11 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Encourage Employee Engagement

1. Expectations increase dramatically - "why didn't you ask us?" becomes a common theme.

2. The organization has to become even better at communicating - again because of higher expectations.

3. Staff asks leaders difficult, intelligent questions that they never would have asked before.  Why?  Because they now have more data, more information, more experience.  They now expect transparency. 

4. Staff regularly see and better understand their departmental and the organization's budget. 

5. Staff have talked with and worked with other departments and other shifts to solve mutual problems.  They know what is and isn't going on in other departments.

6. Staff better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their department; they have participated in projects with measurable results.

7. Staff better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their organization.

8. Staff better understand the strengths and weaknesses of their leaders.

9. Staff turnover falls and sometimes management turnover increases temporarily.

10. Staff expect to be consulted on and participate in decisions about hiring, purchasing and other topics.

11. Staff members act more like owners and less like employees.  They offer improvement and ideas on areas they see that are in need of change.

 In the short and medium run, where many management teams concentrate their attention, these changes can feel negative and at times overwhelming.

 Of course there are a number of downsides to having non-engaged staff members.  In a recent report, Gallup research found that the top 25% of teams - the best managed - versus the bottom 25% in any workplace - the worst managed - have nearly 50% fewer accidents and have 41% fewer quality defects. What's more, teams in the top 25% versus the bottom 25% incur far less in healthcare costs. So having too few engaged employees means our workplaces are less safe, employees have more quality defects, and disengagement - which results from terrible managers - is driving up the country's healthcare costs.

 In a healthcare organization less safe workplaces and more quality defects can have life changing implications to patients, to staff, to communities and to the overall organization itself.

 At Hospital Focus 5 we believe that:

• The most successful organizations utilize all of the brains they are already paying for - not only the small percentage of brains used by the less successful hospitals.

• The people closest to the work know best how to accomplish their jobs.  

• Management skills that fully utilize the creativity and insight of a culturally diverse work force are vital to establish and maintain a strong positive culture.  

• Recognition of the success of employee teams builds staff participation and engagement.

• Management must trust the employees.

• Decisions made by all employees, not just managers, must be based on quantitative data.

• Positive recognition of team success will assure ongoing success.

• The major focus of the entire organization must be on patients/customers and on the staff.

  What does your organization believe?