Getting Staff to Buy In to Necessary Workflow Change

With the shifting landscape of community pharmacy adapting best technology and workflow practices has become a necessity to survive.  Some examples in the past have been med sync, and the incorporation of immunizations.  These changes were more than necessary to keep a pharmacy in business but it is challenging to get full adoption from your employees.

We see it often where a pharmacy owner agrees to make changes to his business and is on board with the vendor partner who is pushing for that change.  Unfortunately, owner buy-in is just half the battle and it is common for this excitement not to trickle down to the front line employees.  Human nature is to think “what is in it for me” and remain a creature of habit especially in a stressful environment such as a reactive pharmacy workflow. Here are some recommendations to make sure your staff is aligned with necessary changes.

Show them the light at the end of the tunnel. Temporary pain for long term relief is what you are selling to your staff.  Let's take med sync as an example.  Yes setting this up can be frustrating and laborious but when the program is rolling they are going to have less chaotic phone calls and customer visits bringing some long term relief to their day.  This is the type of scenario you have to reinforce that there is a long term goal and strategy to your efforts.  With adopting new practices the goal is to streamline efforts and free up time and money for the business to thrive.

Carrot vs Stick

Carrot-Incentivize change by praise and bonuses.  Humans respond to positive reinforcement and if there is some mutual benefit to the buy in they feel more empowered to the change.  Some owners tell me I pay my staff to do their job why should I have to incentivize them to do this.  That is a true statement but the fact of the matter is that creating change can be difficult and giving them a little extra motivation can go a long way.  One of the top examples is to set a contest where there is a individual winner and a group metric to hit so the whole staff is emboldened to keep pushing for the goal.  One of the top stores designed a contest around med sync that equated to PTO for the winner and a Dinner date for the entire staff if so many customers were enrolled in med sync.

Stick- Another motivator is negative consequences of complacency.  Help them understand the negative effects of continuing the old way as it relates to the business.  Point out the challenges of continuing to operate inefficiently and the overall impact of less resources due to declining margin.  I have also seen where some staff's inability to adapt made them the first one on the chopping block if layoffs had to occur.

Allocate the time and resources to help them feel confident in the new way.  

You're a small business which has the advantage of being nimble and changing direction quicker than the corporate competition. This enables you to better serve your community and keep a positive relationship with customers.  Make sure your staff feels confident in their decision to enact change because they have the appropriate time and resources to train and implement the change.