Community
4 April, 2024
TMHS among the best
TERANG and Mortlake Health Service (TMHS) is celebrating being named one of Victoria’s top-five best performing health services, recognised for its workplace culture.
The results were released as part of the annual People Matter Survey, the Victorian public sector’s independent employee opinion survey, which this year focused on workplace culture.
TMHS staff members were surveyed about public sector values, people outcomes, senior leadership, wellbeing, organisation climate and other related areas which were used to identify high performance in workplace culture.
TMHS chief executive officer Julia Ogdin said the People Matter Survey was the predominant way the health service measured its workplace culture, which she called “our biggest asset, which must be valued at all costs”.
Ms Ogdin said the results validated the hard work and investment the health service had put into cultural growth in recent years.
“The results are validating and promote a sense of pride in our workforce, knowing that a strong team results in high-quality patient care for our community,” she said.
“The results are benchmarked across all public health services in Victoria as well as the broader public sector, so we get a very reliable idea of how we are tracking compared to the broader sector.”
Ms Ogdin said its workforce regularly went above and beyond to make their colleagues’ work more enjoyable, and being based in the close-knit communities of Terang and Mortlake led to a “culture of teamwork and collaboration”.
“Our staff genuinely come to work each day with a will to do the best by the people they care for,” she said.
“We are certainly in a privileged position to have the dedicated workforce that we have.
“It is clear that our positive workforce culture data is having a clear flow-on effect to our patient care data which continues to be very strong.”
Ms Ogdin said the pleasing survey results could also help to attract and retain quality candidates to the health service when the industry was experiencing nationwide staff shortages.
“We see this as an opportunity to encourage new staff to join a strong and supportive team environment in a time of a competitive workforce market,” she said.
“If we can show potential staff members this data, it could be the difference between them choosing to work with TMHS or going to an alternate facility.”
Ms Ogdin said the board of directors and executive staff’s strategic goal to expand its surgical services in recent years had “grown a highly-skilled nursing workforce”.
She said TMHS’ staff-led Workforce Capability and Culture Committee, introduced in recent years, worked through the People Matter Survey data each year to determine cultural trends and areas of improvement.
“The fact that the committee takes ownership over this data on behalf of the workforce is very powerful,” Ms Ogdin said.
Ms Ogdin said the health service employed a workforce culture and wellbeing coach and a workplace wellbeing social worker for staff to work through issues or just have a chat with.
“We’re always looking to enhance opportunities to support staff, particularly in the wellbeing space,” she said.
TMHS has also implemented a ‘Little Things Matter’ program, where staff nominate their peers for an action which has made a positive impact to someone else’s experience.
Ms Ogdin said the monthly recognition was powerful as it was peer-led.
“It gives all of us something to look forward to and allows us to reflect on the small actions that make a big difference in the lives of our colleagues and patients,” she said.
Ms Ogdin said TMHS addressed and promoted workplace culture at every opportunity and was “acutely aware that cultural change is a continual process”.
“It is clear that having a strong workplace culture leads to the benefits of having a well-functioning workforce who are happy to come to the workplace and contribute to the wellbeing of our patients,” she said.
Each year the Victorian Public Sector Commission (VPSC) provides the Department of Health with a summary report derived from the People Matter Survey.
Based on the 2023 survey results, the VPSC focussed its 2024 reporting on workplace culture.
TMHS is a 14-bed acute health service and 15-bed residential aged care service with two community health centres employing 152 staff.