Culture – Show more love – The easily passed over and everyday task of building a great, long term culture
When it really comes down to it, building a great working culture is about the small things that you do on a daily basis, that makes coming to work special for everyone. This quarter, due to the turbulent year we have had there has been an extraordinary amount of sick leave due to a combination of COVID and other illnesses. This has led to a slow return of customers returning to face to face service and as a team we decided to really focus on staff moral and welfare.
Again, based on Tristan White’s book, Culture is Everything, in particular the section Show More Love, we focused on these small changes that have made a massive difference on our team culture in a very short amount of time.
Regular check-ins with the staff just to see how they are doing
As a managing director, I am busy and have a lot of balls to juggle at the same time. However, the real people work is done by the branch managers and the direct customer facing staff who face the brunt of the tough, emotional conversations with junior staff and customers.
One of the most important habits we have adopted is to check in on staff on a regular basis, to see how they are doing. This is especially important when they have had a tough day or have had to have an emotional conversation with a staff member or customer. The outcome of giving them space to be listened to, to be heard and to make them feel supported or that their work is appreciated.
Now that we are nearing the end of this quarter, regular check-ins with staff have become one of the most appreciated and simple activities that we do.
One of the biggest bonuses has been that the quieter and often deeper thinking members of our team have felt the extra support, to allow their voice to be heard. Because they have felt comfortable enough to let their opinions be known, this has resulted in great benefits to the clinics and the business as a whole.
Unlimited budget when things go wrong – once again
This quarter once again, tough things have happened to our staff outside of work that have had a difficult emotional toll. Although it’s easy to take a selfish perspective, that the staff member’s inability to be at work puts an additional toll on the other staff, having the empathy to understand what they are going through and organizing something a little bit special (like a hamper of chocolates) can bring a smile to their face and ensure they feel supported during a tough time.
Although, as a business you may not see the immediate benefits of the extra bit of love, that staff member will feel extremely supported and understood when they are ready to return to work.
Although this is not a staff example, there have been several cases where we have sent clients special flowers when they are going through a tough time. I have been approached, sometimes years later, about how special it made them feel, at a time in their life when they were going through a difficult period.
Get to know each other again, every time a new staff member begins
Earlier this year, when we had larger than usual turnover of staff, we didn’t realize how much it affected the junior staff members. We didn’t realize how much they felt out of place with the change in dynamics, with new faces and personalities.
The senior and more experienced staff had gone through team building activities earlier to get to know each other better and had a good feel of the personality types and working preferences of most of the staff members, however, it was too easy to forget that the new and the junior staff members had not gone through this experience and didn’t really know their team members very well.
So, we began the team building process again from scratch. The results were amazing and very fast. In a matter of a few weeks, the staff started understanding each other better and working as a team. There was a strong respect for each staff member as an individual and trust was built remarkably well.
This process worked so well, we began to implement it across the clinics with a palpable shift and improvement in the culture of the clinics and the entire organization.
In the last couple of months, we employed a new staff member at our Kew clinic and started the process ASAP. As a result, the team cohesion and bonding started earlier and more profoundly than before. The new member felt like one of the team almost straight away and the trust was there almost immediately
Group Mastermind – Do you want to get involved ?
Every Wednesday at 11.15am – 12pm, we hold a group Mastermind session to:
- Brainstorm strategies
- Discuss marketing ideas
- Work on each other’s business problems
It is FREE of charge and a great way to interact and pick the brains of other allied health business owners.
Join the discussion and have your say?
- Comment below!
- Call us on (03) 9857 0644 or (07) 3505 1494 (Paddington)
- Email us at admin@mdhealth.com.au
- Check out our other Health Business blog posts here
Our clinical staff would be happy to have chat if you have any questions.
