Staff meetings…supervisors may see them as vital to the success of the practice and employees may view them as time-wasters. Regardless of whether you love them, hate them or are blasé about them, they are standard fixtures in many veterinary practices.
VHMA surveyed 332 hospital administrators, practice managers, office managers, veterinarians, and technicians, and 91% are affiliated with a practice that holds staff meetings at regularly scheduled intervals. Fifteen percent report that meetings are held weekly, although 12% meet biweekly. A small number of respondents define “regular” as daily, quarterly or annually.
Approximately half of the respondents hold “all staff” meetings as well as meetings that are organized by position or department. Only a few offices schedule department only meetings (2%) or position only meetings (5%).
How critical is staff meeting attendance? It is so important that 57% said that even employees who are not scheduled to be in the office the day of the meeting are required to attend. Eleven percent report that, while the practice expects all employees to attend, those not scheduled to work are allowed to participate by phone. Thirty-three percent say that administrators do not expect employees who are not working the day of a staff meeting to participate. Those employees are later briefed on meeting discussions. Eighty-six percent of the practices surveyed distribute notes and minutes after the meeting. Fourteen percent post notes to the practice’s message board.
In the majority of cases (57%), an agenda is not circulated to staff prior to the meeting. Seventy percent designate someone to take notes, which are shared with staff.
The most common agenda topics are customer service (96%), client communication and education (92%), medical protocols (92%), staff training (88%), products and services (84%) and management and leadership topics (70%). At the other end of the spectrum are topics that do not seem to receive much attention at these meetings, including industry trends (36%), interesting cases (27%) and discipline issues (27%).
Meetings tend to run 31-60 minutes (40%) and 61-90 minutes (36%). Four percent report that staff meetings last less than 30 minutes and 19% attend meetings that are in excess of 90 minutes!
To ensure staff meetings are productive, 59% close to the office while the meeting is in progress. Eight percent will close the office on occasion and 33% do not close the office for a meeting…ever!
According to respondents, the one strategy that influences how productive the meeting is, is having an agenda (57%). Other strategies for success identified by respondents are: required participation (18%), assigned duties/tasks (9%), short, time-limited meetings (9%) and required attendance (8%). Several respondents serve food and have introduced fun activities to make meetings more palatable.
Holding regularly scheduled staff meetings can enhance communication among employees. For these meetings to be effective, there should be an agenda and follow-up with employees who did not attend to ensure they are aware of issues discussed. And never underestimate the power of some tasty snacks and few fun activities!
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