Being a manager is not as easy as Michael Scott makes it out to be. Anyone who has ever taken on a managerial role can tell you that. When you are the manager of an office, the safety, productivity, and work culture of the office are all your responsibility. Not all of us are intuitively good managers. Therefore you need to go in with a strategy in place.
A good office management strategy can help your business become more productive and profitable. Maybe you are looking for a new office location or need more space, that is where medical office brokers come in to help if you fall into that category. Now, if you’re an owner, manager, or team leader of a small medical practice, here are five things you should know about office management.
Be Aware of Every Thing That Happens In Your Office
You need to be aware of everything that happens in the office. This means you have to be aware of what work needs to be done, who is doing that work, and if someone needs help with a specific task. You also need to keep an eye on how well each employee works. If there are any problems, it’s up to you as the manager to deal with them properly.
However. to really know how well your office is functioning, you need to conduct periodic SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis. The name of the process is pretty self-explanatory. To be successful at this, you need to collect data from inside your company as well as the industry as a whole, but also from outside sources on external factors that can affect your business.
Investopedia explains that the goal of a SWOT analysis is to allow for a fact-based, data-driven, and realistic look at a company, initiative, or industry. Companies need to discard any preconceived notion about the situation to draw the correct conclusion from the analysis.
Automate Menial Tasks
Automating menial tasks is one of the best ways to improve productivity in your office. Scheduling appointments, for example, can take up the valuable time of your employees when it can easily be done by software. It will save you a significant amount of work hours and, in turn, money.
Insurance claim reimbursements, for example, are always a hassle. As more and more patients look for out-of-network healthcare providers, the task of filing for insurance reimbursement claims continues to exhaust the administrative staff of a medical center.
But you can simply opt for insurance reimbursement software, which will automate this process, and you won’t have to spend hours on the phone or do unnecessary paperwork.
You can also automate billing and other administrative duties that can free up time for more important work, like managing patient flow in the office so that patients do not have to wait too long before they see their doctor or get treatments done.
Improve Communication With Patients and Staff
One of the most important things you can do to make sure your workplace runs smoothly is to improve communication between patients and staff. This will help everyone stay on the same page and know what they need to be doing at any given time, which will, in turn, increase productivity.
Salesforce notes that based on their survey, 75% of employees prefer to communicate with their colleagues as they would with a friend. Often managers prefer to maintain a professional distance from their employees. That is fine. But this data shows that the purely formal model of communication is getting outdated. Be the kind of boss your employees can approach informally if they need to.
Clear communication from management is also important because it helps establish clear expectations for both patients as well as staff members. It’s very easy for problems like these to creep up without proper oversight. But communicating the reality of any situation clearly, yet politely can prevent many problems from occurring in the first place.
You Set The Tone In Your Office
Before you can expect your employees to be productive, you have to set the tone in your office. To do this, it’s important to understand that you are not a boss, you’re a leader. A good leader leads by example and sets the tone for success.
In order to set this positive tone, be punctual and tidy in your own work habits. If you are frequently late for work or take unscheduled leaves, that reluctant attitude will creep into your employees’ attitudes as well.
You need to lay emphasis on being disciplined in the workplace. But make sure that it doesn’t make you an irritating boss to work under. You need to respect their autonomy as well. Zippia notes that happy and satisfied employees are 13% more productive, and 72% say that the most important factor contributing to job satisfaction is being respected by the employer.
Learn To Be An Effective Manager Without Micromanaging
Your employees would appreciate your help when they are stuck with a problem, but no one wants to be told what to do every step of the way. It is hard to know if one is becoming a micromanager when offering help. But it is important to be mindful of that. Harvard Business Review offers some advice in this regard.
- Don’t jump in at the first sign of trouble. Let your employees finish doing what they are doing and when they themselves realize the problem. They will appreciate your help much more. It would also be a good educational experience for them.
- Clarify that you are not there to judge anyone’s work. Your role is to help them figure out how they can solve the problem themselves.
- Decide how involved you will get depending on the issue. Don’t get as involved in a smaller matter as you would in a complex problem.
In the end, it’s important to remember that your employees are people who want to do a good job and be recognized for that. If they know you value their contributions, they will pay more attention to how they can help make your office run smoothly.
