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Productivity: A Love/Hate Relationship

Love is in the air, and in healthcare, change is always on the horizon. A focus on productivity and workforce optimization may be part of your organization’s 2021 initiatives, but you may be personally struggling with getting behind the proposed strategies. You are not alone – many industry leaders and professionals have a love/hate relationship with performance improvement. Everyone seems to welcome the benefits these endeavors generate, such as stability, a less stressful working environment, widespread collaboration, and cost-savings that can be reinvested back into the staff, equipment, and technology. However, they struggle with the process itself, along with the preconceived fears associated with productivity. Let ALTIUS help you feel the love with these helpful hints for a successful project.

  • Keep It Real: When some organizations embark on a performance improvement journey, they tend to establish lofty expectations right out of the gate. This is the easiest way to promote feelings of defeat and inadvertently tarnish the staff’s view of productivity! By establishing realistic and achievable goals or focusing on making small changes routinely over time, organizations realize sustained results that reshape operations and redefine culture.
  • Accentuate the Positive: It is important to spotlight the advantages of more efficient operations and always communicate the “whys.” When staff is aware of the positive impacts of the changes they are making and what they stand to receive in return, it motivates everyone to work together to achieve the established goals. Leaders who frequently celebrate progress and highlight how the savings are profiting the organization tend to instill a positive outlook on productivity and gain buy-in.
  • Make It Your Mission: When workforce optimization ideals are ingrained in day-to-day activities, they are no longer viewed as an added focus that requires further time and effort to manage. They become part of the norm, a facet of operations to which staff are accustomed. Providing leaders with the tools and methodologies needed to make informed decisions from the start results in more effective labor management and better resource utilization. Productivity becomes a pillar of operations rooted in the organization’s unique mission and values, not a foreign concept to which staff must adapt.

No matter the reason, productivity should not be feared or hated. Rather, it should be celebrated for effecting positive change and creating sustainability in a very dynamic environment. As in any other relationship, there is the inevitable push and pull. Concessions by all parties involved are necessary at some point along the way to make it work. In the end, the pros far outweigh the cons. Push the negativity aside and give love for productivity a chance!

Let the ALTIUS team lend its expertise in performance improvement to your organization! Reach out to us directly here to learn more about how we can help facilitate a productivity “love connection!”

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