Motivate Techs

[BrightLight]

Pharmacy managers, what are some tips you could share about how you keep your techs motivated at work? Buy them gift cards on birthdays? Share your bonuses with them? Thanks!

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[dmbgg]

I am in my first year now, but before I was a tech for 4 years. I know when our boss received his bonus at the end of the year... He would give the full-time techs (I believe there were 4 or 5, I was not one of them) a gift card for $50 or so to a restaurant or on one of those VISA gift cards so they could use it anywhere. He also buys the pharmacy pizza or something once every few months.

Mostly, they are just really good to us, and I think the techs appreciate that. I hope I have the same opportunity when I am practicing.

 

[rxlea]

Gift cards at christmas, pizza or other food once a month or so. Techs get paid like crap and appreciate any gesture really but being able to put gas in your car for two weeks goes a long way.

 

[joetrisman]

Lack of money will make you sad, but having money cannot make you happy. To keep someone happy and motivated, they have to have intangible benefits such as the feeling of making a difference (ala maslow's hierarchy of needs). I would continuously harp on the impact being made and get the techs more involved in process decision making to what extent is possible.

 

[owlegrad]

Agree with everyone above. Food and momney are great but knowing your boss appreciates your work goes a long way too. Thankfully my boss(es) do both!

 

[rxlea]

Lack of money will make you sad, but having money cannot make you happy. To keep someone happy and motivated, they have to have intangible benefits such as the feeling of making a difference (ala maslow's hierarchy of needs). I would continuously harp on the impact being made and get the techs more involved in process decision making to what extent is possible.

Yep. When people tell others what a great job they do, it builds morale and everyone tends to help each other out. We do appreciation cards at work and anyone can fill one out for anyone else and in the comments thank them for whatever. When you get one, you get a 6 dollar voucher in the cafeteria or a movie ticket (you pick!)

 

[Rx MPLS]

#1: Techs should get paid enough that they don't have to worry about filling up their car. You may not have control over this, unfortunately.

#2: Recognize techs when they go above and beyond, allow them some degree of autonomy in their day to day work decisions, help them feel like what they do matters and makes a difference to somebody (and that this somebody isn't just the store manager who will now make their bonus this year due to the tech's hard work). Know their birthdays. Celebrate their birthdays. Know who and what is important to them. Ask about what's going on in their lives. Trust them to make good decisions. All of this will hopefully help make a difference!

 

[Sparda29]

I love most of the techs I work with at my hospital except for one of them. If any of the regulars ever call out sick, this tech is the first to get the call since the person is a per-diem. Me and the other pharmacist I work with immediately look at each other with an "oh no" look.

For some reason, this tech thinks their most important responsibility is to have the code carts trays, back room, and the medication carts stocked up, rather than concentrating on filling the orders we enter or picking up the phone. One time this tech was in the ER in the Pyxis room refilling the Pyxis, nurse walks in to get something from Pyxis, the tech tells the nurse to go to pharmacy for the item.

Meanwhile, all the other techs concentrate on filling the orders we enter and filtering the phone calls and keeping the nurses away from us and they leave the code cart trays and medication carts as the last priority. Personally, I just tell them to leave that stuff for the day shifters to work on.

 

[owlegrad]

I love most of the techs I work with at my hospital except for one of them. If any of the regulars ever call out sick, this tech is the first to get the call since the person is a per-diem. Me and the other pharmacist I work with immediately look at each other with an "oh no" look.

For some reason, this tech thinks their most important responsibility is to have the code carts trays, back room, and the medication carts stocked up, rather than concentrating on filling the orders we enter or picking up the phone. One time this tech was in the ER in the Pyxis room refilling the Pyxis, nurse walks in to get something from Pyxis, the tech tells the nurse to go to pharmacy for the item.

Meanwhile, all the other techs concentrate on filling the orders we enter and filtering the phone calls and keeping the nurses away from us and they leave the code cart trays and medication carts as the last priority. Personally, I just tell them to leave that stuff for the day shifters to work on.

This seems relevant to the discussion.

 

[Its Z]

Old adage you can lead a horse to the water but can't make him drink it is how it is to manage people.

Money and gifts are short lived.

You can only encourage and compliment them so much..

It's a difficult task to be the leader who can rally the troop to achieve the common goal.

Everyone has their own agenda. Some are happy and some are only happy when they're sad.
Some are motivated to achieve and some just want to clock in and out.

It's a balancing act.

I'm not sure I know how to motivate employees... after over 20 years of managing people.

 

[joetrisman]

Old adage you can lead a horse to the water but can't make him drink it is how it is to manage people.

Money and gifts are short lived.

You can only encourage and compliment them so much..

It's a difficult task to be the leader who can rally the troop to achieve the common goal.

Everyone has their own agenda. Some are happy and some are only happy when they're sad.
Some are motivated to achieve and some just want to clock in and out.

It's a balancing act.

I'm not sure I know how to motivate employees... after over 20 years of managing people.

Definitely not a one size fits all in my experience

 

[xiphoid2010]

Carrots and sticks. The good ones are self motivated, want to do a good job because they feel the sense of duty or the need be recognized. Others require external push like disciplinary action to make them even do their job. I'm far from experienced, but i document significant occurrences in their eval folders right away.

 

[BrightLight]

If a manager decides to give some monetary incentives out of his bonuses to hard-working technicians, can these be tax-deductible, especially since bonuses are taxed.

 

[dmbgg]

I only bring up the monetary motivation tools because, unlike Rx MPLS, the majority of my experiences has shown that techs are not always paid at a rate high enough to sustain family emergencies... These could include anything from health issues, automobile/house issues, missing work, etc.

Also, a lot of tech are self-motivated, but not all of them are. And it doesn't necessarily mean they don't appreciate attention either way.

A part of the leadership position of a pharmacist is to provide morale. Just like a quarterback, an executive,etc. You should always notice and praise them when appropriate, coach them and improve their work when they do not do well, and go the extra step to show your appreciation on occasion.

 

[pezdispenser]

We put a wii dance game in the break room. Seriously!