3 Ways Healthcare Staffs Benefit From Regular Feedback

Employees in every workforce have concerns and feedback related to the work they do. But when you introduce life-or-death situations into that work, that feedback becomes even more important — and listening to and acting on it is vital.

That’s true now more than ever before in the healthcare industry as frontline workers across the country grapple with an evolving situation and seemingly new challenges each day while facing the COVID-19 pandemic. No matter what healthcare setting your organization is in, whether you are in the long-term care space or offering acute medical services, your employees have important feedback for you.

Why is capturing that feedback regularly so important? Let’s break down a few of the key benefits your organization gains by capturing and acting on feedback:

1. You’ll capture changes in morale and needs more quickly.

Many organizations rely on annual surveys or quarterly check-ins to gauge how their healthcare staffs are doing. While you can gain valuable feedback from those surveys, you’re missing out on the raw information in between those surveys.

“A major concern with annual surveys is that they don’t happen quickly enough and organizations are afraid they’re missing out on valuable information,” says Max Farrell, CEO & Co-Founder at WorkHound. “These organizations are not getting a good feel for what’s happening day-to-day, and they’re afraid — particularly right now — that their employees are experiencing burnout. They have a need for a more consistent checkpoint with workers.”

Offering your employees access to a feedback tool like WorkHound provides them with a valuable resource. When they face challenges or have concerns, they have an outlet to immediately share those thoughts with higherups who are in a position to make a difference.

2. You’ll be able to track trends and determine where action is needed.

When you’re gathering feedback from your healthcare staffs on an infrequent basis, it will give a broad picture of what your employees need and want. But it doesn’t give you the whole picture.

In order to know where you need to take action as a healthcare organization, you need more targeted information that relates to the day-in and day-out challenges your workforce is facing. Regular feedback can help ensure you have a good understanding of what actually needs to be done.

“Many organizations right now find themselves in a position where they aren’t sure how to react because they don’t know what the specific issues are,” Farrell says. “Having consistent feedback can help healthcare organizations avoid assumptions by giving them a clear line of data about what decisions need to be made.”

3. You’ll be able to build trust with your employees overtime.

Most of us have been in a work-related situation at one time or another where the wheels of change seemed to move so slowly. That’s frustrating no matter what type of work you do.

But when you’re working on the frontlines of healthcare and taking care of those who are vulnerable, slow action on a necessary change can be demoralizing. 

Providing your employees with a tool to share feedback, concerns, and questions — along with positives about their work — is step one in helping build a valuable relationship with those employees. Step two is acting on their feedback.

“Especially right now, healthcare staffs are going to remember how their employers handled this time,” Farrell says. “There’s not an easy way around what the global pandemic has caused in the present. But six months or a year from now, employees are going to remember the level of respect they were given and whether their voices were heard.”

Listening to your employees’ voices is an essential part of building trust, and it will make a lasting difference.

“These people are on the frontlines, and they’re so important,” Farrell adds. “They’re taking care of the people we love. It’s our job to make sure we’re taking care of them by allowing them to communicate what’s on their mind and what’s needed.”

Ready to put our feedback tool to work for your healthcare organization? Sign up for a free demo to learn how we can help.