90 DAY ACTION PLANS: What makes employees stay?
Making our way to the summit and preparing for the transition to the HCMD, we’ll need our teams more than ever to help us navigate all that lies ahead.
We’ll need a strong, robust team to maintain the strength and fortitude to get us to the top of the peak.
In Triannual II, we learned that our “one thing” as leaders is to develop people and processes, to grow ourselves and our teams in order to deliver exceptional patient care.
One of the key ways we can help grow our teams is through intentional employee rounding – regular opportunities to check in and assist our employees with any challenges and struggles – and through coaching.
During this 90 Day Sprint, we can’t let all that lies before us prevent us from coaching and developing our teams and helping to foster an environment where they can thrive. If we fail to attend to these key factors, we’re at risk of losing some of our best employees and lessening the impact we can have with our patients and communities.
Here are 10 reasons employees stay and tips on how we can work to bolster each factor and improve the employee experience for our team:
1) Paid Well: Pay is a natural factor that influences satisfaction in our roles, but even if we aren’t able to provide a raise in compensation, there are other steps we can take to bolster a feeling of being fairly compensated and rewarded. We can offer non-financial rewards such as recognition and praise, help the employee access organizational benefits, provide scheduling flexibility and shift options, and give access to professional development opportunities. We can also help employees see a trajectory and path toward greater earning potential and help them develop a plan to grow and improve their skills to achieve the next level. Above all, consistent, transparent communication is key.
2) Mentored: We all crave guidance and leadership from someone who’s truly committed to and invested in our success. As leaders we can provide that support during our rounding and 1:1s and help our direct reports build their skills by offering feedback, encouraging reflection on what’s going well and where there’s still room to grow, setting goals, and supporting them as they take on new challenges.
3) Challenged: This time of transition will give us ample opportunities to challenge our teams and allow them to strengthen their skills and step out of their comfort zones. In this season, we can involve our direct reports in special initiatives and task forces, provide cross-functional training, and offer them a role in high-profile, big impact projects. They’ll be inspired and lit up by the chance to stretch their abilities, test their mind, and experience new opportunities, reigniting their passion for working here at Trinity Health.
4) Promoted: Just as our employees crave a challenge and opportunities to grow, they want to see a path forward for how they can elevate their role on the team. Work with your employees in your 1:1s to set goals for where they’d like to grow and establish an action plan for how they can prepare to take on extra responsibilities. Provide access to any training and education programs, make sure they’re engaged in TalentTracks learning, and regularly discuss and measure their successes and progress.
5) Involved: At Triannual III, we discussed the key concept that our teams want to know change is happening THROUGH them, not TO them. A key aspect of increasing engagement and satisfaction for our employees is involving them in key decisions and soliciting their input and feedback on important issues. This can include creating employee focus groups or committees, conducting regular employee surveys, and providing opportunities for employees to participate in brainstorming sessions or other strategic planning activities. With numerous planning and preparation committees necessary for the transition, calling on our employees to give insight, assistance, and feedback on what’s coming will help them feel more connected to the team and better embrace this season of change.
6) Appreciated: Especially when workloads are full and tensions can be high, it’s more important than ever to express our gratitude and appreciation for our employees. Recognition and praise in the middle of a stressful time can bolster our teams to stick with it, stay motivated, and see their big projects to completion. Acknowledging key milestones such as work anniversaries and providing incentives for hitting key targets can also help re-ignite that excitement and engagement for the work.
7) Valued: As leaders, we can help our employees feel valued by fostering a positive work culture, building teamwork and collaboration, and encouraging our employees to maintain a strong resilience practice. We can also help connect our employees to the impact of their work by sharing patient success stories so they know all of their hard work is leaving a meaningful, lasting impact in their community.
8) On a Mission: At Triannual III we worked hard to define our Why and learn how to communicate the bigger vision for where we’re headed as an organization. Just as influential is connecting our teams to the greater mission we have as a health system. At Trinity Health, we’re invested in Making More Possible through increasing employee engagement, improving the patient experience, and inspiring operational innovation. We need to help our employees plug into that call to Make More Possible and give them a clarity on how their role is vital achieving the mission. Visible scoreboards and goal trackers can also help maintain commitment to the pursuit.
9) Empowered: Employees also stay when they have a sense of being empowered. They want to feel like they have authority and ownership over their work and the outcomes of what they do. We can help build that sense of ownership and accomplishment by ensuring we’ve set clear expectations, have clear metrics and measures to assess progress, and have clear processes established. When we’ve laid the foundations for success, we can more easily delegate responsibilities that allow our employee to become the owner of a new project and domain. We can use our 1:1s to check in with our employees to see how they’re doing, give them access to resources where they need support, and provide training and development opportunities where available.
10) Trusted: Our team wants to have a sense that we trust them to accomplish their work and believe in their capacity to succeed. When we don’t have clear expectations and opportunities for checking in at 1:1s or rounding, our ambiguity can foster a culture of micromanagement, where we feel the need to become overly involved in small details and never give our employees the freedom to take initiative and do what needs to be done to accomplish their goals. If we maintain honest, open, and transparent communication, make time to listen to their needs and concerns, follow through on our commitments, and work to build a culture of integrity and accountability, our teams will have the right environment to shine. They’ll be able to do their best work, supported by our systems and guidance, and will be bolstered by the feelings of pride and accomplishment from seeing their work through.
We’ve all had seasons at work that were incredibly tough, and we can often attribute much of that difficulty to an absence of key factors that would have helped us feel more connected and engaged in our roles. Especially in this season of transition and change, we want to ensure that our teams have what they need to succeed and feel supported and valued in their work, every step of the way.
Use your 10% Secret Planning time this week to stretch yourself as a leader and map out how you can add in touchpoints and activities around each of these key factors and more intentionally celebrate and develop your employees.
Our employees are our greatest asset and resource, and committing to and investing in their growth and development can be one of our most meaningful responsibilities as a leader. It’s an honor and a privilege to be able to help our teams grow and succeed and pouring our energy and efforts into their success will have an incredible ripple effect that makes a great impact here at Trinity Health and in our community,
ALENT TRACKS: Understanding Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is a key factor we must attend to as leaders because without our teams, we simply can’t deliver exceptional patient care and fulfill our great mission of Making More Possible. A vibrant and engaged team also makes work more enjoyable and fulfilling for everyone.
Employee engagement can also lead to higher productivity, lower turnover, improved customer service and more innovation and creativity.
The TalentTracks library from Health Stream has a great 30 minute course on Employee Engagementthat helps us understand key factors that affect job satisfaction and tactics we can use to build engagement on our teams.
Here are key ideas from the course:
-For many workers, the workplace is not just a place they come to get a paycheck, but their chance to bring their full selves to work.
-Employee engagement is a key measurement of corporate culture and shows how committed employees are to their work, team, and organization.
-Gen Z and Millenials feel less satisfied in their roles and are more likely to switch jobs if their needs are not met.
-2/3 of US workers are not engaged at work and 15% are considered actively disengaged.
-Engaged employees are essential for our organizations and result in higher profits, more sales, and lower turnover.
-Managers play a key role in employee engagement. They may account for as much as a 70% of the variance in team engagement.
-Disengaged employees are less interested in helping, accept credit but pass along blame, are pessimistic and self-centered, leave work unfinished, and contribute the bare minimum. Engaged employees, however are emotionally invested, they challenge the status quo, understand the big picture, have shared values with the company, go above and beyond, and are passionate about their work.
–The Progress Principle: The greatest indicator of employee performance and work satisfaction is employees who make progress in their work tasks. Even those employees who make a small amount of progress can have this sense of satisfaction in spite of poor company culture and management.
-25-35% of workers felt more engaged when they were challenged by their leaders. As leaders, we need to set goals that are infused with meaning and a positive purpose that challenge our team in order to sustain our team’s interest and maintain engagement.
To create a truly engaged workplace, we must consider five key principles:
–Purposeful Work – people work to earn money but also seek meaning. Workers who work in service of a larger purpose and for something they believe in generate high-level engagement.
–Continuous Development – managers need to go beyond managing the work and focus on developing people. Managers can do this by transitioning their role into that of a coach. To do this, managers must know and develop relationships with each of their team members and try to help each person achieve their potential.
–Inclusive Work Environment – employees want to bring their full selves to the workplace and not have to pretend to be something they are not. People want to be treated equitably and feel there is a sense of fairness. They also want to feel a sense of belonging. Managers and the extended team need to provide support when employees speak up, showing they have their back and will listen to their ideas.
–Recognition – a clear way to create engagement is to recognize more and criticize less. It is important to provide proper rewards and recognition for a job well done. Good recognition is specific and tailored to the person. It often has intrinsic value and is an outgrowth of existing relationships. For this reason, recognition is most impactful when given by someone the employee knows and interacts with often, like a direct manager.
–Goals and resources – engagement is about good management. It is the manager’s job to set the right goals, establish priorities, and provide the resources and budget to do the job properly. Goals should be small in number and focused on a particular result. They also must be measurable and attainable, preferably aligning to an employee’s skill set or career development pathway. Managers should spend less time micromanaging tasks and more time eliminating obstacles to ensure their team does not get stalled or frustrated.
Click here to access this TalentTracks training to help build engagement on your team.
SHARE YOUR WINS! 🎉 🎉
What have you done to build employee engagement on your team? What has a great leader you’ve had in the past done to foster engagement and how can you adopt those principles in your own leadership?
Let us know what tools and resources have been most helpful and where you still need more insights and support to improve your leadership. We’re here to help with anything you’re facing and always ready to cheer you on!