What's a hospital without its staff? Well, it's just a building then. Keeping a hospital employee base happy has numerous benefits, such as higher productivity, better quality of care and generally more positive dispositions. The following hospital CEOs shared their experiences on the best ways to keep employees satisfied.
Diana Hendel, CEO of Long Beach (Calif.) Memorial Medical Center, Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach and Community Hospital Long Beach.
• Just-in-time communication. Every month on the same day, I team up with my senior leaders to deliver updates on financials, strategic direction and changes to the board of directors, leadership team and the entire workforce during town hall meetings on all shifts.
• Information readily available to all employees. We recap the town hall presentations, including Q&As, on the intranet in my "In the Loop" section for employees to access the rest of the month in case they missed the town hall. Also, any employee can ask any question and receive an answer within 72 hours in that section.
• Hospital-wide professional development. Scores of in-person and online training and development programs, as well as management academies, to help staff and physicians expand their leadership capabilities are offered to clinicians, support staff and management.
• Relentless focus on mission. I believe that when people are strongly in tune with an organization's mission, employees know how their role specifically supports the mission, and then engagement naturally and enthusiastically increases.
• Listening to staff and patients. Our leadership team is continually seeking ways to really listen to staff — that's everyone who "works" in one of our hospitals, ambulatory facilities or community offerings — whether physician, employee or volunteer. When people feel listened to or understand why a decision is made, then they are more engaged. We've also instituted leadership rounds where senior leadership spends time talking with patients and then provides the feedback to staff (and 99 percent of time, it's extraordinarily positive, and the staff member gets to hear it directly from senior leaders).
• Emphasizing wellness. Through the Good Life Program, our MemorialCare Health System offers employees myriad activities, options and incentives that give them a healthy life balance — from exercise, prevention and wellness programs to healthy food choices in the cafeteria and courses on how to improve the lifestyle for themselves and their families.
• Total engagement in creating solutions. Our hospitals engage in an inclusive culture. All employees participate in identifying areas of improvement and contribute to solutions in a just-in-time culture that tracks and monitors progress regularly, assesses every new idea publicly, studies the feasibility versus the level of difficulty and provides instant feedback.
Kurt Hofelich, president of Sentara Obici Hospital (Suffolk, Va.). Our answer is in three parts:
• Leadership in any successful organization needs to establish a clear vision for the goals of the organization and articulate that vision in a manner that all employees understand. Accomplishing this sets the stage for our employees knowing where the organization is going and what performance expectations are.
• Leadership needs to actively engage employees in pursuit of this vision. Seek out employee's ideas, get feedback, be responsive to implementing their ideas and measure their success. Accomplishing this establishes a culture of teamwork and employee engagement around accomplishing the organization's goals.
• Leadership needs to be visible. Actively round in your operations, engage employees in conversation, ask them how they are progressing on their unit's goals, ask them if they deal with any barriers on a daily basis, ask them what they enjoy most about their work day and be responsive to their input.
That's how we do it at Sentara Obici Hospital. With our employees' engagement and support, we improved our overall customer service scores by 13 percent and accelerated from last in our region to first in our region in the last year.
Steven Johnson, president and CEO of Susquehanna Health (Williamsport, Pa.). We place an enormous priority on the role each person at Susquehanna Health plays in providing excellent medical care to our community. That's why we refer to each other as "service partners." Treating each other with respect is a cornerstone for our employee satisfaction.
We include service partners in each step of our annual work climate surveys. We share results with them and involve employees in the development of the action plans to address the opportunities for improvement. This is part of our effective leadership development program to provide capable leadership for our employees.
Creating an environment where service partners look forward to coming to work begins even before they arrive at Susquehanna Health — this is keeping true to our faith-based history. A new employee's very first day begins with a comprehensive on-boarding program that includes the CEO and effectively communicates our culture and expectations. From there, we maintain a robust employee reward and recognition program and an employee relations program that responds quickly and effectively to service partner concerns.
We incentivize healthy living with an internal wellness program with incentives, such as a Weight Watchers at work program. We have an employee communications committee chaired by one of our sisters to ensure we hear the voice of the service partners. The committee also helps organize community-based social activities for employees and their families. We try to exemplify living balanced lives from senior management throughout the organization. Maintaining a culture where service partners are happy with their jobs is more than providing competitive compensation and benefits. We do all we can to treat service partners with the same dignity and respect we ask them to show our patients.
Scott Teffeteller, CEO of Union Hospital (Terre Haute, Ind.). I feel the happiest employees are those that feel they are listened to, involved in processes and changes and who have administrative staff accessible to them. I also believe good communication is the backbone to each of those components.
When I became Union Hospital's CEO last year, it was my intent to make communication a top priority. I now have a monthly column in our employee newsletter; administrative staff provides a weekly email update to all staff; we have instituted a better leader-rounding program; and we do a quarterly administrative update for staff and provide it in a video format, too. We've had positive feedback from our employees and believe happy employees provide the best care for our patients.
From Cop to CEO: Q&A With Chris Van Gorder of Scripps Health
Tools of Engagement: Improving Workplace Quality
Diana Hendel, CEO of Long Beach (Calif.) Memorial Medical Center, Miller Children's Hospital Long Beach and Community Hospital Long Beach.
• Just-in-time communication. Every month on the same day, I team up with my senior leaders to deliver updates on financials, strategic direction and changes to the board of directors, leadership team and the entire workforce during town hall meetings on all shifts.
• Information readily available to all employees. We recap the town hall presentations, including Q&As, on the intranet in my "In the Loop" section for employees to access the rest of the month in case they missed the town hall. Also, any employee can ask any question and receive an answer within 72 hours in that section.
• Hospital-wide professional development. Scores of in-person and online training and development programs, as well as management academies, to help staff and physicians expand their leadership capabilities are offered to clinicians, support staff and management.
• Relentless focus on mission. I believe that when people are strongly in tune with an organization's mission, employees know how their role specifically supports the mission, and then engagement naturally and enthusiastically increases.
• Listening to staff and patients. Our leadership team is continually seeking ways to really listen to staff — that's everyone who "works" in one of our hospitals, ambulatory facilities or community offerings — whether physician, employee or volunteer. When people feel listened to or understand why a decision is made, then they are more engaged. We've also instituted leadership rounds where senior leadership spends time talking with patients and then provides the feedback to staff (and 99 percent of time, it's extraordinarily positive, and the staff member gets to hear it directly from senior leaders).
• Emphasizing wellness. Through the Good Life Program, our MemorialCare Health System offers employees myriad activities, options and incentives that give them a healthy life balance — from exercise, prevention and wellness programs to healthy food choices in the cafeteria and courses on how to improve the lifestyle for themselves and their families.
• Total engagement in creating solutions. Our hospitals engage in an inclusive culture. All employees participate in identifying areas of improvement and contribute to solutions in a just-in-time culture that tracks and monitors progress regularly, assesses every new idea publicly, studies the feasibility versus the level of difficulty and provides instant feedback.
Kurt Hofelich, president of Sentara Obici Hospital (Suffolk, Va.). Our answer is in three parts:
• Leadership in any successful organization needs to establish a clear vision for the goals of the organization and articulate that vision in a manner that all employees understand. Accomplishing this sets the stage for our employees knowing where the organization is going and what performance expectations are.
• Leadership needs to actively engage employees in pursuit of this vision. Seek out employee's ideas, get feedback, be responsive to implementing their ideas and measure their success. Accomplishing this establishes a culture of teamwork and employee engagement around accomplishing the organization's goals.
• Leadership needs to be visible. Actively round in your operations, engage employees in conversation, ask them how they are progressing on their unit's goals, ask them if they deal with any barriers on a daily basis, ask them what they enjoy most about their work day and be responsive to their input.
That's how we do it at Sentara Obici Hospital. With our employees' engagement and support, we improved our overall customer service scores by 13 percent and accelerated from last in our region to first in our region in the last year.
Steven Johnson, president and CEO of Susquehanna Health (Williamsport, Pa.). We place an enormous priority on the role each person at Susquehanna Health plays in providing excellent medical care to our community. That's why we refer to each other as "service partners." Treating each other with respect is a cornerstone for our employee satisfaction.
We include service partners in each step of our annual work climate surveys. We share results with them and involve employees in the development of the action plans to address the opportunities for improvement. This is part of our effective leadership development program to provide capable leadership for our employees.
Creating an environment where service partners look forward to coming to work begins even before they arrive at Susquehanna Health — this is keeping true to our faith-based history. A new employee's very first day begins with a comprehensive on-boarding program that includes the CEO and effectively communicates our culture and expectations. From there, we maintain a robust employee reward and recognition program and an employee relations program that responds quickly and effectively to service partner concerns.
We incentivize healthy living with an internal wellness program with incentives, such as a Weight Watchers at work program. We have an employee communications committee chaired by one of our sisters to ensure we hear the voice of the service partners. The committee also helps organize community-based social activities for employees and their families. We try to exemplify living balanced lives from senior management throughout the organization. Maintaining a culture where service partners are happy with their jobs is more than providing competitive compensation and benefits. We do all we can to treat service partners with the same dignity and respect we ask them to show our patients.
Scott Teffeteller, CEO of Union Hospital (Terre Haute, Ind.). I feel the happiest employees are those that feel they are listened to, involved in processes and changes and who have administrative staff accessible to them. I also believe good communication is the backbone to each of those components.
When I became Union Hospital's CEO last year, it was my intent to make communication a top priority. I now have a monthly column in our employee newsletter; administrative staff provides a weekly email update to all staff; we have instituted a better leader-rounding program; and we do a quarterly administrative update for staff and provide it in a video format, too. We've had positive feedback from our employees and believe happy employees provide the best care for our patients.
Related Articles on Hospital Employees:
Shattering Glass Ceilings: Women in the Hospital C-SuiteFrom Cop to CEO: Q&A With Chris Van Gorder of Scripps Health
Tools of Engagement: Improving Workplace Quality