Bridging the Gap: Integrating Medical Staffing into Your Corporate Culture

There’s no one answer when it comes to determining the best way to integrate your medical staffing company into your corporate culture. Instead, it takes a multi-faceted approach that involves collaboration, communication, and a lot more.

The following are some tips to help improve collaboration between your hospital and ED team. They can help create the kind of collaboration that enables you to not only meet expectations but to exceed them.

Aligning goals

An important first step is to define goals that are agreed upon by all collaborators. Organizational goals should be aligned with all important individuals involved in the process.

Define tactics

Once you’ve created and defined goals that everyone in the collaborative process agrees with, your next step is to specify the tactics that will be needed to complete them.

Think systemically

Systemic thinking begins when you ask yourself how the decisions you make will affect someone in another part of the organization. This type of thinking can shatter the walls “tribalism” that sometimes exists between departments.

Exercise empathy

By exercising empathy, different individuals and teams may come together to support individual and mutual long-term goals and visions. Like thinking systemically, it involves examining the larger picture and what things might look like from someone else’s perspective.

Monthly meetings

It’s crucial to have regular meetings which involve the key “stakeholders” from each department. At these meetings, you will review overall performance in relationship to goals, discuss opportunities for improvements, celebrate wins, and define trends that may inform future decision-making.

Manage your emotions

One sure way to drive resentments, and not results, is through verbal attacks and other invalidating responses. It’s OK to disagree and express emotions, but make sure it’s done in constructive ways that don’t result in bridges being burned.

Create small victories

Earning and recognizing small wins is a great way to build momentum and break down barriers between departments. If two sides haven’t worked well together in the past, sharing mutual victories creates another reason to work collaboratively.

Seek innovation

Creativity and innovation require people with diverse perspectives and expertise. In turn, they create fresh ideas and enhance collaboration. But this type of collaboration means adopting an attitude of embracing and accepting diversity among members of both departments.

Accept conflict

Conflict is actually an integral part of the collaborative process despite its negative connotations. Conflict is a natural part of the process and should be seen as an opportunity to deepen understanding and – ultimately – agreement.

Recognize and reward collaboration

Attaching performance metrics and monetary rewards to successful collaborative efforts sends a strong message to each department about what values are driving the organization. Acknowledging collective accomplishments helps break down barriers.