Creating and Sustaining Goodwill Ambassadors Although healthcare organizations across the nation have been reshaped by numerous trends, such as technology, compliance standards, and e-commerce, the importance of the frontlines remains constant. Frontline employees have the power to create a warm and inviting feel and make customers feel welcome. These employees can ultimately be your organization’s “goodwill ambassadors”—creating a positive image that results in new as well as repeat business. Indeed, frontline employees are given critical responsibilities. Yet, all too often the importance of frontline employees is forgotten in the minds of the organization’s leaders. How does this happen? Many leaders make the mistake of believing that frontline employees can be easily replaced. Furthermore, with this mindset, frontline employees are often mistreated and made to feel inferior when compared to more highly skilled and trained healthcare professionals. Many leaders dismiss the importance of frontline employees and forget that these employees have to actually like the company—and their job—to serve as employee ambassadors and spread the right message of goodwill. So, how do you empower frontline employees to create ambassadors of goodwill? Try these suggestions: Show them why company is great. Critical stakeholders, such as stockholders and the board of directors receive constant updates such as quarterly statements and annual reports. However, these details are often lost on the frontline ambassadors. As a manager, take it upon yourself to decipher the corporate information in a way that is relevant to the frontline employee. During quarterly meetings and weekly team meetings, explain how the company is doing and tell people how their work is contributing to the success. That will help employees talk positively about their job and their company. You can also hold quarterly or yearly celebrations that include games and prizes, along with silly songs and videos. But the key reason for the visit is to share vital details about the success of the company and the impact that the employees have had on that success. Frontline employees need to know how they make their company great. Don’t hurry with the hiring. Although many frontline positions are considered entry-level, this doesn’t mean that you should just hire anyone who walks through the door. If you truly want to employees who spread goodwill, you need to be more selective in the hiring process. If you’re hiring to meet a hurried quota, you’re probably not going to have much success. Frontline employees should be chosen based on their skills and personality. So, make sure your hiring managers have a clear picture of the attitude you want a new person to have. Constantly check if employees feel valued in their job. Do your employees feel valued in their job? Do they understand how they fit into the success of the company? If you don't ask your employees (in a consistent and confidential manner) what they really think about their job, you'll never know where to focus money and resources. Remind your employees of their critical role. Do your employees understand their roles? More importantly, do they understand how important their role is? Employees need to be reminded of the power and influence they possess. If they do their job right, they have the ability to attract and retain business—a very significant accomplishment. The importance of the frontlines is unquestionable. Healthcare professionals and leaders must maintain constant awareness and focus on the frontlines. Negligence to do so could lead to disastrous results within both the employee and customer base. “Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.” —Aristotle Giving Repetitive Tasks the Respect They Deserve It doesn’t matter what your job title may be, we all encounter tasks that are repetitive at best—and mind numbingly monotonous at worse. However, even if they’re boring, you should never take repetitive tasks lightly. Many people have discovered exactly how important repetitive tasks are; unfortunately it’s often only after making a costly mistake. Doing repetitive tasks as promptly and correctly as you can is the only way to go. Here are a few strategies that will help you do just that. Just do it. When you’re faced with a repetitive task, just do it. Give up all excuses, stop procrastinating, and make it happen. You’ll find that the hardest part is actually starting the task, and once you get into the groove, things will be easier than you thought. Don’t rush it. You may think that the faster you can move through a repetitive task, the better. But such a half-hearted approach won’t pay off in the end, because mistakes will eventually happen. Work efficiently, but don’t rush and be careless. And remember that if you always wait until the end of the day (when you’re likely to be most tired) you may be more apt to make mistakes. Check for quality, every time. No one is perfect and we all make mistakes. So, even if you took your time, it always pays to double check your work. Do a quick review, and make sure everything was done right and upholds to the quality your manager expects. Add your own twist. After, and only after, you’ve finished the repetitive task, find a way to make things easier the next time around. Maybe you can create a template or find a way to delegate. As long as the integrity of your work isn’t compromised, implementing methods to reduce the monotony of your work is a great idea. You may not be able to eliminate repetitive tasks from your job, but you can find ways to make them more easy and rewarding. After all, performing repetitive tasks in creative and unique ways can be quite an exciting challenge. “The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” —Anna Quindlen Joint Commission Develops Healthcare Services Certification The Joint Commission’s Health Care Services Certification Program is a new evaluation program for healthcare services, which are provided to patients in a wide variety of healthcare settings and play an important role in the management of direct patient care. The Joint Commission’s Health Care Services Certification Program incorporates the underlying concepts of clinical microsystems, studied extensively at Dartmouth College, which emphasize the importance of patient-centered care and teamwork in focusing on the frontline of service delivery. A microsystem is a small group of people who work together on a regular basis ― or an as-needed basis ― to provide care to a discrete sub-population of patients. The microsystem also includes the patients receiving care. The Health Care Services Certification Program is not Disease-Specific Care Certification, but rather an entirely new program that recognizes patient-centric care environments. The Joint Commission offers a basic, or primary, certification for healthcare programs that manage direct patient care services such as: Brain and spinal cord injury Cardiac care Geri-psychiatric Oncology Orthopedic Physical rehabilitation Subacute care Ventilator care Women’s healthcare Would care The organization is asking for individual evaluations and measures of interest in the program through an online survey. The survey is confidential and will take approximately seven to 10 minutes to complete. A Unique Sleeping Aide An elderly woman went into the doctor's office. When the doctor asked why she was there, she replied, "I'd like to have some birth control pills." Taken aback, the doctor thought for a minute and then said, "Excuse me, Mrs. Smith, but you're 75 years old. What possible use could you have for birth control pills?" The woman responded, "They help me sleep better." The doctor thought some more and continued, "How in the world do birth control pills help you to sleep?" The woman said, "I put them in my granddaughter's orange juice and I sleep better at night." |