6 New Year’s resolutions for your business

The tradition of setting both personal and business-centric New Year’s resolutions can be a helpful practice for regrouping and refocusing on the year ahead. 

Setting reasonable and appropriate goals and plans for the year can ensure your business is on a trajectory for success. 

Regardless of how 2022 went, forward planning and creating goals are healthy business practices to make this new year the most successful one yet for your business.

Here are our suggested New Year’s goals you can use to make sure 2023 is the best year yet for your business.

First – take time to reflect

When setting goals, as a first step, it’s important to analyse how the different aspects of your business went last year to help you formulate new resolutions for 2023.

When reflecting, consider what worked and what didn’t.

Questions to consider can be:

• What did we achieve last year?
• Did we meet last year’s goals and objectives?
• What feedback did we receive from staff?
• What feedback did we receive from clients?
• Did we meet the new national reporting requirements efficiently? 

By taking the time to reflect, you can establish strategies to build on, identify what needs improvement and help you make more effective plans for the future.

Goal 1 – Tending to your business plan

A new year is a fresh start for a business and can be a perfect time to assess goals, actions and plans and make new ones if they aren’t working as well as they could.

Map out what you want to achieve in 2023 as an organisation at different levels – like on a management level or on the ground.

Being prepared to change things and move with the flow of success is key to being a provider of choice and keeping employees and stakeholders happy.

Alongside your personal New Year’s resolutions, you should be sitting down with the movers and shakers in your organisation to review how your business functions and where you want it to go – ensuring you are constantly aiming for the stars. 

Goal 2 – Investing in staff

Currently, the aged care sector is facing a workforce and skill shortage crisis, so finding and retaining staff is more important than ever.

As we continue to live with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and staff report their dissatisfaction with the sector, employers are being asked to assess their work environment, the needs of their workforce and their wages.

Establishing a strong rapport with staff by having regular meetings and conversations about your business’ operations can help reenforce an open door policy to staff and they will feel more comfortable coming to you with questions, queries or problems. 

Also, outline strategies that foster a culture of active listening is a great way to achieve employee satisfaction.

Goal 3 – Adopting new ways of working

Some providers have considered the role of virtual nursing which looks at what aspects of care can be done remotely – giving workers in this space more flexibility through a hybrid work model. 

For other staff whose roles already allow for remote working, a hybrid work model could be in place to extend that flexibility to all staff.

Making employment satisfaction a priority will keep staff in their jobs for longer and working at their best, thus reducing staff turnover and the resources needed to recruit new staff.

Goal 4 – Putting more into marketing and advertising

As a provider, you may find yourself putting a lot of time and energy into some aspects of your business more than others.

Providing quality services and maintaining a happy cohort of workers is paramount, but other parts of your business such as marketing and advertising are also important.

These aspects often go neglected by business leaders, but putting time and effort into ensuring your business has a strong marketing and advertising plan can help strengthen your business overall and allows you to remain more resilient in times of hardship.

As clients and their families navigate the aged care sector in search of services, marketing and advertising assists new clients to find you and learn what your business can offer them.

Regularly assessing your marketing and advertising plan can help put your business above the rest by enticing more people to work for your organisation as you can position yourself as an employer of choice.

Goal 5 – Staying on top of what is new

Technology is evolving at a rapid rate and many of these advancements are already improving the efficiency of service workers and providers, so making resolutions to stay up to date can be a big advantage for 2023.

Outside of investing in marketing and advertising, staying on top of what is new in the aged care tech sphere keeps your finger on the pulse when identifying where to invest in and keep your business’ operations flowing.

New devices and softwares are constantly being released to the market and knowing what they could do to help in your business can help improve productivity, efficiency and streamline the work done by staff. 

Perhaps a new lifter has been released on the market or your carers could do with updated tablets to take notes and observations of clients. 

Even simple things like investing in a new printer could help eliminate some headaches and streamline processes within your business.

Goal 6 – Blocking out “you” time

That saying “you can’t pour from an empty cup” is a common phrase for a reason. 

Scheduling in time for yourself is crucial to ensuring you can lead your business to success this year.

This is where it’s important to make reasonable and achievable goals to ensure you’re not biting off more than you can chew and won’t run into chronic burnout.

Allocating too much time to work and not enough time for yourself and what is important to you is a surefire way to create resentment towards your work and both your physical and mental health may suffer as a result. 

This year, as you map out your time week-by-week, slot in a small amount of time for you to read a book or make the phone call to a loved one you’ve been putting off.

If you won’t invest in yourself, who will?

What New Year resolutions do you have for your business? Tell us in the comments below.