Solicit feedback. We measure
these things through employee
opinion surveys. We use an outside firm to do that every 12 to 18 months. When we receive
feedback, we share the results
with the employees. We priori-tize the results and then develop
action plans to improve our performance where it’s appropriate.
If you’re going to ask employees for feedback, you have to be
prepared to act on whatever it
is. If it’s a positive, we want our
fellow employees to know that
these are the things we think
we’re doing well. If there are
some things we could do better
on, we’re going to work on a
plan with them to improve on
those things.
Turn the negatives into positives. As concerns are identified, they
have to be addressed. First, identify the employee’s concern and
get a good understanding of it.
Since the survey is anonymous, you want to give the concern
back to the area from where it
might have come, and if you
can, bring in individuals that
identified that concern and ask
them to further elaborate on it.
Hopefully, the people identifying the concerns can be part of
the solution, as opposed to
them saying, ‘Here’s the problem. Now you fix it.’ Then,
they’ll work with the employees who have the ability to help
rectify those concerns.
Get that group to develop a
game plan and identify expected results that everyone can be
happy with … and then monitor
the success. You want to give
that A effort. Sometimes you
have great efforts and the
results aren’t there, but the
efforts matter.
HOW TO REACH: St. Luke’s Hospital, (314) 434-1500 or www.stlukes-stl.com
