Faced with the challenges associated with rapid expansion, including employee turnover and lower than optimal engagement, Ability Rehabilitation turned to the team at Insight to find a solution. The solution included a six-week competition amongst employees from different offices whereas teams were tasked with working together to create custom content to promote the practice via social media.
The practice experienced significant growth over the past few years, opening new offices throughout Florida. Fast expansion, while exciting, can often be accompanied by increased stress, heavier workloads, decreased employee morale, higher turnover and loss of essential knowledge as staff leave. Building and maintaining organizational culture can suffer during this critical time as employees may feel less connected to the business.
With the unemployment rate under 4%, employee retention is a big issue, and good people can quickly bounce from job to job. Replacing and retraining a team member is expensive and costs between 50-60% of an employee’s annual salary.
Having 20 offices spread out across Florida, it was difficult for the practice to find someone in-house with the necessary time or marketing expertise to develop and implement an employee engagement strategy and plan. That’s where Insight’s plan-of-action took play — encouraging staff members to create their own social posts to be shared on Ability’s social media outlets.
“The contest was impactful not just for business coming through the door but also for how our employees feel about our company and the teambuilding that you can do across multiple locations,” says John G., vice president of operations. “It was well worth the time that we put in.”
“We got our team completely engaged, competing from one clinic to the other, and had a ton of fun. At the end of the day, it was one of the most successful marketing campaigns we’ve ever had in ways that we weren’t expecting when we started it; and, it’s going to be something that we do here a couple of times a year going forward,” he continues.
“Marketing your medical practice is now a team sport, and having a team who works well together and fully engaged is the key to building an authentic culture that patients will be drawn to,” says Jennifer Thompson, President at Insight Training Solutions. “Ability was feeling growing pains. I’m thrilled at the results that this employee engagement initiative was able to deliver them in helping to turn those growing pains into opportunities.”
