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Employee survey guides turnaround strategy and positions health care system for growth
A leading, regional, non-profit health care system had suffered through a significant economic downturn due to layoffs within its client companies, as well as financial struggles of its own. Labor unrest involving a nurses strike and rising health care costs all contributed to increasing pressures to do something differently in order to pull out of the slump.
An annual employee survey program had been in place, tracking these issues over the course of several years. When the employees’ confidence and faith in the executives declined eight percentage points, the executive team realized they had been too focused on cost control and had not sufficiently attended to leading their people. When confidence dropped another three points the following year, the president declared the situation was unacceptable. While the leaders genuinely valued their people, the conviction simply wasn’t felt at lower levels within the organization. A strategy was developed to restore a dialog between leadership and the rest of the organization. At this time, Gantz Wiley Research also implemented a mid-year “pulse check” survey to provide the organization with more frequent feedback on its efforts.
Within six months, the leadership scores had more than rebounded a dramatic twelve percentage points. What did the trick? Unprecedented openness in communication had been created—direct information was delivered by the president, divisional two-way dialog opportunities were developed, and a discipline to listen and respond to employees was renewed. These efforts were all fueled by new accountabilities and incentives based on the survey results. Initially, executives were a little incredulous that they had succeeded—there was no single magic bullet or particularly clever solution. Instead, there were many unique and small stories of success. It was the hard work of leadership that had made a measurable impact.
The survey continued to track progress. As confidence in the organization’s directions increased, so did the employees’ willingness to recommend their organization for care. By twelve months into their efforts, the leadership team had maintained their gains in credibility, and within the next six months, had increased another ten points. With the organization more receptive to their strategies, the leaders had created an organization poised for growth.
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Gantz Wiley Research has worked with leading organizations across the globe. View our select client list.
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