Staffing Solutions

HME companies are similar to those in other industries where employees make or break a business. Inevitably, as I travel throughout the country to HME companies of all sizes and types, I notice that companies with the best core groups are the ones who are most successful. In this article, I will explore staffing problems, the need to hire for success and how to retain the right people.

Root of Staffing Problems

Do you ever notice that staff can’t get to the phone in less than three rings? Is accounts receivable growing out of control, particularly the older A/R? Do orders go unconfirmed for more than seven days? Does pervasive chit-chat promote constant interruptions? These are signs that you have a staffing problem.

In many HME companies, staff plays the game of chicken waiting to see if someone else might answer the phone when it rings. In some cases, staff is too busy and in other cases, certain people simply don’t want to answer the phone because of laziness. And why work the old A/R when it is easier to collect newly billed claims? It becomes a daunting task to collect old money.

Additionally, staff gets bogged down in the paperwork chase from intake to confirmation. It is no wonder that a week can pass by before you realize you haven’t received confirmation back from the warehouse. Once this process gets entangled in the back-and-forth toss between departments, it grows out of control.

Getting these staffing problems under control requires setting goals and close monitoring. The root cause of staffing problems is typically a lack of accountability and management/leadership. Strong leaders breed strong staff. When employees don’t know where to begin and don’t know how to prioritize, they flounder and often make small matters big issues and dwell on minutia to feel important. Without direction from supervisors or managers and no realistic expectations or goals, staff tends to get little done and often feels dissatisfied.

While these business woes are only a few of the symptoms of personnel problems, they frequently occur in HME companies. Moreover, knowing that competitive bidding Round 2 will significantly reduce net revenue and income for 91 more bidding areas, it is time to reevaluate your staff. Focus on improving productivity with employees who want to maximize performance.

High, medium and low performers

The first step in determining how to get the most from your employees is to interview them. Look for your high, medium and low performers. Those who complain and are the first to find problems but never look for solutions are the low performers. How can they be productive when they spend their time searching for what’s wrong?

Medium performers are those who know there’s a problem and want it fixed but can’t necessarily find the best solution. These are your good, solid employees who want to do well but follow instructions better than giving direction.

The high level performers not only find the problem but they also find the best possible solution for the organization. They are leaders and analytical thinkers. These people usually represent your core staff.  Finding your high, medium and low performers will direct you to your next move, which is your potential need to hire.

Need to hire

Assuming you must shuffle staff around, be prepared to hire based on a certain skill set you need. The days are gone when we could put a warm body in a key position and teach them about their job as time permitted. In fact, it is more common today to find staff members who grew into their key positions by working their way up from the bottom.

The question, is can they keep up with the pace and the skill level required in HME today? Sometimes, the seasoned staff is incapable of meeting the demands of today’s requirements. Further, many don’t know how to react when they are held accountable for their work, after years of working in a system that required little accountability.

Still, productivity standards and accuracy tallies are becoming the norm and may mean the difference between staying in business and failing. Regardless of tenure, staff must embrace the notion of improving productivity and working in an environment where expectations are discussed, goals are established and concrete objective measures are the daily norm.

During an interview, ask open-ended questions and give the applicant a role-play scenario with several steps. Their answer will show you how they think. Don’t be as concerned with the correct answer as you are with how they arrived at the answer. Although there is a certain element of luck found in getting good, strong employees, it is also about listening and observing the candidate to know if they are a fit for the organization. 

Focus on retention

Once you decide on the best candidate for the job, work on retention. The key is training. Educating and giving your employees the tools and resources to succeed means they are more to perform at top level. This entails proper orientation.  While there is no textbook, there are plenty of opportunities to learn online and through various software programs.

Buying groups such as VGM and the MED Group and programs like DME Train offer a selection of applicable training programs that are closely related to the jobs your new hires will perform. They even provide competency tests.

Secondly, the new employee should observe the entire operational flow to better understand the company’s process from beginning to end. Cross training is an excellent way to create depth in your employee’s skill set.

Finally, have the new hire work with a trainer whose job it is to initially perform the functions for the employee to follow.  When the trainer feels it is time, the new hire will perform the tasks while the trainer observes. This continues until the trainer tests the employee and they successfully complete their functions enough times to allow them to work on their own. The completed work is checked until they reach a percentage success rate. The work should be audited on a random basis and measured against co-workers. 

As you can see, the real key to retention and success is in accountability measures and goal setting. With this, and the right manager, staff will feel valued and will have no doubt about their performance. In fact, they can self-evaluate and be certain of their position at the company by helping set their goals and realizing their success rate through their achievements. Comparing them to peers is healthy competition and a great way to find high, middle and low performers. After counsel, training and remediation, low performers will either rise to the occasion or find success elsewhere. High performers should be rewarded.

From identifying the symptoms of a staffing issue to the need to hire, you will lean on your core staff to get the job done. Moreover, through the hiring process, training and retaining staff is insurance that you have molded the operation in a positive and progressive manner. Status quo can no longer get you to the next level. You need more high-level performers to be able to sustain profitability. After all, the HME business is one that now, more than ever, requires personnel with business acumen, savvy problem-solving ability and analytical thinking skills.

As we enter a new era in HME consolidation, keeping our money is the objective, not just getting paid. The requisite for this is a strong, business-minded staff that thinks things through and strives for goals.