Home Health & Hospice Week

Follow this expert advice to create a ‘get it done’ culture in your agency.

Think your employees will perform their tasks expertly no matter whether they care about the overall agency or not? Think again.

When your employees stop caring about your company and its objectives, their productivity levels plummet, warns Marcus Buckingham, author of First Break all The Rules.

Employees who don’t value their work — or feel valued by their employers — are more likely to look elsewhere for a job. And they won’t worry about meeting your goals in the meantime.

But you can both measure and maintain your workers’ engagement level. Here’s how:

Step 1: Survey Employees’ Satisfaction Level

If you don’t know how satisfied your employees are with your agency and its practices, you can’t begin to develop a strategy for keeping them engaged in providing quality products and services.

Better: You must devise a method for measuring how connected and engaged your employees are. Buckingham suggests you try one of these field-tested tactics:

• Employee survey: Large companies or departments within them can more efficiently gauge their employees’ engagement level with a survey.

Why: Whether electronic or paper-based, a survey provides anonymity while giving employees the opportunity to express their feelings openly and honestly.

• Personal interviews: Surveys can seem impersonal and may not suss out the information you truly need to know. For smaller businesses, a face-to-face interview can more quickly get to the heart of any problems or needs.

Remember: You must assure your employees that what they say in confidence will be kept that way and won’t be used against them. Establish a policy that allows them to trust you and let their guards down so that your talk will be successful.

Step 2: Pinpoint Your Top Two Most-Needed Changes

After you survey or talk with your employees, you’ll have a much better grasp of what your employees need from your company to stay engaged.

Next step: Identify your employees’ key areas of complaint. Determine which two or three have the most potential for boosting your employees’ engagement level if you implemented changes.

For instance, if three out of five employees confide that they don’t feel challenged by their daily tasks or 15 out of 30 complain that they aren’t recognized for their achievements, you should take heed and find a way to fix the problem.

Step 3: Create An Action Plan

You know what your employees need to remain engaged in your company’s success. Now you must implement those new policies or procedures that will make it happen.

Do this: Brainstorm small ways you can turn around employee morale and enthusiasm. Consider how you can change employees’ daily routines or expectations without completely overhauling your company’s culture.

Example: If your employees want more recognition for their hard work, you might offer certificates of appreciation or other tokens to show them how valuable their contributions are to your company.