Part 6: Management Tip - Staff Buy In
One of the things I had ongoing on all my units was a wish list in the staff lounges on which anyone could put a request for something they wished to have purchased. I always did my best, at every administrative level, to acquire as much as I could of what staff wanted and needed. It is one form of support for their efforts that recognized their value.
One of the most interesting things to me about this strategy is that staff did not ask for raises or longer breaks or fewer patients, which I could not grant. They asked for things like reference books, lockers (that could actually lock), educational classes about clinical topics, a water cooler, and so on. These things required little money and made a huge impact as I was the first director who had every asked what they wanted or needed and then provided them with their requests. If affirmed their value and let them know I was listening and really cared.