Once you are happy with the task lists, and have an outline structure for your business, you can write job descriptions that are clear about the responsibilities of each role, including the tasks they will be required to perform. You can then start to identify the skills and knowledge needed in each case. Armed with a clear vision of what the ideal staffing structure would be for your pharmacy, you can compare it to your current workforce.

When we make plans for our business and the roles we need to deliver our goals, our thinking is often limited by the structure, roles and people we have. Only incremental change is likely. Consider if your business was brand new, so there was nothing to stop you designing a structure you believed would be successful. What would it look like? A blank sheet of paper approach can open up opportunities for step changes in performance.

It helps to have clear business goals and a vision for your pharmacy. Be as clear as possible and paint a descriptive picture. Identify the tasks that need to be done to fulfil that vision. Include everything you do: dispensing, NHS clinical services, private health care services, medicine sales, administration and management.

Now make a list of the tasks the business will need, and group tasks and responsibilities so they can be done by people with similar levels of skills, knowledge, responsibility and accountability. Try to do this without thinking about your current team. Then bring that ideal list of grouped tasks and responsibilities together with the actual situation on the ground to identify the gaps.

Rarely will any team be completely staffed by the right people with the right skills in the right roles, but you should find that your team members will be able to develop into the roles you need and may even welcome the development opportunity. [Note: if this is not the case, you may need to follow performance management procedures or even manage a redundancy situation, but discussion of these two processes is beyond the scope of this article.]

Once you have identified people for the roles you have designed, you can start to plan for their development needs.

A structured appraisal process based on a formal job description will identify the skills that need to be developed. A two-way discussion is usually more effective. Asking for the team member’s perspective will create a clearer picture and help to identify skills that they might use outside the workplace. Involving individuals in the process is important to encourage engagement and will help team members take responsibility for their own development.

Writing a personal development plan (PDP) for each team member will help you prioritise the skills and knowledge that need to be developed and agree the ways to do this. Don’t forget to use a SMART format for all learning goals and objectives, which should be Specific, Measured, Achievable, Realistic or relevant and Timebound for clarity. Research shows that SMART objectives are more likely to be achieved. You might also find common themes in PDPs, providing opportunities for team members to work and learn together, or highlighting where one team member might become involved in the development of another.

A word of caution: haphazard booking of people onto courses or completing distance learning may not lead to the behaviours you want. The responsibility of a manager in the development process is to help identify needs and solutions (which could include courses) and ensure these are translated into changed behaviour and desired outcomes. A 70/20/10 principle applies here. Just 10 per cent of learning will come from formal sources; 70 per cent will come from experience; and the vitally important 20 per cent involves coaching and mentoring to help contextualise new knowledge and skills to create a change in behaviour.