Yes, it does! While it may not always be top of mind, you, your team, clients, and patients experience your hospital’s culture every time they walk in the door. In AAHA’s Guide to Veterinary Practice Team Wellbeing, “workplace culture” is defined as “the results of diligent adherence to established and expected workplace behaviors determined to be essential for achieving the organization’s goals, as well as the avoidance of those behaviors that are deemed unacceptable.”

AAHA's Culture Initiative is for the leadership team and anyone else who cares about their workplace, role, and partnership with others. While cultural change is a top-down process, everyone on the team must be involved. Remember, you can’t build a culture for your team. You must build it with them. Because of this, the program is intended to be used by every member of the practice team.

Healthy people = healthy practice. According to Jennifer Blackmon, corporate director of culture transformation for The Ritz-Carlton Leadership Center, happy employees are 12% more productive, stay in their roles longer, and use fewer sick days.

Professional wellness is widely recognized as a critical issue within the veterinary profession, as mental health issues such as depression, financial stress, compassion fatigue, and suicide have become increasingly concerning problems. Workplace culture and self-care have consistently been identified as key areas that can lead to improved overall wellbeing in our personal and professional lives.

Disengaged team members wreak havoc on culture—but signs of disengagement can be difficult to detect if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Just like septicemia, unless you’re monitoring subtle parameters, you can be caught in a crisis when your team can no longer compensate. A doctor who is quieter than usual, a technician who begins making critical mistakes, a receptionist who rolls her eyes at the client who just turned his back . . . how do you know if these are individual, private problems or issues caused by the environment your team spends the most time in—your hospital?

For practice owners and managers

The NEXUS Experience^TM  and practice management community help you invest in your greatest and most valuable resource—your team! By keeping them happy and healthy, you will:

• Reduce costly turnover due to increased employee satisfaction. According to The Coffman Research Institute, turnover for engaged employees is one-third of the overall average
• Improve patient care and client satisfaction as team members build strong, lasting connections to your practice. Engaged teams are more productive, which leads to improved service, and in turn, increased client satisfaction and retention
• Increase productivity by tapping into each team member’s unique strengths. According to The Coffman Research Institute, engaged teams achieve 116% of their goals, while disengaged teams achieve less than 60% of their goals
• Elevate your reputation—and attract and retain top talent—by caring for your team first

For technicians and support staff

The NEXUS Experience^TM gives every team member an opportunity to create change. By joining the discussion, you can:

• Close the communication gap and build mutual understanding between leadership and the rest of your team
• Elevate patient care and client satisfaction through improved team communication and processes
• Leverage your unique strengths to do more of what you love
• Establish yourself as a leader and help shape the future of your hospital

The AAHA’s Culture Initiative is a multifaceted program that aims to prevent or mitigate mental health issues in veterinary practice teams and provide guidance for those teams to build stronger, healthier workplaces. 

Part one of the AAHA Culture Initiative program, The NEXUS Experience™ is a brief survey that uses scientifically targeted questions to measure employee engagement and identify key pain points within your hospital’s current culture. The results are shared in confidential, individualized reports for each member of your team as well as in an anonymous group report, which will be used as a springboard for discussion.

Part two of The NEXUS Experience™ program, the Practice Management Community is an exclusive online community that offers ongoing support through educational resources and interactive tools like the Agenda Builder™, which can help you plan staff meetings customized to the needs of your unique culture—meetings that team members will actually want to attend.

Congratulations—your team is on its way to building a healthier culture! You can register here.