Hold people accountable
As you get to know your employees and see how they respond when asked for feedback, you will gain a sense of how they fit in at your company and how they measure up to your standards and expectations.
The employees who are meeting or exceeding those standards know about those who aren’t, and they expect you to do something about it.
“It’s very frustrating for employees when they see other individuals where they work not working hard, having terrible attitudes and terrible behavioral skills and being allowed each year to continue getting the same raises they do,” Ross says. “No one does anything about it. We’ve heard from enough employee engagement surveys that it is critically important to identify what expectations are and then hold employees accountable.
“Attitudes are very infectious. Positive attitudes infect the organization with positive thoughts and ideas. Negative attitudes conversely infect the organization with negative behaviors and negative cultures.”
Every year, managers complete evaluation surveys for each employee rating each person either low, middle or high in various areas, along with a narrative as to why the employee was rated that way.
It’s through the constant communication and feedback that you learn about your people. And it’s through your response in the evaluations that you can track their progress and take steps to either keep them on target or move them back toward that path.
“Someone should not be low more than two times in a row,” Ross says. “If someone is evaluated low, there needs to be specific action plans, an identification of specific concerns that are causing the low evaluation and what the employee needs to do to raise himself or herself to middle or hopefully high. If they are not able to do that, we have to take appropriate disciplinary action. Employees want that.”
They want it because they want to know the work they are doing means something and that if they do their jobs, they will be rewarded.
The best way to reward your employees who are doing their jobs is through positive feedback, which, like your information-seeking missions, has a personal touch.
“Every month, I send out about 30 personalized thank-you notes to employees,” Ross says. “We ask our managers to identify one or two members of their department or an employee who did something special. I’ll read it over and handwrite a thank-you note that tries to incorporate the specific act. Hundreds of times, people have come to me and said, ‘I got your thank you-note. I appreciate it.’”
The more you can do to show appreciation to your employees who deserve it, the better off you’ll be.
“People like to be told, ‘You did a great job,’” Ross says. “If you can do that, it makes it easier to develop relationships. It also makes it easier to hold people accountable, which at times you have to do. But if you keep telling them what they did wrong, it knocks them down. Without balancing that with the things they did well, it can get discouraging.”
Everyone has a busy schedule and often struggles to get it all done to keep the company going. But the time you spend getting to know your people will always be time well spent.
“You become more comfortable and more understanding, and you become more of a strong team that is committed to the common goal,” Ross says.
HOW TO REACH: Barnes-Jewish St. Peters Hospital, (636) 916-9000 or www.bjsph.org
