Q: What is culture change?
A: In a high-performance culture, all aspects of operations are designed to support the success of employees and the facility as a whole. As you get started toward some action steps, remember it’s helpful to assess your current culture. Interview employees and observe interactions to identify the biggest areas for improvement.
Provide management training. Your managers have a significant impact on the employee experience.
Invest in employee development. A balanced training strategy should target three key areas: Current jobs: Boost employee performance with training that helps them work safely, efficiently and with fewer errors. Future needs: Train staff on new equipment, technologies or methodologies to prepare them for upcoming changes. Career goals: Expand skill sets by allowing staff to choose additional training that prepares them for potential career advancement.
Establish clear metrics. Goals are critical to a high-performance culture — after all, employees can’t perform well unless they know what’s expected. Work with staff to develop achievable goals related to an employee’s job and individual aspiration and connected to facility objectives.
Encourage regular communication. Create a culture where employees feel comfortable expressing new ideas, asking questions or seeking support. Some ways to invite open communication include: adopting a “no bad ideas” policy; showing respect to everyone; asking for employee feedback regularly and acting on it; seeking input from all team members in meetings; and checking in on employees regularly.
Recognize and appreciate employees publicly and often.
Make performance reviews meaningful.
Remember, culture change starts at the top and does not happen overnight. It may take two to four years to establish and sustain positive change.
Please send your resident care-related questions to Nancy Tuders at [email protected].
From the october 2024 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
