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Engaged Colleagues are Motivated To Perform Well

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Denise Peterson, Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer for Trinity Health – New England, and Dr. Adam Silverman, Vice President, Continuing Care and Chief Population Health Officer, Trinity Health - New England, are committed to developing engaged colleagues to improve health care.

Commitment to “engaged colleagues” is one of Trinity Health –

New England’s five strategic priorities over the next three years

that focus on delivering people-centered health care.

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Trinity Health – New England, and its parent company Trinity Health, are providing all their managers and supervisors with tools and resources to ensure that they enjoy

where they work and are connected to the mission and values of the organization.

More than 600 supervisory colleagues from across Trinity Health – New England’s facilities in Connecticut and Massachusetts came together recently at the Connecticut Convention Center for an all-day “boot camp” designed to create a better understanding of how employees think and what motivates their performance.

The workshop offered leaders an innovative, fact-based perspective of ways to keep employees committed and motivated, benefitting not only the company as a whole, but patients as well.

Putting people at

the forefrontNancy Rousseau, Ph.D., chief of staff

and vice president of organizational development, and Leonard F. Pansa, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Trinity Health – New England, explained how the day’s forum would benefit the health care provider’s approach to people-centered care, “which includes people, patients, families and colleagues all at the center of the work.”

“This forum is really about our leaders and how we can do better and get people even more engaged than they are,” explained Rousseau. “Our regional President and CEO, Chris Dadlez, is very committed to assuring that our ministry has the highest level of engagement.”

“As a Catholic institution serving the community, our mission statement clearly states we’re about reverence and community. When you walk into one of our facilities it’s a different kind of atmosphere, filled with warmth,” she said. Trinity Health

– New England, employs 13,000 people and generates revenues of $1.6 billion annually.

“Today’s forum is an opportunity offered to our hospital leaders from Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Mercy Medical Center (in Springfield, Mass.), Johnson Memorial Hospital, Mount Sinai Rehabilitation Hospital and Saint Mary’s Hospital. The intent is to engage our colleagues in what they do.”

Pansa said Trinity Health is committed to measuring employee engagement, community health, wellbeing and financial stewardship. “These issues comprise a large part of the organization’s commitment,” he said.

Trinity Health, and Trinity Health – New England, will soon survey all its employees across the country to provide colleagues an opportunity to express their opinions about their work experiences. “I’m guessing that communication will be brought up — every company in the country gets suggestions to improve communications,” said Pansa.

‘We can’t do the very important work we do without our colleagues. As an organization we will continue to develop and grow strong leaders so that we can continue to provide exceptional care to the communities we serve.’

Continued >

– Christopher M. Dadlez, President and CEO,

Trinity Health - New England

Nancy Rousseau, Ph. D., chief of staff and vice president of organizational development, and Leonard Pansa, senior vice president, chief human resources officer at Trinity Health - New England, are providing tools to managers to develop an engaged workforce.

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14 Hartford Business Journal • April 17, 2017 www.HartfordBusiness.com

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“We can’t do the very important work we do without our colleagues,” says Christopher M. Dadlez, president and CEO of Trinity Health – New England. “As an organization we will continue to develop and grow strong leaders so that we can continue to provide exceptional care to the communities we serve.”

Health care leadership,

hard dataDon Rheem, founding partner and CEO

of E3 Solutions, facilitated the interactive session. Rheem, who combines his background in science with business, has been working with Trinity Health – New England on colleague engagement, designed to provide managers with the tools needed to engage their staff.

“When it comes to how we lead people, we need to link what we know drives human behavior, especially at work,” Rheem told the managers. “We’ve made much progress in the field of neuroscience in the last five to eight years. Although there are more than 1,000 books published on leadership — which are great case studies and historical narratives — very few are based on science.”

Rheem stressed the overwhelming need to show appreciation for work efforts; a practice that motivates an employee even more than salary increases.

“Respect for employees is critical in order to keep a well-working atmosphere. When we look at the science as it applies to

the role of money, it’s not a very promising picture. Money is a very poor, inefficient discretionary effort,” he noted.

Even if you give an employee a decent raise, said Rheem, it is only appreciated for about two pay periods. Soon after, the employee falls back into their former pattern of work, which can range from “actively disengaged,” “somewhat disengaged,” “engaged,” or to the highest level of “actively engaged.” According to Rheem, only 5 to 15 percent of employees fall into the final category.

According to Rheem, employees in highly engaged workplace cultures are 78% less likely to quit; financial performance is four times better for organizations with fully engaged colleagues compared with dissatisfied employees; companies with highly engaged employees are 26% more productive, have lower turnover risk, and are more likely to attract top talent.

Rheem said every employee comes to work knowing what minimal effort they have to provide. The difference between what someone is capable of doing versus what they have to do minimally is called discretionary effort. There is no way to force discretionary effort out of an employee. They have to want to give it to their employer, he said.

He used a Pizza Hut promotion as an example. Elementary school students were offered a certificate for a free pizza if they went to the library and read more. Results showed that students selected lesser-quality books (thinner, more pictures, etc.),

which constituted “collateral damage.” While they fulfilled the terms of “the bribe,” their behavior shifted and their reading comprehension went down, Rheem said.

Rheem said the purpose of these exercises was not to ask managers to do things “the brain was not meant to do,” but to do things “that the brain has been looking for every day since birth: to be with others and have common resources.”

“The default position of the human brain is to be engaged in a group with similar values and objectives,” he said, using early tribes of Homo sapiens as a metaphor for today’s work environment.

“Early Homo sapiens survived because they were hyper-cooperative. The need for social resources is so deeply embedded that the brain literally views them as interchangeable with resources like food, water and nutrition,” said Rheem, adding, “Work is the new tribe of modern Homo sapiens.”

In the end, Trinity Health – New England leaders left with some concrete strategies and a clear understanding of how the human brain responds to leaders who are positive and focused on what employees are doing right. ●

‘ When it comes

to how we

lead people,

we need to link

what we know

drives human

behavior,

especially at

work.’– Don Rheem,

E3 Solutions

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Pictured, left to right, Saint Mary’s Hospital colleagues, Keon Blackledge, administrative fellow; Frank S. Strazza Jr., director of Food and Nutrition Services; and Diane Gaborc, SPHR, SHRM-SCP, manager of staffing and staff relations at Saint Mary’s Hospital.

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Together for a reason.

Johnson MemorialHospital

MercyMedical Center

Mount SinaiRehabilitation Hospital

Saint FrancisHospital and Medical Center

Saint Mary’sHospital

TrinityHealth-NE.org