Bishop Grosseteste University in Lincoln, in collaboration with Research England and the Lincolnshire Open Research & Information Centre (LORIC), commissioned by the Greater Lincolnshire LEP, led a public inquiry into informational needs in health and social care in Greater Lincolnshire. Katya Bozukova was the researcher appointed to the consultation. In her short blog, we see how the recommendations put forward in this public enquiry are transferable across all business sectors.
We’ve grown tired of a lot of words over the last 18 months: bubbles, rule of six, check the guidance, cancellation, and, of course, these unprecedented times. But right now, three of the dirtiest words you could say are: Back to normal.
Surprised? Here are three more: business as usual.
Even before the pandemic, there was a lot of research showing that businesses with healthy, happy employees are more resilient, more innovative, and better placed to cope with change. Now that we have had 18 months to try out different ways of working, one of the biggest questions on everybody’s mind is: What have we learned from this?
In a recent public consultation conducted by LORIC on behalf of the LEP stakeholders from different organisations gave their views on what is needed, on how we can all work together to become a healthier, more resilient society, and on the need for a healthy Covid exit-strategy for businesses.
This new report presents the findings of a public enquiry into the informational and data needs for health and social care in Greater Lincolnshire. There are numerous opportunities for health and social care projects and interventions to become more data driven and efficient, and these opportunities could lead to better care for citizens, better use of resources, more time efficacy and significant cost savings for both private providers and statutory services. However, there are unique challenges within Greater Lincolnshire which limit the efficacy of any health and social care intervention, leading to the breakdown of trust, stifling of innovation, and inefficient deployment of resources.
Identifying the digital divide and the ways in which it manifests in individual projects and organisations, and coming up with a plan to address the logistical, monetary, educational and emotional barriers that keep citizens in digital poverty, is a priority. Upgrading organisational data culture - what data is gathered, how is it used, where the roadblocks for more efficient usage are and how can they be lifted – will be a powerful driver for change and help set up the infrastructure for successful data exchange and collaboration.
The same can be said across many of our business communities. Collaboration, active listening, accountability, and trust building were all raised as key points to develop.
Such strategies would vary from case to case, but they share three questions at their core:
What has worked? All businesses would have had to do at least one thing they never would have contemplated, that has turned out to be revolutionary for their operations.
If something new didn’t work, why was that the case? You can learn as much, if not more, from failure as you do from success, so it’s important to have an honest look at both.
Are you prepared to listen to feedback and implement it in a constructive way? Often employees can have ideas about making the workplace safer, healthier, and more productive, but all these benefits can be lost if there isn’t a good feedback system in place.
There will inevitably be things that your company has tried over the last year and a half that were not a good fit. The key is separating the good ideas from the bad, evaluating strategies in an objective way, and having honest, transparent conversations with employees and other stakeholders.
Many people who were otherwise excluded from the workplace were able to engage more effectively with their jobs through the introduction of remote working, flexible hours, reduced travel times, and a holistic approach to work-life balance. To take just one example, family carers are estimated to make up a third of the workforce, and yet their contributions have gone largely unnoticed until quite recently. At the same time, every savvy business owner knows that a loyal, hard-working person is worth their weight in gold to the company. Which brings us back to the main question; What have we learned? and the logical follow-up: What are we going to do about it?
Katya Bozukova, MRes, PhD
Project Manager - Lincolnshire Open Research and Innovation Centre
