HOW TO BREAK THE NEWS TO STAFF THAT YOU INTEND TO SELL YOUR PRACTICE
Staff are a key component to the success of many practices. When you decide to sell a practice, figuring out how to inform your employees and break the news of the impending sale can be a difficult conversation.
Depending on the size of your practice, you may have a couple of casual staff or a large workforce with multiple team members. How you deal with this change and expose to your staff that you intend to sell the practice, will be different.
HAVE SYSTEMS IN PLACE TO SELL YOUR PRACTICE
Employees may expect the sale, or they may take it as a total surprise. Depending on how involved you are as a principal in the day-to-day operations of the business, you need to make sure there are systems in place so the staff can continue to offer exceptional service after you sell.
Are you still heavily involved clinically in the practice?
Can you start sharing the patient load amongst associates to reduce the reliance on you as the principal?
In many cases you are the business so you will need to look at ways to transition patients and staff to the new owner without too much disturbance to the practice.
Your first role is to start stepping back, map out what you complete on a daily basis, start allocating it to a team member, or create training materials for the new owner. You want to know that once the practice is sold that the new owners can continue to operate successfully. When you go through the handover process you need to ensure it is as smooth as possible.
It could be time to check what roles each team member actually has and outline clearly where their responsibilities lie. Having a clear employee chart and management system will make the transition easier when you sell your practice. Check on each employee, are they having any struggles? Could they have more responsibility? Do they need more training? Are there areas that need more focus? Are there gaps that need addressing?
When it’s time to break the news to your staff that you will sell your practice if you have current systems and training resources it will reduce the stress and pressure when the change over occurs. There will be a clear path and understanding of each person’s role and responsibility, they will know how to solve problems and handle day-to-day operations without the need to ask you.
CONDUCT EMPLOYEE PERFORMANCE REVIEWS
A good way to start the conversation is to have performance reviews with your staff. Depending on the size of your operation you may have 360-degree reviews or one-on-one discussions. In these reviews, you can get a sense of how your employee is feeling, their happiness at the prcatice, their future goals and any training they may require.
You could look to introduce some training courses before you sell a business around topics such as; How to handle change, dealing with management, coping with stress in the workforce or related courses that you feel may assist employees in the changeover.
CHECK YOUR EMPLOYEE CONTRACTS AND LEAVE ENTITLEMENTS
When its time to sell a business the amount of leave owing to employees may affect a buyers willingness to buy a prcatice. It’s important you encourage all staff to take their leave so that it is not seen as a liability to the new buyers.
You may have casual, part-time or full-time staff with different awards, wages and entitlements. Check every employee’s contract is up to date and correct. You will also want to ensure that all super payments have been made.
CONSIDER YOUR STAFFS REACTION
Whether your practice has 2 or 20 employees the process of telling the team it’s time to sell will be different. The smaller the team, the more personal the message may need to be.
In smaller practices, there is often more emotion invested and closer relationships between the staff. It is possible that a new owner may come in and change the current structure, employ different people or change how things operate. It is important your staff are prepared and willing to work with the new owner when you sell, as they have with you. As mentioned previously, look at providing some training that can help your employees deal with the change when you do sell the business.
In large companies, there should be a HR department well versed in employee matters. When there is a change in ownership in a company, staff are generally not told until the sale has been finalized and it may have very little impact on the staff’s day-to-day role within the company.
Its well worth looking into EAPs and how to embrace the uncertainty and change within your organization.
CONFIDENTIALITY IS IMPORTANT WHEN YOU SELL A BUSINESS
Often practices for sale are listed with a number of elements kept confidential to enhance the buying and selling process. The current owners may not want the information to be obtained by competitors, staff, suppliers, family members and so on so not all information will be available until the deal has been done.
By informing your staff that you intend to sell your practice you are opening up opportunities for rumours and conversations amongst your team and within the community. This may affect the final sale price of your business. Depending on the type and size of your practice this may be beneficial or it could be a hindrance when you sell.
If you want to sell your practice you can decide if you want to inform your staff when you’re preparing it for sale, or you can wait until a buyer has been found and contracts signed.
Always consult a professional when selling a business, ”you get one chance to sell your business so make sure you do it right!!.”