Revamping Job Descriptions: A Key to Sustaining Medical Practices
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Employers are striving to maintain their competitive edge in today's fast-paced environment. For any organization, securing personnel and ensuring their loyalty is crucial for survival. This necessitates that employers regularly design and outline the specific talents and skills their business requires, while also updating the qualifications for job roles they aim to fill.
That is called the Job Description!
A well-crafted job description allows employers to effectively match the right individuals with the necessary personalities and skills to appropriate positions within their organizations. It also clarifies the employer's expectations, fostering mutual understanding and a positive work atmosphere.
Having a job description for each role is especially important for medical practices, regardless of their size. A 2012 report by the American College of Physicians highlighted that many small medical practices lacked clear job descriptions. Although this information may be dated, it underscores an ongoing issue.
The lack of literacy in writing job descriptions is often cited as a significant reason for this deficiency. Clear job descriptions are essential for hiring and retaining medical staff, providing guidelines for equitable employee compensation, training, and performance evaluations.
A well-defined job description also establishes mutual expectations and enhances relationships between practice managers and staff, which can lead to improved employee retention and reduce the likelihood of turnover for better opportunities.
# The Impact of Medical Staff Turnover on Practices
Staff turnover in healthcare is a widespread concern. Almost every employee in the industry seeks better compensation and more flexible working conditions.
Staff turnover is an expensive challenge for medical practices, with costs potentially reaching $75,000 per employee.
Various factors contribute to medical staff turnover, including working conditions, burnout, and issues stemming from poor strategies or discriminatory policies.
# The Necessity of Regularly Updating Job Descriptions
As time progresses, shifts in generations, expectations, and socioeconomic conditions occur. Correspondingly, the need for updated job descriptions in businesses and medical practices evolves.
For example, the socioeconomic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic have prompted employers to renew their recruitment efforts, as many employees now prefer partial remote work. Therefore, pre-pandemic job descriptions may no longer suffice for thriving medical practices.
This is precisely why new job descriptions should reflect these recent realities.
Revisions of job descriptions must accurately outline a role's responsibilities and, to remain competitive, should prioritize remote work options. This approach will allow medical practices to tap into a wider talent pool while filtering out unqualified candidates.
A survey from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA) in November 2022 shed light on recent trends regarding job description updates in medical practices.
The MGMA report revealed that over 58% of organizations have recently refreshed their job descriptions, while 42% still need to address this important task—a promising trend nonetheless.
Notably, the primary job descriptions revised were for medical assistants, front desk staff, patient contact roles, and care coordinators. The focus of the report was largely on implementing hybrid work models that alleviate some responsibilities from medical assistants by redistributing tasks to front desk and patient contact personnel who can perform them remotely.
# Enhancing Medical Staff Satisfaction with Improved Job Descriptions
Strategies for increasing retention among medical staff vary based on each practice's vision, mission, and culture. However, some universal methods for reducing turnover include prioritizing communication from leadership and frequently updating team members on organizational changes and job description updates.
Additionally, establishing career paths for employees, encouraging engagement, and utilizing appropriate tools can significantly decrease staff turnover.
Updating job descriptions can be an administratively taxing process, involving design, writing, approval, strategy, and implementation, particularly as medical practices grow and become more complex.
Fortunately, the rise of diverse cloud-based technologies, including online document-sharing platforms, has simplified this task. Nevertheless, much work remains to be done in the future.
Access to a hybrid work environment is crucial for maintaining the competitiveness of job descriptions.
A hybrid model not only supports staff retention but also facilitates regular updates and maintenance of job descriptions, which is essential in combating turnover.
This system enables all members of a medical practice to collaborate effectively, whether they are working in-person or remotely.
# References
- _Do you need help hiring practice staff? It might be time to update job descriptions._ "Having Trouble Hiring Practice Staff? It Might Be Time to Update Job Descriptions." Accessed November 11, 2022. https://www.mgma.com/data/data-stories/having-trouble-hiring-practice-staff-it-might-be-t
- _Updating Job Descriptions | HUB International._ "Update Job Descriptions to Fit Today's Talent Needs," July 6, 2021. https://www.hubinternational.com/blog/2021/07/updating-job-descriptions/
- _TABRIZ, Dr. ADAM._ "Medical Practices Are Going Hybrid." Medium, November 9, 2022. https://readmedium.com/medical-practices-are-going-hybrid-1e66d2d58467
- _Workforce.com._ "Workforce Management Software News, Blog, and Resources." Accessed November 11, 2022. https://workforce.com/news/what-are-some-best-practices-for-rewriting-job-descriptions
- _Work — Chron.com._ "How to Change Job Descriptions." Accessed November 11, 2022. https://work.chron.com/change-job-descriptions-15256.html
- _Why job descriptions matter | ACP Internist._ "Why Job Descriptions Matter." Accessed November 11, 2022. https://acpinternist.org/archives/2012/07/tips.htm
- _Peterson, Lesa._ "The True Cost of Employee Turnover — FQHC.Org." The True Cost of Employee Turnover — FQHC.org, November 14, 2014. https://www.fqhc.org/blog/2014/11/4/the-true-cost-of-employee-turnover
- _Success, HMG._ "How Much Does Employee Turnover Cost You? — UHC Solutions." UHC Solutions, February 24, 2021. https://www.uhcsolutions.com/how-much-does-employee-turnover-really-cost-you/
- _Poon, Yuan-Sheng Ryan, et al._ "A Global Overview of Healthcare Workers' Turnover Intention amid COVID-19 Pandemic: A Systematic Review with Future Directi