Building a Championship Team in Long-Term Care

I woke up today still emotionally drained from the NBA Finals. See, I’m from Cleveland – born and raised – and I really thought the Cavs had a good chance at ending Cleveland’s 51-year championship drought. But I guess our sports motto remains, there's always next year.

However I'm extremely proud of our team. They battled and persevered without their full complement of players.  The team was talented enough to win but we were just stretched too thin and got tired, which ultimately meant we couldn’t perform at the level needed to win.

When you think about it, basketball is very similar to staffing in long-term care. If you want to be successful and meet your goals, you need three key pieces:

• Belief in a Mission – Teammates need to buy in. From the beginning of this year, the Cavs referred to this as being All In. The players bought in and it showed up on the court. If your staff members don’t believe in your mission it will show up on the floor – putting resident care and your organization at risk. Be sure to monitor call-offs, tardiness and absenteeism to identify these employees.
• Complete Staff – If you have buy-in from staff members, you’ll notice employees step up and fill in when a call-off or open shift occurs. However this can’t continue forever or they get burned out and turnover happens – which can be devastating. (I think I just justified LeBron’s Decision when he left Cleveland - but I will never justify how he left)
• Leadership Support – It is natural for excitement and dedication to wane. But the most successful teams have leadership that have a pulse on their players’ temperament, communicate regularly (holding people accountable and showing appreciation), and are proactive to solve issues by making adjustments. Managers need to be engaged with staff every day, understand what drives them, and make adjustments to make sure the right staff are in the right place at the right time to care for residents.

I’m not the only one that thinks so - check out the below video from industry expert Irene Fleshner. And if you’re interested in learning how OnShift’s suite of products for hiring, scheduling and workforce analysis can help solve your everyday workforce challenges, please click here.