Implement a Pharmacy Employee Training Process to Help You Become More Profitable
Have you ever felt like you’ve wasted entire months hiring and then training a new employee that didn’t work out? There are many reasons why new employees might not work out, but don’t let one of those reasons be because of the lack of adequate employee processes and training.
Get ready to up your training game with these 4 steps to create and implement an employee training process in your pharmacy. When employees know what they’re doing and how to do it, they are laser-focused and can accomplish much more.
The 4 Step Process from Jeff Earlywine
Jeff Earlywine is a business coach, keynote speaker, corporate trainer, and financial planner. He has 30 years of experience under his belt and has worked with over 300 different businesses through his business coaching at Purpose Plan Profit. Jeff was a recent guest at DiversifyRx’s Virtual Pharmacy Profit Summit, where he shared his 4-step process. To learn more about how Jeff helps pharmacy owners, please reach out to Jeff at jeff@purposeplanprofit.com.
Pharmacy owners have a gazillion other things keeping them busy, so finding time to write training processes can be challenging, but believe me, it’s very much worth it in the long run.
After implementing the 4 Step Process, you’ll notice less time wasted by employees (because they are doing things the way you’d like them to) and an increase in efficiency, both things that help drive and increase productivity and profitability. Winner!
4-Step Pharmacy Employee Training Process
Save yourself headaches and money by going through this simple yet highly effective process for creating a repeatable employee training process unique to your pharmacy. Here is an overview of the 4-step process.
- Make your list
- Prioritize the list into 4 groups
- Create a 4-week training process
- Teach them, then let them teach you
Pharmacy Employee Training Step 1: Make Your List
Grab your laptop, pen, notepad, and find somewhere with little distractions (probably not at work), and make a list of everything you’d like your new employee to do. Not by the person but by the position. Don’t worry about spelling or grammar errors at this point.
For example, if you’re hiring a cashier, write down everything you want them to do as a cashier. If you know they will also be responsible for deliveries, write down what the delivery driver will do (you will train them on both lists). Some lists may be shorter than others, and that’s ok. Each role will not have the same number of responsibilities.
Ask someone to transcribe your notes into a word document on the computer, an employee, or even your kid. Don’t be afraid to let others help you – use your resources so you can focus on your own priorities.
Pharmacy Employee Training Step 2: Prioritize the List Into 4 Groups
After you write down the list of responsibilities for each role, prioritize the list into four individual groups. Group one is what you want them to learn and do first. Group two is what you want them to learn and do second. You see where I’m going… You will end up with four different groups.
Number your groups 1 through 4. If your list includes 20 things, don’t include all 20 in the first training group. Separate them, so it makes sense for the new hire and what the priority they need to learn them in.
Pharmacy Employee Training Step 3: Create a 4 Week Training Process
Each group is a week’s training. By the end of each week, you will want the new hire to demonstrate competency in each area. So, step 3 is organizing your groups from step 2 into weekly pieces of training. You could choose to show everything on day 1 of the week, so the new hire can perfect the tasks on the remaining days. Or you can choose to assign 1-2 lessons to each day. How you lay this out will vary from position to position. If you aren’t sure what might be best, a good idea is to ask an employee currently in the job position what would be the best learning method for a new hire.
Assign the new hire to other employees for training rather than all of it falling on you. Before you can do this assigning, you need to know that your current employees will teach the new hire properly. Have a mini-training session on each point with your existing staff to ensure everyone is on the same page. Check in with your employees throughout the week to make sure they are on track and know what to do.
Pharmacy Employee Training Step 4: Teach Them, Then Let Them Teach You.
Step 4 is a validation step. The new hire will teach you what they’ve learned – a critical piece. On Monday, let each new hire know they will be teaching you everything they’ve learned that week, on Friday. For example, if they learned six items that week, they would teach you six items on Friday. Do not skip this step. This step ensures that everything worked in the process and your new hire is set up for success.
What Happens Next?
Give the employee some time to get their feet underneath themselves, help answer questions and give additional training if necessary.
If you notice the employee isn’t catching on or can’t do the task after their first two weeks, they may not be a good fit. Remember, be Slow to Hire, Quick to Fire. Don’t hang on to employees that just don’t get it. They will end up being a burden on your growth and drag down your higher-performing employees. For tips on hiring better in the first place, check out our Hiring Best Practices blog.
Training Processes Matter
Having a training process helps build trust and respect with the employee and pharmacy owner. As your pharmacy grows, and it will, you will be able to use this process over and over. While there are various steps, you only have to do it once for each position. And once you know it works, you can hand it over to other employees to take it off your plate.
A team of high-performing rock stars is what we all strive for. Great employees will help you grow and diversify your revenues more than any other asset. Also, you can use this process for current employees. You could use it as an annual refresher or for training someone to take on a new role.
It’s Up To You
The 4 Step Process is an effective and simple tool. And in my opinion, simple is the way to go. Put this into practice, and if it feels too big to do it all, lean into someone like Jeff to get some help, or at least remember that the elephant only gets eaten one bite at a time, go through the process, take it slow and give yourself a goal of 90 days to get it done.
To purchase access and watch this interview, along with many others, from the virtual Pharmacy Profit Summit, click HERE. You will have lifetime access to these valuable strategies.
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