Organization
Organizational skills and abilities are vital parts of the position of a front office supervisor as you will be responsible for the multitude of domains and areas in your position including employee relations. With the likelihood of multi-tasking, you will require a routine method to oversee daily operations and operations in the office that you are supervising. So, you have to find a plan that is most effective for you to fulfill the tasks ranging from hiring and training new staff, handling employee relations, and filling in the staffing space when employees are away.
You can have a task planner as it was the thing that helped me a lot during the early years of my career for easy viewing of the routine tasks and managing employee relations as well as important tasks ahead of you every day. Moreover, a front office supervisor in a healthcare setting involves structuring the office’s resources effectively to ensure smooth operations (Skyrme, 2000). For instance, to organize patient flow scheduling the staff shifts, you have to ensure that there is always a receptionist available during office hours to organize patient records and ensure that the front office is well-stocked with necessary resources and care supplies.
Planning
Just like the organizational aspect of healthcare management, planning is crucial to establishing objectives and completing day-to-day operations because it is like creating a roadmap outlining what you are going to do and achieve in your position (Golding & Savage, 2012). As a front office supervisor, planning is all about setting goals and outlining the necessary steps to achieve those goals for the patients as well as the organization. For this, your planning skills need to be intact in order to plan and evaluate the effectiveness of your planning for employee-patient management. So, set your objectives first, identify your needs, identify the needs of the individuals you are servicing, and plan what you will need to do your job. For instance, in our team management, during times of any outbreak, we plan prior to deciding the responsibilities such as who will manage employees, who will manage patients, who will manage resources, and who will figure out where manpower is needed. Once every member of the team agrees upon their duties and responsibilities, we make everything ready related to our job position or responsibility and execute our plans.
Controlling
Controlling entails a leader, supervisor, or manager monitoring the performance of the employees and implementing corrective measures when necessary. Among employees, the word “controlling” sometimes does not seem best because they think that they are being observed and controlled at each step of their responsibility but it is the crucial step of supervision and management. In your position, controlling requires you to keep an eye on your staff and observe their work performance at the care facility to ensure that their performance does not deviate from the duties assigned to them.
Along with that, you need to handle the necessary corrective measures with organizational plans into action with the employees to ensure proper coaching is provided to individuals. To effectively have control in place, you must be able to do things in a supervisory position to meet and adhere to the standards and hold those accountable for the responsibilities. For instance, you can track the average waiting time for the patients at the healthcare facility observing the receptionist and the doctors in the care setting. If wait time exceeds the set standard, you can analyze the causes and implement effective solutions to reduce wait times. This would help you maintain the service quality in the workforce.
Leading
A good leader is one who leads by example so that his subordinates can follow his footsteps to achieve the set goals of the organization. In the workforce, leading is about guiding and inspiring people towards the goals and objectives of the organization in order to fulfill leadership objectives and achieve organizational goals. So, in the position of the front office supervisor, leading is all about leading by example to inspire and guide the team in order to share a collaborative work environment so that the members of the team can follow suit. You can achieve this by setting a professional tone at your workplace and fostering a positive work environment. For instance, you can share important updates, news, and goals for the day with your team members to motivate them. You could also lead by example while demonstrating excellent patient service for patient and employee satisfaction Moreover, regular team meetings to manage and supervise the team at a healthcare facility as well as identify an area for improvement can foster a positive workforce for you and your subordinates.
Integrating the Functions
As the front office supervisor, all four functions including organization, planning, control, and leading by example work in collaboration to facilitate effective workplace management. As a front office supervisor, you will have to manage all these areas at once to achieve organizational goals, supervising the staff, managing the resources, and fulfilling your own responsibilities in your position. So, to keep track of your tasks and duties, you can invest in a planner where you can curate a list that encompasses all four functions meeting the agenda of your task, planning for the upcoming week, controlling employees by reviewing performance, and leading by motivating the team and setting new targets. Your job would also involve structuring the office environment and organizational processes to ensure orderliness and efficiency of tasks in order to streamline workflow and improve patient care delivery. For instance, you can set an agenda in your daily planner or a list of to-do-task for your workforce (organizing), set new targets for the upcoming month (planning), review the performance of employees as well as your own self (controlling), and develop strategies to motivate the members of your team for future challenges (leading).
References
Golding, B., & Savage, S. P. (2012). Leadership and performance management. In Handbook of policing (pp. 753–787). Willan.
Skyrme, D. J. (2000). Developing a knowledge strategy: From management to leadership.
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