Five Top Priorities for Online Therapy Excellence: Therapists of Distinction

Retaining a team of highly engaged, high performing therapists is key to our students’ outcomes and our customers’ experience. This post shares a system for creating a team of distinguished therapists who contribute to service excellence, while enjoying a rewarding career path.

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Top Five Priorities for Online Therapy Excellence
PRIORITY 2: THERAPISTS OF DISTINCTION

Hi Everyone,

Our purpose is to grow smiles, mend spirits, and engage children in their lives.

We grow smiles so that our children feel safe and joyful in their learning.  We mend spirits so children rediscover how capable they are and that all the rewards of being a curious, relentless learner are theirs to have.  We engage children in their lives so that our investment in them matters in a meaningful way.  Our therapists’ legacy radiates as each student grows into an active, confident contributor to his or her life.

Influencing Excellence with Therapists of Distinction

Our therapy team provides online occupational therapy and online speech therapy services to schools.  In our previous posts, we outlined these priorities:

  • Influencing excellence with technology. When partnering with school tech teams, our aligned goal is to provide the students with an engaging therapy experience, free of technical disruptions.
  • Influencing excellence with customer service accountability.  When partnering with administrators and special education teachers, our aligned goal is to create a student-focused partnership that achieves the school’s program objectives.
  • Influencing excellence with pathways to the classroom.  When partnering with teachers and parents, our aligned goal is to accelerate our students’ progress across his life experiences.

Our next priority is our therapists.  We have created the most evolved, comprehensive online therapy service platform for our schools because we believe children deserve equal access to quality therapy services that improve their lives.  The technology cannot achieve student outcomes or drive our purpose…but an outstanding therapist can.  If you are exploring how to achieve excellence in therapy services, what should you build?

Focus:  Build and retain a team  of highly engaged, high performing therapists who believe in a shared purpose.

Our purpose provides clarity about why we serve.  Next, a goal provides clarity about how we serve. For instance, when a therapist feels stuck with how to manage a student’s program, revisiting a team goal is better than giving up on a child.  Below is an example of a goal that reminds our therapists they are part of the solution and that they can drive the evolution of an individualized approach that makes a difference:

“Our goal is to find the way to our students’ success so that they joyfully participate with confidence in their lives.” 

Considerations for Growing a Team of Distinguished Therapists

  • Define your team culture, then hire and coach based on those values.
  • Four C’s of a Virtual Team:  clarity assurance, communication systems, colleague connections, and collective contributions.
  • Infuse quality and support systems that influence results and retain engaged team members, who thrive in a rewarding career path.
  • As advocates for students, implement processes for monitoring the student experience and outcomes.
  • TinyEYE created the Confirmation of Excellence program.  We observe sessions, audit files, and coach therapists.  Outstanding therapists become mentors and team leaders for their peers.

Behind the Scenes at TinyEYE

marnee_in_session

Above is one of my online sessions with a special student from years ago!  I am grateful that we consistently infuse improvements to our software and our service skills so that every session is better for our students.

Did you know we have the longest serving online therapists on our team? Previous to TinyEYE, most of our customers experienced years of absent, stretched, or inconsistent services.  They have been able to rewrite their story because now they have been able partner with the same therapy team throughout our long term partnership. Because their TinyEYE therapists have become immersed in their school culture and students’ lives, services are highly relevant, efficient, and rewarding.

Just as we promise our customers the TinyEYE experience, we also advocate for our therapists.  It is important to us that they experience joy, purpose, and achievement on their career path with TinyEYE. We feel privileged that many of our therapists now contribute to our teams and customer relationships beyond the therapy room.  As we grow forward together, we stand firmly on our purpose to grow smiles, mend spirits, and engage children in their lives.

Sometimes the shortest messages give the most information.  Below is a brief note we received from one of our treasured therapists after a great day at work. Share with me:

Subject: Thanks for all you do!

A great therapy day at (school) and with a student who is homebound.

I remember my history teacher telling me that if we can work at what we love, we will never have a job again.

Thank you all again – I love my work!

Kaelyn