How Can We Help Healthcare Executives Succeed In This Demanding Time? Encourage Virtual Work

The demands and pressures on the healthcare industry and its leaders are greater than ever before. It’s time to get creative.

It’s all over the news and we’re living it as healthcare leaders—Covid-19 cases are rising dramatically and, with it, staffing shortages are growing more acute. This places even more pressure on the industry but especially on healthcare executives who are already emotionally and physically exhausted from the record-breaking number of hours they have worked, political stressors and the reality that there just isn’t enough staff to go around.

As the flurry of hiring continues and hard-to-fill roles go unfilled, executives will likely plan on being in-person more and increasing their hours. Being visible is especially crucial in times of need and transition, and standards for patient care need to be upheld. All that said, it is imperative that leaders and executives are getting the space and time they need—and this doesn’t just mean time off.

Even before the pandemic, it was important for executives to incorporate undistracted or limited distraction time for essential tasks like reviews, report writing and presentation prep into their routines. It’s becoming even more critical that leaders have this time and, due to the training of new staff demands that are happening at work, it may be more than necessary for leadership to incorporate remote work into their schedules.

For example, is it possible to group tasks that don’t involve direct management and patient care and work a full or half-day per week from home? Completing these tasks while working from home could lead to greater efficiency, especially for executives who are regularly interrupted when trying to complete them from an onsite office, and have personal benefits as well.

Keeping It Personal

I'm not advocating for all healthcare workers to work from home—there are many roles, probably most roles, that must be onsite to provide patient care. Understandably, while there are certain sections of healthcare that can work from home entirely and some intermittently, the majority cannot.

For the purposes of this article, I'm focused on the subset of healthcare executives who are responsible for strategic thinking, reporting and analysis—facets of leadership that can be done offsite to provide a balance and better quality of life during a time of chronically high stress and unprecedented demands.

No matter your institution, community and culture are vital to retaining talent, especially senior-level talent. Here are a few best practices to help leaders incorporate virtual work into their schedules while ensuring the level of support to direct reports onsite isn’t diminished.

1. Use a variety of connection points.

Your staff doesn’t exist in a black hole, and in a virtual work environment, culture becomes that much more important. Complement traditional communications with video tools. Look to create safe, in-person events to maintain connections, touchpoints and physical reminders of the company. Monthly affinity gifts can help people feel remembered and build connections and community.

2. Invest in the right tools.

The value of using technology tools that bring people together cannot be overstated. Video conferencing allows people to interact in a more personal way. But like everything else, you need a healthy balance. Sometimes a Zoom call isn’t as conducive for productivity as a phone call. Understanding the needs and personalities of the at-home employees can guide this decision making.

3. Be flexible.

If some tasks need to be completed in person, then maybe the answer is a hybrid role that is in-person two or three days per week. Don’t lock yourself into an all-or-nothing situation unnecessarily. Also, check that your at-home workers know when to shut down for the day.

4. Exhibit patience and grace.

And, most importantly, encourage others to do the same. These are challenging times, and working from home doesn’t eliminate the stress and pressures of serving in healthcare. This is where your leadership needs to shine: This is a new mode of working for many people, and there are going to be bumps in the road. How you respond to them will go a long way toward its success or failure.

Unfortunately, people often assume healthcare executives are immune from the stresses of patient care in a pandemic. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Caring for patients and staff in a health crisis, especially when equipment and services are often in short supply, can be physically and emotionally draining. Giving people flexibility and creating a healthy work-life balance is more important than ever, and creative ideas like “leader virtual time” could make a significant difference in executives’ engagement, morale and retention.

Previously published on Forbes.