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Our practice has a culturally diverse patient base. Although we feel our doctors and staff are well aligned with this diversity and the different needs of patients, we don’t have any formal policies or a code of conduct to support this for patients and staff. Can you help with some guidance?
‒ Looking for diversity, Auckland
Creating in your practice an inclusive culture that appreciates differences should allow your staff and patients to feel heard, respected, and safe.
We live in a diverse culture that includes people from different diversity types, and actively promoting inclusion can help your business to thrive.
A focus on social cohesion and social equity can increase staff motivation and improve innovation and creativity in the workplace.
The starting point is to understand diversity and the different types of diversity, some of which are invisible:
If you truly want to start making inclusivity part of your practice’s culture, consider the following steps.
Owners, directors and managers should actively model inclusiveness and encourage positive workplace behaviour. To achieve this, leaders and managers may need to expand their capabilities and acquire new skills by completing training courses and further education in this area.
When hiring new staff, consider diversity as part of your hiring process. Try to avoid the temptation to employ someone just like you. It may even be helpful to have two very diverse people complete the recruitment process together to get different points of views in the decision-making. Consider all diversity traits as above.
Activities that celebrate diversity can help employees feel more comfortable with co-workers of different backgrounds and promote understanding and respect for others. Recognise and acknowledge the differences among your staff. It is important to remember that we are all different and that we all bring something special to the workplace.
Review your existing workplace policies with a view to embracing diversity. You could use this as an opportunity to start a conversation with your staff about what they think the workplace needs. Options to provide diverse-friendly opportunities could include offering flexible schedules, leave options, meal choices and recreational activities.
After putting all this effort into creating new policies and processes, you will want to regularly review your progress.
One option is to undertake anonymous workplace surveys to learn how your staff feel about diversity, inclusion and other things related to your practice’s culture. You can then repeat the survey regularly to see if you’re making progress.
You can use the results to set goals about where you’d like to be in 12 months, or further in the future. MAS carries out culture surveys as part of our HealthyPractice service.
Finally, you could also use enrolled patient research to learn more about your hiring needs. If your patients represent certain demographics, it may be helpful to have that applicable experience as part of your team.
Bonnie Mitchell is a HealthyPractice adviser with MAS
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