High employee engagement is critical for success in U.S. hospitals and clinics where customer service is crucial. Engagement is more than just a \u201cfeel good\u201d public relations objective. It\u2019s about encouraging and facilitating the staff who serve patients, families, and internal customers to be their best and most energetic selves.<\/span><\/p>\n

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High engagement is also crucial for retention and reduction of absenteeism, and during times of full employment this is more important than ever. \u00a0But what can be done to increase engagement, especially with tight budgets and pressures to do more with less?<\/span><\/p>\n

The first thing is to make engagement a part of day-to-day culture:<\/span><\/p>\n

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• Show<\/strong> employees you care instead of just saying it<\/span><\/li>\n
• Celebrate the good stuff that happens and challenges that are overcome<\/span><\/li>\n
• Recognize milestones, make positive recognition part of the work<\/span><\/li>\n
• Remind everyone on work teams that there\u2019s a human side to our workplace experience<\/span><\/li>\n
• Encourage managers to be empathetic while getting work done<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

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  Build organizational practices which support, maintain, and grow engagement. Open your organization up for feedback from employees, especially entry-level associates who may feel like they don\u2019t have a say in company matters. Consider creating an associate-led committee so there is always input on the pulse of the organization.\u00a0 Also give employees feedback. By making feedback a natural and planned part of work life, organizations can give engagement a serious boost.<\/span><\/p>\n

  Another key tactic in increasing frontline employee engagement lies in associates\u2019 relationship with their manager and how they are coached and encouraged. \u00a0Health systems are looking for associates who will perform, grow, and provide good customer service, and this happens when their managers are partners who enable. Old school top-down supervisory relationships are becoming a relic. \u00a0Huddles and training opportunities provide a forum for associates to interact and receive positive coaching. For more on this topic, see our related article \u201cFrontline Employees: Coaching For Success.\u201d <\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

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  Leaders should also offer learning and development tools that support associate improvement and growth. This not only leads to more productive employees, but it also shows that the health system is interested in employees\u2019 futures, boosting motivation. Be sure managers are communicating about internal training tools, learning & development, and apprenticeships. Communicate roles that are high priority needs of the system and any assistance that can be provided to help frontline employees with skills or accreditation needed to obtain those roles. Have a career path conversation with your entry-level associates before they are having that conversation with another employer.<\/span><\/p>\n

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  Your frontline employees are the voice and spirit of your organization to patients and families.\u00a0 To infuse employee engagement into the heart of an organization, even with a small budget, root these \u201cblocking and tackling\u201d techniques right into the regular operations of your organization.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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  \u201c7 Tips to Increase Employee Engagement Without Spending a Dime,\u201d Society for Human Resources, Tamara Lytle, September 2016<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

  \u201cTop Five Budget-Friendly Employee Engagement Strategies,\u201d Forbes, Char Newell, August 2018<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

  \u201cEmployee Engagement Doesn\u2019t Require a Huge Budget,\u201d Cornerstone on Demand, Shayne Thomas, January 2020<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

  \u201cThe 5 Most Successful Employee Engagement Strategies,\u201d Onpoint Consulting, August 2019<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

  \u201c5 Steps Managers Should Be Taking After Employee Performance Reviews,\u201d Susan Jeffery, June 2019<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

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  \u2026<\/p>\n

  Are you familiar with CLiMB<\/u><\/strong>\u00ae?<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span> CLiMB supports the professional development for your entry and mid-level healthcare workers. CLiMB is an online library of focused microlearnings focused on actionable, scenario-based learning in basic professionalism, communication, using time wisely, and providing exceptional customer service. CLiMB teaches from real-world scenarios which frontline employees face in U.S. health systems. It includes tool to incorporate microlearning into onboarding, huddles and manager-employee coaching conversations. Contact Us<\/u><\/strong><\/a><\/span> to learn more.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  High employee engagement is critical for success in U.S. hospitals and clinics where customer service is crucial. Engagement is more than just a \u201cfeel good\u201d public relations objective. It\u2019s about encouraging and facilitating the staff who serve patients, families, and internal customers to be their best and most energetic selves. High engagement is also crucial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[42,43,47,64,111,48,49,50,51,34,37,54],"class_list":["post-1465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entry-level-healthcare-employee-articles","tag-advocate-entry-level-workers","tag-advocate-frontline-workers","tag-coaching-associates","tag-coaching-frontline-employees","tag-culture-and-hospital-employee","tag-employee-development","tag-employee-training","tag-entry-level-healthcare-associate","tag-entry-level-healthcare-employee","tag-entry-level-hospital-employee","tag-frontline-health-employee","tag-healthcare-training"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.bch.agency\/catalyst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.bch.agency\/catalyst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.bch.agency\/catalyst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.bch.agency\/catalyst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.bch.agency\/catalyst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/labs.bch.agency\/catalyst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1465\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.bch.agency\/catalyst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/labs.bch.agency\/catalyst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.bch.agency\/catalyst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/labs.bch.agency\/catalyst\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}