Chijioke Agomo, MSc, MRPharmS, is a community pharmacist from London and a part-time Doctorate in Healthcare (pharmacy) student at Kings College, London

Panel 1: Mutual respect and personal involvement

• Outline job responsibilities — make sure staff understand their own roles and that of others (ie, who is accountable for what)

• Always keep staff informed of any changes

• Involve staff in decision-making processes (this helps to avoid situations where policies are dumped on the staff who may be resistant to them and become obstacles to progress)

• Ensure the organisation has a caring attitude (taking the time to get to know staff, asking for suggestions and acting on feedback means they will be seen as people and not machines)

• Ensure that any criticism is constructive (ie, do not just point out errors but suggest how improvements can be made and offer support)

• Allow staff to participate in goal setting (goals should be challenging but realistic)

Panel 2: Suggestions for maintaining a motivated workforce

• The work environment should fill staff with a sense of pride and this can be achieved with a professional, tidy, modern and spacious pharmacy with a well-equipped consultation area.

• Staff should be given regular breaks. They should have a pleasant environment to relax in, with good toilet facilities (ie, the unseen parts of a store should be as comfortable as the public parts). Comfortable tea rooms or canteens, modern heating and air conditioning will help to make staff feel valued.

• Emphasise the importance of your staff’s health (eg, during work, providing seats or stools to enable staff — especially those working long hours — to rest their legs, could help to reduce the risks of varicose veins).

• Establish a family friendly approach. Many managers believe that family-friendly policies make for happier staff. Although policies like flexible working time may be more difficult to run in a community pharmacy than in an office environment, other options, such as job sharing, are possible.

• A shift from market-oriented, target-driven pharmacies to patient-oriented clinical services in the community has been welcomed by pharmacists who want to use more clinical skills and have more interaction with patients. This could also help increase public recognition of pharmacists.

• If possible, employ more staff to lessen the pressure of work. Do you have a ratio for number of staff to number of prescriptions dispensed? Do you make a visible effort to retain staff or fill vacancies quickly?

• Establish efficient systems through training and communication (eg, telephone queries should be directed to the pharmacist only when necessary).

• Adopt new technologies, such as the electronic transmission of prescriptions, automated dispensing, personal digital assistants, online pharmacies and the internet (preferably broadband). This can free staff time, reduce errors and smooth the dispensing process.

• Community pharmacy ownership is the top ambition among pharmacy students (PJ, 30 September 2006, p407) so introducing the concept of franchising or other ownership or partnership arrangements (as seen frequently with pharmacists in the US and Canada) will go a long way to motivate and strengthen committment.

• Engage with the relevant stakeholders, to channel more funding to the pharmacy practice so that new and exciting services can be offered.

• The remuneration of pharmacists and their staff needs to be in line with that of other health care providers with similar qualifications so review salaries regularly.

• Encourage mentorship (popular in medicine, nursing and midwifery). This helps prevent a feeling of isolation and can be a source of guidance and inspiration.

• Job re-engineering or enrichment (eg, rotating tasks between staff to reduce boredom, expanding the range of tasks or allocating more responsibility and freedom) can be cost-effective and has been used by some organisations to tackle psychological motivation factors. However, bear in mind that this strategy could backfire if not all staff welcome such an approach, especially those who are content with simple tasks.

• Promoting team work, particularly organising staff into “self-managing” groups could improve staff relationships and increase productivity.

• Reward staff for their achievements and celebrate successes. (Rewards do not have to be too costly. Some staff, for example, might appreciate an afternoon off.)

• Give staff the opportunity and support for self development, (eg, a dispenser’s course, a clinical diploma or a management qualification) and reward with promotion or enhanced remuneration on completion.

• Take time to talk to staff and get to know them so you recognise when they are unhappy.

• Give support and words of encouragement when needed. (I had a difficult time with my MSc course work because of pressures from work and family until I was assigned my supervisor. Her patience with the work I was doing and constant words of encouragement motivated me tremendously, to the point that I was able to graduate on time, despite initial drawbacks.)

• Build a sense of community. Many staff will live locally, so participate in local campaigns or schemes and support local charities.

• Share a common goal — involve staff in developing a mission statement that will foster teamwork.

• Reward long service.

• Introduce healthy competition. (This should be of short duration, have objective scoring and, if possible, have different levels of winners, and be fun.)

• Occasionally, treat your staff (eg, by buying cakes; however, make sure this does not become expected).

• Have fun together (eg, try a group activity outside work).