Service Management Training Tips:
Take This Job and Love It
What does it take to get your employees excited about their jobs?
Money is a common benefit of working, but money isn't everything.
Most people are happy to receive what they consider fair
compensation for their j oh, but they also want other things. Those
things can include recognition for a job well done, opportunities to
learn and grow, a positive work environment, and a supportive team.
HFMA research shows that, for healthcare financial managers, a key
service management leadership challenge is to motivate and inspire
employees. Keeping them energized about their job can improve
morale, productivity, and teamwork while reducing turnover. The
impact on the bottom line is positive.
Ways to motivate and inspire employees include getting the right
team in place, communicating with them clearly and regularly,
offering education opportunities, and recognizing and celebrating
successes.
The Right Team
Senior executives generally agree that before they can inspire their
staff to succeed, they need to have the right team in place.
"A basic premise for our organization is to hire the right people up
front. If you hire the right people and if you do that properly, you
enhance your chances for success," says Joseph Felkner, CFO at
Baptist Health Care, based in Pensacola, Fla. Baptist Health Care
employs more than 5,000 employees in 11 facilities.
"We do peer interviewing. Nobody gets hired at any level without
interviewing with a group of peers. We also have standards of
performance. Everybody who applies for employment at one of the
Baptist facilities has to agree to follow the 10 standards of
performance," Felkner adds.
David P. Cavell, CHFP, director of business office services at
Chelsea Hospital, a 90-bed facility in Chelsea, Mich., also seeks
his staff's input on hiring decisions. When a service management
leader position opened up, he asked every employee in that area for
their thoughts about what was needed in the position. When he
decided on the person for that position, the staff supported the
decision because they were a part of the decision-making process.
"If you've got the wrong people on the team, they won't succeed
under your service management. It's critical that senior-level
executives know their own style and the sort of team they need, or
they set everybody up for failure," says MarieAnn North, director,
Navigant Consulting, Inc., Charlotte, N.C. "Everybody needs the
right environment in which to succeed, and executives need to know
what environment they can create. You need to pick the right people
who can succeed in that environment, because people will either
thrive in it or really hate it."
There should be no ambiguity in the environment. The service
management leader needs to continually provide stability,
communication guidance, a plan, and feedback. North prefers a clear
written work plan that designates responsibilities. Only significant
issues, such as patient safety or losing a major payer contract, are
allowed to affect the plan. When on temporary work assignments,
North holds weekly brown bag lunches with her senior team to review
the work plan. These forums allow the team to share ideas and
information and help each other out to get the plan accomplished.
North also uses mentoring programs to motivate people. These
programs need to be outside the evaluation system and with people
who do not report directly to the mentor, because helping people
grow sometimes means they grow into new jobs and new organizations,
she said.
North cites three factors that affect employee
motivation--compensation, what energizes a person in the job, and
how the job fits in with the rest of the person's life. "I try to
make sure that people on my team and people I mentor address those
three areas in a way that ensures that when they make choices and
sacrifices, they don't end up with regrets. You can't have it all,
and those are very individual things," she says.
No Secrets, No Excuses
Baptist has a "no-secrets-and-no-excuses" culture. Communication is
important throughout the organization. Every department has a
communication board, which is organized around the organization's
five pillars of excellence: people, quality, service, financial, and
growth. Information posted on the communication boards includes the
department's financial performance, statistics about department
turnover, data from surveys on service management or quality, and
information about the organization as a whole.
Baptist also has adopted the daily lineup used by the Ritz-Carlton
Hotel Company. The Baptist daily lineup is a 10-minute educational
session held Monday through Friday for all employees throughout the
organization. The sessions are held in each department or in small
groups in large departments. Each day's topic is related to the
week's theme, which in turn is related to one of the five pillars.
The information presented might be about Baptist Health Care, the
healthcare industry in general, or a specific approach to care
delivery. Each session usually includes a motivational quote and
perhaps a living tip of the day.
"The daily lineup is a 10-minute opportunity for departments to come
together, learn a little nugget of something related to Baptist or
health care, and build camaraderie. It's been a popular tool that
we've used to motivate and inspire people," Felkner says.
North agrees that interaction, such as weekly informal meetings and
some play time together, helps team members bond. A cohesive team
that is loyal and supportive can help that staff get through the
inevitable rough times, she says.
Catherine Jacobson, senior vice president, CFO, and treasurer at
Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, says, "We've spent a lot
of time at our organization in the last couple of years making sure
that all of our employees know what our mission is in terms of where
the emphasis is and the direction that we're heading. We've
articulated our goals for the next five to 10 years, and we've
articulated our values in terms of how we expect people to behave.
We've made a big effort to get every employee versed in at least
those three basic things--our mission, our vision, and our values.
And we've made it incumbent upon our managers to understand how they
relate a specific employee's job to where we're going overall."
Motivating and inspiring employees involves providing information
about job expectations and feedback. "You should give more positive
feedback than constructive feedback. We believe in a three-to-one or
a four-to-one ratio. And you give positive feedback as soon as you
can after the event occurred, but you also have to make sure that if
you need improvement, you communicate that to the employees as
well," said Jacobson. For example, a senior executive who reports to
her had a goal of improving his public speaking ability. After he
spoke to a group of almost 200 employees, and did well, she
immediately sent him a message commending him.
Rush, a 613-bed teaching hospital with 8,170 employees, also
conducts an employee survey three to four times a year. Some of the
feedback received from employees has resulted in changes being
implemented.
"It's dangerous to ask for feedback if you're not going to do
anything about it. And certainly if you do do something about it,
you need to communicate that to the employees, because not all of
them may know why you're making that change," Jacobson says.
Reenergizing and Learning
Providing opportunities for professional development is another
important motivator. "We want to continue to work on employee
satisfaction. Our next step is to get our line managers better
trained at communication, giving feedback, and writing performance
evaluations. We're spending more time on manager training," Jacobson
says.
"Getting staff out of the office and reenergizing them is not a
luxury," North says. "It's a necessity. I encourage involvement in a
professional organization not just for networking, but also for new
knowledge. I think that's critical."
Leadership development is also an important part of the Baptist
Health Care culture. Baptist has a formal service management
leadership development program, which incorporates Baptist
University. Baptist University offers a variety of programs,
including some that are one day and others that are one or two
hours. The managers go off site once a quarter to attend a daylong
program at Baptist University and then teach their department staff
what they learned. They call that "cascade learning."
All of Baptist's 600 managers are expected to complete 60 hours of
continuing education each year. The daily lineup counts for 40 hours
of that requirement; the managers can usually receive the remaining
20 hours through Baptist University programs.
Baptist also hosts quarterly employee forums. The forum is a
one-hour educational program organized around the five pillars. In
any given quarter, the forums will be offered 20 to 22 different
times to accommodate all employees on all shifts. Topics cover such
areas as the organization's quarterly financial achievement and
employee satisfaction scores.
"The forums are an opportunity for employees to learn about
everything that is happening within the organization and have an
opportunity to speak with administrators or other senior executives
in their specific entity," Felkner explains.
It's important to lead by example, says Jacobson. "If you expect
your employees to work hard, you'd better be around," she says. "You
also need to show your employees that you support them. If they make
a mistake, stand behind them to correct it. Show that this is a team
problem, and not just an individual's problem."
Recognition, Rewards, Celebrations, Oh My Denied claims are a pain
point for healthcare financial managers, because denials mean
delayed, and sometimes lost, revenue. To patient financial services
staff, trying to resolve a challenging denial can seem hopeless. But
some keep plugging away until they get the problematic claim paid.
At Chelsea Community Hospital, one billing specialist persevered for
two years until a troublesome denial was resolved and paid.
"I thought that deserved recognition. That's one thing we can give
people that doesn't cost anything," says Chelsea's David Cavell.
So the Hopeless Award was born. The award is given every month to a
business office employee who uses persistence and creativity to get
a seemingly impossible denied claim paid. The winner is announced at
a meeting and receives a $20 gift certificate for lunch at a local
restaurant or a gas card. Cavell also gives a write-up about the
award winner to the hospital's CFO to remind him that billets do
more than send out bills.
"One recent award recipient had to make 14 contacts with an
insurance company and the patient to finally get a claim resolved
and paid. It's that kind of extra effort that makes things happen.
Plus, by sharing the information, we all learn something about how
to do better next time," Cavell says. "I like participatory
democracy. I ask everybody for input on a variety of issues. I
listen to everything they say, ask them questions, and then make a
decision, so they feel like they participated and are part of the
process."
Another way Cavell inspires his staff is to ask them for their "wild
ideas" about what they would like to have in an ideal work
situation. He believes such creativity helps bring about
improvements. As a matter of fact, Cavell feels so strongly about
creativity that he tells his employees it's OK to daydream for five
or 10 minutes. "We're always reacting. We're always answering a
phone or sending out a bill," he says, "but it's all right to sit
back for a few minutes and just think about things. That generates
ideas."
Cavell also likes to pilot new ideas with other departments. His
department recently developed a model for ideal verification benefit
information and implemented the model with the behavioral health
areas in the hospital. The model worked well and generated positive
feedback from the user departments. With the support of these
departments, the business office works more efficiently. Revenue
increases, and the back end is better off because of front-end
improvements.
Cavell's strategy must be working, because for two years in a row
his department has scored the highest in Chelsea's annual employee
satisfaction survey (technically tied with two other departments for
the top spot).
Baptist Health Care also has a reward and recognition program. "Our
reward and recognition program is a very formal, well-developed
process," Felkner says. "We encourage folks, especially at the
manager level, to continually recognize people for achievements or
for nice things that they've done. It can be an e-mail, a
handwritten note, or a pat on the back. But recognition is very
important."
The organization has a reward and recognition handbook that is used
to help train managers on how to recognize employees. One
recognition tool Baptist uses is a Wow certificate. When an employee
does something nice, it is written up on the certificate, and the
employee's manager presents the certificate to the employee. An
employee who collects five Wow certificates receives a reward, such
as a gift certificate.
"We also believe in celebrating, and we try to do that often. Our
philosophy is that celebrating helps to build camaraderie among
staff, enhances teamwork, and ties results to actions," Felkner
says.
Another tool used to recognize Baptist employees is the Bright Ideas
program, which is an employee suggestion program taken to the next
level. Employees are asked for ideas on how to improve the business.
Submitted service management ideas are logged into a database and
sorted by pillar and then by leader and department. Employees
receive a $1 coupon for the cafeteria for every idea submitted. The
goal, however, is not just to submit an idea, but to get the ideas
implemented. Prizes are awarded to employees who implement five or
more ideas on an annual basis. Then the departments receive
recognition if they achieve certain goals related to Bright Ideas.
In addition, the names of employees who submit an idea are entered
into a drawing. Prizes include gift certificates to local
restaurants and department stores. Ideas should suggest a way to
improve the business, but do not have to be related to the
employee's specific job.
Two indicators of employee satisfaction used by Baptist Health Care
are employee turnover and employee morale. Employee turnover at
Baptist Health Care has dropped every year since 1997. Employee
morale is measured by an outside firm that reports Baptist is in the
mid-80 percent range for this indicator, compared with a norm of 40
percent to 60 percent for most organizations monitored by the firm.
In addition, Baptist won the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award
in 2003. You don't do that with dissatisfied employees, says Felkner.
Celebrating successes also is important at Rush University Medical
Center. The celebrations include all employees. For instance, after
receiving a three-year accreditation from the Joint Commission on
Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations recently, Rush treated all
employees to lunch.
Rush has recognition programs, such as Employee of the Quarter and
Manager of the Quarter. Its Star Program provides an award every
quarter to the employee who received the most positive compliments
from patient feedback. The Star of the Year award is given to the
employee who received the most positive compliments for the year.
The recognition programs focus heavily on the impact to the patient,
Jacobson says, because that impact aligns with the organization's
corporate mission and vision, which are to support the patient.
Key motivators for senior executives are compensation and promotion.
A senior team bonus based on organizational performance and
individual contribution is critical, according to North. Additional
motivators include recognizing people publicly for what they've
contributed and giving them highly visible projects. That gives them
visibility and allows them to take credit for their work. In
addition, she says, you've got to treat the team right, whether it's
a dinner out or saying thank you. Simply writing a thank-you note to
someone who has gone above and beyond is an important motivator.
Road to Success
Motivating employees can pay off for healthcare organizations in
terms of employee morale, service management, and lower staff
turnover, which can lead to more efficient operations and higher
patient satisfaction. Finding ways to motivate and inspire your
employees can make the difference between an organization that is
just surviving and one that is happily thriving.
AT A GLANCE
Successful healthcare organizations have many ways to motivate and
inspire their employees:
* Hire the right people.
* Communicate clearly and regularly to all employees.
* Encourage and support education and training.
* Reward and celebrate successes.
Source:
http://www.allbusiness.com/health-care-social-assistance/4009077-1.html
Subject: Service Management
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