Employee Relations - Archives
Behavioral Interviewing Techniques to Draw Out the Service-Minded Person
Traditional interview questions ask candidates about what they might do on the job. That can give insights into the candidate's thought process and approach to different types of situations, but it is not highly predictive of what the candidate would really do. That's where behavioral interviewing comes into play. Continue Reading...
Choosing to Stay: Transforming Disengaged Employees Into Engaged Contributors
It's hard to imagine an employee articulating a conscious decision to disengage from his work. How do you think he'd start that conversation with his supervisor? "I'm sorry, but I just don't feel like doing this job. So unless you intend to watch over me like a hawk, I'll most likely be exerting minimal effort in my eight hours here today." Continue Reading...
Connect the Dots to Fill in the Service Excellence Picture for Your Employees
If you asked your employees why patient satisfaction (or any of your organizational priorities) is important to your organization, how would they answer? How many would they say it's important because the organization is striving to attain a specific goal, such as being ranked in the top 10 percent in the nation? How many others would say it's important because "my manager said I had to do this" for a good performance review? Continue Reading...
Does Your Organization Have a Case of UVT?
What is UVT? It's the phenomenon better known as Us Versus Them. The most common symptom is the recurring use of the word THEY. You can recognize UVT in language such as "They cut our budget," or "They don't understand what it's like to work on this unit," or "They won't let me do this or that." Continue Reading...
Engaging Employees: Three Ingredients for building ownership
Imagine yourself walking the hallways of your organization. You are immediately struck by a sense of welcome. You are proud to note that every employee you encounter is smiling and ready to go above and beyond to make sure their customers' needs are met. Even before you can make a request, someone steps in to welcome you and offer assistance. Your experience is comforting, reassuring and noteworthy. Continue Reading...
Five Little Phrases to Use Every Day
You know that the right words at the right time can give employee morale a much-needed boost, while the wrong words leave morale in the dust. Sometimes, however, it's hard to know which words are the right ones. Being an on-the-job encourager is easy; here are some guidelines that can be followed on a daily basis to bring boost morale and position you as an encouraging co-worker. Continue Reading...
Five Ways to Thank Your Employees
This month of Thanksgiving is a time when many of us reflect on our many blessings. One thing that often isn't top-of-mind on our list of things to be thankful for, though, is our employees. And that's unfortunate. In fact, we should be giving thanks to our employees all year round, not just during Thanksgiving, and, certainly, not just during their annual review. Continue Reading...
Four Steps for Increasing Employee Engagement
You know a disengaged worker when you see one: the receptionist balancing her checkbook, the nurse bad-mouthing a doctor to her patient, the manager who doesn't take action to correct a customer complaint. It's obvious that these characters would rather be anywhere else but at work, and are only doing their jobs because someone's watching them. While these obviously disengaged types are easy to spot, do you know how much their disinterest is costing your organization? Continue Reading...
Show You C.A.R.E.: Engaging frontline employees in organizational culture
As you deliberately set out to create a culture of service excellence, you may find yourself encounter-ing resistance. Your employees' ability and desire to change is vital to the success of your organiza-tion; they are the ones with the closest contact with your customers on a daily basis. Continue Reading...
Taking Stock: Are you the terminator or the encourager?
Imagine a child struggling to learn new math facts for a big test. After much post-test anxiety, the student proudly rushes home with his test paper adorned with a bright sticker and the words, "Way to go!" boldly written across the top of the page. The child's wide smile and sense of pride are obvious testimony to the power of those encouraging signs. Continue Reading...
Three Conversations to Break Down Denial
Denial may be an easy behavior for employees to fall into when faced with change or hard facts in the workplace. It's a tricky behavior, because by its very nature, denial leads employees to deny that they're in denial. Sound like a crazy Catch-22 that you as a manager are powerless against? It's not quite that bad; there are some eye-opening converations you can have with employees to help them see the light about their own denial. Continue Reading...
Want to Add Millions to Your Bottom Line? Focus on engagement
No matter how many employees you have on your team, having even as little as one percent of those employees disengaged can have a significant impact on the bottom line. Recognition is one of several leadership skills that helps strengthen employee engagement and results in a measurable bottom line impact. Continue Reading...
What Drives Employee Engagement? It Depends.
When it comes to employee engagement, one size truly doesn't fit all ? or even a majority of ? your employees. Each of your employees has different motivations and drivers that impact how engaged they are with their work, with their colleagues and with your health care organization. The challenge for leaders, of course, is deter mining what those drivers are and then finding ways to provide employees with what they need to stay connected to their work. Continue Reading...
You Talkin' to Me? Four keys to keeping customer service front and center
You know that customer service is a top priority for your organization. You probably have a group of dedicated employees - the customer service "warriors" - who also know that customer service is of utmost importance. Continue Reading...