Most every business owner has gone through this scenario: You spend time and money advertising, reading resumes and interviewing for an open position with your practice. You find and hire someone you believe to be perfect. You provide them with training and introduce them to the rest of your staff. You think all is going well and that you can get back to your normal activities when - surprise! - your new hire quits after a short time, leaving you before your practice can reap the benefits of the time and resources you’ve invested. Worst of all, you have to start all over again.
When this happens, your gut reaction is to blame the employee. And it is true that oftentimes there is nothing that you could have done to prevent the employee from leaving. Maybe they weren’t serious about the job in the first place, or maybe circumstances outside of their control (a spouse getting transferred to a new city) might have forced their hand. But the truth is that many employees who leave new jobs quickly do so due to circumstances which are in your control. Here are three reasons new employees leave jobs quickly:
This is one of the biggest reasons employees leave their jobs shortly after they start, and it is one which you can control. Make sure that your training program is intensive and that employees have plenty of time to ask questions. Also, even if your practice is short-handed and you are anxious to get the new employee to work, do not shorten the training period and expect the new hire to sink or swim. While it might seem advantageous in the short term, you are increasing the chances that the new hire will feel overwhelmed and unprepared.
While you want to make your job descriptions as enticing as possible in order to recruit the best talent, you also need to make sure that they contain an honest assessment of the duties of that position. Do not “lure” new hires in with one job description and then expect them to perform another.
If you have a toxic office environment, you are unlikely to keep any new hires for long. “Clean house” at your practice before bringing in someone new, and you can prevent negative staff members from impacting a new employee. If you know that a member of your workforce is extremely negative or difficult to work with, even if “everyone knows that is just how he is,” you need to address that issue right away. Not only will this make for a more inviting environment for new hires, but it will improve upon the morale of your existing staff.
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