5 Ways Your Hospital Can Strengthen Their Team of Professionals

When choosing a team, look for diversity. This can mean diverse backgrounds, as well as varying experiences and training. The differences can complement each other to promote learning, inclusion and different perspectives, which leads to new ways of thinking and can ultimately improve performance. Studies have shown that culturally diverse teams are linked to innovation. A diverse group may be more empathetic to the patients’ cultural or situational needs

Communication

Communication is key in any relationship, but especially so in a work team. Your professionals will feel valued and engaged if they believe their thoughts and opinions matter. Open lines of communication and implementing changes based on employee feedback will strengthen the team through increased engagement and employee satisfaction. Both can result in higher productivity and profitability. Keep your team in the know, but also remember to listen and encourage communication between the team members and team members and management.

Effective communication can strengthen the whole team, department and hospital. Employees will feel comfortable voicing concerns and making suggestions, which can lead to increased efficiency and detection of problem areas. It can also spark ideas for ways to make improvements that management may not have realized, as they are probably not as involved on the day-to-day level as the team is.

Team building

Creating a solid and intelligent team facilitates growth, satisfaction, engagement, efficiency and productivity. In the healthcare field, additional benefits of a strong team include improved patient safety and outcomes. An inclusive environment can encourage individuals to speak up on their areas of expertise. Empowering employees to speak up to provide relevant knowledge generates ideas, boosts confidence and incorporates multiple perspectives to promote a collaborative approach.

Critical thinking exercises and using success and failures as talking points for learning and doing better in the future are other ways to build a stronger team. Not everyone on a team will get along, and that’s okay, but try to promote team building activities and pair different team members together to facilitate interpersonal relationship building and to see if different pairings result in better ideas or methods. Sometimes the employees will play off each other’s strengths to yield great outcomes.

Positivity

A little positivity goes a long way. Praise individuals and the team for a job well done or for exceeding expectations. This sets the bar high and can boost morale. Recognizing successes (and failures) becomes a learning point and a motivator. There is always room for improvement.

Praise with words, but also with incentives and with more responsibility. Let your team know when they do well. Praise can improve the relationship between management and the team, as well as boost the team to keep performing well. Setting incentive marks can also prompt engagement and productivity.

No one characteristic can single handedly strengthen a team. You have to remember your team members are diverse, with different skill sets, strengths and weaknesses. Listening and communicating well, plus being observant, is a great way to pick out these individual characteristics. Offer opportunities for growth as a group and as individuals while remembering to ask for feedback and to give praise. There are no clear guidelines to building a stronger team, but each of these can be modified to fit your team’s needs. A stronger team can result in better patient outcomes, higher efficiency, increased productivity and decreased turnover.

Exclusive Article by Lindsey Patterson at Emrindustry