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June 23, 2008 5:15 AM

Healthcare Organizations Creating a High Performance Workforce

Getting an Edge in the War for Talent

Traditionally, the healthcare arena wasn't one in which cultivating a high performance workforce had been a focus. Merit pay increases and spot bonuses just weren't part of the picture for most healthcare workers.

But increasingly, organizations are competing head to head for skilled talent - making retention and employee engagement key priorities. There are increased numbers of younger workers who expect and demand performance reviews and ongoing development opportunities. Couple that with enhanced Joint Commission compliance requirements and the boomer-driven need to plan for the future with succession, and you've got an industry-wide cultural transformation on your hands.

Some healthcare organizations are doing a great job of making this shift.

Beaumont Hospitals in Michigan is one that decided to implement pay for performance to raise the bar for overall performance, align rewards and individual performance to organizational performance, and promote organizational and personal growth and development. Recognizing that the transition to pay-for-performance would be a major paradigm shift affecting how the organization recognizes, measures and rewards performance, Beaumont strategically planned the implementation to take place gradually. The organization first implemented a new automated employee appraisal process, and only once that cycle had been fully completed, began to integrate a new compensation element. The next phase, which includes the full roll-out of a pay-for-performance approach, is beginning now. Appraisals will be completed shortly based on the new performance standards and pay increases will be implemented, based for the first time on these performance appraisals.

When setting itself up to implement a high performance workforce, King's Daughters Medical Center in Mississippi made sure that it selected a technology that had an easy integration between learning and talent management, not one that introduced more complexity. This allowed the organization to look at new synergies, which enable the organization to better address succession planning, training compliance, and so on.  This makes HR more strategic. It's about more than administrative tasks, it's an opportunity to ensure programs support, or even drive organizational objectives.

Rockford Health System, located in Rockford, Illinois, found that an important issue in selecting an employee appraisal solution was that it include self-reviews and a multi-rater or peer review function. Because healthcare workers can engage with numerous colleagues in each shift, this perspective provides important feedback in a review. The organization is now more aligned when numerous perspectives are collated. Through measuring and evaluating performance they are able to see if the organizational strategy is being properly supported, and ensure that employee performance management is an on-going event and not a one-time thing.

I'd be interested in hearing from readers working in the healthcare sector about how their organization is approaching this issue. Please leave comments!

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