Key Insights from our Welbi Webinar: Navigating Digital Transformation in Senior Living

In a landscape where technology is revolutionizing senior care, Welbi recently hosted a webinar dedicated to exploring the best practices for digital transformation within senior living communities. This discussion revealed invaluable insights, shared experiences, and key strategies crucial for the successful adoption of platforms like Welbi. In this blog post, we’ll go over these key takeaways so you can apply these tips and tricks to your community. 

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Takeaway 1: Overcome Resistance and Fear Through Communication

Change is scary. Even with all the benefits implementing new technologies bring, there will always be some resistance and anxiety about changing from the norm. Our panelists acknowledged that addressing staff fears and anxieties regarding technology is crucial. They stressed the significance of using tailored and hands-on training approaches and holding an open dialogue both before and after implementation to ease any concerns. 

"Communication is key; it gives confidence to people. Offering teasers throughout communications leading up to the training helps put a positive lens on the implementation. We didn't really struggle with the buy-in from the team members overall." - Carolyn Proulx, Cogir Senior Living 

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Takeaway 2: Build Excitement for Change

Once concerns are addressed, get your staff excited! Emphasize the benefits of using new technology and be an advocate for showcasing time-saving features, efficiency improvements, and the positive impact on daily tasks to build anticipation among teams. You want to ensure that the technology you choose is a good culture fit for your teams. 

"We were so excited about this platform coming up that they were looking forward to it. We built it up in such a positive way that they were excited as well, right? So I think it's how we deliver it, it’s how we're able to express that we are actually meeting some of the problems that we have." - Carolyn Proulx, Cogir Senior Living‍‍‍

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Takeaway 3: Provide Hands-On Training and Adoption Oversight‍

Both Ronna and Carolyn stress the importance of training your staff on any new technology in a hands-on way. This means holding sessions in small cohorts and letting staff really dig in and play around with the tech themselves. Everyone has different learning styles, so it’s important to accommodate that in whatever form of information suits them best. Ask your staff if they would prefer videos, printouts, or guided training. 

Another helpful tip is to designate someone to oversee the adoption of the new technology. Here’s what Ronna thinks:

"I feel that when you implement any type of technology, there has to be somebody that's going to oversee it, that they're going to really monitor it for those gaps in practice or knowledge and then come back and do that remedial training." - Ronna Perin, Niagara Region

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Takeaway 4: Get All Teams Involved

The webinar emphasized the importance of engaging other departments as well, not just end-users. Most importantly, garnering support from IT, leadership, and residents, and promoting cross-departmental collaboration will ensure a successful digital transition and cultivate allies supporting new technology.

"Make sure you have a good business plan...and support from all areas." - Ronna Perin, Niagara Region

Many technologies such as Welbi benefit more than one department. Data collected in Welbi can later be used to empower decision-making across departments leading to more efficiency, transparency, and a holistic approach to care. 

"In the digital platform, from the data that we're able to collect from discoveries with our residents through assessments and different kinds of findings, there's information such as their demographics, which really allows us to build a strong value statement for the company and that helps sales.” - Caroline Proulx, Cogir Senior Living

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Concluding Thoughts

Overall, Welbi’s Digital Transformation webinar demonstrated that a successful digital transformation is not just about using new tools. It’s about understanding and involving everyone in the process through communication, enthusiasm, and teamwork to adapt to the future and make everyone’s lives easier. 

Didn’t catch the live event? You can see the full webinar on-demand here!