Health care is expanding and changing constantly. Therefore, maintaining an inclusive environment within your allied health practice is essential for success. In addition, increasing diversity and inclusivity within your practice will bring more ideas from people with varying perspectives and backgrounds that will help your health organization reach its full innovative potential. Therefore, it is vital to address inclusivity at all levels by encouraging shared values, eclectic benefits, and a culture of inclusiveness.
How to Improve Diversity and Inclusivity in Your Allied Health Practice
Shared Values
Increasing diversity in your allied health practice is vital to establish a company culture that puts shared values before personality types, age groups, or demographics. Your goal is to avoid creating a homogenous workforce with little room for diverse thinking or people. Take the time to identify what company values are essential to your allied health practice, such as integrity, empathy, and accountability. After identification, embed the values in all aspects of the recruiting and hiring process.
This process is easy to discuss yet hard to implement. For example, even if you have the best intentions, you might hire a candidate who passes the “beer test” instead of the person who is the best fit for the job and the culture. To avoid this scenario, have your HR team invest in training to alleviate personal biases while identifying candidates based on their personal experiences, background, and perspectives.
Broaden Benefits
To attract a diverse group of employees for your allied health practice, consider incorporating an eclectic mix of benefits and perks for them. Is your current benefits package comprehensive enough? Consider the following questions:
- Does your current benefits package address a wide variety of needs and demographics?
- Can all employees access your benefits?
- Are your benefits impartial?
- Do we offer services for same-sex couples, single parents, and employees struggling with infertility?
If you identify gaps and determine that your allied health practice can expand its existing benefits, contemplate using a survey to collect employee feedback and identify gaps in your current offerings.
Create a Culture of Inclusiveness
It is inherent for us to draw close to others who are similar to us. However, to build a culture of inclusiveness, your team must interact with people outside their usual comfort zone. This type of interaction will help establish your health care organization as a place where traits such as open-mindedness, diversity in thought, and a willingness to be vulnerable are valued.
Your HR team can encourage employees to engage with people with whom they normally would not interact. Use creativity to help employees bond. For example, you can start by randomly pairing up employees for coffee dates. The key is encouraging people to share recognition outside of their teams and friend groups. An Employee Resource Group is an excellent way to create space for people across the organization to come together.
Need Help Taking Your Allied Health Practice to the Next Level? MyPTsolutions Can Help!
Need a staffing solution? The team at myPTsolutions offers a variety of placement solutions to meet your unique needs. In addition, customized hiring solutions are a specialty of myPTsolutions. Let them provide the answer to your staffing problem.
