Work place communication – Hire Outcomes HR https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com Hiring Solutions for Success Mon, 03 Oct 2022 20:25:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Favicon-64X64-120x120.png Work place communication – Hire Outcomes HR https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com 32 32 Mental Health in the Workplace https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/mental-health-in-the-workplace/ https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/mental-health-in-the-workplace/#respond Mon, 03 Oct 2022 20:25:15 +0000 https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/?p=6290

Mental Health in the Workplace

Mental health in the workplace is impacted by the pandemic. As a recent article in the Washington post stated, the pandemic was “an unprecedented, protracted collective trauma”.  There are many ways the workplace has been impacted by mental health issues.  In addition to burnout caused by staffing issues, increased workloads, and less professional support, and there were also time distortion issues which researchers say are caused by traumatic times.

According to the CDC, people were and are faced with increased challenges at work and at home during and after the pandemic.  The CDC also points to ways to address individual mental health concerns. 

It’s natural to feel stress, anxiety, grief, and worry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Below are ways that you can help yourself, others, and your community manage stress.

  • Take breaks from news stories, including those on social media. It’s good to be informed, but constant information about the pandemic can be upsetting. Consider limiting news to just a couple times a day and disconnecting from phone, tv, and computer screens for a while.
  • Take care of your body:
      • Get vaccinated and stay up to date on your COVID-19 vaccines.
      • Eat plenty of fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains, and fat–free or low–fat milk and milk products. Eating well also means limiting saturated fats, cholesterol, salt, and added sugars.
      • Going to bed at the same time each night and getting up at the same time each morning, including on the weekends, can help you sleep better (seven or more hours per night for adults).
      • Move more and sit less-every little bit of physical activity helps. You can start small and build up to 150 minutes a week that can be broken down to smaller amounts such as 20 to 30 minutes a day.
      • Take deep breaths, stretch, or meditate.
      • Limit alcohol intake. Choose not to drink, or drink in moderation by limiting consumption to one drink a day for women—two for men—on days that alcohol is consumed.
      • Avoid using prescription drugs in ways other than prescribed, someone else’s prescription, or illegal drugs. Treatment is available and recovery starts with asking for help.
      • Avoid smoking and the use of other tobacco products. People can and do quit smoking for good.
      • Continue with regular health appointments, testing, and screening.
  • Make time to unwind. Try to do some other activities you enjoy.
  • Connect with others. Talk with people you trust about your concerns and how you are feeling.
  • Connect with your community- or faith-based organizations. While social distancing measures are in place, try connecting online, through social media, or by phone or mail.

But what is being done to address mental health issues in the workplace?  Since there has been greater demand for ways to cope with anxiety and stress, many new alternatives have been created, such was online therapy.  However, according to the New York times, mental health providers are struggling to meet Pandemic and Post Pandemic demand.  There are many who are encouraging businesses to take a systematic approach to supporting employees to stay healthy and to address mental health needs. An article in Forbes suggests several ways businesses are dealing with increased mental health needs in the workplace.

Mental Health Predictions For 2022-2023

  1. Mental Health Support. Oliver Smith, strategy director and head of ethics for Koa Health, predicts businesses will spotlight effectiveness on mental health support and the ROI (return on investment) of their initial approaches.
  2. Continued Mental Health Issues. According to Smith, the prevalence of depression and anxiety in the population will continue to be high as the pandemic lingers longer than we’d like.
  3. More Focused Approaches. Smith believes businesses will start to have a greater focus on effectiveness on ROI in their mental support as they begin to unpack the initial approach of throwing things at the wall and seeing what sticks.
  4. Smith is optimistic that we will all continue to struggle to have discussions about mental health, although the stigma will continue to fall that won’t on its own make everyone automatically comfortable talking about their mental health.
  5. Hybrid And Remote Work. An Ergotronsurvey of 1,000 full-time workers found that 56% of employees said their mental health, work-life balance and physical activity—all improved as a result of their hybrid work environment. And 88% said the flexibility to work from home or the office has increased their job satisfaction. According to Chad Severson, CEO of Ergotron, employees have adapted to the hybrid and remote work landscape—and they now prefer it. “As employers look to attract and retain talent, focusing on practices that promote well-being and help employees thrive wherever they work will be critical,” he said. And the FlexJobs’ Work Insight 2022 Survey found that remote work is considered the second most important element to compensation and benefit packages, ranked only behind salary.
  6. Wellness Programs.Framery believes employees should have access to a series of wellness programs, including closer access to external healthcare providers and therapists that are available during work hours if need be. Completing these activities together can help employees shake off some of the pent-up anxiety, as well as cultivate a sense of comradery between colleagues. They offer e-learning classes which provide yoga and meditation courses to employees, helping them feel further cared for and seen and giving them time and space to check in on their own health.
  7. Four-Day Workweeks. Co-founder and CEO of Monograph, Robert Yuen believes hands-down employees need more time, which is why his company operates on a four-day workweek schedule. “A four-day workweek gives employees the space to take care of themselves, providing them space for personal development,” he said. “Since this tech startup launched a four-day workweek in 2019, employee satisfaction has reached an all-time high.”
  8. Suzanne Tick, creative director at Luum Textiles, focuses on harnessing Vedic meditation teachings and techniques to aid in soothing stress and anxiety. Through Vedic meditation, people can remove the stress in their lives and create clarity to allow for creative influences to enter their life. Deeply rooted in the meditation lifestyle has helped the studio embrace fully the world of unbounded color, texture and pattern choices.
  9. Exemplary Leadership. Adam Weber, SVP of community at 15Fiveinsists company top brass must lead the way in prioritizing mental wellness. “If executives want their employees to prioritize their mental health, they need to be doing the same in a very visible way,” Weber said. “It’s one thing to encourage people to take time off for therapy or a mental health day, but most leaders have yet to take the next step of doing that themselves in a transparent way.” Laura Lee Gentry agrees that management plays a big role in employee mental health in the workplace. “Since managers are an employee’s first point of contact, companies need to create HR programs that train managers and supervisors on how to spot common mental health conditions such as signs of stress and anxiety and how to approach and support employees who are showing these signs,” she explained.

Work is key to health of people with various mental health conditions and the Department of Labor suggests that employers need to build mental health friendly work cultures. For more information on supportive workplaces see the Department of Labor articles sited below. Especially due to the shortages that continue to occur with Mental Health providers, the efforts above are needed.

Hire Outcomes HR understands the challenges faced by health services organizations, including mental health services.  We can help your organization by working together to source and recruit the right professionals to improve satisfaction for your patients and your employee team.

Source: Washington Post, September 2022, Pandemic trauma caused many to lose their sense of time – The Washington Post  , Coping with Stress (cdc.gov) , Mental Health Providers Struggle to Meet Pandemic Demand – The New York Times (nytimes.com) , Future Of Work: 9 Mental Health Predictions In The Post-Pandemic Workplace (forbes.com) . Department of Labor, Fostering Mentally Healthy workplace, dol.gov/sites/dolgov/file/odep/topics/fostering a mentally healthy workplace

]]> https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/mental-health-in-the-workplace/feed/ 0 Dental practice talent shortages https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/dental-practice-talent-shortages/ https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/dental-practice-talent-shortages/#respond Wed, 23 Feb 2022 22:03:39 +0000 https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/?p=5999

Dental practice talent shortages

Dental practice talent shortages can be addressed partially through retention efforts.

Dental practice talent shortages follow the same trends as other health care talent shortages. Some of the shortage is due to Covid.  Just like other health care practices, independent dental offices are experiencing talent shortages. There were many challenges impacting dental clinics during the height of the Pandemic, which limited dental practice revenue and forced some dentists to terminate staff or give more responsibility to those staying on.  According to the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA), “8% of dental hygienists have left the profession since COVID struck, and we have every reason to believe that the same is true for other dental office positions.”According to Dental Economics, the current labor shortage is driving a shortage of hygienists and assistants, complicating the hiring process and compounding the pre-existing human resources issues such as employee turnover and toxic office culture.

What can dental practices do to retain their staff?

Ideas for retaining staff can also positively impact recruiting staff.  By creating a dental office culture that is employee team oriented and as flexible as possible, employees are less likely to burn out.     

Other ideas for preventing turnover were provided in an article about Dental Practice strategies for managing through the talent shortages, in Dental Economics, by David Harris, he suggests: 

Keep existing staff happy. The value of a trained, motivated staff member who knows the office and the patients is considerable. Be sure to respect that. Money is always a factor in job satisfaction, but other factors are often more important. For example, the extent to which an employee feels listened to is integral to job satisfaction.

Be proactive. Every dentist understands the value of a short-notice list for patients, but few apply the same concept to staffing. When an employee leaves, many practice owners begin a “cold” job search. Every practice owner needs to be continually looking for people who could be a fit for their practice. People you meet at conferences, patients of your practice, or that particularly attentive server you notice on a Friday night restaurant outing should all be filed away. Your short-notice job search will always be more effective if you have already identified two or three promising candidates.

Broaden your horizons. Many practice owners limit their search to people with dental experience. In a time of labor shortage, this further narrows the already-small pool of possible applicants. For a credentialed position like dental hygiene, it is obviously impossible to hire people from other fields. However, provided you have good manuals and other training resources, applicants outside dentistry can be considered for customer service positions.

Create a dental assisting school. While this is not a short-term solution, some dentists have addressed persistent shortages of dental assistants this way.

Be productive. Removing bottlenecks to productivity can allow you to function temporarily or even permanently with fewer people. Improving productivity could mean anything from replacing a 10-year-old workstation to adopting new patient communication software to using dental assistants for increasing hygiene output.

Outsource. There are companies that specialize in various front-office functions, such as submitting and following up on insurance claims, answering incoming calls, and providing customer service via the chat feature on your website. Top candidates to consider outsourcing are technical or potentially disruptive tasks.

Overstaff. While there is a measurable cost to having more staff on hand than you need, the cost of being understaffed can be much higher. Also, if being well-staffed allows you to enhance the patient experience (“Would you like some coffee while we are getting ready for you?”), then suddenly, instead of a cost, you have a practice-builder.

These suggestions are easier said than done, but are worth pursuing. In addition to working on retaining existing employees, dental offices may pursue HR and recruiting support. Some dental offices use DSOs, ”The American Dental Association Health Policy Institute indicates that 7.4 percent of all practicing US dentists are affiliated with DSOs”. The DSO model represents a more corporate function known as dental service organizations (DSO). These service organizations are independent business support centers, and they help with management and non-clinical activities, including HR and Recruitment.

If your dental office wants some help with HR and recruitment, you do not have to pursue a DSO. Hire Outcomes HR Hire Outcomes HR recruitment process outsourcing (RPO) service model is a hassle-free, turnkey solution for all your recruiting needs, at a fixed annual fee (billed monthly or quarterly) that greatly simplifies your budgeting. With Hire Outcomes HR turnkey RPO solutions, we take care of your entire recruitment process, from Needs Definition all the way through new employee onboarding. We will provide you with a helpful new employee onboarding checklist to help assure a smooth transition for your new hire.

Source: HR Issues in Dental Offices: How the Right Support Partner Can Help – Dentistry Today, Strategies for navigating the dental industry labor shortage | Dental Economics

 

 

]]> https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/dental-practice-talent-shortages/feed/ 0 Employee feedback https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/employee-feedback%ef%bf%bc/ https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/employee-feedback%ef%bf%bc/#respond Tue, 08 Feb 2022 21:47:00 +0000 https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/?p=5933

Employee feedback.

Employee feedback is one way to better understand your employee culture. As the number of employees who think about or actually leave your organization grows, it is even more important to understand how your organizational culture impacts employee retention and attrition.  

Organizational culture is the shared beliefs and values of employees. There are many aspects of culture that can be both positive and negative. To build a sense of inclusion and belonging, we recommend that organizations focus on building a positive culture with effective two-way communication. Building a cooperative culture can inspire teamwork and help build positive performance. The pandemic, the uncertain economy, increasing uncontrollable changes and the number of colleagues leaving, can create conflicts and employee alienation. 

Assessing and improving organizational culture.

Helpful employee feedback is a good way to start to assess and improve your organization culture. As we have mentioned before, it is important to understand the current state of mind of your employees and to understand how they perceive your organizational culture.  If you have a smaller organization and think an informal approach would work better, one starting point is a discussion group of employees with key questions asked. Or you can consider a more formal type of organizational audit. This type of assessment would take a snapshot of your organization to get a picture of what the culture looks like strategically and from the team’s point of view. It is important to understand if your culture is helping or hurting the accomplishment of your vision, mission, values, and goals, or impeding them.

Usually, this type of audit would include the clarifying beliefs, attitudes, policies, procedures, and expectations. These aspects of your organization come from leadership communication and the practices of your organization. If your goal is to provide excellent individualized care to a specific population, the goal of your culture audit may be to assess your employees’ values and attitudes toward caregiving and teamwork. 

With so many environmental uncertainties, it can be helpful to assess your team’s responsiveness to changing requirements of patients. It may be important to know whether your team thinks they have enough autonomy and if they have a sense of what leadership is doing to address the current challenging situation.

Measuring organization traits.

Based on the current situation, important cultural traits should be measured. For example, is the physical layout set up to maximize patient satisfaction and well-being? Can workflow be improved? Do team members have the authority and skills to make appropriate independent decisions, and is the leadership showing appreciation based on results?

Address gaps between goals and behaviors.

Based on the gaps between feedback compared with the cultural goals, a change plan should be developed to close gaps. These efforts could include additional training so employees can act more independently or providing more career development or creating a career ladder to engage employees in the goals of the organization.

Hire Outcomes HR helps healthcare organizations who are facing pressure to reduce turnover, by assisting with cultural assessments. We can help reduce attrition and open position times, by working closely with your leadership to assess your culture and if needed to help address staffing gaps through effective recruitment strategies and tactics.

Learn more at https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/

 Source: Small Business Chron, How to Conduct a Corporate Culture Audit (chron.com)

]]> https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/employee-feedback%ef%bf%bc/feed/ 0 Physical Therapy Clinic Leaders Skill Sets https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/successful-physical-therapy-clinic-leaders-share-similar-skill-sets/ https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/successful-physical-therapy-clinic-leaders-share-similar-skill-sets/#respond Wed, 01 Dec 2021 20:31:33 +0000 https://www.hireoutcomeshr.com/?p=5715

Successful Physical Therapy Clinic Leaders Share Similar Skill Sets

After reviewing an article in Forbes by Jenn Lofgren, Founder, Incito Executive and Leadership Development Consultant, we found some useful thoughts for physical therapy clinic leaders.  According to Dr Bene Brown, in her book “The Courage to Lead”, there are four skillsets for courageous leadership.  When we reviewed these skill sets, they were very applicable to the skills required to be a good Physical Therapy clinic leader. Here is a bit more about how these skills can apply to Physical Therapy leadership.

Having a comfort level with vulnerability is such an important skill for Physical Therapists because so often patients healing and restoration to healthy routines is not in their control.  Effective leaders are comfortable coaching patients and other team members to find the answers that best fit the person’s circumstances. Physical therapist’s need to be able to provide straight forward and helpful feedback. This feedback is most helpful when it is clear as well as empathetic. The key is to let the patient or person being coached decide what to do based the feedback provided. It is important to know what might trigger a less productive type of patient communication which physical therapist should be aware of. For example, some people revert to people pleasing which may confuse the message and is not as clear.

Focusing on clear values and intentions in the workplace. Brown recommends naming the values by writing them down. She suggested it is important to have ways to be clear on whether you are living your values in your behaviors and what are the key indicators are that you are following your intentions, values, and beliefs. This is a useful exercise for a leader of any business, but it is especially important in a patient centered business.

Being able to trust and being the first to trust others. Being people persons, Physical Therapists have an intuition of who to trust. As a clinic leader, it is useful to use good business judgment and good judgement about people as well as being able to trust yourself. Trust can help speed results and reduce costs when working in a service and care provider organization.  Good clinic leaders know how to establish an environment of trust.

Brown also talks about “Learning to Rise”. A good leader also knows how to recognize and respond to fear and to stay on track with trustworthy, value-based communication even when fear is present in a conversation.

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