Managing for Service Users and Teams 6 Managing for Service Users and Teams Cambridge Management and Leadership School

Critical issues for Managers Given the size and complexity of many of the organisations that provide health and social care, among the critical issues for you as a manager are:- Identifying who your customers are Understanding what it is that they require Knowing how effectively you are meeting their requirements.

Different kinds of customers Customers are people who are the recipients of health and social care services e.g. Patients Client they are also called ‘service user’ of ‘carer’ – someone who provides a significant level of support to a person in need of health or social care.

Caring customers What types of services your company provide to its customers? What influences or controls the delivery of the services which you are responsible? Do you ever have any conflicts with your customers? – if you are in the situation of the potential conflicts, your communication and negotiation skills will be tested.

Your job as a manager (in situations of potential conflicts) Ensure you are meeting your company’s objectives Consistent in setting priorities Forthright in communication Imaginative and flexible in planning. Keeping the customer needs in mind will help you to define the relationship between your company/organisation services and their various customers.

Chains of Service Chains of service, from the point of view of service users, are not single lines, but more like a tree or river system. How can you map the chain of customers who benefit from one of your services?

How to manage service users Understand service users’ requirements – some customers may express what they want as the overall outcome required from the service. Expressing the outcome they want is equivalent to stating their objective in using the service. Some service users are happy to leave the decision about how the required outcome can be achieved to professional judgement. Other service users may express their requirements in terms of means – which treatments, protocols, procedures or processes they wish to be used.

How to manage service users The more tightly your customers define their requirements, the more precisely you know what you have to do. Precise instructions can make life easier, but they can also put pressure on your service to deliver exactly what is required. Service user Involvement – after understanding requirements  agree with your customer on treatment, present some options and make an inform choice what is on offer. Service user expectations – we all have expectations of what is necessary for a reasonable life, including good heath and social well-being. Expectations arise from comparisons with our families, friends and colleagues, from previous experiences etc. so we expect a good quality, friendly and courteous service.. Get feedback from the service user and improve – to manage quality of your organisation service, after treatment and meeting customers’ expectation, get his/he feedback and improve.

Managing Service Environment There are three environment The internal environment – it includes staff, resources, facilities within the organisation. These components can be controlled with effective management and leadership skills The near environment – includes service users, carers, contractors, suppliers and competitors. It also includes local politicians, other organisations that are partners in service delivery and local pressure groups. They cannot be controlled by the organisation but can be influenced. The components of the far environment are those factors that can neither be controlled nor influenced from within the organisation. They include a wide range of social, technological, economic, environmental and political factors. Every organisation has to respond to the impact of these external factors.

Stakeholders in Heath and Social Care services

Interest of each stakeholder vary according to the circumstances. These stakeholders influence the company/organisation environment. A manager needs to be sound and capable to develop strategy and achieve goals while meeting their requirements.

Developing a team to meet the customers’ needs. Manager-led team the manager is the team leader and is in charge of setting team goals, assigning tasks, and monitoring the team’s performance.

Factors in Effective Teamwork Members depend on each other. When team members rely on each other to get the job done, team productivity and efficiency tend to be high. Members trust one another. Members work better together than individually. When team members perform better as a group than alone, collective performance exceeds individual performance.  Members become boosters. When each member is encouraged by other team members to do his or her best, collective results improve. Team members enjoy being on the team. Leadership rotates.

What Skills Does the Team Need? In particular, every team requires some mixture of three sets of skills: Technical skills. Because teams must perform certain tasks, they need people with the skills to perform them. Decision-making and problem-solving skills. Because every task is subject to problems, and because handling every problem means deciding on the best solution, it’s good to have members who are skilled in identifying problems, evaluating alternative solutions, and deciding on the best options Interpersonal skills. Because teams need direction and motivation and depend on communication, every group benefits from members who know how to listen, provide feedback, and resolve conflict. Some members must also be good at communicating the team’s goals and needs to outsiders

Know your Team – It will allow you to Communicate better Delegate work effectively Empower Grow strengths and areas of improvements Set SMART team appropriate goals Know when things are going ‘right’ and/or ‘wrong’ at the early stage Give and receive more productive feedback Managing overall team work including any conflict

How to formulate a team

How to select a team – things to consider Selects highly competent team members Selects team members who have previously worked well together Selects team members that have previously worked well with the leader Selects team members so there is the right mix of skills on the team Selects highly motivated team members

As a leader, establish expectations and goals Defines and emphasizes team expectations Asks team members to follow standard rules and regulations Communicates what is expected of the team Communicates expectations for high team performance Maintains clear standards of performance Sets or helps set challenging and realistic goals Establishes or helps establish goals for the team’s work Ensures that the team has clear performance goals Works with the team and individuals in the team to develop performance goals Reviews team goals for realism, challenge, and business necessity

As a team leader, Provide resources Obtains and allocates resources (materials, equipment, people, and services) for the team Seeks information and resources to facilitate the team’s initiatives Sees to it that the team gets what is needed from other teams Makes sure that the equipment and supplies the team needs are available Helps the team find and obtain “expert” resources

Encourage team self-management Encourages the team Urges the team to make its own decisions regarding who does what tasks within the team Encourages the team to make most of its own work- related decisions Encourages the team to solve its own problems Encourages the team to be responsible for its own affairs Encourages the team to assess its performance

Support social climate Responds promptly to team member needs or concerns Engages in actions that demonstrate respect and concern for team members Goes beyond own interests for the good of the team Do things to make it pleasant to be a team member Looks out for the personal well-being of team members

Give awareness to team member about the Business Environment The term ‘business environment’ connotes external forces, factors and institutions that are beyond the control of the business and they affect the functioning of a business/common goal. These include customers, competitors, suppliers, government, and the social, political, legal and technological factors etc. While some of these factors or forces may have direct influence over the business firm, others may operate indirectly. Business environment may be defined as the total surroundings, which have a direct or indirect bearing on the functioning of business. It may also be defined as the set of external factors, such as economic factors, social factors, political and legal factors, demographic factors, technical factors etc., which are uncontrollable in nature and affects the business decisions of a firm.