I'm very excited to kick off our next series of lectures on communication with impact. Again, no financial relationships to disclose. This session will focus on communications. Social media has become a big part of our existence, for better and for worse. So we will focus on how we will use it to help us with managing our change and improve our relationships with each other and our patients. Social media. So basically you have your Facebooks, your Instagram, your Twitter, your Spotify, etc. So many different ones out there. I'm sure that everyone knows at least one, if not all of these social media platforms. And I can pretty much guarantee that pretty much all the staff knows about them as well. And they're using them on a daily basis. Most of the population, for the most part, will go online first before making any type of decisions regarding things nowadays. So in our new environment, you can use social media on our behalf, not just for our patients or marketing view, but to build a community in our staff community. You want to, it's a way to keep people connected. Most people tend to stay in their current positions or roles where they feel like they have someone that they are close with, someone that they consider their friends, or even best friend. So establishing these connections, not only good for the mental health, but to maintain good employment and stabilize the work environment. So basically we need to look for ways that we can provide opportunities to reestablish and maintain these connections. So Zoom. Clearly, we all know how to use Zoom, but we are getting to the point where we all do become Zoomed out because that's pretty much what we're all using on a daily basis. But we're all comfortable with Zoom and it works, especially in this time where technology allows us to do these things, which is wonderful. Create better Facebook groups for your staff, allow staff to interact. Obviously during COVID-19, we saw how we had to social distance. People couldn't eat in the lunchroom together anymore. So a lot, we lost a lot of that social contact with our staff and our peers. So it's good to have something established for them so that they can share what's happening, whether it be in their personal life, so on their day-to-day action at work. My facility here, the HR department has started a, I guess you would call Facebook group where it allows the different departments to post perhaps pictures or comments of what they're doing in their department. Obviously not interrupting with their day-to-day activities and their tasks, but it does allow the staff to get to know each other, especially that there's so many new staff members. It's so important to really get to know who you're working with and what's going on. And it allows them to practice better at work if they're able to communicate with everyone and they feel it's more on a social basis. I feel that works better for staffing when they're comfortable and they know each other, they'll work well together. This is not a substitute for the break room. As things slowly get back to normal and you're allowed to have more people to have that face-to-face communication in the break room, but this definitely is something that works. I believe the majority of the staff at my practice does enjoy it and like it. It also provides ways for things to be sent out to the staff for education. It'll send them reminders on what's coming up, what's next, or, hey, look at this. This is what we've learned from, like, let's say this meeting or so on and so forth. Sometimes you can use an app-based or an online game. You want to encourage your staff to really do these things for the most part during lunchtime if possible, but it's really good to engage them in these type of activities. You do want to make sure that someone is monitoring this social media platform if you have one. You want to make sure it only really allows those who are involved in the company and not let any outsiders in to keep it simple and to avoid any undetermined team cohesion. Cameras. Cameras are key. Seeing each other creates a better connection than you can get from a phone. So I found that when we were having Zoom meetings, a lot of staff were choosing to keep their cameras off, but it's so important to remind your staff to keep them on. You want to see a face. You want to know that you're communicating with an actual body. It allows you to see if they're doing other things than what they're supposed to be doing on the meeting or the conference. Their presence is visible. It's important. It's important for them to be seen. It puts a face to the name and you're not just communicating to a blank, blank box. I know that while we have a lot of Zoom meetings, at least once or twice during that Zoom meeting, someone does say, please put your camera on and they do it, but it's it's nice to see everyone's face. OK, some practice pearls. So, again, you want to bring this all together. You want to use social media and take advantage of it to build a community in your practice. Find ways to have your staff communicate together on these platforms. You want to make sure you do provide webcams to anyone who perhaps is working from home or working in a different department to allow them to be seen during these different type of Zoom meetings or conferences. It always it's always good to build that community inside your practice with these type of methods. Thank you.

social media

communication

workplace

relationships

COVID-19 pandemic