6 Ways to Make Your Staff IT Smart

Inspiring your team to change habits to improve productivity and increase efficiency.

Hospitals and Labs are so IT dependent and yet sometimes so IT defiant. That is the case with most healthcare delivery organizations. While as a CXO, you are taking your hospital ahead by acquiring state-of-the-art technology and the latest HIS software you are also struggling with a workforce that consists of a mix of the highly tech savvy generation and the non-tech friendly. This is one of the biggest technology challenges that most hospitals are facing today.

While every hospital needs the experience of the non-tech generation, it also needs the energy of the tech savvy workforce.

Here is a list of practices you can adopt in your hospital and turn the tide in your favor.

1. Insist on Internal Collaboration Tools

While communication on paper is comfortable, convenient and something everyone is so used to, send out the message loud and clear in your organization that the management cares for the environment. Insist on the use of Instant Messenger (IM), Emails and Skype etc. for internal as well as external communication.

2. Form Groups with Influencers

Use the complex mix of tech savvy and tech scared workforce to your advantage. Having a workforce with mixed reaction to technology means while some want to embrace the efficiency that IT brings, the others don’t. Form mixed groups from this mixed workforce. Zero in on a tech-savvy employee in each group who is also popular with other employees. Train her to be the trainer. Nothing is more effective than peer learning.

3. Keep it Competitive

Nothing works like competition. Keep the learning environment competitive; in a healthy way. Have ongoing competitions between the groups formed (as suggested in point no. 2) or create a policy to reward employees when they come up with ideas for better use of an existing technology or a cost saving idea using technology. Public recognition is a huge motivator. Just ensure that it is not always the tech savvy employee who wins. If that happens then the whole purpose of the endeavor will be defeated.

4. Make it a Routine

Insist on the dominant use of IT in the hospital and make it a routine. The training provided at the time of acquiring a new technology/ equipment or software should not be a one-time-affair. It should be an ongoing routine with regular post-training tests, checking for effectiveness of the training. Link the post training effectively to the performance and in turn to their appraisal. This will induce an element of seriousness to the whole initiative, and ensure you get the most out of your automation.

5. Train Only For Specific Functional Areas

Ensure you train employees to get IT competency for their specific roles. Making everyone learn everything is sure to discourage people from participating. IT training for your employees should never include something that they are not going to use at work. For example, ensure the front desk staff are trained on the patient registration and billing modules. Even if you are planning to train the employees to multi-task, train them on relevant modules of the software.

6. Do Not Make IT Optional

To make your employees IT smart, the golden practice is to never make the use of IT optional. When given an option, humans always tend to choose something that is already in their comfort zone.Also, it gives a message to the employees that the management is flexible on use of IT in the hospital. Make the system mandatory and don’t send out the wrong message.

Use of IT is the easiest way to adopt time-saving practices and most importantly to effectively combat the shortfall of skilled and efficient manpower in the industry. Making your staff IT smart and will help you streamline you operations better for improved revenues. To know more about automation software, click here.