S1: EP 007: Gaining the ideal work culture to attract and retain employees
Download MP3Hi. What the health tech listeners? This is the podcast where we tackle some of the, trending topics, best practice, general ideas and trends that are going on within the health and social care. I'm your host this week, Paul Johnson. This week, we're speaking to Hannah Wilkinson, who has recently joined Radar Healthcare as head of people and culture.
Paul Johnson:Throughout this episode, we're going to talk about positive culture and the important part that plays in recruitment throughout the healthcare industry. And with ongoing challenges, recruiting carers and NHS workers, for example, we think this is the right time to tackle this subject. Hannah has spent her career in HR, with a range of different industries. More recently working within the veterinary industry for 4 years where there has been a ongoing recruitment crisis due to vets and nurses leaving the profession because of high demands within the role. So something I think that resonates with the health and social care.
Paul Johnson:Recruitment and retention were always a top focus along with, well-being, work life balance, standout benefits, and being an employer of choice. Outside of work, Hannah loves to travel and has a his passion for transformational coaching. Easy for me to say. Hannah, welcome, to What The Health Tech.
Hannah:Thank you. Thank you for having me. It's great to be here.
Paul Johnson:Fantastic. Let's start with culture. Yep. How important do you think it is to create that positive culture in the workplace, and in particular within the health and social care arena.
Hannah:Yeah. So so important. As you've already introduced, I am head of people and culture at Radar now. It's something I'm really passionate about. We are at the moment I'm sure many people have heard this or seen it in the news, but we are living through a period called the great resignation.
Hannah:So a lot of employees are leaving their jobs even with no jobs to go to. And, yeah, it's very much a candidate's market out there at the moment. I think things are shifting, and they have been shifting for a while. But especially more so probably because of what we've been through for the last few years. And a job isn't just a job anymore.
Hannah:A job is you want to come to work. You want to be in a positive, collaborative, inclusive culture. You want to enjoy being at work, enjoy working with your team, and for the leaders that you work for. So, yeah, it's really, really important. Like I say, it is a candidate's market out there.
Hannah:And I think having a positive culture from a business perspective, it can be your unique selling point. It can give you that competitive edge. And I think, you know, relating that back to health and social care is a lot of the roles within that industry are very difficult roles. There can be really tough days. There can be a lot of compassion fatigue.
Hannah:There can be just a lot going on, again, especially in the last few years. So as employers, we should be doing everything that we can to make the workplace a great place to be.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. I suppose, as you said, they're, you know, such challenging, demanding roles within healthcare.
Hannah:Mhmm.
Paul Johnson:You know? And I suppose those challenges are gonna be wherever you go. So Yeah. Culture is even more important. And I and Yeah.
Paul Johnson:Do you see that you know, if if I'm a candidate and I'm looking to go and work, I'm a nurse and I'm and I've got options, which I invariably will have, how where do you see the my first impression of culture, you know, and from a recruiter perspective Yeah. How do you see that from your perspective? How do you get that across?
Hannah:So I think there's lots of different avenues you could explore. But something that, I think is really key to know is that you could have, as a business, the best culture. You could have a really engaged, happy, positive workforce and people that love coming to work because of x, y, and zed. But like you say, if you're not putting that out there, if the candidates can't see that, if you're that nurse that's looking for a change, if it's not out there for people to see, then it's not gonna help you in that in that respect, is it? So I think getting it through on your job ads, you know, getting putting your values on there, putting an explanation of your culture, maybe some anonymous quotes from employees that are genuine, getting your social media, you know, depending on the nature.
Hannah:If you have social media, depending on the nature of the business. Because I know, for example well, most businesses have social media, and I don't know even NHS and and public, public sector. But, yeah, making sure that you're not just marketing to your customers or clients or patients, but you're marketing as well to potential candidates, showing what it's like to work there. Reviews on things like Glassdoor, really important. And probably the most powerful is word-of-mouth.
Hannah:So having something like a team referral scheme in place so that, you know, if your nurses and doctors or social care workers, whoever it is that work for you currently, love working for you, Get them to tell their friends in the industry. Get them to to sing your praises or provide them such a great employee experience that they do that naturally, and that follow as well. That that will spread. And yeah.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. No. No. I I I suppose it's like anything, you know, that it's a little bit like Tripadvisor. Mhmm.
Paul Johnson:You get a very real experience, or you certainly feel that. Whereas if you look on the website of it, you can think, wow, that looks an amazing place. And then when you read the reviews, yeah, I suppose it's
Hannah:It's yeah. It's it's human nature, isn't it? I mean, me as a consumer, if I'm looking to buy something, I'm probably an influencer's dream. Because as soon as I see somebody that maybe I follow on social media or somebody that I know and trust likes, you know, a product or rave about a product, I want to buy it. Or and it kind of it confirms to me that I'm gonna give this a try.
Hannah:So I think the same very much applies to, to the recruitment market. And if you know that there are people out there that are genuinely waking up in the morning happy to go to work, excited to go to work because of the culture they're going into, then, of course, you're gonna want a piece of that, aren't you? Well, I would as a candidate.
Paul Johnson:Oh, no. Most definitely. Have you seen have you got any have you seen some great examples where people and culture have been, you know, the front and center in, you know, within organizations?
Hannah:Yes. So there's, well, there's lots of big examples out there, so Netflix and some of the really big companies, but also, lots of the smaller companies, I think, are doing it really well. Now I think a lot of companies are moving. It depends on what culture you have, what culture you want. But for example, a lot of companies now are moving to, a more flexible way of working, which is in part, we haven't really had a choice because of COVID.
Hannah:But, for example, where I worked before, we put a really big emphasis on we had a family culture. So we put a really big emphasis on the fact that we were formed as a family business. We weren't for the last few years because the business was acquired, but that remained as part of our culture. So we had a lot of you know, majority of our workforce were parents or carers, so we made sure that we had flexible working. We had a lot of part time employees.
Hannah:We did even small things like, sending Easter eggs to our employees' children at Easter you know, their name on it from Faunton's or whatever it might be. Things like that that are small little things, but they build into the culture. They pay dividends compared to you know, I know salary is still important and then your benefits package and everything like that, but taking the action that is in line with your culture, is really important. And, yeah, I've, I've listened to a few podcasts as well in terms of about different smaller companies that about built really good cultures. And some of the companies, for example, in the, you know, the Sunday Times best a 100 companies, some really brilliant examples in there as well of just people that are getting it really right.
Hannah:And it shows their their churn rate is low. People are raving about them. Their reviews on Glassdoor and everything like that are just absolutely brilliant as well.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. No. No. I you know, it it it doesn't surprise me, but you can certainly see that some of those smaller gestures, and and that general engagement goes a long way. And it and almost people do start to look at the culture as opposed to their benefits and package as it were.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. You meant sorry. Go.
Hannah:I was just gonna say, I think that those little things are the things that and from so from my perspective as being someone that's organized those or implements that, you know, I'd see the feedback and everything. But, also, on the other end, as somebody who's received a bunch of flowers on a Friday, thank you for doing this, or some brownies in the post. It that's the thing you talk about when you, you know, when you're having dinner that night or that weekend when you meet up with family or friends. That's the kind of thing that sticks with you. And you remember as opposed to the annual pay rise or whatever it might be.
Hannah:Both are important, but there are really simple things you can do there that can have a massive impact.
Paul Johnson:Mhmm. I know you mentioned about well your passion about well-being. And, and again, you mentioned about the almost the crisis that we're facing because lots of things, you know, when we look at the pandemic, the recovery, the general pressures on health and social care across the whole arena. Yeah. You know, look at staff shortages, unplanned absences, means that there's a greater pressure on those that are in work and trying to deliver that service with less people.
Hannah:Yep.
Paul Johnson:How do you see in terms of burnout and how you know, what should we be doing to look out for it? How can we support it? And how can we prevent it? And, you know, and really help people on that journey?
Hannah:Yeah. So, again, I think for the last few years working in the veterinary industry, this is something that was, one of our biggest problems because we were short staffed, and it's a high pressure job as it as it will be in health and social care. And as many of our careers are, you need to bring your full self to work. You need to be you know, it's life whatever. You know, you're performing surgery on pets, on animals.
Hannah:You need to be there. You need to be ready to work and and in a good headspace to work. And yet having a lack of staff, having people walking out or being lower numbers has a big impact on that. So the the really obvious thing is making sure that whoever it is that's responsible for it is doing everything that they can on the recruitment front, being innovative, being proactive, being efficient on the recruitment front to ensure that we're filling those positions. But in the meantime, it is about looking after your current teams.
Hannah:So you can only work with what you've got. I know there are means out there of getting locums in and things like that. But if you haven't got the people in place, you can't expect a team It used to be a team of 10. It's now a team of 7 to be doing the work of 10 people. And the minute that you put that expectation on them, that's where you're gonna have, more of a turnover.
Hannah:You're gonna have other people saying, do you know what? It's not worth it. We had to really put this at the top of our agenda because we had, obviously, we all went through the pandemic, and we had times where we had a lot of our teams furloughed. And then moving on from that, there's just been a lot of time for a lot of people. Well, even the profession, a lot of people were experiencing burnout, experiencing mental health illness because of the pressures of the job and the long hours and everything they'd gone through.
Hannah:So I think being innovative with things like, okay, you have to deal with the cards that you've been dealt, but what can we do to look after these people? What can we give back to make sure that if things are getting really bad, if they're coming in today to half the team have called in sick or something's gone on or something unexpected, how can we make work as enjoyable as possible as you know, and reduce that pressure on them? So things like we put in place, things like, well-being days. So, you know, making sure that if someone's had 2 weeks of being really short staffed and they've really worked their socks off and done overtime and things like that, that they're off for a day next week, no questions asked. Go and spend it doing what you want to do.
Hannah:Team building things, getting the team together. So in the pandemic, that wasn't always an option. But things like in in the work environment, we would, for 2 hours and we might have split that into 2 teams because there's still a service to provide, of course. But we might split that into 2 teams and have, like, a Mario Kart tournament or get Domino's in or have, like, a crafts afternoon, things like that. They sound so, you know, they can sound a bit gimmicky and especially if you're quite stressed.
Hannah:But the feedback we got was just ridiculous of people saying it was just nice to be with my colleagues and not be talking about work and just to relax for a couple of hours in work time. And, yeah, making sure that if you have the budget and if you have the, opportunity to implement benefits, things like that, and and or improve benefits, enhanced benefits. So you focus on something that is to do with mental well-being and whether that's an employee assistance program, any kind of health insurance or cash plan so that if people do get to a point where they're burning out, they're stressed, you know, they've had a lot on. There are things there as well to be reactive with it. So whether that's therapy or counseling, you know, different kind of different self care tools, different workshops and webinars they can go on to learn about journaling or meditation or whatever it might be, looking at the whole picture and remembering that people are humans before their before their employees or nurses or doctors or whatever it might be.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. I just something I picked up then and you said is, you know, because of some of these roles and the responsibility, you said you have to bring your whole
Hannah:self. Yeah.
Paul Johnson:So do you do you see that there is a responsibility on employers to beyond the workplace. So people when you know, so I brought my whole self to the you know, and I I've had a really hectic, you know, shift that might have been extending for 24, 36 hours in some cases. Yeah. I've then got to go home and then maintain. How do you see the responsibility of the employer when the person's left the workplace?
Hannah:Yeah. So I think, yeah, making sure that they get that protected time when they're away from work, I think, is really important as well. So setting boundaries, ensuring that you're recognizing if somebody has worked more than, you know, they would usually work or they've had extremely high pressures, making sure that we're recognising that and we're not adding additional pressures. But also in turn just on the topic of bringing your whole self to work, that goes beyond just creating a nice positive environment to work in. It's all workforces will be made up of completely different backgrounds and different, people from different walks of life and different interests, different hobbies, different beliefs.
Hannah:And it's making sure that, 1st and foremost, the culture that you, you want to create or the culture that you strive to create is an inclusive culture. So it means you know? So you might be somebody that for example, at the moment, we're in Ramadan, aren't we? So that, you know, if you have people within your coach within your company, sorry, who are, currently undergoing going through mar Ramadan, making sure that as a company, you adapt, like, you account for that because that is probably going to impact how they would usually work. You know, if they're not eating or drinking through the day and then they're eating at night, can you make adjustments?
Hannah:Can you make to in order to still get the job done, are there adjustments you can make for people because of their life outside of work that means they can bring their whole selves to work, and they can still be there and and, yeah, be their best selves.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. No. I think that's a really good point. Again, picking up on what you said that, you know, everybody's human, but everybody's different. So I suppose it's just as important not to have a one fix, one, you know, fit all solution.
Paul Johnson:It's being accommodating to culture, circumstance, role, many different factors.
Hannah:Yeah. Definitely.
Paul Johnson:If, so I suppose it's very easy to say that, we're going to implement a positive culture and people are gonna go through this change process and say, you know, make a conscious decision. You know, what would you see as the biggest challenges for an organization that wants to make a change or bring about, you know, you know, reinforcing their positive culture? And any tips for for people going through that?
Hannah:So I think so we've recently, attended a CPD event together, haven't we, based around this? And I something that I took away from that, which I hadn't really looked at it in that way before was that, you aren't going so if you're making a change in your culture, then chances are because that's what hopefully, it's to improve the culture. You maybe have recognized that something needs to change or something needs to adapt or maybe the business is growing or whatever the reason might be, a change needs to be made. With any change, you're not gonna please everybody. But I think what's really important from a business perspective, from a leader perspective is, first of all, getting feedback, getting, you know, everybody bought in.
Hannah:So you can't and I don't know. This is my opinion. And I think this is kind of this came through the other week when we did that CPD. But it's no good creating a culture based on one person's views. So yourself, for example, as a business owner saying, like, this is what I think the culture should be.
Hannah:This is it. This is what we're gonna do because you have x number of other people there that that might not fit. Obviously, you do have to come to a a solution, and you've got to come to an an outcome with it. But get feedback. Let your employees have a voice.
Hannah:Find out what makes them tick, what what motivates them, what they enjoy, what they would love in a workplace. Secondly, communicate the whole way through. So make sure that people are, they know what's going on. They're up to date with everything that's going on. And finally, I think going back to what I learned at that CBD event is that you aren't gonna please everybody.
Hannah:And chances are, if it's a change, you will have maybe a small percentage of people that are quite resistant to that change. And it's human nature to focus on changing their mind and, kind of, forget about everybody else that's jumping on board and are really championing the new changes that are coming into place, and also these people in the middle that are just going with it and kinda see it, and they'll make their mind up once they're there. Focusing too much attention on that smaller proportion can really take away from the overall whatever what you're trying to achieve. So, yeah, I think that was a really good lesson that I learned recently, is that move in the direction that the collective wants to move in. Don't ignore those people that are struggling with it, but communicate with them.
Hannah:Let them know why the changes are being made. Keep them involved. Try and keep them brought in. But, unfortunately, there isn't, like, say, a one size fits all. You aren't gonna have the perfect culture that every single person is aligned with.
Hannah:But the chances are, the culture that you've chosen to strive for is made up of all your different people. And then moving forward when you're bringing new people in, make it part of the recruitment process. So you know from day 1 that our company culture and our values align with your personal values and, you know, the culture that you would love to work in. And then, hopefully, you're always gonna have people join in and wanting to go on that same or maintain that same culture.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. I I picked up yeah. Similar powerful message being on the same, course, which was those detractors can very quickly become advocates and champions. So Yeah. You know, once they understand the benefits to them.
Paul Johnson:I think as well just to kind of something I remember from the session, which I felt was a really important message which was I don't know if you recall, but there was a an image of a plant pot that was fallen over. And so one of the facilitators and speakers, was an NHS trust, and had had been brought in to help them implement a change. And, the story being that he was sat outside waiting to see the chief chief executive in NHS Trust. And there was a plant pot in the corridor, and it was laid on its side, a little bit of soil spilt out. And he watched half a dozen people go into the chief exec's office on and at times stepping over the plant pot.
Paul Johnson:Now it became representative of the culture because it was saying that there are things that are accepting of things that aren't acceptable.
Hannah:Yep. You know?
Paul Johnson:And I think it you know, again, it's to get your views on how we monitor
Hannah:Yeah.
Paul Johnson:Pre not not only where we currently are, but if we are in a change program, how are we measuring that success and that we are genuinely picking up and driving in the direction that we want?
Hannah:Yeah. Definitely. I think just quickly going back to that is something a, a phrase that's always stuck with me in my professional and my personal life is how you do one thing is how you do everything. So you can't as a business, you can't profess to have this fantastic culture that everybody mocks in and everybody's, you know, whatever it might be, but but not you know, then in in a different circumstance completely go against that. It's got to be something that's intrinsic.
Hannah:It's got to be something that is how you behave on a daily basis when nobody's watching. So, yeah, I think that was a really powerful story, wasn't it? But in terms of measuring and and and understanding, I think it's it's an ongoing thing, isn't it? It's not you know, for an organization, for example, that recognizes something needs to change here and takes the steps and and does everything right to to change those things and to implement the culture that they want and that the team wants and to really get that right is brilliant. But it doesn't stop there because it's a it's a fragile thing, isn't it?
Hannah:All it can take is, you know, a change in the stage of the business, for example. That can have an impact or it can be a personnel change. There could be a few peep a few key really positive culture champions leave, and a few people join and we've lost that. Or it could be a change in leadership or whatever it might be that happens in in businesses day to day. It has to be continually monitored.
Hannah:It has to be you need feedback. You need, you know, surveys or a bit like, in marketing. Is it an NPS, a net Promoter Score? Yep. You need something like that essentially internally to find out, you know, touch points with your employees.
Hannah:Would you recommend the other people working here? What do you love about your job? What would you change about your job? How are you you know, how's your line manager? How's that style?
Hannah:Because, again, you can have a fantastic culture. But if you have one manager that's managing a team of 15 and they aren't aligned with the culture, that's the experience that that team have mainly day to day. That's their most frequent touch point, isn't it? So, yeah, making sure that you're continually asking for feedback and then acting on the feedback when you get it. So if you get feedback, you know, negative feedback or changes, if it is necessary and feasible, obviously, not every feed you know, you can't respond to every single piece of feedback because you may end up chasing yourself forever.
Hannah:But if there are messages coming through there and the things that can be changed and should be changed, then act on them. Don't just have a survey that kind of you get your results and it sits in a drawer. Act on the changes. And similarly, if you get really positive feedback, I think use that Use that again, going back to recruitment. Get those messages out there in your recruitment.
Hannah:Get your your employees to tell their friends. Get your employees to maybe put a social media post on about how fantastic it is to come to work at x, y, and zed company. But, yeah, making sure, like you say, it's it's a continual it's it's adapting all the time. And it's it's as important on the agenda as the rest of the business objectives are because it only takes something small to potentially change it or send it in a different direction.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. That's I mean, we were speaking earlier to Lee Williams, chief operating officer and and cofounder, and we were talking about culture. And, you know, he highlighted, you know, the the company is nothing without the people. The product is nothing without the people. So, you know, we have to put them front and center.
Paul Johnson:And it's certainly something as an SMT that it's top of our agenda. I think we've you've highlighted engagement and communication. Do you have any practical tips as to how people might go ensuring that is in place? Because it it's clearly a a key driver to making that change successful.
Hannah:Yeah. So I think, like you say, and like I kind of said with the recruitment side, you could have the best culture or a lot of happy employees. I think it's the best culture. But if you're not if you haven't got a way to communicate and to, or to understand that or to, you know, the great initiatives that, potentially, the SMT might be thinking up. If that isn't feeding down to the rest of the teams, then it isn't you know, it's not people aren't aware of it, are they?
Hannah:So it depends very much on the business. So, for example, in a business like ours, where we're, a tech company and we are mainly remote. We do have, hybrid work and don't we? But it's not a kind of we don't get big groups of people together very often, although we are putting that in place. You know, making sure that you've got those you can replace those what would have been water cooler moments or, you know, moments at the kettle.
Hannah:If you can replace those by video chats, by, you know, different instant messaging services, by, something that I'm really keen on and want to implement is having, like, a a HR system that's a bit like a social media. So where you've got somewhere where everybody knows to go, and it's where you shout out the things like, you know, this person's just joined us and welcome them, and everybody can welcome them, or is this person's birthday, or well done to this person for doing this. Having somewhere where you can keep continually drip feed in the messages that you want to to feed in there and to and you can follow through on your, you know, on whatever it is that you profess to be as a culture. But, obviously, that would be different again for, for example, in a hospital setting or a care home setting where everybody's on-site. I think making sure that you're bringing your teams together, you're having you know, you're not just there to get a job done, do your own thing.
Hannah:I think bringing your teams together. Again, another lesson from that event we went to is is breaking bread, making sure that you as a leader, but also as your teams with each other, they break bread. They eat together. They have just a bit of time where it's not all worked or can make you know, they can just relax a little bit in each other's company, chat a bit more, be a little bit more candid, and and that's really important as well. But, yeah, communication, whatever method it is that works the best for the type of business you're in, making sure that it's constant, making sure that you're updating, that if things are changing, people know, and, that yeah.
Hannah:There's no uncertainty. Build that trust and and maintain it.
Paul Johnson:Yep. I suppose from your perspective then, you know, around, you know, the positive culture, and what what would be your top three things that you would, you know, advise, be your recommendation for any organization thinking about, you know, a change or bringing about positive culture? And I suppose, equally importantly, how would that how would you migrate that into the recruitment process so it becomes a part of that as well?
Hannah:Okay. So, without because I feel like I probably covered a few of these points already, but I'll just maybe touch back on them and just so I think, like I say, the feedback thing is really important. I think and as an employee going into work, whatever role it is that you might do, wherever you sit in that business, whatever department it is, feeling like you've got a voice and you've got the opportunity to impact decisions. You know, you recruit people into your business for a reason. Everybody's got different talents, different skills, different backgrounds, different qualifications, whatever that might be.
Hannah:Utilize that. Allow your employees to have a voice and to feel like they can influence they can influence whatever it might be, giving them that voice and then asking for feedback. And similarly, asking for feedback on how we're doing as a you know, it's a two way relationship. How are we doing as an employer? What can we improve?
Hannah:Making sure you get that feedback. And then, you know, just to kind of I know I mentioned this earlier, but then using that feedback in terms of making changes and going back to recruitment, using it for for the recruitment process. If you've got fantastic feedback, share it, obviously, with people's consent or anonymous or whatever that might be. But share it. Secondly, I think, recognition.
Hannah:So recognizing hard work and reward in it. And also recognizing loyalty, recognizing people's personal, you know, life events, birthdays, weddings, whatever it might be. As we said earlier, they are they can be a really small it seems like a simple thing or, you know, a quite a low cost thing, to be honest, but that can really make somebody's day. If, for example, somebody's going through a difficult circumstance in their home life, you know, or a health issue, for example, those are the things, in my experience, that stick with somebody. The the fact that when they had this diagnosis or they went through that divorce or whatever it was, that they had a bunch of flowers or a box of cupcakes turn up from, you know, the their their team, their family at the business.
Hannah:And just say, you know, we're thinking of you. We're here if you need you. Here here if you need us. That, I think, is really important. So recognition.
Hannah:And, you know, going one step further than that, if you can have a recognition scheme or something in place where it becomes part of it's not just about management and the business recognizing bits and bobs. Get your employees to recognize each other. So a way an easy way that's meaningful to make sure those thank yous are continually happening. So whenever somebody puts, you know, steps out and helps somebody or whatever it might be, that we're fostering a culture of people saying thank you and, you know, and recognizing their colleagues for the great things that people do for each other day in, day out anyway. And then finally, again, it's what I've already mentioned, but remember that your employees are humans before they're anything else.
Hannah:And I guess that kind of I've covered that a little bit already just then as well in terms of people have you know, life is a a weird and wonderful thing, isn't it? And I think we're all on a spectrum of different stages of mental health, different life events going on, different stresses outside of work, you know, different things, you know, careers. People want to not everybody, but some people want to come into a company and progress and grow and develop and and upscale. And some people want to come into a company and become really good at that job and stay stable and do that, but recognize that everybody is different. Everybody is from, probably, a different background, different life experiences.
Hannah:Remember that they are humans first. And if you can maintain if you can foster and maintain a culture where they feel like they can come in and bring their whole selves to work and bring all of that with them, but they feel supported to then still do their job in my and I'm in a people role, so obviously I will be biased. But in my opinion, that's just as important, if not more important, than the rest of the business objectives that you need to get you there. Because if they aren't able to come into work or they come into work and they are not able to you know, they're not supported with whatever is that's going on, then, you know, your customers aren't gonna be served, you know, efficiently or as well as they could be. It's not gonna translate all the way through that services or your patients or whatever it might be.
Hannah:So just remembering that, yes, there are certain things you've got. You know, there are always gonna be objectives, and there are gonna be certain business needs that you need to meet. But if you can, satisfy that first, you hopefully will get you will get people coming in who are motivated and committed and wanting to to do the best for the business.
Paul Johnson:Brilliant. I I mean, what? 3 three great things. You know? And then I think if you had them, you know, as your cornerstone, underpinning, you know, your culture, you know, that feedback, as you mentioned, is a two way thing.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. You know, as much as getting receiving feedback, you want to provide feedback.
Hannah:Yeah. I
Paul Johnson:mean, recognition, I love the I had really occurred to me that sometimes it is encouraging Yeah. Fellow work workers and Yeah. You know, colleagues to recognize each other. I think that's a a really great one. And then people.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. You know, recognizing that people are different and unique and therefore ensuring that you're set up to support in whatever shape or form that is.
Hannah:Definitely. Like, going back to the recruitment side, it is it's not enough anymore to and that should have never been enough, but it's not enough anymore to have to offer the going salary and statutory holidays. You've got to, especially in the market right at the moment. But moving forward, we've got to we've got to show people why. Why if you can choose out of 10 companies, why us?
Hannah:Because we might all offer the same salary, the same amount of holidays, some great little benefits here and there. But why us? And we, as humans, most people spend a majority of their time at work. It's it's a huge part of your your human experience, isn't it? So why not create a place where you enjoy going?
Hannah:And, yes, you've gotta go in and get the job done, but you enjoy it. And you you get a lot of satisfaction from the people you work with and the people you work for and the product or the service or the care that you're providing to your customers or patients. It's really think, potentially, sometimes maybe that gets forgotten because there's so many other things to to focus on, isn't there? Yeah. So, yeah, really important.
Paul Johnson:Brilliant. Something that we like to ask all of our, our visitors, and speakers is that within your career, is there a standout moment? You know, if it's something funny that you can be fun, it's touching, emotive, whatever it might be is, can you call upon something within that kind of people and culture within your career that kind of resonates and always comes back to you?
Hannah:So I had prepared for this question. What the hell the the what the health tech moment? And I was because I'm only as you said earlier, I'm only, I'm 4 weeks into the health tech industry, so I don't have one. But now you've thrown me a curveball, so I'm not really prepared for
Paul Johnson:I suppose even within your career, I mean, you know, it's it's people and culture. You know, this are the foundations of any organization. So maybe calling upon that.
Hannah:One that jumps to mind, it's not it's not a it's more of a a touching one, I guess. But I guess it does underpin everything we've talked about today. So, without breaking any confidentiality, so I won't mention company names or, or people's names or anything like that. But we, in a previous company, had a one of our team members who hadn't actually been with us for that long were diagnosed with cancer and went through a really, really difficult difficult time in their lives. And for me so this is, I guess, this might be a bit of a a somber note to to end the podcast on, but this is something that stuck with me in my career, is that when I, left that company, they reached out to me and just said something along the lines of and I won't go into details, but, essentially, the premise was, thank you so much for how you and the company handled x, y, and zed that went on.
Hannah:That to me, you will never understand how important and how much that changed my whole situation at the time and how grateful I will be forever. And for that, it's it's something I think that will stick with me forever because it's it wasn't about you know, we didn't do anything special or anything. You know? But it was about the the care that was shown from they were very much seen as a human going for a really, really difficult and and life altering, you know, period in their life. They were very much everything else was forgotten in terms of they're a human going through something, and we care about them.
Hannah:And the fact that and this wasn't just from me. This was from senior management and from the business and all the different kind of their line manager and everything like that. The fact that that translated so well and that when they look back at their period in their life, they had such a good experience on the work from which can obviously add an additional stress because not all companies are like that. I think, that, yeah, that will stay with me forever. I don't really know if that answered the question.
Hannah:I think it was a bit off topic, but it is something that, I think underpinning what we've talked about today that's so important that you can leave. That person in in 20 years from now isn't gonna remember, what their salary was at the time or what bonus they got at Christmas. They're gonna remember something like that, and, it's really important, I think.
Paul Johnson:Yeah. No. I I 100% agree. And, sadly, we're we're we again, we won't go into details, but we have a couple of people that are having some challenges. And what impressed me and gave me faith that we do have a positive culture is, first and foremost, it's just been about the person, how we can support that person in in their time of need.
Paul Johnson:You know, and and with no thought to work or anything, it is, how are we going to support this person? And they are friends.
Hannah:Yeah.
Paul Johnson:You know? And I did. I got a beautiful message from one of the person's wife just, as a thank you and a similar kind of thing, and it kinda reinforced it for me as well. So thank you for that. Hannah, thank you so much.
Paul Johnson:Some real great insights there. Certainly, you know, I'm looking forward to how we apply them and, you know, further reinforce what we're trying to do and hopefully pick the listeners and people considering this can take them away as well. Thanks for everybody for listening this week. Next week we have Mark Fuster, head of, products at Radar Healthcare. He'll be joining us as we look at a recent roundtable event, where with the Digital Health Rewired event and the importance of adoption of innovation within NHS.
Paul Johnson:Something I was part of, and it was, again, a very emotive conversation. So it'd be great to see and hear Mark's feedback. Don't forget to rate and subscribe, where you get your podcasts. And if you have any questions for Hannah or any of our other guests, then please email what the health tech at radarhealthcare.com. Thank you.
