Embrace Employee Engagement:

Are You Ready to Embrace Employee Engagement?

Is employee engagement at a high level with team members just as excited to come to work as they are to leave? Are you and your team exceeding productivity measures, knocking the socks off patient satisfaction surveys and meeting your departmental goals? Is the current level of work you’re asking of your team sustainable?

If you answered, “Yes,” then congratulations are in order! You are winning the do-more-with-less battle while attaining high levels of employee engagement, with a motivated and energized team. Feel free to turn your attention to another important project.

If you said, “No,” don’t feel discouraged. You – along with thousands of other dedicated and caring healthcare leaders – often ask the question “How do you improve employee engagement?” Meanwhile, if you’re anything like the leaders I talk with regularly, your focus is on battling the “perfect storm” of uncertainty and rapid and continual change – a storm that continues to grow.

Which of these challenges are you dealing with?

  • Financial cutbacks
  • Baby Boomers retiring en masse
  • Mergers and closings
  • Blending multigenerational workers
  • New PI/QI processes
  • Stressed and burned-out leaders
  • Low employee engagement scores
  • Technology changes
  • Restructuring and layoffs
  • Union activity
  • Changing regulations
  • Doing-more-with-less

Most leaders check off at least half or more! It’s no wonder so many leaders and employees feel tired, unmotivated and powerless and employee engagement is at an all-time low. Unfortunately, the harsh reality is that these challenges are not going away anytime soon.

But there is good news: The challenges you face can be improved through optimized employee engagement.

Yes, you read that correctly. Employee engagement equips healthcare organizations with the fuel to move forward in spite of challenges like these. According to The Gallup Journal, “To drive the changes that you’re looking for, to expect something different from your business, to disrupt the status quo – those things are easier to do when most of the employees entering your building are actively working to create for the greater good of your company.”

Increased employee engagement drives virtually every metric you track: customer & patient satisfaction, quality, safety, productivity and efficiency.

When employee engagement is achieved in an organization – and team members are actively engaged – this is the equivalent of adding staff without the additional cost! (Have I got your attention now?) Everything ties back to employee engagement because, ultimately, it always comes down to how well people do their job and how willing they are to do so with passion, energy and effort.

The issue of how to improve employee engagement is certainly not new. The Gallup Organization is well known for global research they conduct related to levels of engagement at work. Year after year, Gallup publishes data that says that the bulk of employees in the United States are “not engaged.” This means that organizations throughout the United States must address employee engagement. Fortunately, for many healthcare organizations, these numbers are shifting in a positive direction AND there is still much work to be done.

Why aren’t we spending more time focusing on employee engagement?

Clearly, healthcare leaders know the benefits of employee engagement and the costs of disengagement. So why isn’t more time and effort spent on making employee engagement better? In conducting research, I looked into employee engagement activities. I asked several CEOs why more healthcare organizations aren’t adequately addressing employee disengagement with strategies used at highly successful companies.

One wise CEO summed it up like this: “I think many of us want to, but we don’t for a number of reasons: We don’t have the will or the know-how. We can’t overcome existing organizational culture and inertia. And the tyranny of urgent crises and priorities make employee engagement issues less visible.”

Leaders at all levels echo those sentiments. I regularly meet and work with leaders who need more support to create an engaging work environment and help employees cope with rampant and rapid change. Another study, by ACCOR Services, found that 90 percent of the leaders surveyed said employee engagement directly impacts their business’ success, yet 75 percent of leaders have no employee engagement strategy. And that is precisely why I’m here to help!

Leaders in healthcare organizations of all shapes and sizes can hear a fresh, proactive approach to employee engagement best practices that are realistic, manageable and proven.

In my workshops, keynote programs and virtual coaching, I share shortcuts to engagement that make sense. A shortcut is a quicker, more efficient way to get somewhere or to get something done. Don’t worry; the shortcuts I share aren’t shortcuts that diminish quality or service. In fact, just the opposite is true. These employee engagement strategies lead to improved outcomes (as well as a positive increase in metrics across the board) because they treat the cause of employee disengagement not just the symptoms. They aren’t Band-Aids. They provide the long-term cure for employee disengagement. And isn’t that what you’re really looking for – positive, sustainable, long-term change?

The messages I share are different than other information about employee engagement in that there’s no need to “start from scratch.” (Check out the many employee engagement articles in this website.) Many experts suggest that if you want to improve employee engagement, you need to follow their specific program or prescribed process. But in the ever-changing world of business today, these “flavor of the month” initiatives tend to fall by the wayside when priorities shift or things get busy. I’m suggesting another shortcut – instead of doing something additional that you don’t have time for anyway, you can grow employee engagement in conjunction with what you’re already doing.

Embracing employee engagement best practices as an organization, as a team and as individuals is the fastest way to improve customer outcomes and business results.

If you want to reap the benefits of employee engagement, you need to change your mindset about employee engagement and accept it as foundational to everything else you do. There’s a strong and direct connection between levels of employee engagement with financial health, customer/patient satisfaction, safety, quality and efficiency. Because of this, you literally need to embrace the value and importance of engagement.

You will get better results faster and with less effort when you layer employee engagement concepts onto the framework of your existing systems and processes.

To help you accomplish that, I’ve included multiple easy-to-use resources throughout this website – resources that will help you quickly incorporate employee engagement concepts into your daily activities. Example employee engagement resources include team exercises, bonus tools and access to free videos.

Remember: Increased employee engagement drives virtually every metric you track – customer & patient satisfaction, quality, safety, productivity and efficiency.

Focusing on employee engagement puts you in a position to lead the transformation of yourself, your team and your organization AND enjoy your job while you’re doing it. Sound too good to be true? I promise it isn’t. The shortcuts I share, implemented over time, will put you at an advantage for achieving every outcome you seek.

Ready to embrace employee engagement?

Invite me to share proven strategies and tools at your next leadership retreat.

Click HERE

to take the first step.

Engagement Insights & Ideas