HR Pulse - Summer 2008 - (Page 35)

New Leadership and a New Focus Christopher T. Lane had been president of another Kaleida Health hospital for two years before coming to Millard Fillmore Suburban in January 2007. During that time, he had created an almost familial atmosphere within the small community hospital. He earned a reputation for being visible, approachable, responsive, and highly customerservice oriented; and he deﬁned customers as not only patients and their families, but employees and physicians as well. This was a new philosophy to the staff. He understood that good patient care started with engaged employees, and he immediately began working with site management to turn the tide. Walking the Talk In 2006, Kaleida Health’s Internal Communications Director, Dr. Gary C. Brice conducted a system-wide employee opinion survey. While the results showed that 74 percent of those surveyed were generally either very satisﬁed or satisﬁed, when Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital’s data was extrapolated, it showed the lowest satisfaction rate in the system at 64 percent. Even more disturbing, Millard Fillmore Suburban ranked lower than the system average in 30 of the remaining 39 questions—sometimes as much as 15 percent lower. Clearly, the hospital had a major morale problem. Also in 2006, Brice developed strategic communication teams at each of the ﬁve Kaleida hospitals. Made up of approximately 20 union and non-union employees representing a variety of disciplines, the goal of the committees was to facilitate interactive communication within the facility as well as with corporate administration. Openness and honesty were required of every committee member as they began to identify issues and recommend solutions. Members were urged to speak candidly as anonymity was promised. The 2006 employee survey, coupled with information gleaned from the Strategic Communication Teams provided an invaluable road map for improvement. Lane immediately identiﬁed a few issues as low-hanging fruit that would be simple to ﬁx. The ﬁrst was management’s visibility and interaction with the staff. It was determined that each weekday, the president, chief nursing ofﬁcer, and quality director, along with a variety of other managers, would conduct rounds. They visited units, toured support departments like dietary, and stopped to talk to employees in the halls, asking how things were 35 HR Pulse Summer 2008 Survey Says In December 2007, a new employee survey* was conducted to ascertain progress. The results far exceeded expectations and are as follows: 2007 2006 80% 54% Does your supervisor follow up with you if he/she promised to do so? Does your supervisor treat people equally? 60% 72% Is your supervisor pleasant with people in your department? 87% 74% Does your supervisor give clear feedback on your performance? 85% 72% Are you treated with respect by your supervisor? 87% 75% Does your supervisor keep promises? 64% 55% Do you feel comfortable enough to disagree with your supervisor? 78% 76% Are co-workers willing to pitch in? 82% 69% Do your co-workers respect you? 83% 79% Do you trust your co-workers? 65% 62% Do you respect your co-workers? 91% 87% Has the value of teamwork grown over the past two years? 49% 35% Do you have opportunities to express concern/ask questions about your job? 82% 75% Does management respond to problems? 49% 44% Do you receive sufﬁcient communication from your supervisor to do your job? 74% 63% Are you informed about decisions that affect your job? 60% 54% Does your manager hold regularly scheduled staff meetings? 70% 68% Are you treated as a valued employee? 65% N/A *(Source: Kaleida Health Employee Survey 2006; Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital 2007 Employee Survey) >>

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of HR Pulse - Summer 2008

HR Pulse - Summer 2008 Contents Pulse Points Executive Director's Letter President's Message HR Leader Profile: Carol Bank, SPHR Special Report: Building a Thriving Workforce Creating A Best Place to Work Employee Morale Don't Set Up Your Managers to Fail From Tedious Task to Strategic Process Employer-Assisted Housing Changing the Paradigm of Nurse Recruitment Workforce Recognition: Simple Gestures Go a Long way Advertisers' Index

HR Pulse - Summer 2008

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