Talk it over
One of the biggest keys to building employee trust is to communicate the mission and goals of the organization to them, showing them how their jobs help the organization achieve its overall mission. But keeping employees in the loop is about more than just disseminating information. It’s about showing employees that you care that they take an interest in the direction of the organization.
At Virtua Health, communication starts where the overarching strategies of the organization start: at the top. The goals of the organization need to originate on the same level as the plan for communicating those goals, so that senior management is working together to move the messages downward.
To monitor the downward movement of messages, Miller meets with all of his management-level employees quarterly.
“The key is, when I have meetings with all of my management-level employees, I open up a dialogue about where Virtua is and any questions they might have about the direction,” Miller says. “It’s all about having a constant dialogue with your people to ensure that the message is uniform, clear and concise. There has to be a concise line of sight from the vision, mission and strategy right through to the end results.
“It’s especially important for your management-level people because they are the communicators where the rubber hits the road. They are the people who are, day in and day out, communicating to the staff. Your department directors are probably the most important role players because they’re right there at the employee level.”
Miller says that if your senior leadership team isn’t on the same page, you’ll see the negative effects farther down the ladder. That’s why Miller and his management team conduct an annual employee survey that directly asks whether employees understand the direction of Virtua Health. On a monthly basis, Miller meets with an advisory group of 35 employees from areas throughout the organization.
“I test concepts with our employees,” he says. “We go through a lot of scenarios and get their feedback, and they are very honest in terms of the rank and file and where we need to shore up communication. I use the group as a sounding board for our strategy and whether we are hitting the mark. If there is any area in which we aren’t hitting the mark, we need to shore that up and talk to our employees about it.”
Miller focuses the entire organization on five measurement areas. If his communication strategy is working, every employee should be able to recite the five areas, summarized in Miller’s “star initiative.”
“Every employee knows we measure patient satisfaction, quality and safety, operating margin, and overall job satisfaction,” he says. “We measure those four things every year, relentlessly. The star initiative is composed of those four points plus our fifth point, which is building a caring culture. Every employee can recite the star, and the most important point is that there is a clear line of sight of how our strategies tie into the star initiative.”
Communication is a two-way street, with information heading downward and feedback upward. But with Miller accessible to thousands of employees, he needed to develop a plan for sifting through feedback and deciding which matters need his attention.
If a problem or issue arises that an employee or department can’t address outright, Miller will have a manager or executive lead the process for finding a solution. But whenever possible, he says you should enable employees to find their own solutions. Miller says it is a form of enabling and empowering employees, which is another element in building trust.
“What I tell my employees is to come back to me with a game plan, tell me what you would do to solve it, because you’re closer to the issue than me,” he says. “Nine out of 10 times, employees solve their own problems. They understand what they have to do and end up bringing back great results. That’s why I’m a real fan of employees taking ownership in their own issues. You need to, whenever possible, let them solve their issue, because they’ll do a good job of it.
“Even in a case where a manager is leading the process for them, I always like to keep our people engaged, because once you own the solution, you carry it out for everybody else.”
