This topic has 14 replies, 9 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 12 months ago by 
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Hello cohort members! Hope your week is off to a great start. For this week’s discussion questions, please respond to the following once you’ve had time to review the webinar: Let us know about one idea discussed in “Engaging a Diverse Workforce” that you are currently doing or have done in the past. Every effort is different – what are the details of what YOU are doing?
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One thing that I have been doing that has been working really well is changing my communication style to fit each employee. This is especially useful when working with staff from different generations. I make a point to meet face-to-face as often as possible with those individuals who have expressed that communication is more clear to them, when conducted in-person. I also make texting available on my work phone to anyone who prefers to correspond in this way. I do notice that younger members of my staff use texting more frequently than others. I personally prefer email, since it is quick, can be referenced and responded to at any time throughout the day, and can be easily referenced in the future. I make sure that staff are aware of my preferred communication methods and styles, just as I am attentive to theirs.
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For the last two years we have scheduled an All Staff training every other month. We schedule five or six sessions and divide the staff up over each session. The topics are varied, but everyone is expected to attend (including our childcare staff). Some topics check the box for annual training requirements (HIPAA), some topics are by staff request (compassion fatigue). We also use one month to let our staff share their ideas on updates we should make to our strategic plan. Even if the topics are less relevent for one department, we feel like it is very important that all staff have the same opportunites and shared learning opportunities. It also gives staff a couple of hours to get to spend time with their co-workers in a less stressful environment and interact with staff members that they may not ever have the opportunity to do so. This is a big investment in our team: wages for our staff during the training session and trainers when we use an outside trainer and it has been hugely valuable.
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We have not necessarily been doing “stay” interviews, but a new push by our upper management has been to perform quarterly check-ins with our staff. I try to meet with each of my employees biweekly, but some of our managers oversee a lot of staff members where regular touchpoints are not feasible. Upper management has encouraged us to utilize a quarterly check-in as a mini-performance evaluation, where we discuss the areas of the job our high performers are excelling at, the areas our middle performers are excelling at but also need improvement at, and where our low performers need to “grow or go.” I’m now thinking about ways to use this quarterly check-in to not only perform a mini-evaluation, but also pursue feedback from my staff to better serve their needs.
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One topic that I’ve been thinking more about is individually-tailored recognition programs. As part of my position, I’ve been tasked with improving data collection and analysis and evaluating the impact of the work we do across the organization. As such, I’m a data-driven person who seeks to recognize staff with identifying improvements in outcomes and metrics we’re tracking; however, as I build this evaluation process, it’s important to recognize that numbers are not important to everyone, and I need to consider alternate ways of recognizing improved metrics and outcomes that doesn’t make it feel like impersonal numbers, but a way of recognizing work well done, even if the recognition is data-supported- it doesn’t need to be data-forward.
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I have heard of other organizations using stay interviews and would be interested in seeing some examples.
Something we added last year to keep communication open and timely for all associates, are townhall mtgs. We’ve structured departmentally and ask leaders from the opposite dept to attend to stay engaged in what is happening in that particular dept. We do not have an agenda and keep it open to whatever anyone asks or wants to talk about. We’ve seen success once we got past the initial fear that associates wanted to be anonymous with their questions. -
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Reviewing all your responses has really energized me to share your ideas with other managers and work together in incorporating some strategies. I have trialed the stay sessions which the response is great from the employees. Very pro-active and allows great cross discussions of their ideas on area improvements.
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I recently completed hiring 6 clinical secretaries of varied backgrounds and age groups (2 per large center). They are spread out geographically across the organization and their first line supervisors had reported to me that standardizing their workflow considering their individual health centers was crucial. I had established an email contact list of the 6 clinical secretaries and scheduled a monthly face to face meeting which occurred this week. They all expressed appreciation to having them meet as a group (their supervisors were on video telecom to listen in) with the focus of engaging them to discuss workflow and any areas they found were challenging in their new roles. these folks have been a part of the organization for years and felt comfortable within their centers but the new role was different. They brought 3-4 items to the table and I re-assured them that immediate fixe3s may not happen here since much of what they do support others and we wanted to limit unintended consequences with any action items we would put in place. It was extremely productive and they felt “heard” and appreciated to be part of solutions by voicing recommendations. They also talked about the new technology and would appreciate focused training for them since they were traditionalists/baby boomers. we will continue to meet F2F at their request- one to get out of office, travel and meet with one another.
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