9 minute read
PVMA Team Talk
Team Talk
By Corinne Tolan
It’s that buzzword: the Great Resignation. Has it affected your practice?
If your office has lost good talent to this trend, read on! Surveys are a way to capture a concept of interest and analyze the variation within that concept. They are more than finding out whether the room is too cold, or the food is too hot. The science of surveys has evolved, and PVMA has some useful tools for you to use to leverage the power of data collection and surveys to improve employee retention and increase patient satisfaction. As the Marketing Data Analyst at PVMA, I love getting in the weeds with data. Let me share with you two of my favorite analyses and how I would apply them to two common business challenges that veterinary practitioners face.
Employee Retention/Satisfaction
Employee retention is a large idea comprised of many attributes. A way to visualize how your practice measures up could be an Importance vs. Performance (IvP) map, easily created with a scatter plot in Excel. For an IvP Map, you’ll need paired questions: one question asking about how important a concept/attribute is and a matching question asking how your practice performs on that concept. Answers should be captured with a Likert agreement scale. I suggest using a 7-point scale for a wider distribution since people working in Veterinary Medicine tend to be more compassionate and positive. Then, after looking at the distribution, choose either the top 2 or 3 box scores (T2B, T3B, respectively) and determine which percentage of respondents fall into each category. In Excel, make Importance your x-axis and Performance your y-axis, create a paired score scatter plot, and voila! There you have it, a visualization of how your practice is meeting employee expectations. Although creating the map is the fun part, the real meat and potatoes of any analysis is determining actionable insights. What attributes fell into the upper right quadrant? These are the attributes that are important to your employees and where you are performing well. Take a minute to pat yourself on the back! What attributes fell into the upper left quadrant of your map? This is your growth or opportunity area. These attributes are important to your employees, yet your practice is not meeting these expectations. Talk through an action plan with your leadership to address these opportunities. Address each opportunity one at a time and re-do the survey in 3-6 months to see if your opportunity has moved into the “Win” quadrant. Here is a sample Employee Satisfaction Survey, with bonus questions that give you an opportunity to run a linear regression. If you do decide to run a regression, one or all of the bonus questions will be your dependent variable, and the performance questions will be your independent variables. More instructions on regression techniques in the next section. On a scale from 1-7, with 1 being do not agree at all and 7 being agree completely, how much do you agree with the following statements?
Importance Metrics: • It is important to me that I have a work/life harmony in my career. • It is important to me that I develop friendships with my coworkers.
Needs attention
Attributes of high importance to employees and those on which the practice needs to improve
high
Importance
win
Attributes of high importance to employees and those on which the practice is performing well
low Performance
high
No Attention maintain
Attributes of importance to employees and those on which the practice low needs to improve
low
Attributes of importance to employees and those on which the practice is performing well low
• It is important to me that I have an opportunity to grow in this practice. • It is important to me that I have enough income to pay my bills. • It is important to me that I have only one job to cover my expenses. • It is important to me that my work is meaningful. • It is important to me to be recognized and appreciated for my work. • It is important for my job to offer good benefits.
Performance Metrics: • {Insert Practice Name Here} gives me a good work/life harmony. • I have developed friendships with my coworkers at {Insert Practice Name Here}. • I feel that I have opportunity for advancement at {Insert Practice Name Here}. • {Insert Practice Name Here} provides enough income for me to pay my bills. • {Insert Practice Name Here} provides enough pay for me to only need one job. • My work is meaningful at {Insert Practice Name Here}. • {Insert Practice Name Here} recognizes and appreciates me for my work. • {Insert Practice Name Here} offers good benefits.
Bonus Questions for a Linear Regression (Key Driver Analysis) • How likely are you to recommend working at {Insert Practice Name Here} to a friend? • How likely are you to work at {Insert Practice Name Here} until you retire? • How likely are you to recommend a friend to bring their pet to {Insert Practice Name Here}?
Patient/Client Satisfaction
Much the same as Employee Retention, Patient/Client Satisfaction is a huge umbrella containing many attributes. Since your patients can only use body language to tell you how much they appreciate all you do for them, we’re going to rely on pet parents to tell us how we’re doing. For this, I would suggest my favorite analysis: a regression! In marketing, we call this a Key Driver Analysis, because it lets us know what is driving the behaviors behind an action, and with survey data we keep it simple by doing either a linear or logistic regression. Determine the attributes that pertain to your practice and turn them into survey questions that are captured on an ordinal scale (7-point Likert scale is my recommendation). These will become your influencer metrics, or independent variables. I like to ask my outcome metric (dependent variable) on an ordinal scale, since it can easily be turned into a binary categorical variable using either T2B or T3B scores and recoding into a new variable. That way, you can decide if you want to look at influence (linear) or probability (logistic) in your analysis.
Check out these upcoming PVMA events!
Local PVMA District Meetings are currently being confirmed. Please visit our Calendar of Events page for the most up-todate information and times.
Summer of CE Webinar Series
June - August, 2022 | Online Event Visit the website for dates and times as they vary.
Metro Philadelphia Region* Dinner Meeting
August 2022 Save the date. Details to come.
* This region, previously known as District 7, includes the following counties: Bucks, Chester, Delaware, Montgomery, and Philadelphia.
North Central Region* Dinner Meeting
September 21, 2022 Details coming soon.
* This region, previously known as Districts 2, 3, and 8, includes the following counties: Berks, Bradford, Cameron, Carbon, Clinton, Columbia, Lackawanna, Lehigh, Luzerne, Lycoming, Monroe, Montour, Northampton, Northumberland, Pike, Potter, Schuylkill, Snyder, Sullivan, Susquehanna, Tioga, Union, Wayne, and Wyoming.
Bark in the Park: 5K, 1-Mile Dog Walk & Pet Costume Contest
October 23, 2022 | Harrisburg, PA Register at BarkinthePark5K.org
3 Rivers Veterinary Symposium
November 12-13, 2022 | Mars, PA
Scan the QR code or visit PaVMA.org for the most up-to-date list of events.
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If you don’t have statistical software, you can run a multiple regression in Excel by adding the “Analysis ToolPak.” When you’re ready to run your analysis, go to the Data Tab and select “Data Analysis” on the far right. Select “Regression.” Choose one outcome metric for your Y Range, and your columns of independent variables as your X Range. Excel will automatically put the output in a new sheet.
On a scale from 1-7, with 1 being do not agree at all and 7 being agree completely, how much do you agree with the following statements? Independent Variables • {Insert Practice Name Here} is in a convenient location. • The cost of the service is reasonable for the quality of care provided. • I can schedule an appointment at a time of day that is convenient for me. • The office staff is friendly. • The staff is knowledgeable about what is best for my pet. • The staff treats my pet like family. • {Insert Practice Name Here} offers high-quality services. • My veterinarian is friendly. • The staff is committed to finding the right treatment for my pet. On a scale from 1-7, with 1 being do not agree at all and 7 being agree completely, rate your likelihood for the following questions. Dependent Variable(s) • How likely are you to recommend {Insert Practice Name Here} to a friend? • How likely are you to return to {Insert Practice Name Here} for another visit? • {Insert Practice Name Here} is the vet clinic I prefer above all others. (Agreement scale, include with other agreement scale questions above, but treat as a dependent variable if desired.) For most scientific research, the model fit metric should be .7 or higher to have good explanatory power, but not so in social research. If your model fit metric is .3 to .4 or higher, you can still accept the results of your regression. You still want your P-value to be <.05. This can sometimes be an iterative process, so once you’re pleased with your model fit, and have checked to make sure you don’t have highly correlated independent variables, it’s time to peek at the coefficients. Which attributes are statistically significant? Depending on whether you did a linear or logistic regression, you’ll either pay attention to the
Beta Scores standardized beta score (coefficients) or the Wald and beta scores, respectively. Now, you can draw insights from the data! What attributes are driving patient satisfaction and how can you capitalize on this? Make this survey part of your quarterly or yearly benchmarking and track your patients’ satisfaction as you would their health. Of course, you can read Google reviews, and copy/paste the reviews into a Word document to create a word cloud. This will give you a good pulse check on the sentiment about your practice, and how your business is perceived online. For me, it’s just not as fun as survey data, so I choose a survey every time. A caveat to survey data: Often data analysis confirms what you already believe to be true and can uncover insights that may not have been as obvious. Sometimes data can be misleading and is often prone to bias, so if you get a result that doesn’t make sense, it could be for a few different reasons. Either do more research or trust your instincts. Data analysis is just like the scientific method: It’s an iterative process and often uncovers more questions than it answers. If you have questions, I can be reached at CTolan@PaVMA. org. I look forward to meeting you at the next PVMA event and hearing your feedback about our programs.
R Square: Model Fit Metric
Model Significance Test
Beta/Coefficient Significance Test
About the Author: Corinne Tolan has been serving as the Marketing Data Analyst since 2021. As a current student of Penn State Smeal College of Business, she is pursuing a Masters in Marketing Analytics and Insights. Corinne was inspired to change careers from sales to marketing analytics after a consulting firm hired by her previous employer, Lifetouch, was able to link sales metrics with photographic quality. She has always had a passion for numbers and the scientific method, and is excited to merge her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts with analytics to tell a visual narrative with data. Corinne’s hobbies include kayaking, knitting, and yoga, although currently the only hobby she has time for is grad school.
