The unit Service Rondom het Bed (SRB) is responsible for all facility tasks in as many as 23 different departments within the LUMC hospital. They manage the supply, clean the patients’ rooms, provide patients with the right food and take care of all kinds of equipment, such as the infusion pump. “We are the support unit,” Tom explains, “we turn the house so the nurses can take care of their patient.”
New employees within SRB are therefore often confronted with many diverse and department-specific tasks, which they must quickly become familiar with. SRB therefore started with GPAL almost a year ago, in order to support employees during their onboarding with handy and short instruction videos.
“I would definitely recommend GPAL to other hospitals. Especially where [facility] employees work in many different departments. The range of tasks is 80% the same on all nursing wards, but there are also department-specific tasks. With video instructions you support staff, give them more self-confidence in carrying out their work, and also increase their employability.”
– Tom, Unit Coordinator
The Challenge
Employees within SRB have to deal with dozens of different tasks, which are often also department-specific. New employees are normally introduced to the company by shadowing more experienced colleagues during the first few days. However, it soon became clear that because of all the new impressions, new employees often forget a lot of information.
“If you’ve had a whole deluge of information thrown at you on your first day at work and then you have to do it on your own the next, it can be quite difficult. With the GPAL videos you now actually have a colleague in your pocket that you can always fall back on.”
– Tom, Unit Coordinator
For this reason SRB started with GPAL about a year ago, to support the onboarding process with short video instructions. New employees can, by watching short instruction videos, take in information when they need. This not only makes the onboarding process a lot quicker and more accessible, but also gives new employees extra confidence during their shift.
“We really wanted to support the onboarding process. When you’re new here, there’s really a lot of information that you need to take in at once and that’s why we wanted to offer the app support, so you can take in information when you need it.”
– Tom, Unit Coordinator
The Approach
Meanwhile, a number of videos have been made that are actively viewed in the GPAL app. Even though Tom, together with colleague Robin, regularly goes out to film all kinds of instructions within the hospital. Experienced colleagues are also involved in making these videos. Together they choose a subject and then film it. “At first, filming is a bit stressful,” Tom explains, “but colleagues are often willing to help make the videos.” Especially now that there are more and more videos in the app and people can see the results, more and more colleagues want to participate in making videos.
SRB also tries to involve employees as much as possible in the GPAL project. Employees are often asked to give their opinion on existing videos or to make suggestions for new videos. Employees with good ideas and suggestions may then help to record new videos. “This way”, Denise explains, “it really becomes something we do together.” Also a lot of practical questions from employees have been answered and put in the app.
“We have up to 160 employees who often ask the same questions, such as how to log into your e-mail or who you can contact for certain things. We then filtered the most common questions and made them into video instructions. That saves us a lot of time and is often easier for employees to find.”
– Denise, Team Leader
The Results
Clear and easy work instructions
Most employees are very enthusiastic about using the GPAL app. This was also shown by the satisfaction survey that was recently held within SRB. In particular the clarity of the instructions came forward in the survey. Tom elaborates that the videos are often clearer and easier to use than the protocol. The instruction videos, he explains, show visually how to do something, while the protocols are often dry and bare pieces of text.
“People are also very active [in the app]. When I’ve posted a new video, and everyone gets a notification about it, the phone is red-hot with likes and comments.”
– Tom, Unit Coordinator
Apart from the fact that the videos provide clear instructions, their use is also perceived as easier among employees. Employees often find it much more fun to watch instruction videos than to read a protocol. The videos are watched frequently and enthusiastically.
“In the beginning we were a bit apprehensive about introducing the GPAL app. But in practice it was a very positive experience , because all employees received a very clear and accompanying e-mail. The app itself is also very user-friendly.”
– Denise, Team Leader
Performance support & increased employability
Another additional advantage of using video in the onboarding is the increased employability of employees. Employees at SRB are regularly faced with many department-specific tasks. For example, an employee who has been trained in one department may go to another department and come across work that they have never seen before. In these moments, the GPAL app is used to easily explain these department-specific tasks in short instruction videos. A good example is the making of a cradle at the maternity center in Leiden. This is done in a very specific way and must also meet certain standards. At such a moment a video is very handy.
“We can now more easily place employees on departements they have never worked before, because the work instructions are so clearly described in videos. It really increases employability, but also the confidence of employees to carry out their tasks independently.”
– Tom, Unit Coordinator
In this manner, staff are not only supported in their work, but their employability is also increased. After all, it is a lot easier to employ staff in a different department if they can independently access the correct task performance via video.
A competitive battle: make learning more fun
Another interesting phenomenon that occurs at SRB is a healthy competition between different employees. Everyone wants to watch the most videos and have the highest number of learning points in the app. This is of course very positive for the organisation itself, as it gets everyone involved in the GPAL videos, and also makes learning a lot more fun.
“The learning points in the GPAL app really lead to a competitive battle for us. This is not only a very tactical way of training staff, but also a lot of fun.”
– Denise, Team Leader
At the beginning of the GPAL pilot, SRB gave the employees with the most learning points a small gift on behalf of the department. “Our biggest GPAL users,” Denise explains, “were also put in the limelight.”
In the future: Familiarising employees with the workplace
In the future, SRB plans to use GPAL in other ways as well, mainly to help staff find their way around the hospital more quickly.
“It’s just a very big hospital with many different people with even more different tasks. With videos, you can easily record a short introduction round for each department. New employees can then watch these videos in advance to familiarise themselves with the hospital.”
– Denise, Team Leader
Experienced staff can use videos to introduce themselves and explain what they do in the department. In this manner, new employees are not only introduced to their own tasks, but also get a more general knowledge of the hospital and immediately recognise more faces. That piece of recognition, Denise explains, can ensure a warm welcome to the workplace.
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