116: Is it Time to Fire that Employee?

Show Notes

Have you recently thought that it’s time to fire an employee?

It’s an often said cliche that, “The hardest thing about business is managing people.” And, especially when you’re in the throws of managing team members who aren’t meeting performance expectations, that saying rings true. Managing, disciplining, and even firing employees are all just part of being a business owner and leader. That being said, I recently had a few different conversations with clients and prospects, specifically about the question, “Is it time to fire that employee?” Over the years, I have fired employees and team members for various reasons. Some firing resulted from clear, black and white ethical or procedural violations. However, the question of firing an employee over performance issues pose different challenges altogether. Especially in smaller organizations, like healthcare technology startups or small private healthcare practices, teams form close relationships. The thought of firing someone who you’ve come to form a personal relationship with brings up anxiety and other emotions around what this change in work arrangement will do to the personal relationships. Then, there’s also the question of whether or not it’s even justifiable to fire an employee over this specific performance issue comes up.

So, this week, I share some of my own thoughts, frameworks, and resources on the topic of managing team members, performance expectations, and even the decision to terminate an employee. I share some books and resources that I’ve used over the years to navigate some of these often difficult management issues.

 

What we cover in this Episode:

• The importance of speaking your mind and managing expectations at the beginning of an employee relationship
• Recruiting & Retaining team members in healthcare
• Important conversations to have during employee hiring & onboarding
• Your responsibilities as a manager (communicating, setting expectations, etc.)
• How no employee should ever be surprised about a termination or firing
• Understanding the value drivers for employees
• A few books I’ve found helpful: Managing Right for the First Time, Radical Candor, Crucial Conversations
• Ways to leverage data for navigating performance issues
• Achieving Better Outcomes by setting clear and consistent expectations with employees and team members

 

We’re starting to create videos of certain podcast episodes, including this episode, which can find on the YouTube Channel.

 

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For More:

If you enjoyed this episode: Join Rafael E. Salazar II, MHS, OTR/L (Rafi), principal of Rehab U Practice Solutions and host of The Better Outcomes Show as he explores the possibilities of a new healthcare. Guests range from clinicians trying new techniques and treatments to executives and entrepreneurs exploring new service delivery methods, business models, and organizational structures. You can sign-up to receive new episodes delivered directly to your inbox by filling out the form below.  Learn more about Rehab U Practice Solutions by reading The Manifesto for a New Healthcare, or listen to Episode 000. Or, grab a copy of the book: Better Outcomes: A Guide to Humanizing Healthcare.

 

Are You Ready to Humanize Healthcare?

If you run an innovative healthcare company and are looking to develop a strategy that leverages best practices, new technology, and marketing/messaging in a way that returns the focus of healthcare to people, please reach out. I’d love to talk with you about how Rehab U Practice Solutions can help help you craft an business development strategy that leverages positioning, market research, UVP stakeholder alignment to drive business development strategy for specific healthcare stakeholders.

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Rafael E. Salazar II, MHS, OTR/L (Rafi) is the Principal Owner of Rehab U Practice Solutions and the host of The Better Outcomes Show and the author of Better Outcomes: A Guide to Humanizing Healthcare. His career trajectory includes 10+ years of experience in healthcare management, clinical operations, programmatic development, marketing & business development. He even spent some time as an Assistant Professor in a Graduate Program of Occupational Therapy and has served on numerous boards and regulatory committees. He has worked on projects ranging from patient engagement initiatives to marketing communication campaigns to a multi million dollar project assisting the State of Georgia’s Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Disabilities transition individuals out of state institutions to community residences. His work on Telehealth has been discussed in Forbes.

Today, Rafi helps innovative healthcare companies like technology startups, platforms, and SaaS companies develop effective positioning strategy and business development plans through his consulting work. He also leverages his experience as a professor and academic to speak and train on the topics around humanizing the healthcare experience. In addition, Rafi also owns and operates ProActive Rehabilitation & Wellness, a multidisciplinary outpatient clinic treating patients with musculoskeletal pain.

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Work With Me

If you are an innovative healthcare company looking to humanize healthcare through direct service delivery, technology, a device, or software, then reach out. We’d love to talk with you about how Rehab U Practice Solutions can help.

What we can help you do:

✅ Clarify your product, service, or organization’s positioning strategy…

✅ Identify what is most valuable and least valuable to your targeted healthcare stakeholder…

✅ Develop a Market Penetration Roadmap to align your company’s value proposition with your targeted healthcare stakeholder to develop a bottom up marketing strategy…

We help you not only craft your healthcare positioning strategy, we help you identify your highest value offer for your target audience, align that value with your market, and help you develop a business development system that leverages insights from market data & industry-specific resources to enable your business development team to effectively drive business for your organization.

I also speak and train at healthcare conferences, events, and organizations on topics related to technology-enabled care, healthcare innovation, healthcare positioning, and humanizing the healthcare experience. 

 

Learn More Here!

 

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What is The Better Outcomes Show?

Exploring the possibilities of a new healthcare.



Let’s get real: Healthcare is broken. You know it. I know it. Every clinician who came into this field from a desire to care for others, knows this to be undeniably true. We feel it everyday when we enter our clinics, hospitals, and practices. We feel the burden of time-based productivity metrics, utilization rates, and the expectation to behave like cogs in a giant, soul-crushing machine aimed at extracting revenue from our patients in exchange for “units” of treatment.



Healthcare should be about one thing: PEOPLE! Yet how many clinics, organizations, or healthcare professionals live their lives by the numbers? Metrics & spreadsheets drive most of our healthcare decision makers and administrators. That leaves patients -the people we serve- lost in the mix. Patient’s feel lost, forgotten, and ignored by a system that prioritizes efficiency & productivity over their own personal experiences, priorities, or goals.



It’s time for clinicians to finally stand up and say what we’ve all been thinking for so long: enough is enough!



It’s time for healthcare organizations to commit to serving the individual needs of each unique patient that they are charged with serving.



Join Rafael E. Salazar II, MHS, OTR/L (Rafi), principal of Rehab U Practice Solutions and host of The Better Outcomes Show as he explores the possibilities of a new healthcare. Guests range from clinicians trying new techniques and treatments to executives and entrepreneurs exploring new service delivery methods, business models, and organizational structures.