Healthcare Trends During COVID-19: Three Trends to Watch and How FutureSense can Help
After a year of change and upheaval in times of COVID, healthcare organizations have had to scramble to respond to the new circumstances and adapt accordingly. FutureSense has some insights into trends we see in the healthcare industry as we look ahead into the future of the pandemic and beyond.
The events of 2020 have already pushed the healthcare industry to master many changes. Here are some insights into trends FutureSense is seeing with our clients in the industry.
The Need for Change Management in Dealing with the Impacts of COVID
With many of our healthcare clients, we’ve noticed that they have had to quickly find ways to deal with things such as the impacts of COVID on people and operations, how to ensure their leaders remain resilient during times of uncertainty, what consistent communication channels and messages are needed to keep employees informed and feeling safe, stress management, and a host of other topics.
Remaining Distracted from Strategic Planning
In addition to trying to manage change, we’ve noticed that a lot of our healthcare clients are having a tough time taking their focus off of dealing with COVID to spend some focused time on planning their organization or departments’ future direction. COVID certainly has been a distraction, as many of our clients have struggled to keep up with communicating constant changes associated with the CDC guidelines, employee safety, and employee wellbeing. I guess it’s safe to say that many have been stuck on the COVID wheel.
Needing Holistic Solutions to Transition to Remote Work
We’ve also noticed a trend where many of our healthcare clients are seeking ways to transition all or a segment of their employee population to working remotely. In trying to make that transition, we have seen a pattern of client organizations trying to transition without clearly understanding their employee’s readiness to make the change to remote work, and without a real strategy on what aspects of their business, they need to adjust to make transitioning to remote work successful.
Given the trends we’ve been seeing in healthcare, I wanted to share some of our specific service offerings that have helped several of our healthcare clients effectively respond to COVID challenges, plan strategic direction beyond COVID, and develop comprehensive plans that support effectively transitioning to remote work.
COVID Change Management
Our Change Management methodology involves four key areas:
1. Analysis:
Identifying all impacting stakeholders and understanding how exactly they are affected by COVID.
Developing a stakeholder network to create an extension of change support in your organization or department.
2. Communications:
Identifying all the required messages by impacted stakeholder group.
Building a robust and blended communications plan.
Developing and deploying messages.
3. Training:
Identifying any new skills required to thrive in a changing environment.
Developing and deploying custom training programs.
4. Sustainment:
Identifying tactics that will ensure employees remain mobilized around change and remain engaged in the change process.
Strategic Planning
Our clients have relied heavily on our Remote Rapid Solution Workshop offering to get them off the “COVID wheel” and quickly move them through the process of strategic planning. Our Remote Rapid Solution Workshops are highly structured, facilitated sessions that promote group brainstorming, and consensus-driven decisions. Given the current climate, we provide this service virtually and have had great success in helping clients define detailed strategies that they can execute against in as little as 2-5 sessions.
Remote Workplace Strategy
We have a comprehensive, holistic Remote Workplace Strategy that includes the following:
1. Preparation:
Completion of a comprehensive remote workplace readiness assessment that evaluates multiple factors for making a successful transition.
2. Planning:
The use of Remote Rapid Solution Workshops for the identification and development of both core and supportive infrastructure elements of a remote workplace strategy.
The development of a change management strategy to promote lasting change.
3. Action:
Development of a detailed remote workplace transition project plan, project management, and the execution of change management plans.
We’re already seeing great success in using these strategies to help our healthcare clients keep forward momentum with their employees and businesses. I welcome the opportunity to explore ways FutureSense can assist you with these areas, or to just simply be available as a thought partner to answer any questions you may have on how to continue to navigate these trends. Please don’t hesitate to contact me at jim@futuresense.com.