Managing Employee Recognition Programs, Part Two
(Editor's note: This guest blog was excerpted from Real Recognition Radio hosted by Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown of Recognition Management Institute. To hear the interview in its entirety, please click here: http://www.voiceamerica.com/episode/46414/healthcare-keeping-recognition-alive-and-well For more info on employee recognition, please click here: www.realrecognition.com.)
With healthcare providers facing changes and priority shifts to keep up with new healthcare laws, regulations and compliance issues, keeping employee morale high is critical for organizations to keep up and grow. Recently, Roy Saunderson and S. Max Brown, executives at Recognition Management Institute, a division of Rideau, Inc. (http://www.rideau.com/) and hosts of Real Recognition Radio (RRR), sat down with two healthcare recognition specialists to discuss how these two organization effectively implement recognition programs in today's healthcare environment. Below is interview excerpt from the radio show that featured Sue Warwick, director of volunteer services at Faxton-St. Luke's Health Care. Part 1 of this blog, featuring Carol Erken, human resource director for Kaiser Permanente Antelope Valley and Panorama City, can be found here.
RRR: What is your recognition strategy?
Warwick: We recently developed a wide, web-based program that would lead to equal recognition for our employees based around our core values of quality service, honesty, respect, dignity, teamwork, pride and communication. With this system, we can track all recognition and monitor how it's being used. We also implemented an annual survey that addresses how employees feel about their recognition. Each year, the score has gone up.
RRR: How have you integrated recognition into your culture?
Warwick: We have a top-down approach. Senior leadership initiated our strategy, so from the beginning I knew we were going to have the financial backing necessary to roll out a new program and sustain it. We began training at the managerial level, giving them the tools to recognize effectively. We even made recognition a part of a manager's own evaluation.
From there we implemented our informal web-based system, as well as more formal programming, like our big dinner during Hospital Week, where we recognize employees and all volunteers.
RRR: Faxton-St. Luke's has a peer-to-peer recognition program. Can you tell us a little about it?
Warwick: Recognition should come from peers as well as managers, so we designed a system where one employee can nominate another to enter a monthly sweepstakes to earn prizes. To encourage this activity, the name of the nominator also enters the drawing.
RRR: Were you ever afraid that some might take advantage or abuse that?
Warwick: We considered it, but there has not been any abuse. It's not programmed that way. We also have a level of trust with our employees. We hired them and expect them to make professional decisions.
RRR: With part of your workforce unionized, have you ever had trouble dealing with the union mentality of "All for one, one for all," when recognizing individuals?
Warwick: People here encourage individual recognition at both the union and non-union level because they want to promote the wonderful things that happen here. For example, our "Starfish Stories" are becoming a popular way for employees to tell great employee-patient stories on our website, which are then shared across the hospital.
RRR: Do you have any advice for someone struggling to involve leadership in recognition programs?
Warwick: Show them how it will benefit the organization. Nationwide, we have a nursing shortage, and with so many hospitals in the area, it's imperative that we make people feel special about working at Faxton-St. Luke's to keep them here. We've been able to demonstrate that, by having our recognition program, our nurse retention rate is 75 percent, with declining turnover rates. It is expensive to replace a current employee, so we are significantly cutting costs. You can't ignore that.