The Onboarding Process and Its Link to Retention

Employee retention is a major concern for companies in all industries, but the specialized knowledge required for healthcare sales roles makes turnover a particularly salient concern in the pharmaceutical industry. After putting significant amounts of time and resources into finding and training the best candidates, you want that talent to stay with you for many years.

Building a robust new hire onboarding training program is one of the best ways to build employee loyalty. A warm and purposeful welcome addresses many of the common concerns employees have when starting a new job and helps them overcome many productivity roadblocks that keep them from performing at their best. This generates high employee retention and produces results that delight both parties.

The Emotional Stakes of a New Job

When an employee starts a new job, emotions are always running high. New employees are eager to make a good impression, feel the expectations of their new environment, and settle into their new roles. They are unaware of any pre-existing team dynamics and company culture pressures, but most are conscious of this weakness and will happily work to remedy it.

This early period is a crucial time in the employee’s tenure with your company. Their experiences at this stage frame their expectations for the job overall. If they do not receive the support and resources they need to thrive, many will assume that thriving is not possible in their role. From their perspective, this leaves them with no choice but to resign and move on. 

Delivering on Your Promises

Emotional fulfillment is not the only benefit of a well-executed onboarding period. Many companies claim that all employees are valued, integral members of the team. This is an effective mindset that promotes greater team cohesion and individual empowerment, but it means nothing without concrete action to support it.

Team members who are hired and given little to no orientation often do not feel valued. In some cases, they may not even be sure how to contribute to the team. They lack the context they need to apply their efforts to larger organizational goals and end up feeling abandoned and adrift.

This disconnected team environment is not conducive to high productivity. Even when employees decide to remain with the company, they cannot use their skills effectively for your benefit. They also have no insight into their team’s strengths or weaknesses and cannot even attempt to fill the group’s needs.

Smoothing the Transition with Onboarding

To assuage new employees' fears and help them better integrate into your organization, consider increasing your investment in onboarding training.

Onboarding training establishes an initial framework that helps both employers and employees get what they need. It helps new team members become accustomed to your company culture and expectations through a formal channel with clear and consistent messaging. When paired with a relational component like a buddy program or mentor system, a good onboarding training course can give new employees the sense of direction they crave in those critical early days. This has been shown to improve retention by up to 50%.

Onboarding training does not have to be done on a set schedule. Virtual onboarding training courses allow new employees to learn at a pace that suits their needs. If they have a large chunk of free time one afternoon, they can spend it working through the module. If other matters must be prioritized, the module can be put on hold for a while. Learning how to complete training initiatives at a self-guided pace also sets employees up for success with future training initiatives, such as account management training courses and other continuing education. 

Receive Quality Custom Onboarding Training from The Brooks Group

A well-crafted onboarding training program can mean the difference between a stable team and a revolving door of constant new hires. As a leading biotech market research and healthcare management consulting firm, The Brooks Group has developed custom onboarding training programs for countless healthcare leaders. Contact us today to discuss your organization’s training needs and get your employees off to a better start.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2022/04/onboarding-process-and-its-link-to-retention/

Retaining Top Talent During the Great Resignation

2021’s employment landscape was one of the most tumultuous environments companies have faced in recent years. The high levels of turnover that have characterized the post-pandemic job market so far are expected to continue into 2022, leaving employers to grapple with the Great Resignation for another year. The following five strategies will help your organization prepare for this challenge by increasing retention among top performers in the healthcare industry.  

1. Prioritize Career Progression 

High-achieving employees are highly motivated by career progression. If they do not think they can realize their full potential within your organization, they will look elsewhere instead.

Employees who receive additional training and opportunities to upgrade their skills are more likely to feel like valued members of the team. They will also be better candidates for internal promotions, which further reinforces company loyalty. It is important for companies to keep investing in leadership development and training programs that would enhance the potential of their executives. Quality onboarding programs that give the new hires a clear picture of their potential roadmap within the organization are also helpful in retention.

2. Develop a Policy for Remote Work 

Now that most white-collar workers have had a taste of remote work, few are eager to return to the office. If your top talent cannot work from home at least some of the time, they may decide to leave your team for another position that does allow them this flexibility. 

To keep these employees from moving on, you will need to clarify your organization's stance on remote work. Outline a policy that dictates which roles have the option to work from home and how often they will be permitted to do it. This will give you and your workers a good starting point for discussions around this issue, but be prepared to make additional concessions occasionally.  

3. Take Precautions Against Burnout 

The past few years have been extremely stressful for many people, forcing them to confront social, political, economic, and health-related anxieties all at once.

To keep your workers at the top of their game, prioritize work-life balance within your organization. Keep workloads realistic and be sure to check in regularly with each employee to measure their progress and ask if they need additional supports. Encourage time off and make sure that employees are able to fully disconnect outside of work hours. Showing your workers how much you value their wellness will go a long way toward improving their loyalty to your company. 

4. Re-Evaluate Your Compensation Structure 

In such a competitive market, top-tier workers know that they have the ability to command higher wages – and with record levels of inflation eating away at salaries, they have more reason to than ever before. 

If your organization has the financial leeway to do so, consider offering your best workers a larger raise this year. This will remove a significant incentive for them to consider switching jobs. Increasing compensation may hurt in the short term, but it will secure your organization’s talent pool and help propel future growth.  

5. Consult Your Team Members 

If you really want to retain your best employees as long as possible, ask them what they need. Turn the exit interview on its head and conduct a series of ‘stay interviews with key employees in your organization. 

Ask them not only what it would take to keep them with your company, but also what types of offers might tempt them to leave. Combine this information with additional sources like online employer reviews and anonymized internal surveys to figure out what your top talent wants and find a way to give it to them.  

Retain, Don’t Replace 

Without your strongest team members still on board, your organization's future could be in jeopardy. Investing in retention now is the best way to keep as many top performers in your ranks as possible, and it can also help you prepare these key workers to take on greater responsibilities within the company.

The Brooks Group is here to help you sharpen your employees’ skills and give them the tools they need to feel confident in the work they do. Some of our areas of expertise include instructional design, account management training, and healthcare management consulting. Contact us today to inquire about our training services and how they can make a positive impact on workers’ motivation, company loyalty, and professional ability.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/12/retaining-top-talent-during-the-great-resignation/

Using Voice of the Customer Research to Evaluate Your Account Managers

With all the tasks on a typical account manager's plate, it is easy to forget that account management is a customer service position at its core.

Voice of the Customer (VOC) market research by The Brooks Group is a customer-driven feedback process that enables account managers to be evaluated on a customized set of metrics approved by the Organization’s leadership team relative to their competitors. The Brooks Group routinely conducts this research as part of our healthcare management consulting offerings. Our findings have revealed healthcare organizations’ priorities with regards to the account managers who serve them and underscored the importance of giving weight to the customer feedback during the AM evaluation process.  

Why Consult the Customer? 

Every account manager has room for improvement in some areas. However, many struggle to identify their weaknesses without additional insight from external observers. Feedback is essential for this purpose, and customer feedback is especially useful. 

Account Managers' ultimate responsibility is to their customers. To maintain and grow their accounts, they must first satisfy those customers' needs. A customer's evaluation of an AM not only reflects how well that AM is doing now, but also outlines some ways they could secure more business from that account or improve their services when targeting similar accounts in the future. Consistent feedback can even prompt changes on an organizational level by shedding light on what customers really want from their account managers.  

Top Customer Priorities 

Our 2021 VOC surveys revealed some of the most valued measures of account manager success according to representatives of real healthcare organizations. Respondents are typically asked to rank AMs or other field-facing employees on a custom set of metrics approved by leadership. Some of these measures can include:

1. Acts with the highest standards of ethics and integrity (you trust him/her to do the right thing). 

2. Responds quickly to your requests or concerns. 

3. Demonstrates that he/she is a true advocate for your patients' needs. 

All of these measures were cited as areas that deserved significant investment to help AMs improve.  

Some other general areas of focus in the rest of the listed measures included: 

• Knowledge of new developments and trends within the industry. 

• Proactive services that anticipate customers' needs before they are brought up. 

• The ability to provide targeted suggestions based on customers' goals and patients' needs. 

How to Learn from Your Customers 

Your customers likely have a lot to say about your account managers’ services, but they may not be ready or willing to divulge their feedback face-to-face. Many people find it difficult to give a meaningful answer while on the spot, especially if what they want to say is not entirely positive.  

Instead, it is often more useful to have an independent third party distribute a survey that allows them to provide that feedback in written form. This allows your customers to take their time crafting a thorough response. It also gives them the added benefit of anonymity due to response aggregation. In short, it is the best way to ensure that the feedback you get is detailed, truthful, and applicable to your organization's goals. 

Get the Ultimate Customer Insight with the Brooks Group 

VOC research adds an invaluable dimension to your account manager evaluation process. By finding out what your customers really think about each of your account managers' services, you can evaluate their performance from a new perspective and discover new pathways to improving customer satisfaction.  It also helps companies in planning the right account management training for AM's that will help close the identified skill gap.

The Brooks Group is a leading provider of healthcare executive services including healthcare market research, onboarding training for new employees, and healthcare executive leadership training. Our VOC surveys have given many healthcare firms unparalleled insight into their account management teams' performance using custom metrics approved by the highest-ranking executives.

Contact us today to learn more about our VOC research and how we can help you better align your organization’s account management programs with the needs of real-world customers.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/using-voice-of-the-customer-research-to-evaluate-your-account-managers/

Effective Employee Onboarding Process for New Hires in the Post-Pandemic World

The dawn of remote work was just one of the many key workforce changes prompted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Now that hybrid work arrangements seem destined to become the norm, it is time for companies to adapt their new hire onboarding training to suit this new reality. The five tips below will help you to better welcome and integrate new hires working primarily in virtual spaces.

1. Foster Relationships Within Your Team

Relationship building is a key part of forming a cohesive team, but it can be difficult for people to bond organically when they are not in the same physical space. 

Start by scheduling a quick team meeting on your new hire’s first day and ask everyone present to introduce themselves. Then, follow it up with a series of one-on-one meetings between each of those people and the new hire. Breaking the ice in this way helps your new hire become better integrated into the group. 

2. Use a Mentor System

One of the most challenging things for new hires is understanding team processes and hierarchies. Some new hires hold back on asking questions they desperately want answers to because they do not want to bother a superior with trivial matters.

Knowing who to approach with a question like this can help new recruits feel significantly more comfortable in their new working environment. Help your new hire out by assigning them a patient and more experienced team member to answer the questions that will inevitably crop up.

3. Provide Regular Feedback

New employees also sometimes struggle with understanding what is expected of them in their new role, creating significant performance-based anxiety.

To combat this problem, schedule regular opportunities to give your new hire feedback on their performance. At first, you might do this every week or so. After the employee becomes more confident in their role, you can begin to scale this schedule back.

4. Offer Information on Your Company Culture

In a typical office environment, everything from daily schedules to team dynamics is often learned through osmosis. When a new hire is not exposed to this environment, these contextual elements do not reach them either.

To help remote hires adjust, prepare a written document that explicitly outlines these aspects of the job. Include information such as dress codes for video conferencing, the best times to contact others for meetings or collaboration, and how people on your team generally prefer to communicate. 

5. Highlight the Importance of the New Hire’s Role

Ultimately, new recruits are brought on board to fulfill a function within your team. You know how important that function is, but does your new hire?

This is a common problem for in-person hires as well, but it is even more difficult for those who work remotely. Limited contact with the rest of the team can make it seem like their work has no relation to the bigger picture, making it difficult for them to remain engaged.

Make sure your remote hire knows that what they are doing matters and how it contributes to your organization’s larger goals. Underline the fact that you and their colleagues value their input and expertise. These efforts will instill a sense of pride and confidence in your new employee that will drive them to perform even more effectively at work.

Break Down Barriers for Better Teams

Remote work is not going away anytime soon, and neither are your remote team members. It is worth your time and money to invest in creating new strategies to help these workers find their place in your organization. 

Healthcare consulting firms like The Brooks Group offer educational services such as account management training, healthcare management consulting, biotech market research, and even new hire onboarding training. Contact us today to learn how we can help you refine your onboarding processes to better match the demands of today's workforce.

This blog was originally posted on https://thebrooksgrouponline.com/2021/10/effective-employee-onboarding-process-for-new-hires-in-the-post-pandemic-world/