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Does Your Home Care Agency Culture Support Change and Innovation?

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Home care agencies have a strong focus on communicating the fact that they provide excellent services and are focused on patient-centred care, but not often do you hear about an agency’s corporate culture; an essential topic for the agency’s leadership and one that could set them apart from other providers.

But what is organizational culture and why should it be of any concern for a busy home care executive? 

John McLaughlin describes organizational culture as, a system of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs, which governs how people behave in organizations. These shared values have a strong influence on the people in the organization and dictate how they dress, act, and perform their jobs. Every organization develops and maintains a unique culture, which provides guidelines and boundaries for the behavior of the members of the organization.” (Study.com)

The culture of an organization starts from the top; as a home care agency executive it is your role to set the tone of your corporate environment.

There are plenty of easy steps you could take in order to define this kind of culture, including being transparent in all areas of your agency, rewarding employees who present new ideas or innovations, encouraging team learning and open dialogue, and providing educational opportunities.

For example at AlayaCare, our culture is very team oriented and defined by a general matrix of attributes.

They include being excellent at what you do, having a passion for innovation, a willingness to work hard and get stuff done, and perhaps most importantly, a desire to have fun while doing it.

With a culture like ours, we have the ability to build on our capacity to create results, expand, and collaborate, while always seeking new ways to be innovative.

With all of your employees sharing the same values and beliefs towards new technology and innovation, adapting and advancing will become much easier. Having a forward-thinking culture can give your agency a competitive edge and ultimately enhance the growth of your organization. 

With new technologies changing the face of home care and the introduction of electronic systems that increase efficiencies and improve patient outcomes, some agencies are being described as in a state of panic or decline as they struggle to keep up with evolving trends.

Even some of the most strategic plans can fail due to the fact that the culture of some agencies don’t support the changes being implemented.

Understanding your organizational culture can help you tackle conflicts such as change resistance or lack of inspiration, and will give you insight on the changes you need to make in order to create a new culture that supports and emphasizes learning, change, and innovation.

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