Use Performance Management in Healthcare, Support Employee Engagement
A Guest Blog By HealthStream Partner Michael Cohen, Healthcare Management and Employee Development Consultant
Employee engagement continues to be a hot topic in healthcare, and we are excited to have Michael Cohen share how performance management is a necessary part of the process. Check out Michael's checklist below, and ensure you have the most engaged staff possible at your facility.
Performance management in healthcare comprises the process of:
- Identifying employee (organizational or work unit) strengths and opportunities for improvement
- Establishing performance improvement objectives
- Agreeing on the means by which objectives will be achieved and how results will be evaluated
- Assessing the resources available to facilitate (hinder) success
- Locking in the rewards for achievement and the consequences for failure.
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The performance management process provides the leader a significant opportunity to enhance the level of employee engagement because it allows the leader to:
- Reinforce the work unit’s mission, vision and values
- Listen to employees’ ideas to improve the quality of customer service and team morale
- Share information that helps employees understand the context in which their work is performed
- Identify impediments to job success, differentiating problems (within a leader’s control to solve) from realities (obstacles that are outside a leader’s sphere of influence to overcome)
- Clarify roles, responsibilities, and levels of authority
- Recognize employees in a manner that reinforces desired behaviors
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When properly executed, using performance management in healthcare can alter the leader-employee relationship from:
- Command decisions to consensus building
- Task orientation to a focus on verifiable results
- Motivation through fear to positive reinforcement and individual responsibility
- Leaders having all the answers to utilizing employees as consultants in decision making processes
- Record keeping and documenting mistakes to coaching for success
- Unstated vision and assumed values to the open sharing of purpose
As an engaged leader you are not actually managing employees. They are managing themselves. You are managing their performance. You communicate the vision, establish performance standards and provide the resources for employees to succeed. Employees ultimately decide if they have the intrinsic motivation and skill sets to meet your performance expectations.
About the Author:
Michael Cohen presents keynote addresses and leadership development workshops for healthcare organizations throughout the United States. He is the author of four books – On-The-Job Survival, The Power of Self Management, What You Accept Is What You Teach, and Time To Lead. Find out more about Michael’s presentations and books here.