Overview: All healthcare networks communicate with their employees, but not all know whether their communications are effective. Employee engagement is defined as "the emotional commitment the employee has to the organization and its goals."1 What employee engagement means for the purposes of this study is whether a staff member connects to the overall mission and message of their organization, not just their day-to-day interactions with patients.
Purpose: This survey was sent to executives at top healthcare networks in the US, in order to understand how and why employee engagement is important.
100% of respondents believed that employee engagement is a priority of their network.
Results: Health network survey participants ranked the top three ways executives chose to connect with staff - in order:
• Email
• Intranet
• Video
A significant majority of networks communicate at least once a day, while the rest communicate on average, either weekly or monthly.2
Three primary employee engagement objectives shared by top executives were:
• Inform on events
• Inspire Staff
• How To’s and Training
However, while all participants believe that employee engagement is a priority, only half of the total networks surveyed actually measure their internal communications. This means that half the respondents are not measuring the results of something they consider a priority. The networks that do measure the effectiveness of their engagement found ranges between 50-100%.
So what promotes engagement?
The most consistent thread from all respondents was that employees are engaged thanks to their organization’s strong history and mission. If a health network communicates their history and mission to all employees, regardless of whether they are in the clinical or administrative field, their employees are much more likely to be engaged with the network as a whole. Furthermore, if employees believe in their network’s values, the overall patient experience will improve because, as one respondent explained, "we know that engaged employees lead to higher patient satisfaction."3
Recommendation
Overall, these results highlighted three simple ways you can inspire your staff and grow your network.
First, measure your internal communications. It’s simple: if you don’t know your network’s engagement rate, you will never know if you need to improve it.
Secondly, promote and share the network’s history and mission. This unified message will inspire your entire staff to connect with your internal communications.
Thirdly, and maybe most importantly, humanize the network. Your employees appreciate stories about exceptional devotion, service, and love. As a result, employees are much more likely to continue to seek stories about the positive impact their network is making. Employees will care about their network, as they are reminded that they are literally changing lives.
References:
1. Kruse, Kevin. “What is Employee Engagement.” Forbes, Forbes Media LLC, 22 June 2012, https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/06/22/employee-engagement-what-and-why/#69a30b7b7f37.
2. We did have outliers as some health networks communicated only on special events while others were unsure of the frequency of their communications.
3. Our respondents were guaranteed 100% anonymity.