them exactly where they stand within the organization. A team leader should convey the right information in a positive manner. Once your team members know they are positive in the organization they will take your instructions in a better manner.

Be consistent about your communication with your team members. You will lose credibility with your team members if you communicate differently with different team members about same situation. If you project a professional behavior whatever the situation your team will surely respect you.

Always be open with your team members if there is some bad news coming for your team or the organization. Employees find out about the bad news. They can handle bad news as long as their managers are concerned about them.

Your team members work hard, and by giving feedback you show that you appreciate their efforts and the difference they make to the team. A team leader should also make it safe for team members to give feedback. Let them know that you value their inputs.

The solidarity of a team is an important indicator of how much influence the group has over its individual members. The more cohesive the group the more strongly members feel about belonging to it the greater is its influence. If the members of a group feel strongly attached to it, they are not likely to do anything against the group or team.

Team cohesiveness also plays a role in small companies. Team cohesiveness is critical in helping the individual feel good about his or her contribution to the effort. They also made sure that all employees understood that no improvement is too small. Over a period of time, they can make a major difference.

Highly cohesive teams often have less tension than less cohesive groups do. Additionally studies have found that cohesive groups tend to produce more uniform output than less cohesive groups, which often have problems with communication and cooperation.

Some talented individuals cannot flourish in a team oriented environment. If team cohesion is not to be eroded, management must recognize such a mismatch and address the problem before team goals go haywire.

Managers can improve solidarity of a team by introduction of competition, increasing interpersonal respect in the team, increasing interaction and create common goals for employees.

Be careful in what you plant to reap

If you plant honesty, you will reap trust.
If you plant goodness, you will reap friends.
If you plant humility, you will reap greatness.
If you plant perseverance, you will reap victory.
If you plant consideration, you will reap harmony.
If you plant hard work, you will reap success.
If you plant forgiveness, you will reap reconciliation.
If you plant openness, you will reap intimacy.
If you plant patience, you will reap improvements.
If you plant faith, you will reap miracles.

But

If you plant dishonesty, you will reap distrust.
If you plant selfishness, you will reap loneliness.
If you plant pride, you will reap destruction.
If you plant envy, you will reap trouble.
If you plant laziness, you will reap stagnation.
If you plant bitterness, you will reap isolation.
If you plant greed, you will reap loss.
If you plant gossip, you will reap enemies.
If you plant worries, you will reap wrinkles.
If you plant sin, you will reap guilt.

So be careful what you plant now, It will determine what you will reap tomorrow, The seeds you now scatter, Will make life worse or better, your life or the ones who will come after. Yes, someday, you will enjoy the fruits, or you will pay for the choices you plant today.

Managing Up: How to Do It Effectively

Face it: You need to manage up. At least if you want to succeed in corporate America. It’s as important as getting the job done. Managing up gives your leaders a way to see the work you do in a way that will benefit you. It also creates job security. And let’s be honest: When layoffs hit, the boss’s favourites never gets cut, regardless of their skills and talents.

Here are five ways to manage up that will put you in line for raises, security, and a fulfilling career.

1) Don’t blame your boss for anything. There is no point. Your boss is in charge and you are not. Make a note of what annoys you and tell yourself you won’t do it when you are boss. (Although beware, there are no perfect bosses. Just like parenting, you will suck as a manager in your own special way.)  When you manage up properly you will be able to turn your bad boss into a good boss. For you. Because you can work around your boss’s foibles if you stay focused on your goals. And yes, this is even true for bosses who micromanage.

2) Don’t wait for your performance review to fight for a raise. Find out the salary politics way before your performance review. What’s your boss up against when it comes to approving a raise for you? What do you need to do for him to help? Who are the influencers?  Start managing all of them. Your salary review will need to be approved by a bunch of people. Make sure they love you BEFORE performance review time. By the time approvals come around, it’s too late to ingratiate yourself. And, if it should come down to your boss really having no power over the purse strings, ask for nonfinancial compensation, like conferences and gadgets or whatever it important to you.

3) Find out what your boss is being measured on. Your boss definitely cares more about his own salary review than about yours. The more you help your boss to meet his goals, the more likely he is to go to bat for you to meet your own goals. If you do lots of work but it’s all outside the parameters of your boss’s goals, your boss won’t notice.  Do the work that matters, and then translate that strong performance into action from your boss. This means that the person who puts their head down and gets all their work done perfectly is not smart. There is no point in being the hardest worker in the office because all work is not equal. The work that is important is the work that gets noticed. Do less work so you have more time to understand what work matters?

4) Get benchmarks early, but be open to them changing. Your boss just wants you to make a difference on the team. He doesn’t really care about your performance goals, per se. He cares about his own, his team’s, and your participation to meet those goals. So help your boss to keep track of you by shifting your goals to be in sync with the company’s goals. Your boss will be surprisingly open to shifting goals in the name of helping the company. And you’ll find that shifting makes you look more like a team player, and like your irreplaceable to your boss.

5) Be nice. Really, there is no better way to ensure a good performance review if you are well liked by your boss. People get hired for hard skills to get the job. But they get fired and promoted because of their soft skills that make people like them. So really, the performance review is a great time to solidify your relationship with your boss after a year of hard work creating that relationship.

Key to Success? Stop Being So Cheerful

So, it turns out that people who were really happy as children tend to not pay attention while crossing the street and die young, or something else just as miserable.  (I made up that part about cars because I’m cranky and I’m feeding into my bad attitude in the hope of living longer.  If you die young, you never get to be one of those crabby old ladies that do whatever they want because they are old and I so want to do that.)

But seriously, they did find out that happiness isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.  The Longevity Study began tracking a group of kids when they were 10, in 1921. (They didn’t track them continuously–the study picked up again in the early 1990s.)

“We came to a new understanding about happiness and health. One of the findings that really astounds people, including us, is that the Longevity Project participants who were the most cheerful and had the best sense of humor as kids lived shorter lives, on average, than those who were less cheerful and joking. It was the most prudent and persistent individuals who stayed healthiest and lived the longest.”

Part of the explanation lies in health behaviors – the cheerful, happy-go-lucky kids tended to take more risks with their health across the years, Friedman noted. While an optimistic approach can be helpful in a crisis, “we found that as a general life-orientation, too much of a sense that ‘everything will be just fine’ can be dangerous because it can lead one to be careless about things that are important to health and long life. Prudence and persistence, however, led to a lot of important benefits for many years. It turns out that happiness is not a root cause of good health. Instead, happiness and health go together because they have common roots.”

Patience and persistence.  I think the big difference is focusing on long term happiness rather than just immediate pleasure.  If you are thinking about the long term, you look before you cross the street and you eat your green vegetables.  If you’re all about the pleasure, you’ll find reason to pass up that broccoli in favor of brownies.

They also found out that it is the productive among us who live the longest.  Those with good family and friend relationships also tend to thrive.

So, what does this mean for your career?  Don’t worry about seeking out the coolest job possible.  Work steadily.  Keep your relationships up.

And be just a little bit cranky.