Summer 2022 message - Today's work culture

Posted by [email protected] on Nov. 13, 2022  /  Subscribe 0

Colleagues,

Thank you for your continued unheralded leadership.  Know that you continue to make a difference.  For quite a while now, I have reflected on today’s workforce and the changes in the mindsets of workers.  Over the past couple years, the rate at which we have seen transition in the mix of workforce mindsets has accelerated.  These mindsets are now rapidly reshaping the complex landscape of the U.S. labor market. 

Workers increasingly expect schedule flexibility, optional workdays, fewer assignments, less responsibility, and employers who demonstrate commitment to social responsibility.  An alarming proportion of the workforce demand these to the degree that they maintain mobility from position to position to find these work conditions.  The concept of employer longevity has waned steadily for decades and now, a high proportion of the workforce consider mobility as a critical advantage to seek opportunity.  Theories abound on why these shifts have occurred.  But for many of us leading organizations, our primary focus is not on why, but how do we adapt?  Specifically, how do we adjust so that we continue to drive our missions in the face of this and how do we adapt our cultures to ensure our workforce members remain highly engaged as these mindsets continue to rapidly change.  We first have to recognize this market dynamic and acknowledge that workforce requirements for a very high portion of our teams expect, even demand, these work conditions.

Create a family-at-work culture through inclusion and belonging 

• Be present 
• Value and actively enhance the diversity that exists within the work family
• Take interest in work family’s personal lives; listen and deeply understand the need of individuals. What truly makes them tick
• Empower work family individuals by making them a part of success including planning, process improvement, and results. Ask for individual opinions before making changes
• Create and encourage ‘sharing’ environments where there is a sense of safety with one another
• Recognize contributions, both individual and team
• Highlight and encourage opportunities for growth and development

An equally important contributor to the current labor landscape are the significant declines in the supply of trained / skilled healthcare workers.  As an increasing proportion of society changes how it views working in the context of work/life balance, we observe increasingly that individuals choose unemployment, part-time employment, or employment outside healthcare.  This creates a highly competitive environment to acquire and retain talent in our healthcare organizations. 

To address these realities many organizations’ talent acquisition and retention strategies are leading with pay.  It is easy to understand why.  The value of pay and value of flexibility are individual calculations and for some mobile workers, the balance of pay and work conditions is delicate.  A difference in pay between employer choices can sufficiently shift workers’ decisions.  Agile organizations (both healthcare and non-healthcare) are capitalizing on this.

Nimble, agile organizations are rapidly adapting to these labor market conditions and attracting talent in two different ways.  First, nimble temporary staffing agencies have exploded, attracting the limited supply of workers with higher pay, flexible hours within the confines of negotiated contracts.  Because these agile companies command leverage of labor supply, they demand high prices to sell that labor to healthcare organizations.  Second, established healthcare organizations who are agile are using pay as a competitive tool to attract and retain workforce members.  These organizations have recognized this shift in the labor market and have prioritized maintaining mission by diminishing the costly impacts (financial, quality, and organizational culture) of running short-staffed, decreasing customer capacity, eliminating services, and/or procuring high proportions of temporary labor.  Prioritizing this competitive edge through financial investment has been successful in many competitive markets.

These successful healthcare organizations are competing through other acquisition and retention strategies as well.  For example, adapting to workforce requirements to ensure even highly mobile workers find work conditions that meet their engagement needs and it is beneficial for new workers to come or existing workers to stay.  How do we do this?  First, we need to recognize that pay alone is not enough.  Our current and future workers hold certain expectations, and they will continue to seek to drive to those expectations.  Secondly, we have to meet those expectations.  We need to design and provide inclusive work cultures that ensures that the ‘worker’ is transformed into a ‘family member’.  Leaders are essential to this.  It is key that leaders build trusting relationships, empower and communicate openly, transparently, and authentically to their family members.  In these successful organizations, leaders cascade this helping leaders throughout their organizations to learn to support and value one another. 

Simple Powerful Leaders Actions That Can Help Meet Family-At-Work Expectations 

Culture of Socially Safe Sharing

• Commit to gemba walks and talk to work family
• Implement social time intentionally where there is opportunity within work shifts, e.g.,
  • Daily huddles
  • Birthday and anniversary celebrations
  • Rotating snack breaks
  • Ice cream social time (or other shared treat)
  • Diversity in food celebrations with different family members rotating favorites
  • Pet hour (where appropriate)
• Make opportunities in meetings to connect
  • Meetings: ‘Sanity Check’ time comprising of a brief few minutes to divert from work and enjoy something silly or personal)
  • Meetings: ‘Warm Up Question” regarding something unrelated to work to get ice broken and encourage active participation
  • Meetings: ‘Good News’ time to encourage sharing at beginning of a meeting
  • Meet one-on-one with individuals and combine work and personal in the time spent.  Listen and show authentic interest.
• Attentively ensure psychological safety for all; thus nurturing a culture they can share with you and one another
• For remote teams, schedule virtual breaks, wellbeing sessions, and/or other get-togethers as a way to connect on non-work related matters and nurturing personal connections

Intentional Recognition 

• Identify opportunities to say thank you, give praise, and recognize individual and team contributions
  • ‘Celebration’, ‘Kudos’, ‘High 5’ Board
  • Personal cards/notes on a personal level
  • Morale building daily routines e.g., “Riddle of the Day”
  • Food celebrations
  • Gift cards for thank you
  • E-cards in email
  • Meetings: ‘Shout-outs’ to start meeting to celebrate
  • Meetings: Open sharing of kudos by colleagues
  • Meetings: Leader announcement of accomplishment, kudos, or appreciation
  • Newsletter: Announcements of accomplishment, kudos, or appreciation
  • Drop a hand-written note on a work family members desk unexpectedly
  • For remote teams, a fun care package in the mail to demonstrate appreciation and connection
  • For remote teams, gather on a regular cadence for socialization e.g., Dutch treat lunch, book club, or other
  • Implement awards using ideas from the group
  • Echo accomplishments, kudos, and appreciation at ongoing 1:1 meetings

Empowerment 

• Get to know work family members’ personal lives
• Involve work family members in decisions
• Ask frontline how to solve issues and collaborate on the decision
• Give work family members the right to question decisions you and other leaders are making
• Share that you welcome input on decisions and open to engage in discussing them respectful, authentic and transparent exchanges
  
  

Opportunity to Grow

• Put yourself in the shoes of each work family member to identify from their perspective what promotional or growth opportunities exist
• Ensure work family members have a clear vision of their promotional opportunities through regular discussion
• Ensure work family members regularly hear and see the growth opportunities with which you can and will support them
• Conduct ‘stay interviews’ and ‘personal check-in’s’ to understand and stay current with evolving individual personal and career developmental goals
• At regular one-on-one meetings, discuss individual accomplishments and learning moments to help coach for growth and development
• Intentionally create opportunities for work family members to learn and grow e.g., cross training
• Support and help guide work family members’ growth even if that growth is outside the area you lead.  The organization can still win with growth interdepartmentally

 
Family-At-Work

Despite work mindsets, those who commit to our organizations, do so when they have a sense of inclusion, a sense that they belong; that they are family.  In this message, I share some ways leaders can create a Family-At-Work culture.  I hope you find value in these and look forward to your continued success.

Ever your humble servant,

Trent

Trent Beach, PharmD, FACHE
ACHE Regent, Tennessee

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