Solution: Celebration, Recognition & Appreciation

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1 Solution: Celebration, Recognition & Appreciation The WHYs behind Celebration, Recognition & Appreciation Satisfied, happy employees will drive all other aspects of care toward excellence. What gets celebrated and recognized gets repeated! You have the opportunity to create a feeling of camaraderie and teamwork, as well as build relationships, with simple acts of celebration and recognition. This practice can help break down silos between departments. Practicing the art of recognition, celebration and appreciation will move your department and organization toward excellence very quickly. These acts build positivity in yourself and others. The Compliments to Criticism Ratio Your employees need a ratio of 3 or more compliments to every 1 criticism (3:1) A ratio of 1:1 (or even 2:1) will leave a negative feeling among employees (Barbara Fredrickson) Teams that operate in an environment where the compliment to criticism ratio is 3:1 are proven to be successful teams (Bryan Sexton) Your employees remember negativity louder and longer than they remember positivity The 3:1 ratio is challenging in healthcare where we are trained to look at what is wrong with a situation or a patient.we then start applying this view toward our employees Recognition and Appreciation are different. Recognition is in response to positive behavior, actions or results (or progress toward them); whereas appreciation is valuing an individual for their good qualities. A great resource that we have found on this topic is a TedX talk (The power of appreciation: Mike Robbins at TEDxBellevue) which is found at this link: 1 P a g e

2 Thank You Notes to Home Solution: Celebration, Recognition & Appreciation Thank You Notes mailed to an employee s home address are extremely low cost with very high return on the investment. When you send the note to home, other members of the employee s family will also be engaged in the celebration and recognition. This increases employee pride and is also a good tactic for recruiting the next generation of healthcare workers. The Basics of Thank You Notes Writing Thank You Notes is SIMPLE: Sincere- The note does not need to be mushy, but it must be real! Include the behavior you are recognizing. Be very specific. Manage up others when you can. Personalize to your style and handwrite the thank you note. Leave some white space; you do not need to fill up the whole card. Envelop the process into your weekly routine. Keep your ears open for recognition opportunities look for the positives all around you. 2 P a g e

3 Solution: Celebration, Recognition & Appreciation Implementing a Thank You Note Routine Create a required number of Thank You Notes you need to write each week. This makes it a habit - just like creating time to exercise in your weekly routine. Forward on recognition opportunities to Senior Leaders, including the CEO. Each organization should have a goal of each employee receiving a thank you note to their home from the CEO once every 2-3 years. How many thank you notes does each leader have to write weekly to make that happen? o Recommended Thank You Note Guidelines: Front line leaders send a minimum of one Thank You Note each week. Front line leaders recommend one each week to their senior leader to send. Senior leaders write more than one each week, based on the number forwarded to them from their front line leaders. Senior leaders recommend one each week for the CEO to send Mail it to the home address. Create a system to make this easy for leaders. Don t leave out opportunities to recognize physicians with a Thank You Note to Home. Develop thank you stationery that is available like other forms needed in the organization. This can provide a cost-savings. 3 P a g e

4 Solution: Celebration, Recognition & Appreciation Employee-to-Employee Recognition Create an organization-wide recognition process for employees to recognize other employees. If your organization has a Employee Experience Team, this is often a program that they develop, roll out and provide ongoing coordination for. An important point about employee-to-employee recognition programs is to make sure that it is utilized to recognize the appropriate performance standards and/or Behavior Standards. Employee-to-Employee recognition can be especially important when rolling out Behavior Standards and overall higher expectations for work performance. You could also encourage employees to write Thank You Notes to other employees. Employees can be filling each others emotional bank accounts and increase your team s compliments to criticisms ratio. Celebrating Goal Achievement (or progress toward goals) To speed up progress on your journey to excellence, recognition for goal achievement, or progress toward goals, is a recommended tool. Some ways to do this: Goal Achievement Banners hung in departments in which a specific goal was met. Recognition in employee newsletters, community publications, public displays, at employee forums or in the monthly CEO communication. If you have a Recognition Team empower them to get creative with this. Invite patients, physicians and employees family members to celebrate as well. Seek out your Chief Party Officers who can assist in creating these celebrations. 4 P a g e

5 Annual Awards Solution: Celebration, Recognition & Appreciation Many organizations recognize staff for longevity (longevity awards, longevity bonuses). Another recommended award system can be to create awards that are tied to your organization s values. If you value learning, have a preceptor or educator award. If you value teamwork, have a team award. If you value your high performing staff, have annual awards with criteria that recognizes their valuable contributions to the success of the organization. Consider including family members in celebrations so that they can show their pride as well. Additionally, your celebrations can be themed (e.g., a red carpet event with senior leaders in formal attire to recognize the stars of the organization). Patients-to-Employee Recognition Customers may also be included in systems for employee recognition in several ways: If a thank you letter or or phone call is received from a patient, it can be circulated via the internal system. Let patients know about how to nominate employees for applicable awards. Participate in the Daisy Foundation award for nurses. When patients mention an employee by name in a patient satisfaction survey post it in the department, put the employee s name in a prize drawing, or add a note in the employee s personnel file. When rounding with patients, harvest recognition opportunities for staff and physicians. 5 P a g e

6 Employee Recognition Toolkit Solution: Celebration, Recognition & Appreciation To make employee recognition fun, convenient and easy, a well stocked Recognition Toolkit can be very helpful. The idea is for leaders to recognize staff often. Recognition doesn t have to be elaborate or expensive it must be heartfelt and sincere.even if it is fun. A teambuilding activity at a Leadership Training could generate lots of Toolkit content ideas. Some ideas for your Recognition Toolkit: Scratch off lottery cards ( with a note that says: We are lucky to have you on our team. Thanks for.. ). Candy such as Kudos, Lifesavers, Mr. Goodbar, Starburst. Blank certificates for Team Player, Complaint Resolution, Going the Extra Mile, Morale Booster, Living Our Values, Coworker Support, Good Humor, Star Performer and many more. Pre-printed stickers (to wear on a uniform), pre-printed post-it notes and/or magnets (for a locker or computer). Trinkets with your organization s logo and thanks (e.g. stress balls, stars, badges) and a listing of ideas for recognition & celebration to aid leaders. To keep the Toolkit in action, create a process for replenishing supplies when they run out (.and allocated funds for recognition/celebration/morale). To keep the Toolkit fresh and fun, have an annual leadership event to create new ideas for new contents for the Toolkits for the coming year. 6 P a g e