Take action
At the same time, you shouldn’t rely completely on in-person meetings to determine employee satisfaction and the level that they are buying in to your mission, vision and values.
Surveys can also be an effective feedback mechanism. But it takes effort to get beyond the, ‘Yes, I like my job’ response that doesn’t tell you anything.
“When you establish a survey, you have to hold the people who fill out the survey accountable,” Ross says. “If people just put down 3 all the time, you have to sit down and say, ‘You know what, we need more information from you. We want to hear from you. We want you to feel like you can take ownership in this and let us know what’s going well and what isn’t going well.’ Leadership has to be disciplined enough to assure thorough accountability that employees are taking the time to fill this out.”
You need to show employees that there is value to filling out the survey and that it is not a waste of their time.
“It’s not just an annoying, time-consuming process,” Ross says. “The more we can hear about departments throughout the hospital, the better the culture will be and the more likely you will enjoy your job here. Impress upon the employees how they personally will benefit. If they feel they will benefit, they will take much more ownership and be engaged.”
In a recent survey, Ross received several comments from night staffers who felt underappreciated by the organization as a whole.
“So we got together with the night staff and said, ‘What can we do for you to make you feel more appreciated?’” Ross says.
One of the complaints was that the cafeteria was not open during the night shift, which limited what employees had to eat on their breaks.
“So every month now, at least once a month, we’ll have leadership come in in the middle of the night and cook dinner for them,” Ross says. “What you need to do is listen to the concerns, sit down with the people involved in giving you those thoughts and come up with specific action plans to address those concerns. Then communicate what you are doing.”
It’s through a consistency in responding to concerns and taking action that you will build trust with your employees.
“I think it’s difficult, if not dangerous, to pound it over someone’s head, ‘This is a great place to work, don’t you understand that?’” Ross says. “It’s just hard to have that resonate unless the person you’re talking to feels the same way. I don’t know if you can show them or tell them or hammer home to them what the benefit is. They need to perceive that themselves.”
