REWARDS &
RECOGNITION:
How To Get The Hard
Things Done
Robert T. Yokl
President
The HCP Group, Ltd.
A recent discussion
with a regional material manager of a 10 hospital system about how he
could motivate his divisional department heads and managers to save
money, when they already feel overworked and underpaid, got me thinking
about how do we get “the hard things done at our nation’s hospitals
today”.
Are We Not Really
Getting The Hard Things Done?
A recent Murphy
Leadership Institute study found that 91% of CEOs and 76% of all senior
executives think that their managers resist taking difficult actions or
“getting the hard things done”. If this thinking is correct, MLI
postulates, then nothing difficult would ever get done. We know in many
ways this is the reality at our nation’s hospitals today. So, how do
forward thinking healthcare organizations get the hard things done in
this chaotic healthcare environment? Our observation has been that they
“incentivize” their managers and employees to get the hard things done
that must be done for their healthcare organization to survive and
thrive in the 21st century.
Incentivize To
Energize Your Managers and Employees
One of the smartest
things a healthcare organization can do is link rewards and recognition
to performance in order to get the hard things done, since studies have
shown that managers and employees expect it, focus on it and are
motivated by it. The rule of thumb is: to recognize efforts and
activities that exceed expectations give non-cash awards. To get
results, pay cash!
Non-cash awards can
be in the form of letters of recognition, articles in your hospital’s
newsletter, lunches, dinners, awards, preferred parking spaces, plaques,
weekend packages, and gift certificates. Cash awards would include
cash, savings bonds, bonuses, incentive plans, and company stock,
ranging from $250 to $5,000, (or one months salary) to be a motivating
factor. For your program to be effective, your employees need to design
their own incentive program and create their own guidelines. Your
employees also need to address: eligibility requirements, goals,
measurement, funding of rewards, program administration and on-going
evaluation of your program. But above all, rewards and recognition
programs require customization, if you want your executives, managers,
employees and teams to be truly be energized, because what motivates one
employee, won’t motivate another.
Align Rewards And
Recognition To Change Behavior
The goal of any
rewards and recognition program is to change and institutionalize the
desired behavior you are looking for in your employees. In essence, you
are looking to change their values and achieve a cultural commitment
from employees that align with your organization’s goals. The first
step in changing your employees behavior is deciding on what your goals
are: do you want to reduce patient falls, increase savings in labor or
non-labor expenses, or improve customer service? If so, you would
probably need to design a quarterly cash rewards program for all
employees that is targeted and measurable to change behavior. However,
if you just want to get through your JCAHO’s inspect this year with a
top rating, you might design a one time cash rewards and recognition
program that would incentivize your employees to burn the midnight oil
for just a few months. The point I’m making here is; if you think that
just having a profit-sharing program (or one size fits all solution) for
your senior executives and department heads and that this is the answer
to aligning your goals with your rewards and recognition program, you
will fall short of your targets and goals. To be a energizing force,
rewards and recognition needs to be built into all of your healthcare
organization’s values, goals and objectives, then you will see
organization-wide behavior change that is going in the direction that
you want it to go.
Non-Cash Incentives
Can Improve Performance by a 3:1 Ratio
Most hospital
executives tremble when I discuss a rewards and recognition program for
their value teams, because they see it as an unnecessary expense, until
I explain to them that non-cash incentives alone can increase their
savings for their value management initiative by as much as one-third.
Meaning, that for every $1 spent on gift certificates, weekend packages,
move tickets, merchandise and mementos, they will receive $3 back in new
non-salary savings. In fact, studies have shown that if your non-cash
incentives are more flexible and employees can pick the reward for
themselves from a catalog or website the reward becomes a trophy and in
some cases even more memorable for them than cash rewards. So, it’s not
the cost of the incentive that is important, but giving choices to
employees that will make the difference in your rewards and recognition
program’s success.
