B2B healthcare teams rarely struggle because they lack tasks to do. The bigger challenge comes from having too many competing priorities. Meeting with clients, collaborating with internal teams, and sifting through emails are a few recurring themes within healthcare organizations. When your employees’ calendars are packed, it can leave little time for focused work.
The calendar overload problem not only erodes productivity, but it also takes away from important tasks like analyzing data and developing strategies to connect with clients. You can help by giving employees better systems for managing their time and cutting out the bloat from their calendars. Here are some strategies to explore:
Give Teams a Digital Project Management System
A project management platform gives your employees one place to track projects, deadlines, and responsibilities. Instead of relying on scattered emails and note-taking apps, each department can build out projects within a centralized hub. Asana, Teamwork, and ClickUp are a few options to consider adopting to support your workforce.
Choosing a platform that is a good fit for your business is only part of the equation. You need to convince your employees to actually use the solution. Pick a tool that fits your workflow, and provide guidelines regarding how your team members should use the platform.
Teach Employees How to Time Block
A full calendar gives the appearance of productivity, but it doesn’t always translate to meaningful output. When your employees are hopping from one meeting to another, they won’t have enough time in between to complete the work those meetings generate.
Time blocking gives employees a simple way to protect that work time. They can reserve specific periods for writing, data analysis, prepping for clients, or other work.
Once you implement time blocking, encourage managers and team leads to respect those blocks. That may mean booking meetings no earlier than 9:30 a.m. so that employees have some uninterrupted, productive time to start each shift.
Reduce Meetings That Do Not Need to Happen
Meetings can help teams solve problems and make decisions, but they can also consume enormous chunks of each week. Researchers have found a direct link between meeting satisfaction and employee engagement. Good, productive meetings can promote employee engagement, whereas negative or wasteful meetings can contribute to burnout.
The phrase “That meeting could’ve been an email” exists for a reason. Evaluate the meetings your department has held over the last month. Identify which ones could have been shortened or replaced altogether with written communication. Revamp how often you meet, how long they last, and what the goals of those gatherings are so you can free up several hours of productive work time each month.
Make Priorities Clear
Completing every task as quickly as possible is not the goal, or at least it shouldn’t be. Productivity means spending time on the most meaningful tasks.
Your healthcare leadership team should help employees distinguish between requests that are urgent and long-term priorities that may not need to be completed right away. A clear priority system can prevent employees from constantly jumping to whatever task pops up.
Project management tools are great for ranking tasks by urgency and setting deadlines. Your mid-level managers can reinforce these priorities during one-on-one conversations.
Setting clear priorities also makes it easier for employees to speak up when they get overloaded. Instead of simply piling on another task, a manager can help shuffle priorities around so that the workload is realistic.
Build a Culture That Values Productive Work
Productivity tools cannot fix a workplace culture that rewards employees for being constantly available. If employees believe they have to respond to every message right away or attend every meeting, there is a much greater risk of burnout. Give your employees some autonomy and support them with clear expectations.
Remote work is also making a comeback. Allowing your employees to work remotely or in a hybrid function can also enhance company culture. In these settings, measurable productivity is the ultimate currency, not time spent in meeting rooms.
Help Your Team Get More Done With Less Friction
The strategies outlined above will empower your team while helping them get more done without constant pressure. When you build these practices into your culture, teams will waste less energy managing work and dedicate more energy to actually doing meaningful tasks.
