Below are four of the best practices identified during the work trial that had the greatest impact on the successful implementation of the roles.
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Proactive change management
Regular communication at all levels ensures commitment and alignment within and across teams. The role of leaders is key to successful change management:
- Direct supervisors to encourage role holders to have an open mindset and ensure they are well supported, catering to the needs of different individuals
- Leaders of team from adjacent disciplines (e.g. Nursing and Therapy) to communicate changes to their respective teams, encouraging them to provide guidance to role holders on practicing their new skills
- Senior Leaders to recognise the efforts of staff and celebrate the accomplishments of the incumbents during meetings such as town halls
Establish a support network among Care staff
- Send staff for training as a cohort or in pairs to create opportunities for staff to learn from and support each other
- Identify confident and competent role holders who can encourage and provide advice to new role holders
Continuous reinforcement of skills
Direct supervisors to work closely with training teams or leaders of other disciplines to identify and bridge capability gaps after formal training has been completed
- Members from other teams, such as Nursing and Therapy, to provide short refresher training on common areas of challenge
Encourage role holders to apply what was learnt during classroom training to day-to-day operations
- Empower role holders to suggest process improvements based on newly acquired skills and their experience
- Assign tasks progressively based on capability levels, to give time for role holders to focus on building their skills in specific areas
- Provide opportunities for role holders to be cross-deployed between the Nursing Home and Senior Care Centre setting to give them the chance to apply their learnings
Identifying suitable candidates
Choosing the right candidates to progress from their existing roles into the new roles is crucial to their success. The following selection criteria proved important when identifying future role holders during the work trial:
- Positive learning attitude
- Good work performance
- Career aspirations and interests aligned to new role expectations
Reviewing current internal processes
The integration of new skills into performance discussions helped the role holders to set clear and tangible goals to work towards.
Prepare supervisors to review standard operating procedures (SOPs) and work processes that involve the new role holders to identify areas of improvement:
- A common SOP identified for update following the introduction of new roles was the escalation protocols
- Communication of new protocols with all staff involved is also needed ensure there are no service gaps
Cater for protected time for role holders to practice their new skills when planning the roster.
