This article includes research from over 80 hospitals across Australia. This data was gathered over a period of 6 years. In this article the authors are that employee engagement matters and tells us different ways in which they believe hospitals can increase their employees engagement.
They talk about the burnout and immense amounts of stress that workers in hospitals dealt with during their time working at the hospital especially during the pandemic. Burnout is a state of physical or mental exhaustion (linked with work related stress). One reason hospital staff was getting so burnt out quickly was the fact that they were very short staffed. Hospitals didn’t have the right number of nurses to be able to take care of patients. Many nurses quit during covid leading to this shortage (they didn’t want to risk their health, didn’t feel safe, refused to get vaccinated, etc). There has always been an immense amount of pressure on our healthcare workers, they hold literal lives in their hands. Covid created and put even more pressure on not just healthcare workers but also on the hospital as an organization. Hospitals were. Having to spend ridiculous amounts of money in order to have the necessary safety equipment and personal to be able to operate.
The first way the authors came up with to improve employee engagement is to prioritize patient and staff safety. I completely agree with this. It is important for people to feel safe in a hospital no matter if they are working there or if they are a patient. Everyone has the right to be able to feel safe in their work environment. Safety was a major issue during covid. As I already stated many nurses felt unsafe during the pandemic and quit leading to a staff shortage. That staff shortage lead to dangerous situations in which nurses had to look after a massive amount of patients and didn’t have any help. In the article it talks about one way to improve engagement is to help workers and patients feel safer. They can do this by hosting training sessions, fixing hazards, listening to needs, etc.
The second way to increase engagement is to hold accountability. It is important that everyone is held responsible for their actions. It is mentioned in the article that many people are sacred to speak up. I find it interesting how many people feel like they can’t speak up about something in fear that retaliation might happen. I don’t believe that an environment in which you feel like you can’t speak up for yourself or others. It is important for your works to be heard and for them to know that you have their backs no matter what. In the article it mentions that accountability isn’t enough by itself. Accountability needs to be coupled with proper freedoms and work schedules. I couldn’t agree any more with this statement more. I think that it is super important to provide a balance. If you are going to show that your company or organization is going to hold people accountable you need to be an able to hold yourself accountable as well. This means you need to have enough staff to have safe working conditions, you need to act on issues that arise not just sweep them under the rug, you need to be able to establish trust with your employees and you’re not going to be able to do that by overworking them, putting them in unsafe working conditions, and ignoring their concerns.
The third and final way of boosting employee engagement is to prove to your workers that change is going to happen and that it is for the batter. As human we are naturally scared and apprehensive about the unknown. We tend to like to stick to what we know even if it’s not the best thing for us. As an organization you need to prove to your employees that this chance will be for the better. The employees need to be able to see that the work that they put in (whether that be speaking up, addressing situations, going to training classes, etc) is going to create a change. In my opinion an organization needs everyone to be on board in order to really create a change that lasts.
Overall I really enjoyed reading this article. It allowed me to really think and look more in depth at the toll that the pandemic took on our healthcare system and workers. I think it is important the we went through this kind of pandemic to ensure that we are better prepared and more equip for the next time that a major thing like this happens again.
5 thoughts on “HBR “3 Ways Hospitals Can Boost Worker Engagement””
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Hi Catherine! Thanks for sharing – I enjoyed reading this summary and find the topic interesting. Part of my current job involves working to increase employee well-being engagement at the university, whether it be faculty and staff or student employees. It seems nearly everyone is burnt out since the pandemic – departments are understaffed, budgets have been restructured, and overall stress seems at an all-time high. As you describe in your article, hospitals are no exception, and in fact, may be worse in many capacities due to the direct impacts of the pandemic. I remember often reading about the shortage of hospital beds, health care workers, and other health care necessities during the height of the pandemic.
For my HBR assignment, I chose an article that was written in a similar format. The article was titled “5 Steps to Restore Trust in the U.S. Health Care.” I think articles of the nature of what you and I chose are great in theory, however I struggle to see the practicality in application. For example, your article identifies the three main ways of boosting worker engagement as prioritizing safety, holding accountability, and proving that change happens for the better. I feel that these items are easier said than done and not enough to boost employee engagement alone. A big takeaway from my work experience thus far is that employees will only be as engaged as the institution is invested in them. There are many ways to approach this, but I believe one of the most significant is through relationship building between the employer and its employees. This can be done through things such as safety, accountability, and positive change, although I believe cultivating such a culture has deeper, more complex roots that weave finer details than the three ideas mentioned in the article.
https://hbr.org/2022/09/5-steps-to-restore-trust-in-u-s-health-care
I think you are both on to an important aspect of employer/employee trust in the working environment and that is, in addition to accountability and safety, we can add valuing employees decision making capabilities. Trust means for me believing in your employees’ ability to make the right decisions at the right time and place as well as their capacity to advance the process of work place quality improvement.
PDB
Hi Catherine,
appreciate you taking the time to read this article. Your first point is burnout. I agree that staff shortages contribute to burnout. COVID affects hospital and doctor’s office employees significantly. In addition, I agree that everyone should feel safe at work. It is easier for people to focus at work when they feel safe. A COVID event was unexpected. The world was not prepared for COVID. Perhaps this is why hospitals and doctors’ offices feel unsafe. For the foreseeable future, the world needs to focus on improving events like COVID. In addition, I agree that more training is necessary.
The word accountability appeals to me. It is the duty of the person who oversees everyone’s safety to answer for their actions. There should have been enough employees during COVID, but many feared working. During this time, it may not be easy to ensure this. Additionally, you may have employees who suffer from COVID. Employees have to be able to ask questions and offer suggestions to improve the organization. Problems need to be addressed, and they shouldn’t be ignored.
Hi Catherine,
I enjoyed your post. It is interesting that prioritizing safety is outlined because you would think that would already be the most urgent priority already. However, Covid exposed certain shortcomings in that healthcare workers have to be better protected. As frontline workers, they are more vulnerable. Along with that, the mental burnout that is overwhelming among healthcare workers is disheartening to say the least. Mental health prioritization is important with our healthcare workers. It makes me think if there should be certain policies/programs specific to this that should be incorporated on a regular basis. However, with shortages everywhere I can see it being hard to achieve. Also, the mention of accountability is so relatable. I have been in work environments where I did not feel like it would matter if I spoke up, or I feared retaliation. All of these were in healthcare settings, and it is not the best feeling to feel unprotected or unheard. Sometimes workers in healthcare can be dehumanized to certain degree where they are expected to perform their duties and that’s all. However, as a common theme we are learning in all aspects of healthcare is that we have to remember at the core of everything is the protection of human lives, and that is both on the patient side, as well as the healthcare workers side too.
Yes and imagine how health care workers at Wyckoff heights hospital in Brooklyn/Queens felt when they were given NY Yankees rain ponchos as their PPE gowns at the onset of COVID! Many who experienced similar signs of administrative neglect and lack of preparedness were not surprised since they had already been working under the pressure of too many patients and too few resources. COVID helped to reveal health care’s fault lines (understaffing, block scheduling; yet, bloated administrative budgets).