Turning around store?

[Chrish]

Currently due to variety of reasons, my store is in a situation where we might loose some of our star associates. I was thinking about what might happen afterwards. From I have seen in my 8+ years of career, when star techs leave, store turns into trash and it never really bounces back. It takes forever to hire associates and train them where they feel comfortable with daily pharmacy operations. Retail environment is fast-paced and stressful and there is just so much to learn. Only solution would be where you get other star associates transferring from other stores and replace the previous ones. But I personally have never seen such a lucky situation happen anywhere.

So my question is are there exceptions? Can a store recover again and reach new highs? Or is it eternal regression? Have you seen struggling stores completely turning it around?

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[owlegrad]

My observations are the same as yours. Star techs are irreplaceable. It’s all down hill imo.

In my experience transfers are worse than new highers. Better to start fresh and train them right up front. I am sure quality transfers exist...I just don’t think I have met any. Unless you specifically have someone in mind, I have seen that happen sometimes.

 

[Chrish]

One of our star tech transferred to other store a year ago so they got lucky. We got an intern from other store who also was very strong.

So that CAN happen sometimes but those occasions are few and far between.

 

[rphola123]

1. Depends on volume of pharmacy. If strong techs leave from a high volume pharmacy, you are more than likely SOL. Lower volume, it becomes more manageable to train up new technicians.
2. Depends on skill set of Pharmacists on staff. A tech with some prior experience can be trained up to do basic functions in a month. Learning the intricate of the trade does take years.
3.Post job openings on indeed to see if techs from different chains might apply so you don't train someone from ground zero.

 

[Sine Cura]

It's over, unless you are the dominant driver of work in the pharmacy, i.e., you clean up all the garbage that strong techs would eliminate so you wouldn't ever have to have it cross your "desk."

Best you can hope for in the interim is hiring noob techs with a good work ethic who accumulate knowledge eventually. I've hired types where their brain is a sieve and those types are hopeless for the byzantine garbage that is retail pharmacy

 

[RxPreceptor]

hmmm, hoping to acquire techs from closing/consolidating competitor pharmacies in my neck of the woods. Is this a possibility where you're at? Tech:: RPh ratio changed recently; going to have to onboard more techs eventually. As far as a job skill, I've found those who are computer/tech savvy to be pretty good in the long run (eventually, barring learning some "common sense") and quite adaptable to system changes. Problem being retaining these types longer than a few years (often college students and underemployed individuals)

 

[RxPreceptor]

My observations are the same as yours. Star techs are irreplaceable. It’s all down hill imo.

In my experience transfers are worse than new highers. Better to start fresh and train them right up front. I am sure quality transfers exist...I just don’t think I have met any. Unless you specifically have someone in mind, I have seen that happen sometimes.

LMFAO, currently have one of these so called "star techs" who has been here sooo long that she is really struggling with recent system change...teach an old dog new tricks

 

[M0df]

Chrish, how are you measuring your decline? Metrics?

I think we had posters before (Mr. Corporate pharmacist type) who will tell you it is possible to recover. Thing is that you probably knew that stability of your store depends on 1-2 techs. So you were trying to anticipate staffing issues. In the next man up scenario, when you don't have that person, it is going to take even longer to recover.

 

[Chrish]

Chrish, how are you measuring your decline? Metrics?

I think we had posters before (Mr. Corporate pharmacist type) who will tell you it is possible to recover. Thing is that you probably knew that stability of your store depends on 1-2 techs. So you were trying to anticipate staffing issues. In the next man up scenario, when you don't have that person, it is going to take even longer to recover.

No one but one person has left so far and there is a probability we might loose couple more.

Measuring decline? The easiness/ difficultly to finish day to day tasks at the close of business. The most efficient way of measuring how store is doing is whether they are able to clear the queue before leaving most of the days. If they can then things are still okay. If they can’t get caught up then staffing/ associate quality isn’t where it needs to be.

 

[Chrish]

Also ours is a high volume store (400+) pre-covid and now add all the burden of doing covid vaccines. It’s not uncommon for us to break 500+ on Mondays. So, it’s not a volume where rph alone can take a driving seat and finish good portion of work by ourselves.

 

[JustFillIt]

So sorry, Chrish. I have been in your exact situation twice in my career. Unfortunately the only answer is to build from the bottom up again. These days that is practically a death sentence.

 

[Sine Cura]

hmmm, hoping to acquire techs from closing/consolidating competitor pharmacies in my neck of the woods. Is this a possibility where you're at? Tech:: RPh ratio changed recently; going to have to onboard more techs eventually. As far as a job skill, I've found those who are computer/tech savvy to be pretty good in the long run (eventually, barring learning some "common sense") and quite adaptable to system changes. Problem being retaining these types longer than a few years (often college students and underemployed individuals)

I and another "manager" tried this with some techs who got axed when Raley's (a northern California grocery chain) closed some of their pharmacies.

Those techs no longer work for Walmart. lol

Who really wants to do this crap after all. I've hired 30 nearly techs or clerks in 6 years so not many

 

[johnpharm01]

Currently due to variety of reasons, my store is in a situation where we might loose some of our star associates. I was thinking about what might happen afterwards. From I have seen in my 8+ years of career, when star techs leave, store turns into trash and it never really bounces back. It takes forever to hire associates and train them where they feel comfortable with daily pharmacy operations. Retail environment is fast-paced and stressful and there is just so much to learn. Only solution would be where you get other star associates transferring from other stores and replace the previous ones. But I personally have never seen such a lucky situation happen anywhere.

So my question is are there exceptions? Can a store recover again and reach new highs? Or is it eternal regression? Have you seen struggling stores completely turning it around?

I would want to know why they left to begin with in order to prevent the replacements from leaving in the future. If it's the usual burn out from retail pharmacy, start using planned obsolescence. Watch your techs behavior and when they reach the same number of years and age, whittle out the worst one BEFORE your star tech leaves so the star can help train them. Stagger their hires and departures. Cross train. Hiring on experienced techs brings both good knowledge and skill but bad habits as well. It's possible to start from ground zero but you have be very good at hiring to get the right skilled persons with personalities that get along. Its a lot easier to keep a pharmacy steaming along then build up force and overcome the inertia to build a team. If you do have to get a new tech crew built, incrementally add duties starting with the fundamentals. Its also more important that everyone gets along and has good basic job skills ie punctuality then know insurance overrides.

 

[Sine Cura]

Kinda hard these days to on-board and off-board in a minimally disruptive manner when you know further hour cuts are coming. Temp hiring incentives are just an attempt at damage control due to vaccine rollout

Temp / probationary period should always have been a thing too. Tough **** to those whining that they have to prove they can do the job before getting FT hrs