The Complete Guide to Training your Pharmacy or Patent Medicine Store Employees

There hasn’t been a time when training employees isn't as important as it is now that more pharmacies and patent medicine stores have incorporated technology to streamline operations and manage inventory, procurement and patient records. These advancements have given rise to the need for health stakeholders to improve skills and one of the most effective ways to improve knowledge and skills is through employee training. As a business owner, you know how important training is to your employees. For effective business growth, you must ensure that your employees are up-to-date with information and current best practices. This will equip them to provide quality services and foster customer loyalty. Neglecting periodic employee training will significantly impact the overall performance of your pharmacy or patent medicine store.

In this article, we highlight the steps you need to train your pharmacy employees.

Why you should train your employees

After hiring the right staff in your pharmacy or patent medicine store, the next step is to train them. Training your Pharmacy or patent medicine store employees will improve their knowledge and skill set. This will enhance their work efficiency and give you a positive return on investment. Training employees can be cost-intensive but the return on costs is rewarding if done consistently. Keep reading to learn more about why you should train your employees.

Below are reasons you should train your pharmacy or patent medicine store, employees:

It prepares employees for increased responsibility

Organizing training programs for your employees will help them take on more responsibilities where the need arises. These training programs provide them with the skills necessary to grow with and be more effective in your organization. For example, training an employee in leadership will make him a better supervisor when you employ interns or pharmacists-in-training.

It increases customer retention and boosts your profits

Employee training programmes sharpen your employees’ skills and help them keep up with industry changes. This in turn will increase customer retention and boost your profits.

It shows employees that they are appreciated

By implementing training programmes in your pharmacy or patent medicine store, your employees will feel appreciated because you care about their growth and improvement. Feeling appreciated makes employees more productive and loyal to your organization.

Key Focus Areas

Below are key areas to focus on while mapping out training programs for your pharmacy or patent medicine store employees.

• Technology
• Special Programs and services

Technology

Technology is evolving pharmacy and patent medicine practice. Managing a pharmacy or patent medicine store is no joke because you need to ensure a steady supply of medications, review and interpret prescriptions, counsel patients and deal with the financial, marketing and other administrative responsibilities. Solving problems like these is why pharmacies and patent medicine stores invest in technology such as barcode medicine identification, electronic prescriptions, inventory management software etc. Investing in tech does not mean much if your employees don’t receive adequate training on how to use the tools at their disposal.

Special Programs and services

These are training on various aspects of work like a new medication or product, special services, current trends and best practices. This could also include cross-training (training people in other roles in case of an unplanned shortage of manpower). For this to be effective, you need to map out a work timetable to afford your employees the opportunity to work at every station throughout the pharmacy or patent medicine store. This way, unavailable employees can be replaced by available employees. You also need to train your employees in other soft skills like communication. This will help them to be confident about discussing services offered in your pharmacy or patent medicine store and improve customer experience. Another important one is conflict resolution. This will help them in turning difficult customers into regular customers.

Steps required in creating a feasible training template for your pharmacy or patent medicine store’s employees

Having a training template assists in building trust and respect between you and your employees. As your pharmacy grows, you will be able to use this process over and over.

1. Identify management and employees’ needs: This will help you discover areas in your pharmacy or patent medicine store that need improvement and related tasks that must be learned and skills required to perform the job and employees in need of training.
2. Set up a steering committee: Every successful project has a steering committee that helps pilot activities and see to it that everything runs smoothly. Setting up a steering committee will ensure learning objectives and initiatives are in alignment with your pharmacy or patent medicine store’s priorities and needs.
3. Conduct a current situation analysis: A current situation analysis will help you evaluate organizational and occupational skills needed to achieve learning objectives and identify the type of training each of your employees requires to excel at their job.
4. Analyze strengths and weaknesses: This will help you evaluate the current skills of your employees and the resources required for a successful training program.
5. Set up a module development team: The module development team determines what training content to include and the mode of delivery. Choosing the most appropriate mode of delivery will determine the overall success of your employees’ training.
6. Establish Mentoring Relationships: Putting new hires in training with excellently performing employees will help introduce them to your pharmacy or patent medicine store’s processes. This helps to foster employee relationships and ensure that new employees have a smooth transition into your pharmacy or patent medicine store.
7. Review outcomes and employee feedback: Before implementing training materials, evaluate effectiveness by requesting feedback from employees who participated in the training. You can evaluate effectiveness through questionnaires. Feedback allows for further fine-tuning of training programmes by providing useful data on whether it meets the needs of learners and influence their behaviours in relation to business goals.

Closing Thoughts

Now that you know the steps needed, training your pharmacy and patent medicine store employees no longer needs to be an abstract objective. You can confidently plan and execute employee training as often as you need to. In addition, online content can help you reduce costs. They afford your employees the flexibility to complete them at their convenience. Your staff can go through available web resources or enrol in courses at will. Thankfully, we also have free resources specifically tailored to help your business grow. To access these materials and use them to train your pharmacy or patent medicine store staff, visit the Remedial Health blog today.