Good communication sits at the heart of good care. As part of a longer-term plan for how we work together, Afya Care trialled Microsoft Teams as a replacement for Skype — and the experience taught us a great deal about introducing new technology thoughtfully across a care organisation.
Teams offers a range of features that go well beyond Skype: collaborative tools and a genuine group-chat feel that change how a team stays connected day to day. Rather than simply swapping one calling tool for another, we found it helpful to treat the move as an opportunity to rethink how we communicate.
It's a little like giving staff smartphones — it opens up creative new ways of communicating, not just a replacement for what came before.
Working with Skills for Care
Our experience also fed into work with Skills for Care to help develop an accessible guide to implementing Teams. By sharing what worked — and what was harder than expected — we hoped to make the path smoother for other care providers considering the same move.
The challenges we met
Rolling out any new platform comes with hurdles. Encouraging participation, supporting people at different levels of confidence, and keeping the rollout organised all required attention. None of these were reasons to hold back — they were simply things to plan for.
Our conclusion was a positive one: implemented carefully, Teams can improve communication and promote genuine co-production across a care organisation. For providers weighing up the move, our advice is to plan the people side as carefully as the technology — and to start.