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Healthcare

Strategies You Can Implement to Improve Employee Engagement in Your Healthcare Setting

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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) reports a staggering uptick in stress and burnout among healthcare employees, culminating in a projected net shortage of over three million essential healthcare workers within the next five years.

Employee burnout, low engagement and staff shortages don’t just affect healthcare employees either. Instead, they significantly impact patient safety and outcomes, along with the operational effectiveness of the healthcare facility.

Now, more than ever, industry leaders are searching for ways to reduce burnout by improving employee engagement in healthcare. Some strategies are easier to implement and more effective than others in raising employee engagement levels.

Challenges healthcare workers face, and how employee engagement can help 

Even before COVID struck, healthcare employee engagement levels were tanking, especially for frontline workers. Fast forward to our post-pandemic world, and now healthcare employees are shouldering even more. 

From heavier workloads, limited resources and longer hours to rising compassion fatigue and stress, investing in the best employee engagement strategies in healthcare is the healing balm healthcare workers — and their patients — need.

Limited access to learning material and resources 

With ongoing employee shortages in healthcare comes increased workloads and added strain on the providers who remain at the helm of patient care. These shortages fuel the need for these care providers to assume new and varied roles to compensate for this deficit.

To quell this shortage, boost employee engagement, reduce care-provider errors and improve retention, healthcare leaders must prioritize providing greater access to continued education (CE) training and other resources, along with effective centralized communication channels.

Without access to these resources, front-line care providers won’t have the knowledge they need to provide the best patient care possible. This can lead to added stress and lower engagement levels and, at the same time, compromises patient safety and derails positive health outcomes. 

Increasing administrative workloads

Healthcare professionals are master multi-taskers. But with rising staff shortages, effective multitasking has reached a tipping point. Now, the remaining staff is juggling their job duties and those left behind by colleagues who have resigned. 

Medscape reports that the leading cause of burnout among medical professionals is the increased number of administrative tasks they’ve assumed. Shouldering heavy administrative workloads has caused more stress and burnout, leaving a wake of negative consequences that impact their ability to provide quality patient care.

Healthcare leaders and administration must offer innovative technologies in their healthcare setting to consolidate and streamline these tasks to alleviate the ever-growing burden on their clinical care team.

Significant burnout and stress

Healthcare providers are in one of the most high-stakes professions in the world. Care providers are coping with overbearing stress, isolation and burnout at record levels.

According to the New England Journal of Medicine, on May 23, 2022, Dr. Vivek Murthy sounded the alarm on rising burnout in healthcare by issuing a Surgeon’s General Advisory on “health worker burnout and wellbeing.” Dr. Murthy deemed it a “crisis” and declared it a national priority with clear directives to reduce its growth and impact on healthcare professionals and their patients.

One of Dr. Murthy’s directives centered on building a healthcare culture that supports well-being, inclusion and respect. Creating a positive work atmosphere will require all hands on deck, from government leaders to health admin, physicians, nurses, and feedback from care providers across the spectrum. 

Healthcare leaders can foster this collaboration by encouraging regular feedback via accessible communication channels in their healthcare facilities, often in the form of feedback forms and surveys.

How your screens can help you keep your staff engaged 

Improving employee engagement in healthcare doesn’t have to be complicated. Start by using your existing resources —such as your facility’s screens — to make real and lasting changes for your healthcare employees. UPshow SHIFT for healthcare will streamline this process for you.

Make information accessible

One of the most effective ways to reduce your employees' stress levels (and improve their engagement) is to give them access to the resources and knowledge they need when they need it to provide quality patient care.

UPshow SHIFT is a digital employee engagement platform that can run on your facility’s screens as an on-premise signage cloud. Since most healthcare employees are deskless workers, ensuring everyone has access to the resources and communication channels necessary to perform at their best can be challenging.

With UPshow SHIFT, you can offer access to these resources and engage your healthcare providers in the following ways:

  • Continuing education training, feedback forms and more are made accessible through customizable on-screen QR codes that will put administrative information right in the hands of your employees.
  • Need-to-know educational videos, text announcements, images and tutorials that can help keep your clinical staff updated on your facility’s (and the medical profession’s) latest policies and procedures.
  • Streamlined digital information that ensures widespread visibility throughout your facility (and each of its satellite locations).  
  • Display upcoming training modules, training statuses and other tasks to ensure faster completion and compliance.

Make communication a consistent practice 

Many of your employees are on the move, treating one patient to the next. Equipping them with easy-to-access communication channels and the resources they need will keep your staff in the know and reduce clinical errors.

With UPshow SHIFT, your facility will find it easy to:

  • Create customized content via in-app Canva integration and pre-made templates so you can share critical information, announcements and more.
  • Solicit targeted feedback from your employees to improve engagement by creating surveys for two-way communication and ongoing dialogue about issues relating to operations, HR, patient care and more.
  • Prioritize employee morale and show appreciation by showcasing staff on your displays, celebrating your team's successes and highlighting your employees' achievements and milestones.

UPshow can help you keep your employees and patients engaged

Healthcare professionals can’t provide patients with outstanding quality care when they’re battling their own stress and burnout. As Dr. Murthy advises, addressing burnout is a national priority, and healthcare facilities are on the frontlines of making significant changes to bring it under control. UPshow SHIFT can streamline training, promote employee recognition and improve internal communications to boost employee engagement in your healthcare facility. Try a risk-free demo today, and put your team on the frontlines of making lasting change across the healthcare industry.

Healthcare

Creating a Seamless Retail Healthcare Experience: Trends and Tactics

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Since the height of the pandemic, change has rocked the US healthcare system and its stakeholders. From nursing shortages to dwindling medical supplies, spikes in hospital bankruptcies and clinic closures — along with the demand for retail healthcare — the traditional in-clinic healthcare model is undergoing a significant facelift.

Today’s patients want medical services and advice when needed — not three weeks down the road at the first available appointment. Recent research on retail healthcare trends shows a growing number of retail health clinics are stepping up to meet patients’ demand for convenient visits, affordable care and more, especially in rural and vulnerable patient populations.

But as the demand for retail healthcare continues to rise, patients expect more convenience and accessibility. 

And they’re willing to shop near and far to find it. 

To create a more seamless patient experience, retail health clinics must leverage innovative technologies, such as digital patient engagement platforms, to equip patient-consumers with what they need to make informed decisions about their health and wellness for the long haul.

A rise in retail healthcare

When the COVID pandemic hit and lockdowns were in full force, hospital visits and ER intakes were restricted, except for critical cases. Although retail healthcare clinics have existed since the beginning of 2000, they scaled significantly during the height of the pandemic, especially in rural patient populations. 

And they’re still going strong. Researchers anticipate the US retail healthcare market will reach a $4.22 billion valuation by 2029.

Patients use retail healthcare clinics, telehealth and mobile clinics to treat acute conditions and tend to preventative care needs. The convenience of walk-in availability or an appointment within 24 hours, combined with transparent fee structures and low costs is only fueling the demand for additional retail healthcare options.

Keep patient healthcare accessible 

Traditional brick-and-mortar medical facilities and retail health clinics alike must revisit their patient engagement strategies to improve the overall patient-consumer experience in this evolving climate. Embracing innovative technologies can make patient healthcare more accessible and convenient and bring a positive patient experience within reach.

QR code technology can put important medical information in patients’ hands anywhere they go. According to a recent article from the British Medical Journal (BMJ), convenient access to personal medical records is a cornerstone in empowering patients to take a proactive role in their healthcare.

You can use QR technology to create a seamless retail healthcare experience by:

  • Allowing digital check-in capabilities.
  • Outfitting your retail healthcare clinic’s screens with targeted infographics and videos that answer patient FAQs.
  • Offering access to an around-the-clock nurse chat 
  • Providing medical records, care plans, prescription reminders and vaccine updates can be accessed from anywhere.
  • Streamlining the patient-consumer experience by making educational materials and other resources available (and shareable).
  • Providing language translations for forms and other content.
  • Soliciting post-visit feedback to better inform, target and optimize your patient engagement strategies.

Make patient experiences convenient 

The patient-consumer experience begins the second a patient steps on your premises and can continue long after they leave. Take advantage of their time with your facility to make their experience as positive and convenient as possible right from the get-go.

Recruit your clinic’s existing TV screens and monitors as partners in their patient experience. The best patient engagement platform can give patients the personalized touch they want.

For instance, make check-in easy. You can free up your staff from check-in obligations (and long lines) by deploying QR-code technology to encourage digital sign-in upon arrival. Also, your patients are likely busy and need to return to X number of tasks, so use your screens to display your current wait times. This way, they’ll know where they stand in real time.

Creating a seamless retail healthcare experience involves trial and error. To know what’s working and what isn’t, solicit patient-customer feedback. They’ll tell you what they want (and don’t want). 

You could place a QR code on a digital screen at the check-out desk or on a fixed panel just before the exit to encourage their input. Incentives are always welcome, too. Take a quid-pro-quo approach by offering an exclusive discount on their next visit or a free service in exchange for their feedback. Not only will you garner invaluable feedback, but you’ll also fortify patient-consumer loyalty in the process. Repeat visits and, by default, increased patient engagement can help create improved health outcomes.

The right digital engagement solution can transform retail healthcare experiences

When a patient is in the driver’s seat on the road to better health and wellness — as The Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports — they’re more likely to experience positive health outcomes.

Partnering with the right digital patient engagement solution can engage and empower patients by offering convenient accessibility, patient-education opportunities, collaborative communication channels and so much more. To better retain patients this way, retail healthcare providers must establish and continuously build trust to maintain those care relationships.

Build trust and retain patients 

While most patients now demonstrate they trust using retail healthcare facilities (compared to “traditional” medical providers), research shows this hasn’t always been the case.

Retail healthcare facilities can leverage a digital patient engagement solution to build trust organically via education, transparency and more. When patients have access to the personalized educational materials and resources they need, they’re more likely to gain clarity about their health, so they can ultimately engage with and assume an active role in their healthcare journey.

Retail healthcare facilities can build trust and boost patient retention by:

  • Offering personalized educational materials to include relevant and accessible videos and tutorials to increase awareness and understanding.
  • Highlighting healthy lifestyle tips, including meditation exercises, recipes, physical fitness strategies, holistic/alternative medicine recommendations and more.
  • Raising awareness of the latest government guidelines for vaccine protocols or international travel vaccination requirements.
  • Introducing patients to digital patient education communities to encourage awareness and internal patient support systems.

Promote other services and payment plans 

Patients want access to the latest and most effective service and treatment options available. And the closer, the better. Is your clinic offering a new Ayurvedic procedure? Perhaps a holistic fertility treatment? An experience-now-pay-later payment plan option? Or are you hoping to launch a new private parenting support group? You’ll want to promote those services and plans with visible and accessible digital signage.

UPshow allows you to better engage patients by spotlighting new and existing service and treatment options or community partnerships your patients will want to know about. Their engagement will drive revenue growth for your retail healthcare facility, affording you additional resources to maximize their engagement over time.

UPshow makes it easy to transform the retail healthcare space 

Retail healthcare trends show that patient-consumers want convenient access to affordable healthcare outlets. After all, they are the lead decision-maker in their health and wellness journey. But what is a leader without a collaborative support system behind them?UPshow’s digital patient engagement platform can create a seamless retail healthcare experience that patients will trust every step of the way. Sign-up for our risk-free demo and discover how UPshow’s innovative patient engagement solution is on the frontline of transforming the retail healthcare space the way patients want.

Healthcare

The Impact of Patient Engagement on Healthcare Outcomes

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Positive patient engagement in healthcare depends on a patient’s ability to communicate with their medical provider openly and have access to resources that allow them to take ownership of their health. Access and resources allow them to make informed decisions that steer their healthcare outcomes. 

According to HealthMine, almost 75% of all patients claim electronic access to their medical history, records and more would improve communication with their healthcare team and ultimately give them a clearer understanding of their healthcare needs.

When patients are adequately engaged and achieve positive health outcomes, it can translate to a better patient experience, fewer readmissions and lower medical costs across the board. Healthcare facilities are now more invested than ever in discovering innovative ways to engage their patients and aid them in achieving the best possible outcomes.

What is patient engagement? 

Patient engagement in healthcare means patients have and use medical resources to make informed decisions about their health and wellness. It involves a shared-decision making process between the patient (and their family network) and the clinical team that is tethered to patient-centered education and an open communication model.

Does patient engagement affect healthcare outcomes? 

High patient engagement has a positive impact on healthcare outcomes.

Engaged patients are better informed about their treatment plans and are more likely to be in communication with their clinical team. This means they’re more likely to comply with prescribed treatments and therapies, which can lead to better treatment results. 

 Patient engagement can also impact patient care by:

  • Empowering patients to stay motivated by setting goals. Clinical collaboration with patients can lead to patients that are more engaged in self-care, which includes regular and consistent exercise and adopting healthy eating habits.
  • Encouraging patients to practice self-advocacy, perform additional research and ask questions whenever necessary.
  • Increasing patient retention rates for clinical practices.
  • Reducing the number of unnecessary readmissions and hospital stays.
  • Lowering unnecessary patient-incurred medical costs.

How to implement patient engagement in healthcare 

A primary care provider and their medical team only have so many hours of direct or indirect contact with each patient every year. 

Outside of wellness appointments and checkups or patient-portal chat sessions, it is a patient’s responsibility to assume a can-do mindset and commit to treatment plans and lifestyle goals on their own time.

From a practitioner's perspective, providing patients with the tools and resources they need to remain engaged to achieve their ideal health outcomes is critical. At the same time, practitioners and healthcare leaders must endeavor to understand the unique needs of their patient demographic. Some of the most effective ways to do this include:

  • Co-developing an individualized health and wellness plan tailored to each patient’s needs that accounts for their lifestyle habits, preferences, etc.
  • Providing easy access to educational resources via an innovative patient engagement system.
  • Creating and maintaining an environment (and convenient communication channels, such as a patient portal or nurse practitioner chat feature) where open communication is encouraged between the healthcare team and the patient.
  • Listening attentively to the patient's concerns and providing helpful resources if and whenever necessary.
  • Utilizing technology tools (e.g., apps, websites, etc.) for tracking progress throughout treatment so they can develop ownership over their choices along the way.
  • Committing to professional development opportunities and training centered on engagement and meeting the needs of diverse patient communities.

Patient engagement software can help you improve patient outcomes 

As technology evolves, clinical practitioners must find the most convenient and user-friendly ways to engage their patients and drive positive patient outcomes. UPshow’s Patient engagement software is an innovative digital engagement solution that fits that bill.

Create accessible and engaging content 

One of the best ways to remove barriers to patient engagement is by creating accessible and engaging content. With UPshow’s patient engagement software, you can use your existing televisions and screen displays to showcase your customized content and boost patient engagement.

You can create a content playlist of images, educational videos and other content that you can control from anywhere. With UPshow, it’s easy to make content that breaks down complex medical concepts or treatments to make it relatable, provide health and wellness tips and more.

If you’re worried you don’t have the technical know-how to accomplish this, don’t worry! UPshow offers preexisting, ready-to-use templates through in-platform Canva integration that you can use to create just the right content for your patients. The in-house managed services team can also help with content strategy, targeted creative design and more. Our team is here to offer support every step of the way.

Suppose you would like to inform patients about a new service, patient-portal feature or a feedback survey. In that case, you can use QR-code integration capabilities that give patients access to content right from their phones and other devices.

Make your healthcare environment one your patients feel safe in 

For patients to open up to their healthcare providers — much less engage — they need to feel safe. After all, trust begins with safety and security. 

Creating a calming healthcare environment with entertainment features can help patients feel more at ease and less anxious. This offers patients an opportunity to focus on their wellness.

You can accomplish this by highlighting targeted entertainment features in your content rotation. 

For instance, patients who experience anxiety might appreciate a waiting room filled with serene sounds and scenes of nature. You can do this by coupling images of nature with one of UPshow’s lyric and ad-free music stations to recenter.

You could also take advantage of UPshow’s fixed panel and multipanel displays to highlight mindfulness best practices and healthy living recommendations simultaneously.

Forego cable Television and, instead, opt for UPshow’s 500 entertainment channels. These include live-streamed and hyper-local options. With several channels at their fingertips, patients are sure to find something to help them focus and settle in.

UPshow is the patient engagement software healthcare leaders trust 

Driving patient engagement and positive health outcomes is a team effort that relies on fluid communication between clinicians and patients, patient access to educational materials and more.UPshow’s patient engagement software is a partner that healthcare leaders trust. We welcome you to try our risk-free demo so you can discover how UPshow’s patient engagement software can help your clinic, and patients, succeed.

Retail

How UPshow SHIFT's Integration with POS Systems Works

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Finding ways to drive sales is no easy task. It requires more than clever marketing and promotions. To keep numbers up and see consistent results, it’ll need to be a team effort. 

But how?

Imagine displaying digital daily sales leaderboards to foster friendly competition among your staff. Or would you like to start showcasing your top performers in an employee spotlight each month? Integrating an on-premise digital engagement platform with your point-of-sale (POS) system can help. 

Keep reading to discover how UPshow SHIFT integrates with some of the top POS systems to help you train, inform and motivate your team–increasing your employee engagement, and maybe even sales.

How does a point-of-sale system work? 

A point-of-sale system (POS) is the nerve center of your business. It’s a digitalized system used in hospitality and retail environments to record, process and track sales transactions. It can also track your inventory, compute taxes and generate sales reports.

Back in the day, a POS system included a cash register and a receipt book. Today, POS systems are fully computerized, consisting of both hardware and software and can include the following:

  • Cash register
  • Computer, tablet or other internet-enabled devices
  • A credit card machine or card reader
  • Mobile payment capabilities
  • Scanner
  • Printer

Depending on how sophisticated your POS system is, you can also track loyalty programs, customer data and purchase habits and your marketing campaigns. That’s where integrating UPshow SHIFT’s digital signage can create a more compelling customer experience, front-of-house, too. More about that later!

Determine your goals and what you want to accomplish 

Before you integrate digital signage with your POS system, you’ll want to determine goals for what you hope to accomplish front of house, back of house or both.

To help you set realistic goals that can be aligned with your employee engagement strategy, you’ll want to use your POS system to track your key performance indicators (KPI).

You can likely use your POS system to track and gain more precise insights about some of the following KPIs:

1. Track metrics, such as sales volume, average sales, customer loyalty, and customer retention rate.

Your POS system can tell you what you’re selling the most or least during different shifts. You can also track your average sales and the number of transactions per customer. 

If your customer retention rate has declined, you can use digital signage to bring it back around again by offering BOGO deals or a free item with their next purchase.

2. Track customer preferences and buying patterns.

Your customers know what they want. And your POS system has kept tabs on their preferences and buying patterns. 

Let’s say you’re about to unveil a new burger special. Reports from your POS system can show you that, on average, your customers purchase more burgers at lunchtime. You can create a targeted advertisement with UPshow and display the new burger during lunch and other peak times on your front-of-house screens.

3. Analyze customer feedback.

Let’s face it—sometimes customers can be brutally honest.  Luckily, you can turn lemons into lemonade with UPshow. 

UPshow makes it possible to create, share, and deploy surveys and other engaging content that you can use to tailor your content and marketing strategy. Coupled with metrics from your POS system, these insights will make it possible to create highly targeted content that is sure to command attention.

4. Analyze employee performance.

Research shows that employees who are better engaged and feel included tend to perform better. Have you run an employee performance report lately and noticed that a few of your top performers are underperforming

You can use UPshow SHIFT to create inspiring BOH messages or display performance goals so your employees keep their eye on the prize.

Set up your hardware and software 

UPshow SHIFT is an on-premise performance marketing cloud that powers the existing digital screens in your business. 

Setting up is easy. The first step is to ensure your digital screens are visible and placed in high-traffic areas to increase customer engagement (but not congestion during rush-hour shifts).

Next, simply download the UPshow software directly onto the screen if it is Bluetooth and wireless enabled. Otherwise, you may need a hardwire connection.

Depending on your POS system (e.g., Xenial, NCR Aloha, etc.), you’ll next integrate it with the UPshow SHIFT software. UPshow’s customer service team is always available around the clock to troubleshoot or help make your integration as smooth as possible.

Create content that gets results 

You want to create digital content that engages and motivates your employees to perform at their prime. But what if creating content isn’t your strong suit (or priority)? No problem!

With UPshow SHIFT’s Canva integrations, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Their ready-made templates are easy to use, so you can customize them with your branding and unique content to engage and motivate your employees.

Under pressure from corporate to have your employees complete their annual mandatory training in safety and compliance? UPshow’s QR code integration makes it easy to create interactive signage.

Your employees can scan the QR code to access their training portal and other important information. And you can track who’s completed it, how long it took them, their training results and more—allowing you to analyze the metrics and make adjustments before next year’s training.

Use insights and analytics to adjust your screens

The more data you have about your employee and customer engagement, the better you’ll be at making informed decisions that improve employee satisfaction and drive revenue and other business outcomes. 

Here are some of the digital signage analytics you’ll have at your fingertips with UPshow SHIFT:

  • Measure the performance of your mobile engagement and on-screen content.
  • Track employee & customer engagement.
  • Record QR code scans.
  • Observe a detailed view of your campaign performances.
  • Export your data and share reports.

Combining UPshow SHIFT’s on-screen data analytics with your POS data and reports can help you know what’s working or if you should pivot and optimize your on-screen content—saving you time, money and other resources.

How you can make the most of POS system integration

Create leaderboards

A little friendly competition never hurt anyone! 

You can drive sales and encourage team members to promote limited-time offers with POS integration. This makes it possible to track and share sales across shifts and individual team members so that you can create live leaderboards for your digital signage. 

It’s the perfect way to add flair to your employee engagement strategy and to create camaraderie amongst team members. 

Enhance customer experiences and drive productivity 

For those customers waiting for you to roll out those vegan options, digital signage will allow you to advertise and recommend your new additions. 

Ready to launch your location’s 50%-off Friday campaign? You can share this type of promotion on your front-of-house screens, keeping your customers in the know.

UPshow makes POS integration simple 

Integrating your POS system with UPshow SHIFT can make the difference between meeting performance goals and exceeding expectations.

Ready to keep your employees and customers engaged and informed? UPshow’s team is prepared to help. Sign up for a free demo today!

Healthcare

Innovative Solutions for Improving Patient Engagement in the Treatment Area

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From your waiting room to triage down to your treatment and procedure rooms, keeping patients informed about their conditions and treatment options wherever they are is essential. In fact, it can make the difference between achieving positive results and the best possible health outcomes.

Outfitting your treatment rooms with the right patient engagement solution will encourage patients to interact with their surroundings —enabling them to take the reins on the path toward better health and wellness.

How does patient engagement affect treatment outcomes? 

It may seem like it takes a village to improve patient engagement. 

At its core, patient engagement must include ongoing collaboration, trust and shared decision-making between patients and their medical care team.

Every patient needs easy access to personalized healthcare education, tools and other resources in order to understand how to best protect their health. When they do, they’re more likely to experience higher levels of patient engagement and better health outcomes.

Yet, according to a recent survey by the New England Journal of Medicine Catalyst Insights Council, healthcare professionals believe that only 34% of their patients are highly engaged.

Such findings are leading to a growing interest in finding ways to increase patient engagement with innovative solutions. Here’s how they’re doing their part to fill in the gap.

Making patient engagement more accessible and effective 

Patients might spend anywhere from a few minutes to several hours in your treatment rooms. Engaging them starts by giving them access to the information they need to make educated decisions about their health conditions and treatment options. 

Equipping your treatment rooms with digital patient engagement solutions can bring patients face-to-face with learning materials and educational opportunities.

The best digital patient engagement solutions provide your medical facility with the ease and flexibility to:

  • Share translated, patient-friendly information on the TV screens in your treatment rooms.
  • Make patient-centered information and learning opportunities accessible via their mobile devices through customizable QR-code technology.
  • Disseminate and increase access to critical patient information on their tablet or phone screens, such as displaying a QR code to your mobile patient portal.
  • Track QR code scans and more via UPshow Connect to determine which content leads to the most action (and engagement) from your patients.

Share information in more than one way 

Sharing healthcare literature and action-driving information in a convenient and entertaining way that appeals to your patients is half the battle toward improving patient engagement. 

You can use UPshow’s digital signage solutions to disseminate healthcare information in multiple formats that will engage every patient.

Here are some of the best ways to share general and customized patient-centric information in your treatment areas:

  • Schedule and distribute a content roll of short educational videos about common conditions or illnesses, new treatment methods,  community partnerships and more.
  • Showcase mindfulness tips or healthy lifestyle hacks with text-based screens that are sure to leave patients informed and more confident. 
  • Alleviate patient anxiety in the treatment area by displaying medically-oriented or general trivia.
  • Create a more dynamic patient experience with image-rich content that can entertain, inform, empower and even calm your patients.

UPshow is the digital patient engagement software your patients need

Think of UPshow’s patient-first digital engagement software platform as a co-mentor in your clinic — there to inform, educate, engage and empower your patients in the treatment area and beyond. Here’s how to leverage our patient engagement solutions to maximize patient engagement in your treatment rooms.

Create and share content with ease 

No need to trade in your scrub cap for a tech-wizard hat. You can create and share diverse and customized content on your treatment room screens with UPshow’s easy-to-use content-creation tools and features. Here’s how:

  • UPshow’s CANVA integration allows you to easily create unique, patient-centric content by giving you access to creator and editor tools. You’ll have in-app access to royalty-free photos, videos, and customizable templates.
  • Use the healthcare, ready-made templates for easy and streamlined content creation.
  • Seek guidance from UPshow’s in-house design and managed services team any time of the day.
  • Update your treatment areas (and waiting room) screens in real-time to ensure relevancy and consistency.

Strategically share content with patients 

What you display on the screens in your treatment areas likely won’t be the same as what you show in your waiting rooms. There’s a simple reason for that, too. Patients have diverse engagement needs in different spaces.

Content customization and location-specific content scheduling make it easy to schedule content and update displays for each patient’s needs, depending on where they are in your facility.

For instance, while you may offer a popular music playlist in the waiting room, you may want to avoid that in the treatment area. Instead, provide soothing background music that takes a second chair to the face-to-face interaction between patients and their medical team.

UPshow’s patient engagement platform will allow you to:

  • Schedule and control your treatment-area screen content by creating campaigns via Playlists.
  • Customize your campaigns on a screen-by-screen basis.
  • Pause short-term and long-term content campaigns and edit them whenever necessary.
  • Stay in the know with remote screen-monitoring tools to ensure functionality, continuity, accuracy and more.

Get the best of both worlds, share information and entertain patients with one software 

Patient engagement isn’t just about continuous learning and collaborative decision-making. It’s also critical to maximize their patient experience with entertainment opportunities.

UPshow’s patient engagement solution can give your patients a well-rounded engagement experience with its entertainment features.

Here’s what you can offer your patients to improve their treatment-area experience:

  • Introduce your patients to your social media pages and encourage them to take an active role in their in-clinic community from anywhere.
  • Keep it simple by offering your patients access to over 500 entertainment channels.

Improve patient outcomes with digital engagement strategies 

Medical professionals can only spend so much one-on-one time with each patient, which can make it hard to answer all of their questions or educate them about healthcare issues. 

Taking advantage of every opportunity to engage your patients in innovative ways — especially in your treatment rooms — will get them one step closer to experiencing the health outcomes you both desire.

UPshow’s digital patient engagement solutions can transform your treatment area into an engagement epicenter. Try a risk-free demo today and discover the power of innovative digital signage.

Healthcare

Creating a Welcoming Environment: Ideas for Enhancing Patient Engagement in Doctors' Waiting Rooms

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The patient experience begins the second they step foot into your waiting room. If your patients find uncomfortable chairs, the same magazines as the last visit and long waiting times, then their visit won’t start on a positive note. 

That can negatively impact their perception of the visit and the care they receive. As for patient engagement? 

Stalled.

Time spent in a doctor’s office waiting room is often passive, too—with each patient waiting their turn as the minutes tick by. So, you’ll want to consider ways to engage them there before their appointment begins.

To boost patient engagement (and help them achieve the best possible health outcomes), ensure your waiting room is as welcoming, interactive and engaging as possible. Here’s how you can do this, just using the screens in your waiting room. 

What is patient engagement, and why is it so important? 

Patient engagement refers to the ongoing dialogue and collaborative care between a medical care provider, their patient (and their family) to educate, inform and empower the patient to make the best decisions about their healthcare, treatment and wellness. 

The goal is for the patient to be as engaged as possible in their healthcare decisions to maximize their health outcomes.

Why is patient engagement important?

Patients must sit behind the wheel on their healthcare journey—not in the passenger seat. Research shows that engaged patients make informed and educated decisions about their health and wellness. 

It gives patients a clearer understanding of their health helping them formulate preferred healing and treatment goals. Engaged patients are also more likely to commit to doing what it takes to heal in a way that works best for them. 

That can lead to lower healthcare costs, fewer unnecessary treatments and hospitalizations and the best possible health outcomes.

The Best Ways to Boost Patient Engagement in Your Waiting Room

There is no secret design formula for outfitting a doctor’s office waiting room with features that improve patient engagement. But we’ve compiled some of the best ways to boost patient engagement, regardless of your budget or penchant for interior design.

Share patient education videos in your waiting room 

An informed patient is a more engaged patient. 

Playing patient education videos in your waiting room can improve patients’ understanding of complex medical concepts

It’s the perfect opportunity to clarify any misconceptions and encourages open patient-practitioner dialogue.

Regardless of your specialization, here are a few types of patient-education videos that can help inform patients and reduce waiting-room anxiety:

  • Videos that raise awareness about an illness, condition or lifestyle choice
  • Healthcare-tip videos
  • What-to-expect videos
  • Meet-the-staff/nurses/doctor video
  • Patient spotlight videos to build an in-clinic community & improve patient experiences
  • Procedure-prep informational videos

Upgrade your patient waiting room signs 

Not every patient will have the bandwidth to watch a 15-minute how-to video on the best ways to avoid contracting the common cold, etc. 

Upgrading your patient waiting room signs with digital signage display software can fill that gap and engage patients who prefer a bite-sized (and entertaining) waiting-room experience.

Here are a few ideas that will help make their actual or perceived wait time even less unpleasant (and more positive):

  • Display current or approximate waiting times.
  • Settle their pre-visit nerves by streaming entertainment they want to see.
  • Offer health and wellness reminder displays about taking medication correctly. Be sure to encourage follow-up interaction if they have any questions!
  • Share information about in-clinic or external supplementary treatment plans or products.
  • Engage them with QR technology that links to your patient portal and its features, a post-visit, patient-experience survey and more.

Do more with patient engagement technology in your waiting rooms 

While it may take some planning and consideration to make content that is beneficial for your patients, the right patient engagement software can make it a whole lot simpler. 

After all, your engagement strategies are only as good as the tools used to make and display them. 

Create dynamic display content in your doctor's office 

Your staff members work hard to create the best patient experience possible. But we all know many patients may take more time than usual to ask questions or seek clarification about basic processes or procedures. 

That’s where UPshow’s digital engagement software can step in to keep your patients informed and up to date. 

By utilizing your TV screens and monitors, our content creation tools with Canva integration, including pre-designed templates, can help you do all of the following and more:

  • Display essential announcements, such as holiday hours, closings, new staff hires and additional services.
  • Promote lesser-utilized treatment options.
  • Announce community partnerships.
  • Highlight your social media channels to encourage continuing patient education and a patient-centric community.
  • Showcase mindfulness tips and practices to promote a stress-free waiting-room experience (and lifestyle).

Do it all with the right patient engagement software

Every patient is unique. Some will arrive at their appointment with a list of questions ready while others just want to get it over with as quickly as possible. 

You can meet all of your patients’ needs if you use the right patient-engagement software in your waiting room. Here’s how:

Elevate your patients’ waiting room experience with UPshow

You spend limited time with your patients on their healthcare journey, making it that much more important to make every minute count. 

Incorporating opportunities for better engagement and an ideal patient experience —starting with your waiting room — is the best way to do just that.

UPshow’s on-premise digital marketing cloud software will allow you to offer customized, informative and engaging content every minute they’re in your waiting room. We welcome you to sign-up for our risk-free demo, so we can help you improve patient engagement in your waiting room.

Healthcare

What is Patient Engagement? How It Can Make a Difference For Your Patients

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Peer into your waiting room on any given day and notice what you see. Patients thumbing through old issues of National Geographic? Maybe they’re biting their nails and glancing at the clock. While others are half-listening to the local news as they wait to hear it’s their turn to see the doctor.

It’s not about what they’re doing but what they could be doing. You have a ripe opportunity to improve patient engagement before their appointment even begins. 

Whether their waiting time is five minutes or a half hour, your patients could channel that nervous energy elsewhere. Say, into watching an educational video about leading a healthy lifestyle, decompressing with trivia or seeking last-minute clarification with a nurse in your mobile-patient portal.   

Offering cutting-edge opportunities to improve patient engagement can empower them and have immediate, short-term and long-term benefits for their health outcomes.

What is patient engagement in healthcare?

Patient engagement refers to a patient’s proactive and continuous involvement in their healthcare. As in learning about, advocating for and making decisions that affect their health, wellness and treatment. Ideally, it involves an ongoing collaboration between a patient, their family and their healthcare team. 

Patient engagement is a two-way street. 

For medical practitioners, it means offering customized treatment plans, steady engagement and ongoing dialogue. Personalized patient experiences and educational opportunities can empower your patients and show your unwavering support on their wellness journey.

Why is patient engagement so important?

Increased patient satisfaction

Engaging your patients with targeted and personalized care shows them they’re more than just another patient to you. In short, they’ll feel seen.

Witnessing your commitment to their needs can empower them to approach you with their thoughts and concerns. They’ll also take a more vested and vocal interest in their wellness.

The outcome? 

Patients who are engaged and more satisfied with their quality of care. 

Improved adherence rates

What you and your patients agree to in your practice and what they do at home may not align. Maybe you’ve recommended they lead a more active lifestyle. Or that they avoid stressful situations. Unfortunately, a less engaged patient may not follow your treatment plan. 

In contrast, patients who are active in their wellness journey are more likely to take their medications and adhere to other mandatory or recommended treatments. High patient engagement can equate to personal ownership of their health. That’s a win-win across the board.

Enhanced communication between providers & patients

Continuous and empathetic communication is a pillar component of high patient engagement. When patients understand their role as decision-makers and feel heard, they’re more likely to voice their opinions or concerns to their healthcare providers.

Reduces costs associated with hospitalization & readmission risk

The more engaged your patient is, the more in tune they likely are about their body and condition(s). For instance, they may recognize the difference between a severe matter and a typical symptom–deterring them from seeking urgent care and reducing medical costs. 

Likewise, if they spot an early warning sign, they might seek treatment immediately instead of ignoring it and letting it snowball. Which could lead to costly treatments and hospital stays down the road. 

Improved health outcomes

High patient engagement often means an unspoken level of trust is in place. The patient and clinician listen to one another. As a result, the patient remains informed, seeks clarification when necessary and follows their customized treatment plan. 

When patients and healthcare providers work as a team, patients can make informed decisions about their health and ultimately achieve improved —even ideal — health outcomes.

How patient engagement systems can help

Not every patient will understand the importance of taking an active role in their healthcare—much less how to do it. So, you’ll want to reach them where they are. That’s where a patient engagement system comes into play.

What is a patient engagement system? 

A patient engagement system is an on-premise digital engagement technology that powers multiple strategies to keep patients informed, educated, entertained and connected with their healthcare providers. All while delivering a positive in-clinic patient experience and driving improved health outcomes.

What to look for in a patient engagement system 

You need a patient engagement system that will offer capabilities that will improve patient engagement and drive better health outcomes. Here’s what to look for in a top-tier patient engagement system:

Easy content creation

Your primary focus is patient care. So, look for a patient engagement system with straightforward content creation capabilities.  

UPshow’s Canva integration will allow you to easily deliver announcements, relevant health statistics, digital offerings like your clinic app or patient portal and more.

Insights and analytics

Patient engagement is all about trial and error. You need accurate insights to know what’s working and what isn’t for your patients and your practice. That’s critical if you want to make informed and targeted changes in the best interests of your patients.

UPshow’s data analytics will allow you to:

  • Measure the performance of your clinic’s on-screen content
  • Assess and track mobile-user engagement and performance
  • Use real-time engagement data to change educational and entertainment content
  • Export your data for in-depth analysis

Content scheduling and rotation

You have only so many hours in the day. When you choose a patient engagement system, opt for one that offers content scheduling capabilities.

UPshow’s Playlists allow you to control the content your patients see and when they see it.

Robust entertainment options

While patient education is essential, so is engagement in its purest form–entertainment! And entertainment can be just what the doctor ordered to calm some patients’ anxiety, at least temporarily.

UPshow offers over 500 channels of entertainment, including both local and streamable options.

Or, if you prefer to offer nerve-settling music, choose a patient engagement system with 50 stations of commercial-free music.

Ways to integrate other patient engagement tools

Let’s face it–everyone, including your patients, is always on their phones. Partnering with a patient engagement system that allows you to use that knowledge to drive patient engagement is ideal.

You can use UPshow’s QR code integration to encourage your patients to check in to reception upon arrival, link them to their patient portal app or complete a post-check-up survey.

How your patient engagement system can help you keep patients engaged

The sky’s the limit when it comes to leveraging your patient engagement system to engage your patients. If it’s winter, use your in-clinic digital displays to show flu-prevention practices. Have you released a new RX chat feature in your patient portal? Display a QR code your patients can scan to seek input.

Here are some of the many other ways you can use your patient engagement system to engage your patients:

  • Introduce new medical professionals in your practice
  • Offer a patient spotlight to encourage in-clinic community engagement
  • Broadcast the latest medical news and safety protocols
  • Showcase simple healthy recipes for a healthy lifestyle

UPshow can help you make a difference in your patient care 

Patient care doesn’t begin or end when a patient steps into your practice. Their wellness journey is ongoing. We understand that their health and treatment are your number one priority.

UPshow’s comprehensive patient engagement system can keep you connected with them every step of the way. We invite you to try our risk-free demo. It’s one thing to engage your patients, but it’s another to empower them to live their best lives.

General

Digital Employee Engagement Systems Are the Wave of the Future

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The world has changed a lot in the past half-decade. Before the COVID pandemic struck, businesses were already moving towards a more digital-focused work environment. 

Since the pandemic, that movement became a full-blown stampede, and today we’re seeing digital systems in practically every corner of the workplace.

One of the more critical areas in which digital systems are making inroads is employee engagement. 

An engaged employee is motivated, invested in their work and has a high degree of job satisfaction. Digital systems can make it easier to reach your employees and help them reach that level of engagement in your company. 

What are digital employee engagement systems? 

There are two main types of employee engagement systems, one for each side of the employee/employer relationship.

On the employer’s side, digital employee engagement systems are computerized tools used to track and monitor the various facets of employee engagement. They collect data on various metrics such as employee morale, behavior, motivation, efficiency and so on.

Employee engagement systems should offer real-time analysis of the impact of different programs and strategies on the engagement levels of your workforce. 

For employees, digital employee engagement systems are methods of receiving training, feedback and even rewards from the employer. They also provide methods by which employees can provide feedback to their employer, and help identify areas of needed improvement in the business or where things are running smoothly.

Digital employee engagement systems can also track and display the progress made toward company goals or team-based objectives. 

Many, such as those offered by UPshow, will connect directly to your existing POS systems for real-time information gathering.

What are the benefits of digital employee engagement systems?

The benefits of digital employee engagement systems are many and varied.

They allow employers to easily track and analyze employee engagement over time, as well as provide a paperless way to store the required data where entire file cabinets might have been dedicated to the effort. 

They also offer an easy way for employees to offer feedback and suggestions through employee surveys and feedback forms. These engagement strategies can be coupled with QR code technology to make feedback accessible from handheld devices.

Similarly, it also offers management an easy and effective way to communicate new policies or opportunities. 

Digital signage and digital employee engagement systems make it easy to ensure that all your messaging as an employer is consistent across all shifts and in all of your business locations, so employees and management are always on the same page. 

What does digital employee engagement look like?

Okay, we’ve discussed what digital employee engagement is, but what does that look like in the real world?

Digital employee engagement strategies take a variety of forms, but they all work towards heightening an employee’s investment in the company.

Employee satisfaction surveys can tell you where employees are happiest and where you may need to implement new policies to increase engagement. It is also the perfect vehicle for distributing training videos to your employees across all shifts and locations. 

On the subject of training, digital employee engagement systems are also useful for sharing training quizzes and gamifying training through contests. 

These systems can also be used to consistently update employees on policy changes and to ensure that all employees are aware of SOPs. 

Finally, digital engagement systems can be used in your business for employee recognition initiatives, such as on-screen coworker features or recognition programs, like employee of the month awards. 

Similarly, they can be used to keep staff up to date about upcoming celebrations or other noteworthy company events.

What to look for in an employee engagement system

Easy content creation and deployment 

The best digital employee engagement systems offer a variety of features that allow you to create and maintain different types of content. 

UPshow features easy content creation through in-app Canva integration.

Users have access to free customizable templates, so you can incorporate your own branding and images. Once your displays are made, you can create a content schedule to ensure your messaging can be seen across all your locations. 

One aspect that should also not be overlooked is the ability to connect with the customer as well. UPshow offers a variety of ways to create campaigns to drive better customer experiences, which can have the added effect of increasing employee engagement and job satisfaction.

Integration with other in-house tools

Your digital employee engagement systems should connect with existing software and systems.

UPShow SHIFT integrates with several different Point Of Sale systems such as Aloha, making it easy to track performance metrics like sales figures and task completion rates. You can share these metrics on screens to keep employees accountable, or even to spark a little friendly competition.

UPshow Connect can also help measure engagement through QR code deployment and tracking. Its QR Code compatibility allows you to share surveys through digital signage and gives you the ability to track responses in real-time. 

Last, but certainly not least, you can use UPshow to stream premium audio content.

With dozens of fully licensed, ad-free stations to choose from, you can fine-tune the atmosphere of your business with a single, robust employee engagement, display and audio software. 

UPshow SHIFT is the digital employee engagement system you need 

UPshow SHIFT is the premiere digital employee engagement system for the modern workforce. 

It’s designed to integrate with your existing digital signage or in-house TV system and offer you unprecedented control over your employee engagement programs. Schedule a free demo to see how UPshow can help take your business and its employee engagement efforts to the next level!

Healthcare

3 Factors Affecting Healthcare Employee Retention (And How to Beat Them)

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In an industry that revolves around the care of others, the well-being and satisfaction of healthcare workers often fall by the wayside. 

With employee turnover rates on the rise, it’s important for healthcare leaders and administrators to consider the needs of healthcare workers to prevent burnout and job dissatisfaction. Shortages of qualified healthcare employees linger following the COVID-19 pandemic. These changes to the labor market make healthcare employee retention a more pressing issue than ever before. 

Understanding and responding to the conditions that lead to employee turnover in the healthcare industries is one easy way to ensure staff members are successful and happy. 

Factors of employee retention in healthcare industry

There are many variables and circumstances that affect employee retention in healthcare and as a result employee turnover rate in the healthcare industry. However, here are the three most common factors affecting employee retention in healthcare. Luckily, these problems come with solutions, too. 

How professional development opportunities affect healthcare staff retention

Professional development opportunities are defined as “chances to expand or refine professional knowledge or skills, learn something new or deepen existing knowledge.”  These opportunities significantly contribute to an employee's job satisfaction.

Likewise, if professional development opportunities are few and far between or poorly implemented, it can lead to high rates of dissatisfaction.  

A lack of development opportunities can lead to feelings of stagnation, frustration and eventually disengagement at work. This in turn can lead to a variety of negative outcomes including burnout and increased employee turnover rates. 

Experts agree that professional development opportunities allow healthcare workers to see both potential for career advancement and become more competent in their existing roles. In the long run, it offers healthcare systems a qualified candidate pool to work with, while developing competencies that ultimately make employees more productive. 

This, in turn, leads to reduced burnout, fewer medical errors and higher patient satisfaction, too. 

Unclear performance expectations and staff retention in healthcare

Communication breakdowns occur relatively frequently in healthcare, both between leaders and their teams and among team members. It can lead to a lack of clarity surrounding day-to-day tasks like patient intake, care procedures or billing and aftercare.  

Combined, these factors lead to staff inefficiencies and poor performance. If these conditions are consistently present amongst staff members, it can lead to frustration and resentment, a recipe for low morale and potential disengagement from the workplace. Not only this, but it can impact patient outcomes and satisfaction.

When staff members feel unequipped to perform and are unsupported, engagement decreases with spikes in turnover soon to follow.  

Amongst other factors, clear communication that offers consistent guidance is a crucial part of creating an effective healthcare employee retention program. It can ease the tension of occasional uncertainty and makes it that much easier to implement new procedures. Making a direct line of communication readily available boosts morale, too.

Simple strategies for enhanced communication, like signposting, are easy ways to reduce turnover rates and improve staff retention in healthcare establishments. It can increase competencies and can help make patients happier and healthier. 

Lack of reward and recognition and employee retention in healthcare

It’s an unfortunate truth that burnout is prevalent in the healthcare industry. 

Between caring for patients in fast-paced, high-stress environments and handling administrative tasks, it’s common that healthcare employees’ feelings are an afterthought. 

These challenges aren’t insignificant, they can add to feelings of everyday stress and frustration, especially when hard work goes unnoticed. Healthcare professionals who do not feel their hard work is appreciated have low morale, which often turns into disengagement. 

Recognition is important, even if it involves non-monetary rewards. It can encourage staff members and create a team culture. Research shows that these two factors can reduce healthcare employee turnover rates and other factors that impact performance, like absenteeism. 

How to increase employee retention in healthcare with digital signage

The screens in healthcare offices and hospitals are invaluable tools leaders and administrators can use to overcome industry barriers and increase healthcare staff retention. Easy to set up and use, screens equipped with the right software can transform how space is used to keep healthcare employees engaged

Using employee recognition and satisfaction surveys to improve employee retention in healthcare

Creating opportunities for feedback shows healthcare staff that communication is not just top-down. This not only offers space for staff members to develop a sense of agency but expresses an interest in hearing out their needs as well. 

Digital signage makes it easy to make this an ongoing and consistent practice in your office or clinic. UPshow Connect, for example, features an integrated QR code generator that makes surveys accessible right from a smart device. It’s an effortless way to create opportunities for staff to share their experiences anonymously, too. 

This technology is also a useful tool for recognition purposes.

Shared digital surveys can be used to collect patient feedback, an excellent opportunity to celebrate healthcare workers’ dedication to patient care. UPshow’s in-app Canva integration makes it easy to incorporate this information in a unique display that recognizes each of your employees. 

With dozens of free, customizable templates, your office can use screens to recognize all of your staff members for their performance, on special occasions and to celebrate milestones. 

These simple practices can create an environment of appreciation and open communication, all with just a screen and robust signage software.  

Better communication can reduce employee turnover rate in healthcare industry

UPshow is designed to effortlessly integrate with the screens in your office

Whether it’s at nurses' stations or in a breakroom, you can use UPshow to make communication easy and accessible for all of your staff members.

Keep your staff up to date on procedures and processes that are necessary parts of patient care. It’s an easy way to bolster your training practices, making it possible to share a broad range of communication tools including videos and other graphics. This also makes it easy to track training completion and increase operational task completion. 

This can streamline employee learning on the job and share other pertinent information, like opportunities for professional development and human resource announcements. Content scheduling makes it easy to share relevant information for each shift so that no one skips a beat.  

Making this information easily accessible reduces the stress of recalling new processes as they are being implemented, can make staff more competent and can cut down on miscommunication.

Use UPshow to put your retention strategies for healthcare in place

When it comes to digital signage solutions that help healthcare systems succeed, there's only one you can trust. You need the right solution to put in place your recruitment and retention strategies in healthcare.

UPshow is the digital signage solution trusted by healthcare leaders to create robust content that is easy to deploy. It’s easy to create and share announcements, recognize employees and make staff learning an ongoing process. Want to learn more about how UPshow can help you reduce turnover rates and boost your healthcare employee retention? Schedule a free demo today!

Front-of-House

How to Keep Restaurant Employee Engagement High, Even On Slow Days

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It’s easy for an employee to remain engaged with their job when things are hopping in the workplace. 

Activity drives focus, which creates investment, which in turn often makes an employee feel engaged and motivated in their work. 

It’s during the off-hours, however, when the restaurant is empty and the work slows down that it becomes more difficult for an employee to remain engaged with their job. And it’s during those times that as an employer you need to make the extra effort to motivate, stimulate and otherwise enhance employee engagement.

What is employee engagement?

Before you go about trying to figure out how to keep employees engaged, it’s important to understand exactly what employee engagement is. 

Employee engagement is actually a metric made up of several different key factors, most of which are based on how an employee feels about their job.

It is often confused with job satisfaction, which is actually one of those factors, but not the only one that affects engagement. 

Employee engagement is the emotional and mental connection your employees feel towards your business. If they feel adequately challenged and stimulated in their jobs, that affects engagement positively. If they feel like they are undervalued or disconnected from the company, that affects engagement negatively. 

Why is employee engagement important?

Employee engagement is the cornerstone of success in any business venture.

Engaged employees feel positively about their workplace, which can make them more loyal and less likely to seek employment opportunities elsewhere. This, ultimately, can reduce turnover rates. 

Positively engaged employees tend to be more productive, too. They also tend to have higher-quality interactions with customers, which can make a huge difference in a business’s reputation.

This can lead to higher-than-average morale, as well as a higher sense of job satisfaction. The best part? This sort of positivity is infectious. It bleeds into other employees, enhancing the overall culture of the workplace. 

As you can imagine, positively-engaged employees also tend to increase the profitability and efficiency of the business in which they are employed. 

It should go without saying that you want to cultivate as many positively-engaged employees as you can, for as long as you can, in your restaurant. 

What does employee engagement look like in a restaurant? 

Even when things are slow, it can be hard to keep restaurant employees engaged. Your employees are on their feet all the time, rushing to and fro, perhaps unable to focus on engagement opportunities for more than a minute or two at a time. 

Because of this, you should take advantage of any opportunities to connect and engage with them in the workplace, even if it doesn’t happen synchronously.

One simple way to increase employee engagement is by elevating your communication efforts. Employee engagement tends to be higher when clear goals and procedures are communicated regularly, rather than leaving them guessing as to what needs to be done. 

Utilizing your in-house digital signage, you can ensure that your messaging is consistent and engaging across shifts and even across multiple locations.  

Digital engagement systems are also practical tools for making communication in kitchens a two-way street. UPshow SHIFT makes collecting employee feedback effortless, allowing restaurants to gather feedback from employees via online surveys, for instance.

Another option is to provide space for employee recognition and encouragement. You can use your digital signage to display positive customer comments about individual employees or to recognize the hard work of dedicated staff members. 

If you are looking to up the ante in your kitchens, you can create a little friendly competition between teams or shifts. Use UPshow SHIFT to connect to your existing point of sale system, like Aloha, to track real-time sales data and display front-runners on your digital signage.

How UPshow can help you keep restaurant employees engaged

Recognize your staff 

With full in-app Canva integration, UPshow makes it easy to quickly and easily create employee recognition displays. It offers free, fully-customizable templates for any occasion.

This makes it easy to incorporate your own unique branding, employee images and bios. It’s the perfect way to celebrate and show appreciation for dedicated staff. 

UPshow also makes managing multimedia campaigns simple with full scheduling tools. This way, you can share everything you need across all of your shifts and locations so everyone is in the loop. 

Share performance metrics in real-time

UPshow SHIFT connects directly to popular POS systems, like Aloha and Xenial, allowing you to track and display employee performance. These metrics can then be used to create recognition campaigns that celebrate hard-working employees and teams.

The system also allows you to generate and display QR codes, which can link to various online resources including employee feedback surveys or training materials that your employees can view right from their mobile devices. 

You can even use this technology to collect and analyze customer feedback via online surveys, and then display the results on your screens. 

Give team members a say in their work 

All the engagement tools in the world will be useless if you can’t gauge how employees respond to them. 

With UPshow Connect, you gain the ability to do just that. 

UPshow Connect allows you to easily distribute employee satisfaction or feedback surveys through the use of its easy QR code integration. The QR codes allow you to link to online surveys or quizzes which the employees can then take directly from their smartphones.

Once you have collected the surveys, UPshow products allow you to easily view and track trends to see which areas are hitting home with your employees and which ones need to be tweaked or revamped. 

And once you’ve accumulated and studied the data, you can use UPshow Connect in conjunction with existing digital signage or in-house TV systems to display the results to your employees. 

Keep your FOH and BOH staff engaged with UPshow SHIFT 

UPshow SHIFT is the employee engagement solution for busy kitchens. It integrates easily with existing digital signage or in-house TV systems. Sign up for a free demo today to see how UPshow can help take your restaurant staff’s engagement to the next level!

Back-of-House

You Need to Rethink Your Restaurant Safety Training Practices

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Safety training is of paramount importance in any workplace, but it is especially important in the restaurant industry where employees are regularly expected to work around sharp blades and hot burners. 

Standard training techniques often include employee meetings, written safety materials or boring and outdated safety videos. These methods may have worked in the past, but today’s modern restaurant demands a different, more efficient approach to safety training.  

The Importance Of Safety Training

So we’ve established that safety training is important, but let’s take a moment to really dissect why it’s important to your restaurant.

At the top of the list; safety training helps prevent injuries or accidents in the workplace. Employees who are trained to do things like wear appropriate attire in the kitchen or simply in the act of placing no-slip mats on the floor go a long way to ensuring an accident-free workspace. 

This in turn goes a long way in increasing the safety of the workspace overall, as employees will become accustomed to looking out for potential hazards and either avoiding them or going out of their way to fix them before they become a problem. 

Proper safety training also helps ensure that your restaurant’s staff is familiar with your establishment’s safety protocols. This includes things like fire safety instruction and drills. This ensures that employees know what to do and where to go in the case of a fire or what to do during medical emergencies. 

Finally, proper safety training helps not only protect staff but also helps ensure the safety and comfort of your customers. This, in turn, reduces the risk of liability and the potential for lawsuits or other legal action due to potentially unsafe or hazardous working conditions.

Restaurant safety tips to use in your training

Use Your Signage

Many accidents that occur in the workplace happen because of ‘undisclosed hazards’. These tend to be things like damaged flooring or spills that have been recently cleaned and have not had time to dry yet.

When training your employees, stress to them the importance of utilizing the hazard signage in your restaurant, and to ensure the others in the workplace are aware of potential hazards around them. For long-term procedural changes or safety notices, displaying alerts on your BOH screens is another easy way to signpost.

Stress The Importance Of Cleanliness

Not only does an unclean kitchen pose a health risk to your customers, but it also poses an immediate hazard to anyone working in that environment.

Slips and falls can occur from unclean floors, unwashed pans can potentially catch fire depending on what was in them and unclean knives will have a tendency to dull and slip when used. Remember: cleanliness is one of the key components of a safe kitchen. 

Make Sure Staff Takes Breaks

Tired team members make mistakes, and mistakes made in the high-pressure environment of a restaurant can lead to unsafe conditions. Make sure your employees know the importance of taking a break to rest and catch their second wind before diving back into the fray.

Use the right tools to meet restaurant safety standards 

The restaurant business is fast-paced and hectic, posing challenges in training both the front-of-house (FOH) team and the back-of-house (BOH) employees. Digital signage is the wave of the future when it comes to training your employees in safety protocols, and is one of the most efficient methods of disseminating training materials.

Integrating informational videos and graphics into your BOH signage can allow employees to absorb the training over a full shift, catching what they need to know in between getting orders out. 

You can also utilize infographics and awareness messages to ensure that your employees stay informed about what safety procedures are and how they should be implemented. 

Other useful tools for keeping your training up to date include online tests and training materials distributed through your BOH signage. UPshow Connect makes it easy to incorporate QR code technology into your digital signage so you can provide your employees with an easy method for connecting to those training materials through their mobile devices.

Rotate content to keep employees across shifts in the loop 

Even the best training becomes useless if you don’t get it to all your employees. This makes it important to rotate safety training content, ensuring that all shifts receive the information they need. 

It’s also important to keep your training materials current and up to date, as safety training cannot be approached with a ‘one-and-done’ attitude. Retention fades and training dulls unless it is refreshed regularly. UPshow allows you to schedule content rotation in minute detail on your digital signage, ensuring that none of your employees lack knowledge of your restaurant’s safety procedures.

What else can UPshow SHIFT do for you?

Connect with your point of sale system 

UPshow SHIFT can connect directly to your point of sale system and allows you to track key performance indicators across the board. This can be integrated into your digital signage or BOH systems in a variety of ways.

By integrating with your POS system, you can easily identify which shifts or team members are upselling or promoting targeted menu items. It makes it that much easier to keep your employees performing efficiently and safely. 

Keep employees engaged 

Employees learn better when they are engaged and invested in the materials being offered to them. UPshow SHIFT offers a variety of ways to provide just that type of engagement to your employees when delivering training and materials to them.

Creating training quizzes and linking them to a QR code in your digital signage allows your employees to access those quizzes on their mobile devices on their own time, without shift leads needing to track them down. They’ll have immediate access to engagement metrics, so they can tell how many staff members have completed their training.

UPshow also integrates with Canva, a popular online graphics creation program. Utilizing this powerful combination allows you to create things like an employee recognition program for employees who have strong kitchen safety records.

You can also disseminate and receive back employee surveys in much the same manner. This can help you determine where your employees believe your training materials are strong, and where they may be lacking.

Make safety training a part of your back-of-house training processes

UPshow SHIFT is the premiere digital signage software for BOH safety training.

Starting with UPshow is easy, all it takes is connecting your display to the software either through a hardwire connection or by running it directly on a wifi-enabled screen. It makes it easier than ever to provide your employees with the quality training they need to excel at their jobs, all while staying safe. Want to find out how UPshow can help your BOH team members? UPshow offers free demos so schedule yours today!

Back-of-House

4 Employee Retention Incentives To Keep Your BOH Workers Happy

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Successful businesses often run smoothly because of the support that back-of-house (BOH) employees offer. Though often in the background, BOH staff plays an important role in your success, and if your BOH turnover rates are high, it can be hard to achieve your business goals. 

Keeping every BOH worker engaged and motivated is a crucial part of strengthening your retention rates and reducing turnover. Here is a mix of incentives for employee retention to keep your BOH workers happy. 

Non-monetary retention strategies to keep your BOH employees motivated

Developing a range of retention strategies is important for maintaining employee engagement levels even when monetary incentives are not possible. Non-monetary incentives for BOH employees can be equally as rewarding and can create opportunities in ways that monetary incentives cannot. 

Efforts to create a healthy workplace culture, support employees and recognize hard work can go a long way in creating lasting relationships with your employees. For many, these workplace qualities are reason enough to stick around. For some, the added benefits of performance bonuses and raises are more important. 

In all likelihood, motivating and engaging your BOH employees will be best achieved by a combination of monetary and non-monetary incentives. 

On-the-job training incentives for employees

One of the simplest ways to increase engagement and motivation in your BOH employees is to offer opportunities to add new skills and experiences to their repertoire. In most cases, this comes in the form of on-the-job training programs.

On-the-job training programs, as the name suggests, are programs designed to either train employees in new skills or add to existing skill sets.  This can come in the form of job shadowing, mentorship and other formal training strategies. 

Opportunities for growth or shadowing show the possibility of advancement opportunities, which can prevent feelings of stagnation. These opportunities show that management has faith in the performance of their employees and that they are invested in the continued development of staff.   

An efficient way to provide or enhance on-the-job training is through the use of digital signage and back-of-house TVs. With UPshow, you can display training information including videos and graphics on the existing screens, allowing your employees to easily access information without needing to step away from their day-to-day work. 

Feedback and communication based employee incentives

Showing your staff that you care about their needs is an important part of making them feel like an important part of your team. 

Creating employee surveys that gather feedback about pain points or procedural questions bridges gaps between employees and management. This affirms an environment of support and encourages two-way communication. 

It’s important that these opportunities exist consistently and are easily accessible. One of the easiest ways to do this is with online surveys that BOH staff can access any time. UPshow Connect makes it easy to create QR code campaigns and display content that can be formatted into mobile landing pages, so that staff can scan codes and complete surveys on the go. 

This is also an easy tool to use so that staff can share their thoughts and ideas and shout each other out. 

Team-based performance incentive programs for employees

Friendly competition and team-based challenges are great strategies for boosting employee engagement and retention

Creating goals for teams to meet, like sales goals, training completion or patron survey competitions create a culture of teamwork and can reignite a dedication to performance. Coupling these efforts with meaningful incentives is the most efficient way to do this.  

These incentives can come in many forms, including pay bonuses, extra vacation days or extra break time. Meaningful incentives will help increase employee motivation and engagement in the workplace and give your BOH employees a reason to strive for excellence in their day-to-day work routines. 

Because performance-based incentives almost always revolve around meeting or exceeding goals tied to your business, it’s important to be able to monitor and record exactly how those goals are being met by each employee. UPshow Connect is able to connect and integrate with existing Point Of Sale (POS) systems to make tracking employee performance easy and effective.

Content scheduling on digital displays makes it easy to share stats for each of your shifts and across all locations so that all of your team members can get in on the fun! 

BOH recognition and appreciation opportunities for BOH employees

While performance incentives are common, creating a culture of support goes beyond thinking about employee performance. Appreciation and recognition for what team members contribute are important, and it’s crucial to consider what BOH employees bring to the table beyond just their work. 

Staff recognition often takes the form of recognizing personal accomplishments or hard work, such as consistently positive customer feedback or high task completion rates. It can also celebrate interpersonal qualities, like positive attitudes, integrity and problem-solving skills that keep shifts running smoothly. 

Showing your team members they are valued takes very little effort, but can make a huge difference! Plus, don’t forget to make room for some small celebrations. 

Ask your BOH employees to share their favorite dessert and some personal facts that you can use to celebrate birthdays and performance milestones. You can even couple this with a display. It’ll bring your BOH staff closer together and show how much you appreciate them.

How UPshow can help you boost employee motivation with incentives

Use Dynamic displays to feature non-monetary incentives for employee retention

UPshow not only integrates directly with existing hardware and software within your business, but it also comes with full integration and support for creation and design tools. It features full in-app Canva integration which uses a simple drag-and-drop interface filled with customizable premade templates.

UPshow also supports multiple file types and extensions, so you can incorporate your own branding and training content on your displays. These features and the flexibility they offer can be used to make non-monetary incentives for employees more attractive and alluring.

Once you’ve finished creating your displays, you can then organize and display them across multiple screens, even changing the presentation on a micro level so the appropriate messaging reaches employees in the right shifts at different locations. 

This makes it easy to keep messaging and programs consistent across multiple aspects of your non-monetary retention strategies as well as all the screens you may have at different locations of your premises. 

Integration and analytics to track retention incentives being offered

Even the greatest training program or the best employee incentive program will be next to useless unless you track and analyze the effect they have on your staff. This is why UPshow integrates with some POS systems, like Aloha, to track key performance metrics. This makes it easy to understand just how successful your various employee incentive ideas are in increasing employee retention and reducing BOH staff turnover. 

From there, it’s easy to target areas of improvement and adjust retention strategies. Coupled with employee feedback, this makes for a foolproof system that is sure to see results. 

See how UPshow can help you activate your BOH employee incentive programs

Ready to start putting in place rewards and incentives for your BOH employees and reducing your turnover rate? You need the right kind of platform to bring your incentive plans for your employees to life.

UPshow Connect is the leading digital signage solution industry leaders trust to keep their employees engaged. Find out how UPshow can help you keep your BOH workers happy with a risk-free demo today