What We're Digging Into: Managing a Disconnected Workforce. The past five years have seen more changes in the workforce than the previous 20 combined. Employees are more disconnected than ever, and many healthcare organizations have yet to catch up.

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Here’s what we know: The healthcare landscape already requires great resilience to be successful, but if your teams use all their energy just trying to navigate your fractured work environment, you’ll never get their best.

So, What’s Changed?

In short.... Society.

Since covid:

• We’ve changed the way we interact—It’s more virtual.
• We’ve changed the way we shop—We don’t leave the house.
• We’ve changed community—Virtual versions are incredibly effective.
• We’ve changed what it means to be productive—Outcomes over attendance.

Here’s the deal:

If your strategy to engage and connect your team is unchanged from pre-covid, you’re placing a losing bet.

The dynamic of matrixed reporting, virtual work, asynchronous collaboration simply requires a different approach.

Here’s what the data is telling us:

• Remote workers are 13% more productive.
• 86% of employees prefer to work remotely.
• Companies allowing remote work have nearly 25% lower employee turnover.

But there’s a catch:

• Remote staff work 1.4 more days per month than their office-based counterparts.
• Nearly 20% of remote employees report loneliness as their biggest challenge.
• 41% of remote employees report high-stress levels, compared to 25% of office workers.

The good news is that there are a lot of simple tactics to change direction and revitalize your organization's network and connections.

Let’s focus on 3 key areas:

Management Practices

1. Watch for excessive meetings. Bad enough in-person but sitting in a chair on Teams meetings that aren’t productive is soul crushing.
2. Requiring in-person time without a reason. Still happening….as people sit in their office on the computer all day.
3. Mind your Leadership Shadow: Show your team what matters. What’s the expectation for being in-person, on camera, or present at all? See what works, then revisit.

Employee Experience

1. Encourage opportunities for team members to connect both in and outside of work. Creating fun events (not work related) can strengthen bonds across the board.
2. Moments that matter: Allocate Time for Connections. Implement processes or policies that allow for small interactions and questions, compensating for the loss of spontaneous collaboration in a physical office.
3. Leverage Behavioral Assessments: Tools like the Predictive Index give you insights into your team’s strengths, then direct you on how to allocate time and navigate relationships. It’s a cheat code for engagement, virtual or in-person.

Collaboration tools and technology

1. Provide the Right Tools: Allowing remote work isn’t the destination. Thriving while working virtually should be. Only 50% of organizations are helping with home equipment. Differentiate here and win.
2. Fully leverage your collab tools: Teams/Zoom/Slack are more than just messaging apps. Learn about the functionality, train your team, and get started now…
3. Automate…. aggressively: AI is only part of it. Anything you do more than a few times a week—automate and get the work at the right level. Get your team focused on what they do best…. every day.

The accountability to solve for the modern workforce is on you as a leader.

Working remotely isn’t a hands-off strategy, but an active approach to the modern workforce.

To your success,

Alden

Founder, Talenta HR Group

P.S. Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you:

1. Ready to find the talent to fuel your healthcare teams? >>> Click here to book a discovery call.
2. Need to align your team to your strategy? Discover the power of our tailored Predictive Index Workshops​
3. Looking for strategic HR leadership, but not ready for a full-time commitment? Explore our Fractional CHRO solutions.