THE IMPORTANCE OF CREATING A HEALTHY COMPANY CULTURE

Sep 1, 2022

The success and well-being of your business, as well as that of its employees and clients, are deeply linked to the culture of your organization. Because the culture of your company has an effect on everything from employee performance to how the public views your business, it is good to spend some time thinking about why the culture of your company is the way it is and why it must remain that way (or changes). This article examines the importance of creating a healthy company culture.

1. Highlights Your Operational Capabilities

The foundation of any company’s culture is the shared values and principles upon which the organization was founded, as well as the underlying perspectives held by its personnel. In a word, the organizational culture of your company is the vehicle through which the core principles that guide the direction of your business are actualized in the real world. It is a direct representation of your essential principles, such as how you interact with one another as a team, how your team deals with customers, and how well your field service organization performs as a whole. Because of this, the values that you have stated are not being actively put into effect at your company if the culture of your company is opposed to the guiding principles that you have outlined.

2. Company culture might inspire employees to become champions

One of the most important advantages of having such a culture is that it may change employees into advocates. This is one of the benefits that robust company culture can provide. Your workers want much more than simply a steady paycheck and good perks; they want to think that the job they conduct makes a difference in the world. They want to feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves. In addition, the individuals on your team who have the perception that the contributions they make are recognized are more likely to take on the role of culture advocates. These are the people that not only help shape your company’s culture but also advocate for it and attempt to embody it in their daily lives, both within and outside of the office.

3. A good corporate culture helps to ensure a successful onboarding process

Healthy company culture has the potential to operate as a uniting element for the workers there. This is particularly true when it comes to recently recruited workers, who, the vast majority of the time, have typically already paid significant attention to the sort of culture they’ll become a part of in their new position. Because the individuals who work for your firm use the culture as a type of compass, the procedure of onboarding new employees needs to ensure that the culture gets off to a strong start.

4. The ability to retain big players requires a robust business culture

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that individuals are more likely to stay with your firm if they feel like they have an important role to perform rather than if they are just seen as another cog in the wheel. This is the attribute that the overwhelming majority of people looking for work look for in potential employers. People tend to remain with a company for the most part because of the other workers there. Because a company culture that prioritizes the health and happiness of its workforce exerts a strong allure on prospective recruits. It makes your workers feel more involved, delivers a one-of-a-kind experience for employees, and adds to a rise in engagement overall.

5. Your company’s culture is what turns employees into a team

With the assistance of an efficient organizational culture, the employees of your company may be brought together and maintained on the same page to achieve their goals. When your culture is well defined, individuals with different perspectives may be able to come together and support it to accomplish a common objective. The culture of your organization is what establishes the standards for how workers should behave and interact with one another, as well as how efficiently they work together as a group. In this way of doing things, culture has the potential to break through the walls that often keep various teams apart, drive decision-making, and overall improve workflow. On the other hand, toxic company culture can achieve the very opposite of what is meant to be accomplished.

6. Culture affects both performance and the welfare of employees.

According to several reports, the culture of a business has a direct influence not only on performance but also, and perhaps more crucially, on the wellness of its personnel. A healthy culture handles both of these aspects by finding an acceptable balance that is based on the values of the company. To what extent does your employer emphasize performance, to the point that you feel as if your mental and physical well-being is being neglected? There might be certain circumstances in which that would not be an issue; but, the great majority of the time, doing so would be detrimental to the success of your business.

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A BUSINESS OWNER

Feb 3, 2022

Each day in the life of a business owner is structured to maximize all of the 24 hours of a day. Uttering the words “It has been a long day” is a common occurrence, more towards the amount done than the hours worked. A day comprises of an early start and a late finish, with a planned routine in the middle for a jam-packed day. When running a company not one day is the same and not always as glamorous as some may think. A business owner is required to wear many different hats, from human resources to sales and from marketing to spokesperson. Does this sound familiar?

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It is of the utmost importance for the business owner to use their time in the most efficient way possible. When starting out, one may wonder how on earth this is possible, indeed the most famous business owners we know seem to achieve superhuman feats when it comes to managing their time. Business owners, however are only human but they do use certain tricks to get the most out of the 24 hours in a day. We will look at a few of those tricks that the world’s most successful business owners employ to get the most out of their days.

The first is to establish a routine. Without a routine, a business owner won’t complete any work. No one can really provide a routine for you. Set up one yourself based on what’s going on in your personal life and your work habits. If you have a family and happen to be an early riser, then you probably want to start early in the morning before anyone in your household rises. If you’re more productive at night, then set up a routine based on being a night owl.

Establishing a routine can also help you prioritize your tasks.

If the day is started with the worst or most taxing task, when the motivation from the morning activities is fresh, then the rest will seem easy in comparison. It is said that intellectual work is better done in the morning and more creative work when tiredness starts setting in. Setting up themed days of the week has also been proven to be helpful, for example Monday could be for administrative tasks, Tuesday focused on developing and fine tuning your product, Wednesday for marketing and touching base with customers, Thursday for developing partnerships with other businesses and Friday could focus on company culture and other HR related activities.

For business owners, the day is not just about the company but also finding time to spend with family and friends, as well as on themselves. Most early starters spend the early hours on themselves or business before the rest of the house awakes so they can devote breakfast with their family. When you spend time with the most important people in your life, it not only clears your head, it also helps you remember what you’re fighting for! Most successful business owners also set aside time for reading. “Knowledge is power”!! So, as it expands the mind, this could be reading the daily papers and business pages, scrolling through social media or reading a novel.

Keep up to date with your cashflow. You probably should do this every day because without money, your business is as good as done. To do this effectively, create and run your business using a 30-day cash-flow projection. This will help you identify what money is coming in and what you’re spending daily. Furthermore, keep track of invoices for clients and start a collections process if need be. Whether you call your bank, check online or chat with a bookkeeper, it’s better to be safe than sorry with your finances.

Plan tomorrow, tonight. Did you grow up with a parent who made sure you were ready for school the night before? Whether that involved getting your clothes out or preparing your lunch, these rituals shaped you. So, prepare for the next day before heading to bed. An example of this is; the night before a big meeting, send out an email telling everyone what’s needed.   When you arrange before going to bed at least a couple of tasks or goals for the next day, you’re more likely to wake up and start on the project at hand. This can also help you create priorities in your schedule for the following day instead of letting thoughts of unfinished work accumulate.

And one final word about sleep: Be sure to set a bed time. There’s obviously nothing better if you need to be fresh for the following day. Virtually every successful business owner goes to bed at the same time every night. Be sure that you don’t get distracted when trying to fall asleep: Leave the phone or computer in another room. You’ll be glad the next morning when you wake up refreshed and ready to take on the world.

THE EFFECTS OF COVID-19 ON THE HOMECARE INDUSTRY

Dec 9, 2021

As the world is about to mark two years of battling with the COVID-19 pandemic and worldwide efforts to combat the disease have seen some successes, especially on the vaccination front, it has become evident that COVID-19 is more or less here to stay. This forces us in the homecare industry to take a deep look and exactly how COVID-19 has affected and will continue to affect home-based care.

Home care agencies provide home-based supportive services that can be important alternatives to hospitals and nursing homes, especially during a pandemic, yet home care has often been overlooked in healthcare pandemic planning. Home care focuses on the non-medical services that can help seniors remain healthy at home. These services are often employed when a senior is discharged from the hospital or when they don’t want to move to an assisted living or nursing home. However, COVID-19 has helped prove that home care services are effective at keeping seniors safe and healthy.

As doctor’s offices are limiting visits, caregivers can be with patients at home, on the front lines. This care is getting more attention and appreciation from healthcare providers across the country. Nursing homes and assisted living communities have proven to be dangerous amid a pandemic; many facilities have seen outbreaks with devastating consequences. On the other hand, home care patients remain safe, healthy, and isolated at home.

Home care services currently include transportation, medication reminders, personal care, and other non-skilled services. But these services might also expand in the coming years. During COVID-19, some caregivers have been hired in offices or warehouses to check temperatures. They have also helped with grocery and prescription pick-up. We expect to see the caregiver’s role expanding as a result of this pandemic. With this expansion of the caregiver’s role, there is opportunity for growth in the industry, home care businesses are set to be one of the best investments to make in the next 5 to 10 years.

Operating during the pandemic presented some challenges for existing home care agencies though. A 2020 survey by the University of Massachusetts Lowell Institute revealed that a majority of agency managers reported that home visit hours decreased because care givers employed by their agency were COVID-19 positive, symptomatic, and/or in quarantine. About 3-quarters of agency managers reported that care givers were concerned about going into homes and being infected by clients and a majority reported a decrease in client visit hours due to care givers not working because they received unemployment or family leave benefits. During the same period, nearly all respondents reported an increase in managers’ time spent developing new policies, procedures, and training, and 2-thirds reported an increase in time spent scheduling.

Aside from the challenge of home care agency managers having to spend more time scheduling, developing new policies, procedure and training as opposed to actually providing home care services for their clients, at the height of the pandemic, managers had to contend with the new and unexpected expense of procuring PPE for their caregivers. Pre-pandemic, only medical exam gloves were typically used during home visits. However, as the pandemic began, agencies provided care to clients with COVID-19 and needed to develop more extensive infection prevention procedures and quickly procure a range of healthcare PPE, including N95 respirators, which were notoriously difficult to acquire in the early days of the pandemic.

Despite the COVID-19 patient care provided by home care agencies, early pandemic healthcare guidance, PPE, and educational and training resources were focused mainly on hospitals and nursing homes. As a result, home care agencies spent time adapting guidance issued for facility-based healthcare to home-based care settings. For example, because care givers work remotely in private homes, procedures for storing/donning/doffing/disposing PPE differ from hospitals. When the pandemic occurred, instructional videos, webinars, and written guidance related to respiratory protection and other PPE were developed by government and research agencies for hospital and nursing home personnel but often did not include home health nurses and aides.

In the early phase of the pandemic, home care agencies experienced new, substantial challenges in order to maintain services while keeping clients and care givers safe from COVID-19. Specific needs to improve future pandemic resilience include more complete information on the infection status of clients; ready access to affordable PPE; and guidance, tools, and training from government and research agencies that are tailored for the industry and its workforce. However, to end on a more positive note, the future does look bright.