How to Recruit and Retain Compounding Technicians and Pharmacists in a Tough Pharmacy Job Market
Compounding pharmacy business owners find that job ads posted on online employment websites like Indeed and LinkedIn aren't cutting it in today's challenging job market. Even recruiters can't seem to fill positions. Employers are having trouble attracting new employees as well as retaining the talent they have while pharmacy employees lament they want more out of their workplace — a sense of purpose, work/life balance, recognition, appreciation, and advancement opportunities.
The National Community Pharmacy Association (NCPA) surveyed 8,000 pharmacies from July 25 through August 5, 2022, which garnered 360 pharmacy responses. The results showed that a staggering three-quarters of community pharmacies struggle to find staff and fill positions.
According to Indeed’s September 2021 data, advertised pharmacy roles rose to the second largest across all sectors, second to engineering. In today's tough job market, it takes a unique strategy, creativity, and a genuine effort to find the perfect pharmacy candidate.
Today’s Pharmacy Staff Shortage
Staff shortages can be costly for pharmacy owners, stressful for burnt-out employees, and bad news for customers. Staff shortages often result in higher payroll costs and longer patient wait times. Additionally, employee fatigue and the need for increased multitasking contributes to prescription errors and the possibility of closing the pharmacy early or completely on days usually opened for business.
According to NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey, pharmacist, MBA, “Community pharmacies are small businesses, and even though they are affected by the same tough conditions that are battering the rest of Main Street, the biggest threat to their ability to continue to provide health care for consumers — by far — is from the heavy-handed business tactics of insurance-owned PBMs.”
Struggling to fill staff positions within the compounding pharmacy sector is an especially unique issue because compounders need a lot of time to train to develop core knowledge/skills needed to pass qualification audits and achieve competency. What’s also challenging about compounding pharmacy staff shortages is that temporary employees may not be the best solution for compounding facilities (although it may seem like the quickest answer) because of the rigorous and ongoing training requirements.
Strategies for Hiring the Right Talent
Finding the right compounding pharmacy staff member may be time-consuming and hard work, but it’s worth it. Hiring strategies prepare pharmacy leadership to find and hire quality candidates faster. The following steps can help employers evaluate team culture; rethink personnel responsibilities, pay and benefits, and job postings; challenge firms to think outside the box to find great candidates; and help pharmacies attract and retain the best talent (even in a tough job market).
Reflect on the Pharmacy’s Company and Team Culture
Company and team culture is the driver of the energy in a pharmacy. It affects everything in the workplace and helps retain great employees.
Recruit candidates that fit well into the pharmacy. Beyond the specific role criteria, candidates should match well with the organization’s culture and values. Firms can train staff to perform particular tasks, but first and foremost, they need to fit in with the company culture.
When a culture is admirable, employees treat patients better, deliver better patient experiences, assist in cutting costs, and ultimately help build a more profitable pharmacy. Conversely, toxic cultures can cause bad reviews, loss of business, increased employee turnover, and ultimately a bad reputation, which can take years to recover from. All it takes is one bad employee to ruin things.
Define what the pharmacy culture should feel like and be. One way to assess whether the company’s culture needs tweaking is to imagine yourself in your employee’s shoes and ask how you would like to feel walking into work every day.
Staff Member Responsibilities, Pay and Benefits
Pay and benefits are used as a recruiting tool, are one of the most critical discussion points during the interview process, and are deciding factors of job offer acceptance. Attracting the right talent means preparing appropriately for these conversations. Answering the following questions ahead of the search will help create a strategy for pay, bonuses, benefits, and offerings:
What role will they fill?
What value will the employee bring?
How much revenue could they generate for the pharmacy?
What would the situation be like without the employee?
Salary and Hourly Rate: Choose a competitive salary and hourly rate so the complete employee package is desirable after combining other benefits.
Bonuses: There are different ways to consider bonuses. Bonuses can be issued as a bulk sum of money or incremental funds can be added to the hourly rate after a defined milestone is achieved. Once a bonus option is decided, it can be explained in the interview and job posting.
Benefits: Benefits are an excellent negotiation tool. Other than standard health insurance benefit offering, the pharmacy could attract candidates by offering other paid benefits including holidays, PTO/vacation, 401k, profit sharing, student loan repayment, and other benefits not normally required of an employer to give.
Benefits Ideas:
Extra vacation (e.g., 3-4 weeks per year of PTO instead of 1-2 weeks annually) helps employers stay competitive.
Work/life balance: Money isn’t everything. Today more than ever candidates are looking for work/life balance (e.g., flexible schedule, hybrid working environments, job sharing, etc.) in job postings, so be prepared to discuss it in the interview.
Recognition programs help bring a feeling of purpose and fulfillment and make employees feel appreciated.
Advancement opportunities within the business are also very important, especially for pharmacy technicians.
Pharmacy perks can include celebrating employee milestones, providing professional development, and sign-on bonuses.
Create a Well-Written Job Posting
Attracting great talent begins with a well-written job post. The post should clearly state what the firm is looking for. Candidates can tell if a job posting was written in haste. A poorly written job posting will result in a poor pool of candidates. Now more than ever, candidates look for purpose, work/life balance, recognition, appreciation, and advancement opportunities; and they expect these to be addressed in the job posting.
To stand out in today's competitive job market, show the pharmacy's personality in the job posting. Include the attractive benefits offered so candidates know the pharmacy is competitive. For example, if a pharmacy provides catered lunch once weekly, annual employee rewards, monthly challenges, and potential for overtime, these benefits, perks, and offerings should be included in the job posting.
The job posting can also include the company’s Vision, Mission, and/or Values. Including these statements in the advertisement helps candidates immediately connect with the inner workings of the pharmacy and gives them a glimpse inside what it could be like working there.
Post the job on platforms that work best for the compounding facility, geographical area, and niche. Many different online hiring and employee platforms exist today like LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and Facebook. Some pharmacies use Facebook groups that support jobs in each state.
Step Outside Your Comfort Zone to Find Candidates
Hiring pharmacy employees can get competitive. Being creative and thinking outside of the box is a valuable strategy that can help save time.
Visiting other businesses (even other pharmacies) in the local area may assist in finding the perfect candidate. Some examples of businesses or places to visit are:
Hospitals. Talk to current employees or visit their in-house pharmacy.
Chain stores. Say hello to techs and pharmacists because they may be looking for other opportunities and ready to change jobs.
Meet nurses or medical assistants. Depending on the size and scope of the pharmacy, these professionals may be suitable for certain positions.
Universities
Chamber of Commerce
Community centers
Trade shows
Interviewing and Weeding Out Candidates
Quickly weed out candidates by emailing the top picks a few key questions. This can also be done over the initial phone interview.
For example:
Why do you think you are a good fit for this role?
Describe what excited you about your previous roles.
Another strategy to weed out unfit pharmacy candidates is to leverage online assessment tools.
The Importance of New Hire and Ongoing Training
Training compounding staff members is a big deal and takes time. Training is not just part of the onboarding curriculum but is also ongoing and can be used as a retention tool.
The more they know, the more they grow.
Invest in good training programs, allow time for training in and outside the pharmacy, and be supportive. New employees can tell if their knowledge is valued and supported. Consider sponsoring employees to attend an industry conference of their choice and allot a certain amount of funds for continuing education credits.
Retain Talented Staff Members
It’s leadership’s job to convince an employee to stay with a pharmacy in the long-term. Turnover can be extremely costly, particularly for specialized positions like pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Here are a few ideas on retaining valuable employees:
Establish ongoing open communication, and make this a daily priority.
Empower employees - don’t micromanage.
Create and sustain a great workplace culture.
Show the company’s appreciation when they go above and beyond.
Reward great work (it doesn’t always have to be with bonuses).
Make staff members feel their work is valued.
Meet with employees regularly and build genuine rapport.
Discuss pharmacy goals, vision, and values with the team.
Focus on perks and offerings that employees find valuable and like to brag about.
Employee reward programs are a great strategy to keep momentum even during stressful times. Rewards can be cash, time off, lunch, gift cards, or certificates. There are plenty of online reward programs to choose from.
Tips When Experiencing a Staff Shortage
If the compounding pharmacy is experiencing a staff shortage, the National Technician Pharmacy Association, NTPA, recommends these tips:
Prioritize projects and tasks and focus on them.
Take on additional duties when possible.
Encourage teamwork, always.
Remain positive; avoid negative energy – turn a negative into a positive when possible
Ensure staff members take breaks and practice self-care during off-work times. (Rest, relax, refresh)
Practice gratitude – to fellow staff and patients/customers.
Looking for Expert Assistance?
If you’re ready to bring business and compliance solutions to the center of your operation, consultants at Restore Health Consulting LLC can help you build, grow, or restore your 503A pharmacy or 503B outsourcing facility.
Resources
10 Pharmacy Job Perks You May Be Missing Out On
Employee Turnover and Retention Of Pharmacists And Techs
How to Cope with Being Short-Staffed in the Pharmacy
How to Increase Employee Retention in the Pharmacy Industry
NCPA CEO: Three-Quarters of Community Pharmacists Say Filling Open Positions Remains Difficult
Survey of community pharmacy economic pressures 2022 report
Survey: Three-Quarters of Community Pharmacies Report Staff Shortages
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