Community Matters

by Rod Wilkes, SVP, Client Solutions

Each January, we look at our previous year's normative database to see how it has changed. One difference we found when reviewing our 2011 data was the increased importance of a hospital's community image in driving employee engagement. In 2011, respect in the community was the second most critical driver of engagement, behind only employees' perceptions of patient safety and quality care. At first, the emergence of this item was a surprise to me. After all, our data was telling us that community was more important to employees than the typical key drivers like career development, senior management’s leadership, being treated with respect, pay, and benefits.

After reflecting on this finding, I was less surprised. For healthcare workers, it makes sense that they want to work for an organization respected within their community. I was reminded of a time years ago when I conducted focus groups for a hospital whose employees did not believe the hospital was respected by the community. I’ll never forget several employees telling me they took off their name badges when they left the hospital. Otherwise, people in the community would see they worked for the hospital and would stop them to complain about some aspect of the hospital’s performance. Having to defend the organization constantly was a burden to those employees. Given this perception in the community, I could understand how building and sustaining a committed healthcare workforce in that environment would be a challenge.

On February 8, I participated in a webcast with Carolinas Healthcare System, a high-performing organization and one of my clients. During the webcast, we discussed that after their 2010 survey, they realized employees did not understand all of the great things the organization was doing. For example, Carolinas Medical Center is building a cancer center that will be world-renowned when it opens this fall. In addition, CBS television aired a story about an NFL football player who passed away at Carolinas Medical Center after a tragic accident and donated his organs, saving the lives of several people (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hynrMuIkBY ). These examples are just a few of the stories the organization realized were going largely untold to their employees.

There is no doubt these are challenging times in healthcare. Change is rapid, and organizations are asking employees to do more and more. For this reason, employees at all levels must feel a sense of pride and confidence in the care provided by the hospital if they are to feel committed to the organization and engaged in their work. I believe it is imperative that hospitals put their modesty aside and share their successes with their employees and their communities.

The question in my mind is how many healthcare organizations are making a conscious effort to share successes with their employees? How many organizations have specific initiatives to build and sustain a sense of pride and confidence? The handful of clients I’m aware of who are focused on these initiatives have built a highly engaged workforce. I don’t think their results are accidental.

Let me know what your organization is doing. It matters.