Over on our retail blog, we have a series of excellent blogs related to retail forecasting going on right now. I heartily recommend perusing it, as there is tremendous insight there about forecasting in a store and what implications that has on how and when you schedule your staff to work, even if your job keeps you focused on healthcare like mine does. There are parallels between retail forecasting and healthcare staffing – specifically around staffing ratios – that I want to talk about in the future with you.
In the meantime, though, we are going to start a series of our own focused on healthcare workforce management – specifically looking at a scheduling implementation roadmap.
What is that, you ask?
It is a series of guidelines—street signs and turn directions—to help you navigate your way from Point A – “I Want To Install A Scheduling System” to Point B – “Welcome To A Successful Scheduling Implementation”. And at that destination you want to get to, there is a lovely park called “Balanced Productivity” where you can play with your friends, the “ROI’s”.
OK – Maybe I’m taking this analogy a little too far, but you get the point.
Planning and beginning to implement a staff scheduling system seems straightforward enough. But there are pitfalls along the way and you need to follow the directions to get to your destination instead of just being plain lost. We want to give you that roadmap. And we’re going to do it in a series a blog entries over the next few months.
Here are some topics that you can expect to see:
Implementation vs. Transformation
Structuring Cross-Departmental Teams
Change Management and Leadership
Maximizing The System Solution
Process Automation
The Importance of Cheerleaders
Defining Success
Kaizen – Continuous Process Improvement
We’ll mix in our regular blog posts as we lay out this roadmap. Now, go gas up the car and get ready to go!