It’s undeniable that technology can bring people closer together. Just look at the billions of people around the globe who renew and maintain friendships on social media platforms.
Hospitals likewise can use technology to build a positive workforce culture – without investing in any new software. Simply use ShiftWizard to foster esprit d’corps in these three ways.
1. Demonstrate respect for staff time
When you provide nurses with a tool that allows them to manage their work schedule and communications from any location, you show how much you respect their personal time. It’s especially important to make sure your scheduling software provides a free, native app for your nurses to use on-the-go, so they can take control of how and when they choose to deal with communications, notifications, scheduling, and other vital work tasks.
No nurse wants to be forced to show up in person to sign up for call or change shifts or check on credential expirations. By offering your staff a fully integrated suite of scheduling tools that includes a website, mobile site and smartphone app, you convey that you understand they have a life outside of work and want to keep their work life from dominating their off hours.
2. Publicly recognize nurses on a regular basis
Management gurus agree that praising someone for a job well done has the most impact when it occurs in the moment. Don’t wait for an annual “nurse of the year” ceremony to recognize a job well done. Instead, you can use ShiftWizard’s communication tools to give frequent, regular shout-outs to the staff people who deserve them.
By clicking just a few buttons, a nurse manager can offer positive feedback on-the-fly. You can send the accolades to just the nurse involved, or you can blast it out to your whole unit. Either way, conveying thanks and gratitude to your nurses will go a long way toward building a positive work environment.
3. Reward positive behavior
Many executive nurses push back against the idea of incentive programs because they can absorb too much managerial time to administer. But you can use ShiftWizard to handle the administrative tasks in order to take advantage of the positive effects that come from an incentive program.
With ShiftWizard you can craft your incentive program just the way you want it. Prefer to offer a points-based system, where nurses can exchange accrued points for a reward – like a frequent flyer program? Done! Rather offer cash only? No problem. You can configure the incentives in whatever manner works for you.
Once you’ve set up your incentive program, ShiftWizard will automatically track who signs up for an incentivized shift and when they actually worked it before passing along the related codes to your payroll vendor. And you can change the program on the fly. If you experience one of those sudden cases of coverage gap for unknown reasons, just click a few buttons to attach an incentive to any or all of those shifts.
Technology represents one of the easiest ways to build a positive workforce culture in any department – and throughout the hospital. By demonstrating your respect for staff time through tools they can access when it’s convenient for them to sending shout-outs regularly for a job well done to offering tangible rewards for picking up a shift, you can keep your nurses happy, engaged and retained over the long haul.
