We are confused …. digital confidence seems like basic good sense for the care sector?
Over the past couple of years the YourLink team has trained over 5,000 people in digital skills and have helped to build their digital confidence. The feedback we get is so overwhelmingly positive we know we’re doing something right. More importantly, as the participants in our training tell us repeatedly, we are changing their lives.
Why are we confused?
The drive by aged care, independent living and care organisations, as well as the health sector more broadly, is to drive digitisation of service delivery. There is a lot of research about this, the pace of change is accelerating and this trend will continue for the foreseeable future. In a sector where every dollar counts and margins are under pressure, we are confused why organisations are not setting themselves up to succeed in this process.
The stories we hear are about lower than desired adoption rates within organisations and individuals being overwhelmed by new systems which leads to avoiding using them. This means they get behind on their work, which in turn creates stress further contributing to burnout and wellbeing issues. Apart from the wellbeing issues this causes, from a commercial standpoint it doesn’t make good sense to us, especially when we see the energy and commitment care workers bring to the digital training sessions we run. They want to learn, they want to be active participants in the digital world and the employers who have invested in their training are going to reap huge benefits from those we’ve trained.
This is not only a direct 1:1 benefit in terms of the more willing adoption of new technologies and processes, but also the confidence they have means they can coach others as well. The benefits of this to the bottom line are obvious - adoption = improved margin performance on operational expenditure.
We heard about an organisation recently who is driving towards a paperless vision. Sound logic, obvious efficiency and environmental benefits. But, they have stated the vision, rolled out three new digital processes and provided very limited training for the care workers mainly focussed on an email with an attached document to show the steps on how to use the system. We are not sure what they expected from this process, but the anecdotes that we heard were about how workers were avoiding the use of the system and sticking with trusted manual, paper-based processes. A great example of great intent, but poor implementation.
By supporting carers with access to digital devices and skills we create opportunities for essential self-care, improve social engagement, and enable more options within daily routines through online services. Digital training for carers is a digital literacy and skills development program for carers.
The benefits don’t stop there though. To state the obvious - engaging your workers in their learning demonstrates to them how important they are to you and your business. Again, we know from research that engaged workers are more productive, and will use their discretionary effort to give you and your clients more.
We get there is no silver bullet - so let’s at least focus on what will make a difference
Covid created positive momentum in terms of digital confidence in so many people. Being proactive in how we build on that seems like common sense. Especially in an industry where skills shortages are in crisis and retaining the people we have today are vital to the continuity of service delivery.
We know digital training is not the silver bullet and to modernise the sector, build the workforce we need to meet the increasing demands of the sector, will take an integrated focus across many many dimensions.
But … the disproportionate benefits that a relatively small investment in the care workers and carers in the sector seems to suggest that digital training is a logical and value creating place to start? The evidence we bring is the feedback we get from the training we are delivering to care workers and carers is consistently positive, moving their digital confidence up the scale very quickly with well designed and structured learning, delivered in a safe and positive environment.
Contact us, we can create that experience for your carers and care workers as well.
Contact Richard Scenna, Director by email richard@yourlink.com.au or phone 0408 742 743.
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