Are you correctly staffed?

Are you correctly staffed? - Lorna Lang, Consulting Account Manager

It was such a delight to see a segment on the BBC ONE Show at the start of May in which pharmacy was being credited with their phenomenal importance, dedication and support during the worst and most challenging times the COVID pandemic threw at the healthcare system.

Despite this long overdue acknowledgement; pharmacy finds itself in a bit of a predicament. Many staff are off with long term sickness, now suffer with mental health issues or have moved away from the industry through burnout because they simply didn’t stop for months during COVID, resulting in exhaustion and an inability to simply, ‘go on’.

That leaves pharmacy – who have now been publically thanked and valued more than ever – at a disadvantage. There is more trust and awareness in what pharmacy can offer to customers and patients, so more are coming through the door, but there are far fewer staff to deliver. Pharmacy is busier which is fantastic, but the struggle to maintain or rebuild a strong workforce is a bigger issue than ever.

Talking to Numark members, staffing is a constant topic and challenge to manage. It comes up in every conversation, be it high locum rates, a dispenser off sick or staff generally moving on. As you know staff are any business’ greatest and most valuable asset because it doesn’t work without them, therefore making sure you are staffed correctly, then caring for those you have, needs to be a top priority along with a recruitment plan for when you need one.

Just one team member down can not only have a negative impact on productivity and customer experience, but the morale of the team too, who need to cover the extra workload and inevitably feel the negative pressure. It’s a simple question to ask but are you staffed correctly for your workload?

An already lean team can’t afford to be compromised unlike a pharmacy who has more staff than it needs. We see a wide variety of FTE when we look at rotas as part of n.able consultancy projects we work on. There are obviously individual reasons for each pharmacy to be staffed the way that they are, but in general your baseline team needs to be calculated on your item numbers and minimum hours as dictated by the GPhC.

I.e. 7,000 = 75 hours per week/FTE working hours per week (37.5) = 2 FTE

It’s important to note that this output is a minimum and includes the pharmacist. From experience, in this example would be a challenge to cope even if you successfully implement semi automation for repeats through Golden Tote for example, which frees up a lot of staff hours within the working week. Customer care needs to be paramount and to allow time for customers to feel valued and provide a comprehensive selection of relevant services so based on this example, 3 FTE would be more realistic in practice and provides cover for sickness and holidays as well as a contingency should something adverse occur.

Once baseline FTE is established how do you go about addressing retention or recruitment in such a competitive marketplace? There is no quick fix, but challenge yourself to honestly answer some of these questions:

Why would someone want to work for you?
Do you have a robust hiring process?
Is the salary you are offering competitive?
What do you offer over and above salary?
If you are down FTE, how long have your staff been struggling for?
How do you support your team’s mental health?
Are there any team members who could be upskilled to cover gaps?
Do you provide regular training and support progression?
How do you reward your staff for their efforts?
Do you seek out new and innovative ways to help them with their tasks?
Are your systems and processes refined to reduce unnecessary tasks and delays?
Do you use technology to automate tasks?
Have you asked your staff how you can better support them?
Do you strengthen your team through team building activities outside of work?
Do you have a clear induction programme?

There are some big questions there, but for a business owner, understanding the answers is essential to planning how to move forwards in the current climate with your plans for both retaining and attracting employees. As attracting new employees is the most discussed area currently, focusing on how you recruit could be your priority and for that, you need to sell your business. Some of my thoughts on this:

Is your job advert creative and engaging? Move away from the standard.
Make sure you are transparent and clear about the expectations of the role and be clear on the training you will provide.
Use your social media to promote any vacancies.
Actively approach schools and colleges to find new talent.
Offering apprenticeships can be very beneficial for your business and young people looking for their first job.
Most job seekers go straight to Google so try out the job title job title you are recruiting for and advertise on the top sites alongside pharmacy specific.

It can be far from easy, however even with the best will in the world, so for assistance in this area and support building an action plan to create a secure and resilient pharmacy team, get in touch. n.able are available to help and guide you.

n.able@numark-central.co.uk

numarknet.com/n.able