Leadership in private practice: Fostering your workplace culture to benefit your community

By WorkPlacePLUS

Culture is defined as the ideas, customs, and behaviours of a society. Similarly, the workplace culture of your occupational therapy practice is like a microcosm of a society - the character, feel and functionality of your practice is influenced by several factors, including the personalities in your team, your workplace policies and practices, and your organisational vision, values and strategies. But ultimately, workplace culture stems from the top.

Private practice owners wear the leadership hat in the business. As the leader, it's important to monitor, model and maintain the workplace culture of your practice. Your strategic plan, organisational values, HR policies and code of conduct may support your vision of a respectful, inclusive, eco-sustainable, mentally healthy team culture, but is this reflected in your leadership?

Food for thought…

• Are you making ethical, best practice business decisions?
• Do you address workplace issues promptly using procedural fairness?
• Do you provide your staff with regular feedback, training, recognition and opportunities for continuous improvement?
• Do you solicit feedback from key stakeholders?
• Are you meeting the needs of the community?

It is important to recognise that the workplace culture of your occupational therapy practice impacts your local community.

Here are some examples:

Local jobs and local commerce - Employment is essential to the local community, providing jobs and stability while boosting other local businesses when your workforce shops, eats or runs errands locally. A positive work culture can help attract and retain great employees, whereas a negative or dysfunctional work culture can cause high staff turnover.

Servicing the community - Your clientele is directly impacted by your work culture, including your staff’s level of courtesy and your protocols for the safe and efficient delivery of service.

Identity and community spirit - Your private practice participates in community outreach (e.g. sponsoring a local club or joining a business chamber or association), this can help boost community spirit and strengthen business-to-business camaraderie and support.

Reputation and trust - A positive workplace culture is naturally beneficial to your brand reputation, but it also contributes to the broader sense of community spirit and identity. Problems arise; however, when your practice displays the red flags of a toxic culture, such as:

• workplace conflict, incidents, complaints and claims
• high turnover, absenteeism and lateness
• poor attitudes, engagement, performance and productivity
• poor communication and lack of support

The impact of a toxic work culture can be seen not only in financial costs, reputational damage and poor employee mental health, but also in the downward spiral of community mistrust.

Safety - Employers have a duty under work, health and safety laws to provide a safe workplace. The impact of your culture around workplace safety affects not only your employees but any visitors, contractors, customers or clients.

Attending to the workplace culture should be a regular part of your practice’s risk management plan.

It’s important for private practice owners to take a proactive approach to fostering a healthy workplace culture. This means modelling the organisational values, reviewing and assessing the workplace culture, addressing signs of workplace conflict early and following a best practice change strategy when significant organisational changes are needed.

As a start, private practice owners can consider conducting an annual cultural review. Workplace cultural reviews can be the catalyst for the continuous improvement, constructive workplace change, and meaningful community impact.

As OTA’s HR/IR partner, WorkPlacePLUS provides support to OTA members on employment matters affecting your practice. For more information, contact Anna Pannuzzo on (03) 9492 0958 or visit www.WorkPlacePLUS.com.au.