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  • In 2019, Winding Waters’ turnover rate was 30.17%. 40% of the people who left in 2019 were with us for less than one year. Our goal is reduce total turnover to less than 20% in 2020 and to improve first year retention by 50%.

    Hello! My name is Jessie Michaelson and I am the Human Resources Officer at Winding Waters Clinic in Enterprise Oregon. I have found each learning collaborative from the STAR Center to be educational and helpful for laying the groundwork to make positive changes in the way we engage with and manage our employees. I am looking forward to learning more about stay interviews and being able to share the information with the people on my team.

    We actually brought this question to our Personnel Committee (composed of board and staff members). During our conversation, they felt like we should use the money that would be used to pay for a new benefit to increase wages. The majority of our staff are in a place that they want more money each month.

    Every other month we hold an All Staff Training. Our upcoming training is going to be on our benefit package. We will go over all of our benefits, discuss the ins and outs of each area, and give staff time to ask questions about the benefits. I also send out a daily email with three bullet points with information that all staff need to know. Every other week I include information about specific details of our benefits.

    I have started reviewing the goals that we developed each time that I round with my direct reports. We discuss their progress – celebrate progress and brainstorm ways to remove or breakthrough barriers. I have found this helpful in keeping the goals in our minds and evaluating where we need to make changes.

    I would love to learn more about stay interviews. We currently have a couple of support staff openings and I cannot even find candidates! I need as many ideas as possible to keep the people I have.

    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.

    1) Have you ever found an error in your own work? How did it happen? What did you do about it?
    2) Tell us about a recent situation in which you had to deal with a very upset customer/co-worker/patient.
    3) Tell us a about a boss that you found the hardest to work with. What made him or her so difficult to work with and how did you handle it.
    4) What kinds of pressures do feel in your job? How do you cope with them?
    5) Why do you want to work at Winding Waters?

    We also have all interviewees take a full set of vitals on a person. We have a set of written directions that we give them and we encourage them to ask questions if they come up.

    Our organization has grown from 25 employees to over 70 in less than four years. Originally, I was responsible for supervising all of our support staff, which was less than 20 people. As the organization grew, so did the need for additional management support. I was unable to give each staff person the level of support that they needed. Initially we created Lead positions for each of our three main support staff areas, Front Office, Medical Assistants, and Care Coordination. We selected the leader for each area from the current staff that worked in these roles and who demonstrated an interest and ability to lead their respective teams. We have since added additional lead roles for other support areas. I have worked very closely with this entire group to help them become what we call our Middle Mangers. They are the liaisons between the entire support staff and the Executive Team.
    Challenges – 1)staff found it difficult to change who they reported to; 2) selecting a manager from the department, who was technically skilled in the position, but didn’t have any management experience; 3) added one more layer between the Executive Team and the support staff; 4) as our organization continues to grow we need additional management support.
    Overcoming the Challenges – 1) continue to work with the Middle Managers to help them gain the trust and respect of their staff 2) continue to coach the Middle Managers as we work to develop a strong workforce 3) work to make sure that the Executive Team is available and visible to all staff and try to make sure that the Executive Team is not making decisions without the input of the staff that are affected by the decisions; 4) we are currently developing assistant manager positions and working to figure out how to incorporate these staff into the leadership role.
    Results – The creation of the Middle Manager positions have allowed us to grow employees who have an interest in leadership who we might have lost to other employers if we weren’t able to give them growth opportunities. We have also been able to hire staff for entry level positions who have very little professional experience and help them be successful because they have more support from their manager. We were also able to create Standards of Behavior and as a group we work to help hold all staff accountable to these standards.
    Successful Outcome – I act as the liaison between the Middle Managers and the Executive Team. I am responsible for bringing information back and forth between the two teams. I get to spend lots of time working the the Middle Managers as a group and individually as they face new and/or challenging management situations. We talk through the conversations that they need to have with their staff. We are currently working on a team building project to help the Middle Managers and the Executive Team work together better. We are all learning/relearning Lean practices and working on projects to improve efficiencies within our organization.

    Hi Allison,
    I am wondering if I can get help accessing my organization’s Data Profile? I spoke to my CEO and he doesn’t recall seeing this report, but is very interested in looking at with me.
    Thank you,
    Jessie Michaelson

    One of our strategic goals is centered around Team Building. This goal team has worked to improve engagement and morale across the organization. They came up with a list of different activities that they felt like would help our team. Some of the ideas were to have secret pals, potlucks during the work day, potlucks outside of work hours, movement challenges, Cash for Caring, Rose Awards, and Employee of the Month.

    We have added four new locations to our organization over the last couple of years and it has been very hard to teach the employees who work at these locations about our culture and get them engaged in the work that the organization is trying to do. I haven’t been able to find enough hours in the day to dedicate time to each location and the people that work there.

    Hello,
    My name is Jessie Michaelson and I am the Human Resources Officer at Winding Waters Community Health Center in Enterprise, Oregon. I am excited for this opportunity and look forward to learning from and with all of you.
    Jessie

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