With an engaged workforce, companies can experience innovation, growth and productivity, not to mention a vital environment where people are excited about their work – and stay.
A study in the Organization Development Journal (The Human Resource Craze: Human Performance Improvement and Employee Engagement. Organization Development Journal, Quarter 2, 2008, Vol. 26, No. 1, P. 69; Endres, Grace M; Mancheno-Smoak, Lolita) reports that companies that want to build an engaged workforce focus on the following things:
- Make sure that what your employees are doing is aligned with company goals and values.
- Give employees the tools and the freedom to innovate and to do their jobs well.
- Build, nurture and encourage teams.
- Recognize and reward worker accomplishments.
- Help workers grow and develop knowledge and skills.
In that situation, the company is frequently reliant on regional managers and community administrators or executive directors to implement and ensure these processes.
And therein lies some of the problem, especially if the company experiences turnover in their key positions.
One administrator told me yesterday that in the company he currently works, his 16 months of employment have made him the #6 person in seniority within the entire, multi-facility company.
Another mentioned the fact that her regional manager has changed three times in the past few years.
Turnover, even in key high-wage positions, is still a fact of life in this profession. It falls, then, to leadership at the very top to establish policies, procedures and, most importantly, systems that can be implemented company-wide to build the strongest direct-care workforce possible.
It’s a choice between constantly fighting fires to keep the corporate ship afloat, or having the resources to build an engaged, productive, energized workforce throughout the company – one that clearly knows the goals and values of the company and practices them in their daily work, regardless of management changes.
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