Lovelace Women's learns through listening

In an era of decreased reimbursements and declining budgets, finding ways to engage and reward employees can be a challenge. At Lovelace Women's Hospital in Albuquerque, part of a six-hospital regional division of Ardent Health Services, it's become an opportunity for senior leadership to listen to their staff and learn about what really matters to them.

The hospital does that through surveys and focus groups where employees are asked their opinions on topics such as retention and recognition. But it's not always that formal. Sometimes it's as simple as rounding with employees to get their feedback.

“We get ideas on what's working and what's not working,” says Carol Shelton, human resources director at Lovelace. “We try to engage them pretty nonstop to improve actions, goals and strategies.”

Lovelace placed third overall in Modern Healthcare's rankings of the 100 Best Places to Work in Healthcare for 2013 and also third in the medium-size employer category, those with 100 to 999 staffers.

Leadership includes employees in Lovelace's strategic planning process and then holds them accountable for achieving the goals set by their department. Tying performance evaluations to these metrics sounded a little scary at first, says Sheri Milone, the hospital's CEO, but what they found is that employees appreciate the accountability expected of all their colleagues. Employees were asked to help establish behavior standards to which every employee should adhere. They started out with 115, but narrowed the list to just four—compassion, teamwork, effective communication and respect.

“That buy-in was critical to changing our culture,” Shelton says. “In holding each other accountable, we're developing a culture for employees that makes it attractive to work in.”

Making it even more attractive is the approach that Lovelace's leaders take in recognizing employees when they meet their goals or excel at upholding those standards. They might do that through a barbecue for the entire staff, by publicizing their contributions in the newsletter or town hall-style meetings or by writing thank-you notes. Shelton says leaders send about 150 thank-you cards to employees' homes each week.

Though the methods for recognizing employees who go above and beyond don't always have to be costly, the hospital did establish a professional certification program four years ago. The program pays for employees to work toward relevant professional certifications and then rewards them with additional compensation when they earn them. They also have a loan forgiveness program for new nurses.

For those who are closer to the end of their career than the beginning, Lovelace works with employees to phase in retirement rather than make the proposition an all or nothing deal. For example, if a clinician can't spend as much time doing bedside rounds because of physical limitations, more time might be shifted to acting as a preceptor instead. Or if an employee needs more scheduling flexibility, creating that is an option, too.

“It's a way for us to keep that viable resource and historic knowledge,” Shelton says of older employees. “They know we're still looking out for their best interests.”

Similarly, when Lovelace introduced a mandatory annual health screening, it was intended as a way to look out for employee health. But it wasn't seen that way by everyone at first, especially when it meant having their body fat measured. “Nobody liked that,” Milone says.

Lovelace provided a broader choice of healthy dishes in the cafeteria to encourage people to eat right and helped organized running and biking teams open to employees of all Lovelace Health System hospitals. According to Milone, a lot of employees lost weight and got into better shape. And those teams also have served as a good bonding experience across the organization.

“It actually started out as a negative that we turned into a positive,” she says.

Follow Rachel Landen on Twitter: @MHrlanden