In the old days, employers told workers what was expected, employees did their jobs and earned their pay. Case closed. 

However, there's no guarantee that an employee performs with any sense of pride or passion for their work. In fact, a June, 2015 Gallup study of more than 6,600 employees nationwide shows that less than 70 percent of staff members are fully engaged (defined as involved, enthusiastic and committed), in their jobs. 

While managers and other executives were seen as most engaged, only 28 percent of individuals in service related jobs were labeled engaged. What's the solution?  Measure the engagement levels of the staff and providers in your organization and take measures to improve.

Karen Maxwell, Vice President of Human Resources, at Cincinnati Eye Institute (CEI) knows what an effective tool insider engagement surveys are. "We use them to learn if our perceptions of staff morale and satisfaction match reality." Conducting the physician, staff and manager surveys each year by Internet allows CEI to develop an action plan with specific strategies for improvement.

According to Karen, the staff members are eager to complete the survey. "It's relatively brief, online and we provide a "thank you" Hershey bar when they're done." CEI's response rate, 92%, is among the highest received by SullivanLuallin Group clients.

The following are typical topics and a few sample questions that are addressed in an engagement survey. (The rating scale is a four point scale: Agree Strongly; Agree Somewhat; Disagree Somewhat; Disagree Strongly) 

Teamwork and cooperation

• Physicians usually praise employees for good performance
• My supervisor gives clear instructions

Communication

• I understand our mission, goals, and policies

Working Conditions

• I feel proud when I tell people where I work

The open ended questions are often the most telling. Consider asking, "Would you refer a member of your family for care at our practice?" (If the answer is NO, please tell us why not.)

CEI added a custom question, "Cincinnati Eye Institute is a great place to work" and asked to what extent insiders agreed. It's the question that the organization focuses most improvement efforts on.

In addition to staff member surveys, conducting "mirror" surveys (same questions as staff survey with minor wording differences) of providers and supervisors can make excellent points. For example, in one New York practice, when doctors were asked to rate themselves on "I usually praise employees for good performance" 77.0% agreed strongly. When employees were asked the same question only 21.5% agreed strongly. Even more disturbing, only 11.6% of the supervisors agreed strongly! Management used the data to encourage doctors to be more proactive in showing appreciation to staff members.

Easy email distribution

Rather than using paper surveys, employees, supervisors and providers respond to an email invitation, log-on to a website, enter a password and complete the questionnaire. With the online survey, there are no concerns about management identifying anyone by their handwriting! Within a few days of the cut-off date, reports are generated (and if you engage SullivanLuallin to assist with the survey) with benchmarks against other MGMA practices.

To see an actual online survey, go to www.satsurveys.com and use PIN "1234." To view a manager survey, use "mgr" as the PIN, and for a look at the provider survey, enter "md" as the PIN. 

For further information, give us a call at (619) 283-8988 or respond to Answers@SullivanLuallinGroup.com.