Your employees went into pharmacy because they desire meaningful work. And in order for their work to continue to be meaningful, they have to grow.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to grow new skills if your workplace doesn’t support or encourage your professional growth. Don’t let this happen at your pharmacy.
Encourage your employees to improve their skills and contribute their best work to your independent community pharmacy by investing in their professional development.
Here are six ways you can foster your pharmacy employees’ educational and professional development.
1. Conduct regular reviews
Regular performance reviews can benefit both you and your employees.
They can tell you if an employee has enough work to do, or if she feels as if she’s capable of taking on a larger role.
For example, a seasoned pharmacy technician may be craving more responsibility. Without a regular performance review, you might not know how eager she is to contribute to your independent community pharmacy.
Likewise, regular reviews can grant you the opportunity to tell the employee areas she could improve on or praise her in the areas she’s succeeding. You can also use the time to empower your pharmacy employees and inspire them to take on a bigger role.
2. Create opportunities for advancement
Most dedicated employees strive for upward mobility in their field. Your independent community pharmacy is no different.
Although your small business may not have much wiggle room for substantial raises for employees, or creating new roles to fill, it’s okay to start small. Simply granting a long-term employee more responsibilities, or a new title can do the trick.
3. Develop a pharmacy mentor program
Most of the employees in your pharmacy are well educated, but they have differing skill sets and experience levels.
Developing a pharmacy mentor program can benefit both veteran pharmacists and recent pharmacy school graduates. Veterans can share their tricks of the trade and benefit from becoming mentors to their peers. Meanwhile, recent grads will get the chance to develop their skills by learning firsthand from the experts themselves.
4. Provide on-the-job training
Whether pharmacist, pharmacy tech or non-pharmacy employee, on-the-job training is essential in helping employees understand their roles, learn new techniques and improve safety.
For example, a pharmacy tech may have never worked with a pharmacy robot before. Be sure to provide training on how to use the robot and what you expect of her.
Job training is especially essential to new employees. Without a proper tutorial and introduction into how your business is run, the employee won’t know what you expect of him.
5. Encourage involvement in work-related organizations
Employees may be more keen to advance professionally if you encourage it.
With hectic workdays and other obligations outside their work schedule, many employees may not be able to find the time to join a professional organization or network after a long day on the job.
If your pharmacy encourages involvement in pharmacy organizations or attendance at local pharmacy events, employees may be more likely to continue their professional development.
For example, you can encourage involvement by granting employees a certain number of days off a year to attend a pharmacy conference.
6. Pay for education
Education doesn’t just end after pharmacy school. But, financial burdens could be hindering your employees’ attempts to grow their talents.
Implementing an education assistance plan, where you reimburse employees for their education costs, will allow for financially-strapped employees to advance their schooling, and create an added bonus for individuals who may be looking to work at your pharmacy. (Learn more here.)
If your pharmacy can’t afford to extend a large amount of money to employees for educational purposes, paying for a workshop or for the whole pharmacy to attend a continuing education (CE) course can be an excellent way to support your employees’ educational development.
A Member-Owned Company Serving Independent Pharmacies
PBA Health is dedicated to helping independent pharmacies reach their full potential on the buy-side of their business. Founded and owned by pharmacists, PBA Health serves independent pharmacies with group purchasing services, wholesaler contract negotiations, proprietary purchasing tools, and more.
An HDA member, PBA Health operates its own NABP-accredited secondary wholesaler with more than 6,000 SKUs, including brands, generics, narcotics CII-CV, cold-storage products, and over-the-counter (OTC) products — offering the lowest prices in the secondary market.
