Hospitals and health systems understand fostering enthusiasm within staff pays for itself through retention of quality employees.
In recent conversations with Becker's, leaders offered advice to peers who seek to move the needle in this area. Below are their responses.
Editor's note: Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Lauren De Simon Johnson. Chief Human Resources Officer of Southcoast Health (New Bedford, Mass.): It's all about the culture. [W]e spent the last five or six years trying to reshape our culture and making sure that employees know that they're valued and that they have a purpose in the organization. [We tie] that back to our strategic plan so they understand, even though their job might not be patient-facing, what is it that I do that I can see how I'm contributing or adding value to the overall strategy.
It's also about creating an environment of belonging. When people feel they belong, they think they're happy, they want to stay, they want to contribute. And the way you create that belonging is to embrace differences, to make sure your diversity, equity and inclusion practices are visible and real. We have a diversity council, but we also have five employee resource groups where employees come together. Either they're veterans or they're interested in generational differences, or they're interested in voices of color, and so that creates affinity groups. That's the stickiness, that's the glue that helps keep people there. I really believe that if an employee feels like they're valued and they're contributing, that is the best feeling that an employee can have. They'll gripe about money, they'll gripe about other things, but when it comes down to it, it's really about, am I valued here? Am I supported here?
The other advice I would give is you have to make sure your leaders are really good people leaders because you don't leave jobs — you leave managers. You hear that all the time, and it's so true. If you don't have managers who care about their employees, who focus on them, who help them, who are real and humble and tell the employee, "I don't know, but I'll get to the answer," just being human and being focused on the employee's needs, that goes a long way.
Mario Ellis. Chief Human Resource Officer of Beacon Health System (South Bend, Ind.): You have to poll your workforce. You have to know what's top of mind and where they are so that you'll know how to build strategies around that. You've got to keep your leaders engaged, and you've got to make sure that you are providing for the workforce those things that they feel they need in order to be successful, whether [it's] technology, tools, leadership effectiveness, or career development — all the things that you want for yourself as an individual. And for Beacon, it's really making sure our workforce feels like they're working for an organization that has their interests in mind.
And then leaders, conversations among ourselves as leaders, even across industries — it's okay to share what are best practices, what are you seeing, and what do you hear? How do you implement, then take and choose the things that would properly fit within your organization? That would be my advice.
Wayne Frangesch. Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer of HonorHealth (Scottsdale, Ariz.): Some organizations look at engagement, and they focus on an annual survey or biannual survey. The survey's an event. It's a moment in time. And it's often the feelings of that moment in time. HonorHealth has focused on engagement being a key leadership accountability that we're talking about every day. That's the key. It's not about an annual survey. It's about every day and you have an engaging culture. We're fortunate to have that. But I also know you can't take that for granted, and you can't just assume engagement is going to continue. You have to keep it front and center and keep working at it. Our leaders know that as important as quality, as important as patient experience, as important as finances, is our people and that engagement. It's held up at that same level on our scorecard of importance, so they know it's that critical to our success. It's a constant focus.
Maria Zangardi. Senior Vice President of Human Resources and Corporate Officer for Universal Health Services (King of Prussia, Pa.): Internal communication is key. I think the focus on your mission, vision and values is key. I think getting feedback is extremely important. And I think that we do that through a number of mechanisms with some of the tools that we use, both our normal annual engagement surveys and then our ongoing surveying, and I think that it's really important to put all that together and then say, "What is this information telling us? What is our data telling us?" And then listening sessions are critical with employees, with leaders. We really focus on those things and those touch points to make sure that you understand how the workforce is evolving, and how the workforce, even from different positions, what they might be desiring. Because you also have diverse perspectives, and you want to make sure you're looking at it from that inclusive lens as well.