Taking steps to instill an employee culture before, during and after orientation will help hospitals maintain a positive culture and keep employees engaged.
About 10 years ago, Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Minn., created "best care, best experience," a strategy that puts its patients and their families at the center of all they do. The successful implementation of this strategy requires Regions to instill an employee culture centered on providing the best care and best experience to patients, families and visitors. Now, a decade later, every physician and employee has bought into the culture and works to provide the best care and experience to everyone who comes to the hospital, says Kim Egan, the hospital's executive director of human resources, and Kathryn Chen, Regions' senior manager of talent management and development.
The "best care, best experience" culture has several components, but one of the most important involves employees' ownership of their work. "Employees are proud of their workplace and environment, and take good care of it," Ms. Chen explains. This includes picking up any trash they see, as well as walking everyone to their destinations. Respect and collaboration also play into the employee culture at Regions.
There are several programs Regions has put in place to support employees in providing the best care and experience possible, and encourage and reward them for living the hospital's values and promises.
Instilling values
Though Regions' current employees are now familiar with and committed to its "best care, best experience" culture, new-hires learn the philosophy through a variety of ways.
"Instilling culture with new hires happens before orientation," says Ms. Egan.
1. The hiring process. For example, cultural language is incorporated into every job description, and applicants are asked behavioral questions tied to the central values of Regions' culture. "When new applicants are screened, they are being informed as to what our culture is and what the expectations are when you work at Regions," she explains.
2. Orientation. Once candidates have been hired, they go through an orientation process that includes the what, why and how of providing best care best experience. To further incorporate cultural components into its orientation, Regions is revising its orientation to be light on operational processes and heavy on culture and values . "Attendance rules, HIPAA and other policies are really important. However, many of those items can be taught online," Ms. Egan explains. That allows Regions to focus on the cultural components during the face-to-face orientation activities. "That's really where we start embedding that culture," she says.
For example, new employees are taken on a tour of the hospital as part of orientation, and they are told to observe the environment and other employees' actions. Trash is planted during the tour as well. "Hopefully they [the new-hires] pick it up, but a lot of times, it is quickly picked up by current employees," says Ms. Chen. After the tour, candidates are debriefed about what they did and what they saw current employees doing. For instance, if new hires did not pick up the trash, they would be encouraged to become more aware of their environment in order to do so in the future. This all helps instill the best care, best experience culture through doing and seeing.
Maintaining engagement
After employees become familiar with and ingrained in the culture, it is important to keep them engaged and committed to it. "Our mantra is 'best care, best experience,' and that's what we strive for," Ms. Chen says. "But it's impossible, from a human resources point of view, to do that when employees are not engaged and happy."
There are several programs in place at Regions that help keep employees engaged.
3. Huddles. Every day Monday through Friday, each department or unit at Regions gets together for a quick huddle. Each huddle consists of three parts: recognition/acknowledgement, organization information and a focus on experience. "We live and breathe best care best experience, and it's important to hear what's happening around the [patient] experience," Ms. Chen explains. "For [employees] in finance or HR, for example, we're not by the patient and you feel a little removed from it. Hearing patient stories gives a link back to best care best experience, no matter where you sit."
4. Employee input programs. Part of providing the best possible care and experience at Regions involves employee collaboration, and the hospital has some formal programs in place that allow employees to give their two cents.
One such program is the "Voice of the Employee Campaign," a contest in which employees submit their innovative ideas around a certain concept such as improving patient experience or improving employee engagement. Last year, some ideas that were implemented included fixing noisy doors, getting patient drinking cups that held up longer and sending a follow-up card to patients who were successfully discharged from the hospital.
Employees who submit ideas receive personal emails from executives, Ms. Chen says, which keeps employees engaged and valued. "When they get a response from the CEO, it [becomes] something personal. People really like that."
Another popular program is the "Food for Thought" sessions hosted by Regions' CEO Brock Nelson. Employees can share a meal and their thoughts with the CEO during the sessions. The program allows employees to engage in a two-way conversation about what's working and what could be improved.
5. Annual engagement survey. Each year, all 4,500 employees are encouraged to complete a survey to determine what is working well and what can be improved in the organization. Part of the survey includes questions that measure the level of employee engagement. For example, questions include: "I would recommend my company to others as a good place to work," and "I am satisfied with my company as my employer."
Overall, instilling an employee culture at a hospital can't just start and end with orientation. Taking steps to put the culture first before, during and after orientation will help hospitals maintain a positive culture and keep employee engaged and working hard.