Managing efficient pharmacy teams

In today's competitive environment, managing an effective pharmacy team can make all the difference in producing better business results. But how to build a truly efficient team?

In this article, you can find some tips that might be useful to you and positively impact your team's performance.

1. Set clear goals

Setting clear goals with realistic deadlines is essential for any business. Effective management presupposes that everyone knows what they are trying to achieve. Therefore your business must have specific goals that must be communicated and clearly understood by all team members. This will help your team stay focused and know exactly what is expected of them. It is also important that you have regular meetings with your team to assess progress, listen to your team's feedback and readjust any issues as needed.

2. Improve communication

Lack of communication or ineffective communication can lead to errors, delays, problems, arguings and negatively impact your business. And effective communication with your team makes all the difference in terms of productivity, cooperation and efficiency. Encouraging your employees to talk to you when something is going wrong and feel free to do so, will help you prevent several unpleasant issues. Your employees will be happier and everyone will win, including your customers (since employees greatly contribute to the company's image).

3. Have a solid work structure

All pharmacies need a well-structured work environment to run efficiently. Therefore, in addition to setting clear, realistic and motivating goals, it is important that your team is aware of company's policies and procedures and that you provide all the necessary information needed. Equally important is that there is a well-designed work scheme and efficient workflow systems.

4. Know your team

We all have something we're particularly good at and other things we're not that good. Knowing your employees' strengths and weaknesses will help you make the most of their skills, which will also contribute to their well being at work as people tend to thrive when they perform tasks they enjoy and are really good at. Talk to your collaborators about the different tasks and find out how easy or difficult each one has to perform. If one of your employees has good organizational skills, for example, assign them tasks where they can be of added value, such as managing inventory or complaints.
If they are natural communicators and have good technical knowledge, they will certainly be a great asset in direct customer service.

5. Encourage team spirit

A team implies that everyone works for a common good. Therefore, no matter how well your employees work individually, they must also be able to work well collectively. In efficient teams, the leader has an essential role in setting an example, stimulating and maintaining the spirit of trust and mutual help. This will increase flexibility at work and the ability to resolve problems when they arise more efficiently. A good leader leads by example and not by giving orders, so be a leader and not just a boss.

6. Provide training and development opportunities

Most companies don’t spend the time necessary to train employees properly, which in the long run leads to more wasted time and job dissatisfaction. Therefore, training team members effectively, especially when they are hired, is essential. Start by reviewing your current pharmacy training methods. Are they enough to train employees who can provide a high level of service to your customers? Including more experienced team members in training new employees is important as it will immediately stimulate the team spirit. Another important thing is that your team members have opportunities to continue learning and developing in their careers. Otherwise, they will likely become unmotivated and this will affect their performance.

7. Keep your team motivated

We all like to be recognized for our work and your team members are no different. But when it comes to employee recognition and motivation, most employers immediately think of a pecuniary compensation and therefore more costs. A bonus has always been a good way to reward an employee for their good work and it is true that most people value receiving money, but not all people are equal and there are other things that are equally motivating or even more motivating for them. Ever heard the term “emotional salary”? For some people, seeing their work recognized by the boss and the team makes all the difference. Some value more flexible work hours or have a few extra vacation days or time to pick up their kids from school, among other things. That's why it's important that you know “your” people.

Highly efficient pharmacy teams take time to build and develop but will definitely make all the difference to your business results. Effective and motivated teams are also loyal teams and are the pillar of any successful business.