Motivate your staff and you will reap the rewards

Pharmacies need competent and friendly staff. With ongoing pressures of running a successful business — in addition to new clinical roles taken on by pharmacists as part of the UK community pharmacy contracts — now, more than ever, pharmacy owners and managers cannot afford to lose staff to competitors or elsewhere.

What motivates staff?

As well as keeping the costs and time associated with recruitment to a minimum, retaining good staff can only be a good thing for business — and for morale.

But what pushes employees to move on? And how do employers create the kind of workplace in which people want to stay?

Research involving over 800 workers, undertaken by the recruitment company Manpower UK, reveals that many workers are more motivated by career opportunities than by money. Some 28 per cent of workers said that the key reason for moving jobs is for better career opportunities, compared with 17 per cent for an increase in salary. More than a sixth of those surveyed claimed that better communication and a better work environment would encourage them to stay.

Mark Cahill, managing director of Manpower UK, says that keeping staff turnover low takes time and investment. “Lower staff turnover results in a more motivated and productive workforce and reduced recruitment costs,” he says.

“Pay and benefits are always important for workers, but employers also need to think of ways in which they can make a difference in other ways — the developmental opportunities they provide staff, how they communicate with staff, and even the nature of the working environment.”

Staff development

Gary Dobinson, pharmacist development manager at Boots The Chemists, says that one of the big things Boots has done over the past couple of years is to recognise better the need for pharmacist development. Boots’s four-year ASPIRE programme covers professional and commercial aspects of the job, designed to support recently registered pharmacists making the transition from newly qualified to more experienced. “We are not necessarily pushing pharmacists into managerial roles,” he explains, “rather, we are developing pharmacists to be the best they can be in their existing roles.”

ASPIRE, among other initiatives, has seen turnover of Boots’s newly qualified pharmacists reduced by around half within its first year, Mr Dobinson says.

What about the independent sector?

Manpower UK’s research indicates that 38 per cent of smaller businesses consider staff retention as a key priority compared with only 23 per cent of large ones.

Jane Lumb, training manager at Numark, says that independent community pharmacies are under different pressures when it comes to staff retention. “The main challenge facing the independent sector is competing with the structured development opportunities available for staff in multiple pharmacies or secondary care,” she points out. “It is vital that independents understand their staff and their goals and ambitions, and can help them achieve these within the community sector.”

She emphasises the importance of a familiar face in the pharmacy for customers in regional communities. “The difference that an independent can offer over one of the multiples is a small team and continuity of staff who can develop a real relationship with customers. Many of our members run family businesses in small towns that have served generations of the same family — their staff are the same. Staff retention is therefore an integral part of the independent’s offering.”