Managing staff during COVID-19

ALOFT: Advances. Legal Updates. Organisation. Frameworks. Tips.

In this month’s ALOFT, we focus on the future of work after COVID-19, ongoing legal skirmishes about the status of workers in the gig economy, and what it means to define and improve your risk culture. We also provide some useful tools for communicating the story of your business to others, and highlight a free course to get yourself going again when it all seems too hard and you want to give up.

At The Provider Loft, we’re focused on giving your quick, practical tips you can use to improve your provider business. Let’s go!

Advances

COVID-19 has had a dramatic impact on the way we work. While it’s too early to tell whether some of these changes are permanent, it would take a brave person to bet against trends towards remote work, digitisation and automation. Check out this provocative infographic from the corporate consulting fortune-tellers at McKinsey:

Legal updates: UK guidance of the rights of gig economy workers – the Uber case

The line between who is an employee and contractor has always been fuzzy, and never more so than now, with the gig economy. While tax authorities, legal commentators, and others have different views, it’s better to be safe than sorry – especially as most of the legal, tax and financial risks of getting it wrong fall on providers (as hirers). This month, we’ve been looking at the recent UK Supreme Court decision about the status of the Uber worker. Natasha Bernal, of Wired Magazine, has an interesting take on the implications of the decision for gig workers in the UK and internationally here.

Organisation success: how to define and improve your risk culture

To thrive in uncertain times, you need a strong risk culture. This requires a clear acknowledgement of your exposure to risk, and a commitment to manage it. A provider’s success may also depend on its commitment to values like responsiveness, transparency, and respect.

According to Richard Higgins and colleagues, defining your risk culture involves thinking about your organisation’s confidence, openness, challenges, speed of response, level of care, communication practices, tolerance for risk, level of insight, adherence to rules, and your team’s ability to cooperate. Once you’ve measured your organisation’s current status for each of these elements, you can address any shortcomings, using an influence model composed of four elements: understanding and commitment, role modelling and leadership, capability building, and formal reinforcement mechanisms. For a detailed blueprint for how to do this, read more here.

Frames of mind to improve your marketing

Way back in 1991, Kenn Adams developed the “Story Spine” – an 8-sentence basic structure that underpins thousands of human stories – everything from classical myths, to Pixar movies, to marketing campaigns. This framework can be adapted easily for a provider’s traditional marketing efforts, social media, blogs, YouTube videos, staff training days – any material that tells your story. Just remember: the hero of your story should be your client – not you! Thanks to @alexgarcia_atx for this practical summary:

To hear more about this useful model from Kenn himself, check out this short video.

Tips for practice

Procrastination, perfectionism, and the imposter syndrome are all forms of resistance – invisible forces that get in the way of us sharing our best work with our clients and participants, and the world. To overcome resistance, it helps to have a mentor – someone to push you on when you want to turn back or give up. There’s no-one better placed for the fight than Steven Pressfield, author of “The War on Art” and “Turning Pro”. If you are coming up against a blank page, or something else that stops you from doing the work that matters, I recommend Steven’s free audio course, which you can access here: Steven Pressfield’s The War of Art.

That’s it for this month’s ALOFT.

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ALOFT: Advances. Legal Updates. Organisation. Frameworks. Tips.

Advances: sharing better information may make you more competitive than your competitors

Online review sites are not going anywhere. Compared to a decade ago, healthcare is much more transparent, and participants expect more from us, including better access to information. Good information can affect participant decisions about which provider to choose based on factors like reputation and costs. Traditionally, younger participants tended to seek lower cost options, and older participants went for higher quality (and cost) options. But recent research suggests that more transparency may cause nearly all participants and clients to prefer lower-cost, in-network options of average quality – value for money. There’s an opportunity for providers to lead the way in transparency and to build better relationships with participants and clients. Sharing better information with consumers may give some providers a competitive boost. Jenny Cordina of McKinsey makes the case for increased transparency as a way of improving the health system here.

Legal Update: Beware social media comments!

If you manage a public Facebook or other social media presence, you’re going to want to read about an important NSW Court of Appeal decision confirming that page administrators are “publishers of users’ comments” for the purposes of defamation laws. As with the decision of the lower court, this judgment increases providers’ risk of liability for defamation, and increases compliance costs for providers who manage public social media pages. Read this important update by the lawyers at Allens: Defamation in the digital age – beware of social media comments.

Organisation science: supporting staff during the COVID-19 pandemic

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is making everyone nervous, including workers. Professor Brooks Holtom of Georgetown University and colleagues provide five practical suggestions to help support workers during these interesting times, including: (1) communicate frequently; (2) provide safe channels for giving honest feedback; (3) support workers to work at home effectively; (4) address job security concerns directly; and (5) outline a plan for the future. Read more here.

Frames of Mind: The benefits of asking.

Who doesn’t like a good visual? In business, if you don’t ask, you don’t get; and persistence pays off eventually. Here’s a stark reminder:

via: @visualizevalue

Tip

Are all those inefficient Zoom calls driving you to despair? Here’s a tip to make your life better. All you have to do is check a box. Check our Wired’s guide to auto-muting yourself.

Find these snippets interesting?

If so, sign up for ALOFT and read information gathered by a real world Provider for Providers that is actually useful.