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In Luye Life Sciences Group’ s 26th Anniversary Celebration, Benjamin Uprichard, CEO of Mayo Private Hospital has won the Culture Star Award for Employee Actualization. It’s a great honor for the editor to have a brief interview with Benjamin and take a closer look at his work in Healthe Care, especially with respect to 'Employee Actualization'!
The details of the interview are as follows.
Can you introduce yourself, and describe your daily work in Healthe Care?
Hello everyone. I’m Ben. I moved to Forster with my wife and 2 year-old-son mid-2019 to take on the role of CEO of Mayo Private (and to continue my love of surfing). At the moment my daily routine is busy after the broadening of my role to Regional CEO. I’m enjoying meeting a new group of staff and specialists and identifying how Mayo and Forster Private Hospitals can work better together.
Benjamin Uprichard
We are very inspiring the description of your nomination“He worked on Performance Appraisal process, which was highlighted an area managers had little to no training, provided support and education to ensure they could undertake task with confidence.” Can you share more details about this special process? How did you handle the challenges in it?
The process presented very few challenges because all of the department managers were keen to improve on their ability to provide the best support to staff in their efforts to care for our patients. My Director of Clinical Services (Craig Johnston) has been key in the process of reviewing each staff member’s performance appraisal with the manager and supporting them to both recognise the staff member and reset our expectations of them using the Healthe Care values. In addition to the performance appraisal we have used what we call a talent matrix to measure where we see individuals currently, their potential and how we can support them to reach it. We talked about the areas in which they thought they needed more training, what training they thought would be of most value and then we worked together to give them access to the training. I believe that we will continue to see the benefits of this as we work toward succession planning for key roles.
How do you improve the culture and engagement of the organization? What’s the challenges and opportunities?
I believe that culture and engagement starts with building trust in the leadership team and our colleagues. The journey of improving culture and engagement has had a strong focus on being transparent and honest with staff, including individuals’ performance. I have given everyone permission to call out each other’s behaviours that do not align with the Healthe Care values, including mine. Staff development and recognition are also very important for building engagement. I believe in asking others for their advice and input, giving them the opportunity to capitalise on their strengths and address their weaknesses, and giving them permission to enjoy their work as long as it doesn’t compromise the quality of care we provide for our patients.
Ben is with hospital's colleagues
How do your teams collaborate?
Yes the hospital is my team and everything that we can achieve is a result of how our team works together. I believe that effective collaboration in a team comes from clear and ongoing communication, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, commitment to continuing quality improvement, individual and group recognition of a job well done and treating others as you would like them to treat you.
An unforgettable project you led which has improved hospital outcomes.
To be honest I commenced my role only a few months prior to the devastating bushfires in our region, followed shortly after by COVID-19 and my focus has been to support both staff and GP’s through a difficult time individually but also for the community. I feel as though this has enabled both myself and the hospitals to build strong relationships that will be beneficial in the projects we have planned for the coming year.
What interests you the most about your current position in Healthe Care?
I’m excited about the benefits I see coming from the two regional hospitals working closer together. Our challenge is to make sure that as regional communities with an older demographic, we have access to the best possible healthcare services and working more closely together can help us do this more effectively. I believe that this can be achieved through developing and/or recruiting quality staff combined with a strong organisational culture.
What is your work style and team culture?
I have a collaborative approach and I thrive in a team environment where everyone’s supported to do their best and permitted to enjoy their work. I believe that the answers lay within the people of the organisation and it is my role to ask the right questions to bring them out and then support them through to implementation.
Mayo and Forster Private Hospitals supported Red Apple Day with information stalls, donations to Bowel Cancer Australia and staff wearing red. Gastroenterologists Dr Senanayake Prematilake & Dr Douglas Samuel also joined the campaign, with an advertorial feature running in the local Manning River Times, social media and website content posted throughout the month, and a radio interview with Dr Samuel on 2RE's Good News segment.
Please share with us a story relating to Covid-19.
In my eyes, the COVID-19 situation has given our staff the opportunity to pull together in trying circumstances. Our staff have shown incredible commitment to pitching in where needed to make sure our patients have continued to feel safe and well-cared for despite the circumstances unfolding around them.
How do you keep positive in your life and work during Covid-19?
My positivity is encouraged and supported by my family, my friends, our communities and the staff at our hospitals. It would be misleading for me to say that the challenges of my role and of the current environment didn’t bring on a few sleepless nights, but that’s part of the human experience. I just make sure that I access all the help that is available to me and try and share it with others.
How do you consistently keep learning and growing after working time?
Growth is what drives and gives me purpose, when I am learning I feel as though I am growing and so I try to look for the lesson in everything. Investigating the options and applying the most appropriate solution to each problem keeps me learning and engaged in my work. Key to this is finding the time for reflection, learning from your successes and mistakes.