Why you should consider having a Facebook group for your care team?

Having a simple and accessible communication procedure is important. There are various applications that can be utilised to share information to your care team. But have you considered a staff Facebook group to manage it?

Why you should consider having a staff FB group?

More and more organisations are beginning to use social media platforms as a way to keep in touch with their teams. In fact there are some organisations and individuals who have created groups for support workers, activity coordinators and care managers to network. They can be quite easy to set up and have various settings you can include to manage it.

Here are some reasons why you should consider having a staff FB group:

• It’s free
• It provides one place for all staff to communicate
• There are various rules & protections you can include
• You can include topics for finding resources easily
• Many of your staff may already be using Facebook
• Create events linked to the group
• It’s interactive – you can gain feedback through questions and create polls
• You can turn it into a learning resource using the social learning option

Ways to manage a staff FB 

Now you know some of the reasons why you should consider using a staff Facebook group.. Let’s look at how to manage it.

There are various settings and options including:

• Privacy settings
• Admin and moderators
• Rules
• Social learning groups 

Since Facebook gives so many options, we’ve spilt the descriptions below.

Privacy settings

• Privacy settings for groups can either be public or private. Currently a within a public group, anyone can see who is within the group and what they post. Whilst the members of a private group are the only who can see whose in the group and what they post.
  
• A group can also be visible or hidden. Anyone can find a visible group in the search function. A hidden group is only visible to the members and so invitations to individuals are required to access the group.
• If a member of staff leaves, you can either remove them from the group or block them.

Admin and moderators etc 

• You can set individuals as admin and moderators within the group
• You can also set up keyword alerts. If any member uses a word or phrase you do not wish to have within the group, the admins will be able to review the content and take action if required 

Rules

• Facebook enables a rules option which the admins of a group can create up to 10 rules
• You also have the option to use example rules such as ‘be kind and courteous’ and you have the option to personalise too
• Not only can you write a rule including up to 50 characters, you have up to 200 character to write a decription
• You can amend the rules at any time

Social learning groups

If you are looking at using your staff Facebook group as a learning tool, this is a great option.  A social learning group is where you can organise posts into a unit or series. For example, you could have an induction section, policies and procedures, epilepsy awareness and more.

Though in a standard group you aka general group you can have topics, the unit option has more capabilities. For instance, you can allow members to show their progress whereby they can select ‘done’. This enables the members of the group to see who has completed this tasks. This can be beneficial for staff to prompt and motivate one another to complete any remaining and new units. You can also allow members to share when they’ve completed a unit. Again this is a great additional for staff to show they’ve completed it and you could even tie in a reward for when units are complete. Another great capability is the option to reorder units. Say you have included a new unit which needs to be before a section, you can access this option on Facebook on a web browser.

If you already have a group, you can change it to a social learning group within the group type section in group settings.

In conclusion…

A staff Facebook group can help bridge the gap between its care team. There are various settings you can action to enable confidentiality. They are a create place to provide information and resources and be shared with your whole team. So if you hadn’t already considered having a Facebook group before, are you now?

Here are some guides for Facebook:

• Facebook – Help Centre – click here
• Facebook – Education Centre – click here 

Here are some Facebook groups for care managers and care professionals:

• The Outstanding Manager Online Network – click here
• Networking In Care – Connecting Care Professionals Group – click here
• Registered Managers Group – click here

Let us know in the comments below if you have a staff Facebook group for your care team? Is it working for you?