The 360 Degree Workplace
The 360º Workplace enables every member of the team, from Partners and Managers, down to all frontline staff to identify their own strengths and weaknesses, engage directly in discussions with other more experienced staff, and encourages them to explore and have an active say in their own learning requirements.
The principles behind the 360º Workplace approach are seen as the next stage in the development of the workforce and this methodology is now being adopted by Healthcare and Adult Social Care organisations.
- We simplify regulations, policies and best practice requirements, so we just have the key principles in plain English.
- Everything is compressed so it only takes one-minute to read, instead of the long-winded policies we are all used to.
- The result is instant engagement at any staff level, subject meetings can be held without any prior planning, and an agenda item can simply be introduced on the spot at a meeting.
- Any team discussion can start within one minute, with comments and improvement ideas noted instantly ...... no minutes required.
Quality Standards Manual: Case studies
Life changed dramatically for us when we got the Quality Standards System.
Day One:
This was the "Setup" stage, essentially flicking through the pages to familiarise myself of the topics and picking the top 5 topics I wanted to focus on. This took me a whole 30 minutes.
Day Two:
I took just the first chosen topic into the Management Meeting and gave everyone a copy to read, comment and sign. It took everyone just one minute to read the topic, and a 10 minute discussion followed. I explained how the system worked and that what we had just achieved was a formal discussion, team review, improvement strategy, and CPD ... in 10 minutes.
Day Three:
At the next meeting, I repeated this with a second topic, just to reiterate the process. Another 10 minutes and they had just done my job for me.
Day Four:
This time I asked one of my Admin Staff, who had zero CQC knowledge to run with the 3rd topic. Same 10 minutes spent, same achievement.
It took me 3 meetings, and 10 minutes in each meeting, to delegate virtually all of my Compliance Review to the rest of the team
Teamwork and delegation with the Quality Standards Manual
- This has now been fully implemented as our Governance and Development system
- We have incorporated Governance Reviews as a regular part of our Management meetings
- The reviews will take place at the beginning of each meeting, and will generally take no more than 10 minutes
- Meetings now begin with a focus on selected topics, and evidence team reviews, improvement reviews, and evidence for CPD & GP Revalidation
- For future reviews, Partners and PM may and should suggest specific topics of concern that need priority reviews
Teamwork and delegation with the Quality Standards Manual
Extract from a Management Meeting Report by a Manager
Feedback from Admin Manager
- This is the first time she has led a meeting at Management level
- She was confident in being able to explain her responsibility, personal role, team goals, and the process of Staff Development using the Passport
- She was confident and able to address the questions raised by Partners on specific topics such as Safeguarding, its relevance to us, and how it is applied, and how training should be disseminated practice wide
- She has shown sufficient confidence to be able to present our compliance framework to any external Inspection, and so should every member of our team
A Culture Change with zero effort on my part
- We have shown that any member of staff can lead these reviews, as was demonstrated by the Admin Manager leading a Management Review on Stsff Training and Safeguarding topics
- This is the first time she has led a Management Meeting in her 15 year career, requiring only a 5 minute briefing beforehand
Why is it that every time I go into a meeting, I come out with more work than I started?
Going into meeting after meeting absorbs up to 60% of my time, sitting there hour after hour, achieving very little.
Worse still, the valuable time it takes up means I have to make up for this with longer hours and more stress.
The Quality Standards System changed everything
Quality Assurance and Compliance was something I never looked forward to, there was never enough time, and it took a backstage.
But now, it has become my saviour !
At every meeting, I take the specially designed form with a topic of my choice and hand out copies for everyone to read, comment and sign. Within 10-15 minutes, they have done my entire job of Compliance Management for me.
These are the most productive meetings we have had in a long time, and people are learning that we don't have to sit through two hours of hot air.
Our entire team has embraced this new system, and everyone feels engaged and happy to participate.
All I have to do is introduce any one of the ready-made topics for discussion and let them do the review.
For the first time, the Partners actually know exactly how the Practice Compliance is really run and could run most of the system by themselves.
I have even got my Admin Staff to present topics at the Management Meeting, and demonstrated is that this system is so easy to manage that anyone can run it, and that it can run without me even being there.
And amazingly, it is such a learning experience for them that they actually thank me for letting them do my job.
Just 3 weeks into using this system, we have established a foundational framework of culture change and self-responsibility
Staff have the tools to be self-sufficient in Personal Development, and we have delegated responsibility to the lowest denominator
We can easily demonstrate that the Practice has a robust self-managing system, and every member of staff is confident they can hold their own with any Inspection interview
Professional Standards Passport: Case Studies
On Monday morning, I showed two of my more senior staff these Passports and asked them what they thought
By lunchtime, they had read through dozens of topics, and volunteered to take over and teach other staff.
By Tuesday, we had a total culture change, every member of staff had embraced this new Passport and couldn't stop talking about it.
By Wednesday, our staff meeting day, the entire agenda on training was being run by my staff
Staff have been carrying the Passport with them as a personal reference manual and reading the short and easy topics at every opportunity.
The portability of this Passport has encouraged them to take it with them into every meetings and discussions, even over a coffee break.
Unknown to me, two of my staff even took this to an external training session, and we were inundated with enquiries about where people can get them.
My staff have taken this to heart and taken full charge of their own development.
As a Manager, all I have to do is make sure they prioritise topics that are important. The rest can be done in good time.
There has been a real focus on issues of concern rather than the scatter gun approach and online training in isolation.
How the Passport eliminated risk in one day
Extract from a Management Meeting Report by a Manager
Business Continuity
- This consolidates Staff Training, Policies, Appraisals, and Personal Development in one single system
- Staff have taken full self-responsibility, and rotate the supervision between themselves
- This is now totally self-managing, no substantial management supervision is required
- There will be virtually no disruption in the event of any temporary or permanent absence of any individual member of staff or management
My staff read the section on Chaperone Policy, and asked the Lead Nurse for a quick brief on this topic to better understand it.
I didn't even know they had done that. I thought I had covered this every single year and everyone was up to speed.
The Passport has just made me realise that all this time, staff were just scanning the long policy without actually understanding the principle.
My staff absolutely love it and prefer it other systems that they have tried in the past. I did a short anonymous staff satisfaction survey; the results of which I am sharing with you.
The comments that the staff posted as part of this survey are:
“I prefer this training tool as I can gain more information.”
“This way is very useful as all staff train together and we can learn from each other”
“Easy to understand and to follow the protocols
“good insight and protocols”
Sophie, a staff member said on her appraisal:-
"I love that I don't have to sit in front of a computer, log on and then read thouigh a whole unit, just to get to that one bit of information.
The Passport enables me to do things in short bursts, and read and talk about the topic with colleagues at any time"
We have made significant improvements in staff engagement and their knowledge and training. Staff can play a more prominent role and feel more involved in their own Professional Development.
Our online training was an isolated and lonely experience for staff and did not encourage discussion and feedback. Now we have reflective learning, where staff read and learn at their own pace, discuss issues between themselves, not just line managers, then self-improve and take self-responsibility.
Training is no longer a memory test of what we just read on a screen two minutes ago,
Staff are forced to think about the topic with questions like “Do you know what to do if ……”.
This kicks of discussions and people are more likely to remember the outcome of this discussion.
The staff have found an increased interest in learning. They understand, they have a light bulb moment, and suddenly the subject is interesting, and they want to be better
There is a real buzz around this that we haven’t seen before, staff are actually enjoying and exploring reading about policies and training.
Staff feel involved in and in control of their own Personal Development, they can carry out reflective learning in their own space and time, instead of the hours-long online sessions on a computer screen.