Suzanne Verheijden: six golden tips for digistarters

How do you get your employees on board with the digitalization wave? Strategic innovation consultant Suzanne Verheijden gives her listeners six golden tips during the Zorg & hr fair.

With 50 chairs, the small room where Suzanne Verheijden gives her presentation is not big enough for the nearly 200 people who want to hear from this innovation expert and owner of Buro StrakZ how best to prepare your employees to use healthcare technology and e-health, to provide care at a distance and to work with digital applications. Verheijden contagiously dishes out useful tips and tricks for making a successful start.

Generational differences

"The trends in technology are moving very fast and by no means are all the applications known to healthcare workers. Of course, that also has to do with generational differences," she concludes. "Healthcare professionals still have little knowledge of AI, which for many people takes some getting used to. But as a healthcare organization, you are looking for employees who are digitally proficient."

Swiping born

Change power is the magic word here, says the innovation expert. "There are eight types of people, and the most enthusiastic types are agile and willing to change. People who absorb new knowledge quickly, that's who you're looking for!" A tool like ChatGPT can help with that, she points out. "Have that program come up with ten interview questions to select candidates on those two factors."

It is also important for the healthcare organization to have good technological infrastructure. "Gen Z-ers are born swiping, their smartphone is their office. But if the wifi isn't up to par, they won't come."

Shame

Not surprisingly, age and education say something about an employee's level of digital proficiency, Verheijden says. "The older, the more difficulty someone has with digitization. Those people are often insecure, ashamed of it and then go and ask a colleague who can. But that also wastes time and puts pressure on the quality of care. The result: the outflow of employees is growing and the influx is slowing down."

Positive approach

Motivate your employees, is her adage. There are several ways to do that. "As a manager, don't say, 'We have to digitize,' because that's an offer of weakness, as if you don't like it yourself. And don't say, 'We're going to deploy 20 medication dispensers,' but, 'We're going to help Mrs. De Vries with her medication adherence.' Or "We're going to help Mr. de Vries live at home longer. So communicate positively. Not from the technology's point of view, but from what it delivers."

Digicoach

Verheijden cites the appointment of a digicoach as another solution. "That job has existed since 2017 and has proven incredibly successful. A digicoach takes employees who are less digitally proficient by the hand and teaches them how to use new applications with patience and humor."

She says letting them first experience for themselves what technology in healthcare can do for patients or clients also works wonders. "Let them play around and experiment with the healthcare robot, and they will find out how useful that device can be."

On the soapbox

Inspiring leadership also cannot be missing if you want to get employees as an organization to join you in the digital healthcare world, she points out. "Get on the soapbox, be the line that connects everything and use humor! And shut down any projects that no longer work or don't add anything."

As a final golden tip, Verheijden offers to stop using the word "just. "Especially for people who are less digitally savvy, that's deadly; they don't experience technological developments at all as something you 'just' do for a while."

Six golden tips from Suzanne Verheijden

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1. Apply the premise: "If the other person doesn't get it, I didn't explain it well!

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2. Take away shame. Say, for example, that no one can know everything, that you yourself have to look up a lot and have also made the occasional digital blunder.

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3. Reassure by saying that errors are not usually fatal. A computer doesn't crash easily these days, and files are usually backed up.

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4. Let the digital starter do it himself as much as possible, even if that sometimes takes some convincing. If you fix it for a while, he/she will learn nothing.

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5. Explain one method of doing something. Don't give several options.

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6. Also, avoid the word "ordinary. For the digistarter, nothing is ordinary in working with the computer.