The Big Pink Elephant

As you know we did not make the Top 25 Best employers in the State this year. We have received the actual survey results and comments.

In most companies feedback like this would normally be the “big pink elephant” in the room that no one wants to talk about. But the only way things get better is to put them out in the open and have a plan to make it better.

These statistics and comments help our senior leadership gauge how well we’re doing on employee satisfaction. There were many positive comments and negative as well. Our raw score dropped overall by 10 points and in each individual category by an equal or greater amount.

Your feedback was very telling about what you were unhappy about and what you would like to see addressed. It is also clear that there are some misunderstandings about all sorts of things from how we make money to how some of our benefits work. Here are a few noteworthy comments:

1. A few people didn’t understand why we are expanding our outpatient sites if we were having money problems.

Here is some clarity: Our Foundation raises money dedicated specifically for renovations of current or new locations, and then we hire staff to serve more patients. The only way we can make more money is to see more kids. There is no other way for us to be able to cover our increasing costs without continuing to grow.

2. Someone wrote that they were unhappy the tuition reimbursement was eliminated.

This one is just not true. We did not eliminate our tuition reimbursement program. We just put a cap on how much we will reimburse and that an employee must continue to work at CSH for a specific period of time after they complete their course. It’s unfortunate, but we had people get their degrees and resign after their graduation.

The examples above speak to a bigger issue of miscommunication and access to information. While we have the weekly wrap up, this blog, children's chatter and the intranet where a lot of information is posted, face to face interactions makes all the difference. This is an area where we can improve, and will!

I have asked Senior Leadership to start attending staff meetings to reinforce that you have access to have your questions answered at any time.

We will also be implementing “lunch and learns” given by Senior Leaders. We will advertise the topic and you can bring your lunch and learn more about all sorts of topics that were identified in your comments.

Many comments also referred for the need for more employee recognition and events we can do together. You ask, we provide.

We are going to have a get together during rehab week in September. We will also use this as the chance to recognize the employees who celebrated their milestone years this year and last (5, 10 15 years of service). In addition we will be pulling the stars that have been given out at each site and the person who has had the most Press, Ganey comments written about them by site and creating special recognition for them.

While I am disappointed that we did not get the recognition, not because of the award, but because it was your way of saying that you aren't happy.

While some will argue that it is not a surprise given that we aren't giving raises and we had to make a lot of hard choices about changing benefits in order to avoid layoffs, the bottom line is that your comments and scores tell us that you didn’t think we handled the changes in a way that was appropriate for you and I own that. No excuses.

You have given us feedback of the things you want changed. Some we can fix; some we can't. But through it all we will keep talking and using your feedback to make us a better organization and a better place to work.

Your ideas and comments are always welcome.

Amy