Back to Basics 2
How Satisfied Are Your Employees? Making the Employee/Patient Satisfaction Connection
By Martin Lebbin, Press Ganey Associates, Inc.
What brings potential employees to a hospital and how do you keep them once they’re hired? Employee retention is an important issue for every hospital and health care system. While improvements have been made, health care organization turnover rates remain high compared with other service industries—15 percent on average, down from 18 percent to 25 percent several years ago.
The right relationship begins with good communication. Communication is key to creating a positive impression of the overall organization. An organization must communicate goals, status, success and ideals—starting with the first day of employment—and explicitly communicate expected standards of behavior. First, communicate expectations and goals. Next, communicate the goals that have been achieved as well as expectations for the future.
Develop techniques for communicating the organization’s mission and goals and make certain that every new employee is aware of expectations and is encouraged to excel. Organization-wide communication is important because it ensures that every member of the team is intent on achieving the same set of goals.
According to Irwin Press, co-founder of Press Ganey Associates Inc., “Communication is the medium through which we deliver all care.” While this may be obvious regarding patient care, it applies to all employees. But to meet and exceed expectations, employees must know what is expected of them. Expectations need to be communicated and reinforced throughout the organization. While standards of performance vary from organization to organization, they should all include these behaviors:
- Be courteous. Maintain eye contact with patients and other employees, offer a hello or a nod of acknowledgement, and speak kind words.
- Put the patient first.
- Be accountable for actions and decisions. Accountability is not always easy to enforce. However, it is important—despite high turnover and shortages—to terminate those individuals who do not comply with behavioral standards. Retaining such employees is often more demoralizing and damaging than having an employee shortage. According to Steve Simonin, CEO of Wright Medical Center, Clarion, Iowa, “When you weed out low performers, it is amazing how quickly changes come for the better.”
Choosing the right time—the sooner the better—to communicate the organization’s expectations of employees is central to success. An emphasis on values sends the message that the organization highly prizes employees who exceed expectations.
Once they understand the significance of the organization’s standards, “employees know not only the behavioral expectations, but also that everyone else has the same set of expectations,” says Mickie Rousseau, human resources director at Thibodaux (La.) Regional Medical Center.
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This article 1st appeared in the June 2007 issue of Trustee Magazine.
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