Whether an organization’s employees and leadership realize it or not, every organization has a culture. It’s defined by what the people of the organization do—culture is the sum of all behaviors. Do employees go out of the way to help each other? Is there a unified approach to the way employees treat customers?

It’s different for every company, but the behaviors that define a culture are always there. The question is: Is it the culture you want? If it’s not, it’s possible to transform the existing culture into one that supports the short- and long-term success of the organization.

What is Culture Transformation?

Culture transformation is a shift that can take place throughout an entire organization or in individual departments and teams. It requires changing the hearts, minds, and skills of the workforce to support the desired culture. Individuals must first have the conviction (heart) to change their behavior. Then, they must understand what behavior change looks like (mind) and have the necessary tools (skills) to change.

As Eagle’s Flight founder Phil Geldart so aptly put it in his book, Purpose, Passion, Path:

“The exact nature of a culture transformation is simply that the people within the organization are behaving differently in some fashion, on a consistent basis, and that different behavior is being supported by each manager. The results of adopting those new behaviors will result in improved metrics, or outcomes consistent with what has been determined as essential for the long-term success, and maybe even survival, of the organization. The transformation will be achieved when the desired results, or metrics have been achieved. A transformation is therefore a process whereby, over time, people behave differently and the organization benefits in some fashion as a result. If these benefits are required, then a transformation is necessary.”

This is a lot to digest, but when you break it down, it is an achievable goal. The first step is to determine why a transformation of culture is needed. The second is to learn how to do it most effectively.

Why Undergo a Culture Transformation?

The underlying reason behind a culture transformation must be to achieve corporate objectives. Without this impetus, there will not be sufficient motivation to maintain the necessary momentum to create lasting behavior change. The specific objectives will depend on where your organization currently is and where you want to be. They might include goals such as:

• Improving safety
• Delivering excellent customer service
• Engaging employees
• Fostering leadership excellence

Regardless of what your corporate objectives are, they must be clear from the beginning so you can use them as touchstones throughout the process.

How to Achieve a Culture Transformation

A successful transformation requires full engagement and buy-in from all levels of leadership throughout the organization. Leaders play a vital role in modeling and coaching the desired behaviors that will permeate the company. Without a commitment from leaders to transform the culture, employees are not likely to make lasting behavior changes on their own.

After getting all the key players on board, create a roadmap that addresses the following questions:

Where are we now?

Perform assessments to diagnose where the organization actually is versus where you think it is. Leadership sometimes has a different perception of the culture, so it is important to collect accurate data and input from the organization as a whole. In order to determine how the majority of the organization perceives the company culture, use the following cultural transformation tools to get started:

• Surveys
• Focus groups
• Interviews with high-potential employees
• One-on-one interviews with executives
• Digital voting platforms

Gathering this information will help you successfully take on the next step of the culture transformation journey.

Where do we want to be?

Set organizational goals and objectives so you know when you have succeeded. This might be a market expansion, becoming innovative leaders in your industry, or standing out as a company that provides extraordinary customer service. Or it might be higher employee engagement and lower staff turnover. Whatever your specific objectives are, they must be clearly defined so that you know what success looks like.

Why do we want to change?

Clearly articulate the reason for the change. This includes communicating with both leaders who will support the transformation and employees who will have a hand in making the transformation actually happen. Examples of reasons include:

• Fixing a problem or filling a gap
• Capitalizing on an opportunity
• Entering new markets
• Attracting and retaining top talent

As Phil Geldart writes, “When people understand the benefits that will occur as a result of a successful transformation, or even during the journey, then they are much more willing and able to support all the efforts that are required to achieve it” (Purpose, Passion, Path).

What is our line of sight?

After determining where the organization currently is, where you want to be, and why you want to get there, the next step is to create a line of sight from the beginning to the end of the transformation process. After defining the path, this line of sight must be continuously highlighted so it stays top-of-mind throughout the transformation. This can be achieved through periodic check-ins, milestone celebrations, and measuring success along the way.

Conclusion: Corporate Culture Is A Demanding But Worthwhile Investment

Simply stated, culture transformation is the collective shifting of individual behaviors to support a shared goal. It’s a demanding process, but can be achieved and is highly rewarding when done properly. Therefore, start by knowing exactly why a culture transformation is necessary and then answer the listed questions. Once you do, you will have taken an important step in the process of shifting your corporate culture.

Corporate culture is often defined as a set of shared beliefs and values that influence the behaviors and actions of employees. It can also be helpful to think of culture as the personality of the organization—the combination of a company’s history, vision, people, and environment.

In a survey of 1,800 global CEOs and CFOs conducted by Duke’s Fuqua School of Business, 78 percent named culture as one of the top five factors impacting overall company value. In addition, 92 percent said that improving their company culture would improve the value of their company. Whether you’re in the process of building a high-performing culture or you’ve identified some aspect of your culture that you want to change, one thing is for sure: Your culture has an impact on the overall success of the company.

To better understand corporate culture and the elements of it that you can change or adjust, it’s necessary to understand its key components:

Vision and Values

The backbone of an organization’s culture is the organization’s vision and purpose and how these things will help it survive and compete in the market. Values describe the employee behaviors and mindset required to achieve the company vision. Together, the vision and values serve as guidelines for how employees are expected to lead, behave, and communicate.

Some of your company values may be aspirational, while others may already be a part of your culture. For example, a technology company may have core values of zero-defect product delivery (aspirational) and innovation (a value they already possess).

As you examine your culture, it will be helpful to routinely evaluate your vision and values statement, because it may need to be altered as the organization grows and times change. At all times, however, employees need to understand the vision and values, as well as the associated behaviors that are expected of them.

Practices and People

Perhaps the most important component of corporate culture is the people—the “culture carriers.” Customers, prospective hires, and other stakeholders will understand your company culture from their interactions with and observations of employees.

Because employee behaviors impact corporate culture, targeted skills training can be used to teach employees the behaviors that support the culture you want to build. Employee behaviors, both innate and learned, define corporate culture. Some examples include:

• Traits and skills of leaders: the degree to which individuals lead by example and cultivate desired behaviors in others
• Communication: how employees share information and deliver feedback
• Camaraderie: how employees have fun and build a sense of community within the organization
• Teamwork/collaboration: the degree to which individual input and perspective is respected and considered in group problem-solving and decision-making

Narrative

Every organization has a unique story that undeniably shapes its culture. When elements of the company’s narrative are shared and retold over time, they become a significant part of the culture. Examples of narrative/storytelling activities that help shape corporate culture include:

• Celebrations that remind employees of important company milestones and successes
• Rituals and routines, such as annual meetings, that recognize newly promoted employees, or a program that brings a special guest to speak to employees at the same time each year
• Company folklore and legends

Environment/Place

The environment in which people do their work, collaborate, and make decisions is a critical component of corporate culture. For example, geographic regions tend to attract different kinds of companies and employees, as in the case of Silicon Valley for tech firms. Within companies, location can help shape culture as well. Trading floors in brokerage firms engender a culture of loud conversation and a lightning-fast pace of work. In many office environments, flexible-use gathering places and conference-type rooms support a collaborative culture among employees.

While there may be many answers to the question “what is corporate culture?”, it is ultimately shaped by the vision and values that drive the behaviors and attitudes of the people involved. All of the components of corporate culture are impacted by important decisions you make and the type of culture you want to build. You can achieve your desired culture with a mix of training and other activities that impact employee behavior. In addition, a culture transformation may necessary in order to achieve larger organizational culture goals.

Organizational success is dependent on a lot of factors, both internal and external. When it comes to the people in the company, there are three primary components that must be optimized: structure, talent, and behavior. Like a three-legged stool, if any one of these components is lacking, the organization gets less stable and less able to withstand external pressures. However, when all three components are fully developed and in place, the path to organizational success is much easier to navigate.

It’s important not to develop each of these pillars in vacuums. They all depend on each other and should be strengthened equally. Follow these tips to optimize the three components of organizational success for your company.

1. Structure: The Right Roles in the Right Places

No matter how much talent you have in the organization, if the right people aren’t in the right roles or don’t have the authority to execute their roles properly, they won’t be able to fulfill their potential. This is where structure comes in. There is no single structure that is right for every organization. Even similar companies in the same industry might have different approaches, and each of them could be effective. When determining organizational structure, it’s important to consider two criteria: aligning with the strategy and providing the appropriate authority.

Official and Unofficial Hierarchies

The structure of an organization is defined by both official and unofficial hierarchies. Official hierarchies are the relationships between executives, senior leaders, line managers, team leaders, and every individual in the organization. These relationships are critical for conveying the organizational vision, communicating the strategy for achieving it, and providing performance feedback.

Unofficial hierarchies exist in every organization, and the most successful ones recognize this and foster these relationships in a positive way. These are the day-to-day working relationships that allow individuals to learn from others’ expertise, make quick decisions, and operate productively. Because these unofficial hierarchies can play a significant role in performance, it’s important to empower people to build these relationships.

Clear Communication About Structure

Having a clear structure allows organizations to work more effectively toward a common goal. Every organization’s structure is different. Even two companies with the same official structure will have unofficial hierarchies that make each of them unique. The structure must be clearly defined and communicated to everyone in the organization, regardless of the parameters.

Without a clear structure, employees don’t know who to go to for approvals or where they should seek advice. This leads to confusion and potentially a diversion from the vision. It’s also important to remember that structures evolve over time, so continue to communicate as roles change.

Strategic Alignment

When deciding who reports to whom, don’t rely on company history or management theory. Always bring it back to the overall strategy of the organization and ask whether the structure supports it. This approach could result in the formation of new departments, restructuring of teams, changes in reporting relationships, or other decisions that might rock the boat. Don’t be afraid to make a change if your current structure is not supporting organizational goals—remember that this is a critical component of success. As the strategy evolves over time, check to make sure that the structure still supports it. If not, determine what changes need to be made to help you reach your goals.

Authority

Structure without authority does not fully allow individuals to execute strategies. Individuals must know what degree of authority they have and in what areas. However, providing the right amount of authority can be a challenge. Too much can be unwieldy and result in poor decisions; too little can impede progress.

Decide how much authority each role should have based on its goals and objectives and alignment with roles at higher levels. Ensure that the individuals in those roles have the right competencies to handle the level of authority they have, and provide the necessary training to fill in any gaps. It is also important to recognize when individuals are ready to take on more authority so you can maximize your talent pool. Don’t assume that the individuals at higher levels need to take on more and more authority. On the contrary, the more they can release to the rising leaders in the organization, the more time and bandwidth they will have to focus on strategy and the larger organizational vision.

2. Talent: Skilled Individuals in the Right Roles

The perfect structure won’t get you far if you don’t have talented people in each role. It’s also critical that people are in the right roles that allow them to perform at their highest level.

Understanding Talent

The skills and knowledge that each employee brings to the table make up the talent component of organizational success. Although talent can be innate, it can also be taught, shaped, enhanced, and developed. Because it can be improved over time, there is a certain amount of potential talent in any organization that should be accounted for in addition to the current stock of talent. It’s this potential talent that contributes to the longevity of an organization and provides a competitive advantage.

Talent Development

The only way to tap into this potential is to invest in it through training and development programs that enable individuals to continually learn and grow. This investment should extend to leadership training to ensure that executives and managers have the skills and knowledge to effectively harness the talent that is being developed. As individuals move through the organizational hierarchy, it’s critical that they learn the necessary skills for performing their roles; structure needs talent to maintain its integrity. Every organization has a certain amount of current potential talent available. It’s what you do with it that determines how successful the company will be.

Although it’s important to zoom out and look at the big picture of having the right people in the right roles, the only way to ensure that people are ready to step into those roles is to focus on individual talent. For each individual, look at their strengths and identify the areas that most need to be developed. These might be functional, interpersonal, or leadership skills. Set standards for each of these areas and assess how each individual performs relative to those standards. This helps you identify the competency gaps that need to be filled. Create individual development plans with goals and milestones to help individuals get to the next level. When they have done this, start over with new assessments and create a new plan that addresses the next set of goals.

3. Behavior: Effective Interactions Between Individuals, Teams, and Leaders

Having a solid structure in place with the right people in the right roles is still not enough to consistently achieve organizational success. The final piece of the puzzle is behavior. How those people interact with each other and perform in their individual roles will inform how the organization performs overall.

Even with the most talented individuals in the right roles, an organization will not reach its full potential if the behaviors of individuals do not promote success. Some of the success factors that heavily rely on individual behaviors include an organization’s ability to innovate, interactions between teams, and continuously improving processes. Some of the behaviors that promote or discourage success include the way employees interact with each other and leaders, the way leaders respond to employees, and the manner in which colleagues from different teams communicate.

Cultivating and Changing Behaviors

The goal is to have individual and team behaviors in alignment with the company culture and the vision of the organization. Every individual in the organization must understand the behaviors that are expected of them, and in many cases, training must be provided to teach new behaviors. Leaders must also model and coach the desired behaviors. Without these examples, it’s unrealistic to expect individual employees to make a change.

Finding the Right Balance

Organizational culture can range from one in which everybody is fully empowered to make decisions to one in which the leaders make all of the decisions. Where an organization falls on this spectrum informs the way people behave. Regardless of where your company is on the spectrum, make sure individuals have the necessary tools to operate in that environment. For example, in an empowered culture, employees must have the necessary skill set to consider and understand the consequences of their actions. The bottom line is, when an organization expects certain behaviors, it must provide the training necessary to enable individuals to meet those expectations.

Conclusion

The three components of organizational success—structure, talent, and behavior—cannot stand alone and must be in balance with each other. Take a holistic view when focusing on any one of these elements to ensure one area does not become disproportionately stronger than the others. Implement a training and development program to support each of these three critical elements to harness the full potential of every individual in the organization. Do this consistently over time, and you have the formula for organizational success.

Measuring a company’s culture can be a challenging undertaking. While some parameters are clearly definable, others are more difficult to pin down. However, when your objective is to shift a company’s culture, it’s important to measure progress to determine if your efforts are resulting in your desired outcomes.

When you consider that a company culture is the sum of individual behaviors, it becomes easier to identify measurement techniques. Making the transition from one culture to another requires behavioral change on an individual level, which is more difficult than you might expect. Even after an inspiring training event, it’s easy to slip back into old habits, especially when employees are faced with the daily pressures of their jobs. However, when individuals collectively make changes over time, the cycle is repeated, new norms are created, and the result is a new culture.

Let’s take a look at the seven measurement techniques that can be used throughout a successful culture transformation.

1. Pulse Checks

Before even starting a culture transformation initiative, it’s important to know the current state of the organization. A pulse check is a short questionnaire used to first capture the baseline culture and then measure change over defined periods of time. For example, you might ask employees to do a pulse check once every quarter to measure changes in responses to questions about how well the leadership models behavior that embodies the company culture.

2. Key Milestones

An important component of culture change is clearly articulating the expected standard and identifying what must be done to achieve it. Creating key milestones over a period of 18 to 36 months gives employees and managers benchmarks to work toward. These milestones also help sustain the momentum of culture change over time. Many culture shifts start with a big push but can fizzle after a few months as employees revert to their old habits. Keeping these key milestones at the forefront as a measurement tool can help sustain the energy as people work to incorporate new behaviors into their daily jobs.

3. Knowledge Testing

In the early stages of a culture transformation, it’s important to know if the new information being delivered during training is understood by participants. If the training didn’t resonate, you can’t reasonably expect changes in behavior. Knowledge testing in the days and weeks after training will confirm that employees learned the desired skills or will provide evidence that further training is required.

4. Mobile Boost Learning

After confirmation that the training was effective, fight the effects of learning decay with a tool like mobile boost learning. Meant to reinforce (not reteach) knowledge already acquired, boost learning can help keep new concepts and behaviors top of mind. Mobile tools can deliver short messages to reinforce behaviors that lead to better quality, efficiency, productivity, or whatever your defined culture change goals are.

5. Self-Assessments

As time progresses during a culture change, employees reach a point where they understand what is expected of them, have the tools to make the desired changes, and are making a genuine effort to apply new skills and change their own behavior. During this stage, self-assessments are valuable tools that allow employees to test these new behaviors in a safe environment. Working with a manager who is able to set clear goals for specific tasks ensures that employees are able to try a new behavior, make corrections, and generate feedback that contributes to lasting change.

6. Multi-Rater Assessments

The next stage in a culture transformation is when employees are not just testing new behaviors, but fully deploying them. At this point, multi-rater assessments that gather feedback from managers, customers, and direct reports can help refine these behaviors even further and optimize the culture. This level of measurement is not necessarily appropriate for every organization going through a culture transformation, as it demands more resources and a level of rigor that not every company needs. However, for organizations that want to achieve a certain level of performance, multi-rater assessments can be a valuable tool.

7. Culture Impact Scorecard

All of the results from the above assessment tools can be combined into a culture impact scorecard or digital dashboard that allows you to centrally manage and communicate the importance of the culture in the organization. Having all of the data in a single location enables you to correlate all of the phases in adopting a new company culture.

• Training
• Knowledge
• Application
• Behavior change
• Culture transformation
• Business impact

Can each of these culture transformation tools be used independently? Of course, but if you want to get the most from your training investment and measure how much of an impact your culture transformation program have on organizational goals, it’s important to employ measurement tools during each phase and tie them all together into a snapshot view. Measuring a company culture is not as simple as taking an occasional survey, but with a smart strategy and the right tools, you can measure transformation in action.

Having a culture of collaboration helps organizations maximize employee knowledge and capabilities. Ideas and information spread more easily when employees communicate and collaborate across functional and departmental lines, which can have a positive impact on company performance. A study conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity found that companies with a collaborative culture are 5.5 times more likely to be high-performing than companies that don’t have one.

Creating a culture of collaboration can be a struggle for companies because of unclear expectations, lack of follow-through, or employees that may not have the skill or desire to collaborate. Here are five strategies that can help to overcome those challenges and learn how to transform your culture to be more collaborative:

1. Communicate a Clear Vision

Collaboration can look different from company to company, so it makes sense to establish your desired behaviors and attributes and what the organization will look like once a collaborative culture has taken hold. The vision for a collaborative culture needs to be communicated broadly to employees and constantly reinforced so that it doesn’t become just a “flavor of the month.” A clear vision that cascades from senior leadership helps employees see a line of sight to the end goal, allowing them to build commitment as the organization moves closer to realizing the vision.

2. Hire and Develop Collaborative Leaders

Like any important company objective, building a collaborative culture requires the buy-in and support of company leaders. Without leaders to carry the company vision, efforts to build a culture of collaboration are likely to suffer. Some ways to gain leadership support include:

• Attracting and hiring leaders who have a collaborative management style, a strong commitment to teamwork and resource-sharing, and the ability to encourage collaboration in their teams.
• Implementing a leadership training and development program that teaches them how to communicate expectations, model collaborative behavior through their example, and coach others to improve.
• Recognizing and rewarding leaders who demonstrate a strong commitment to the company’s vision for a collaborative work culture.

3. Create Opportunities for Collaboration

Collaboration can’t happen if employees aren’t in situations where they need to reach across team lines to accomplish their goals. Joint team projects, cross-functional focus groups, and company chat rooms built around a common company objective are examples of ways to bring teams together so they can build shared experiences and benefit from each other’s ideas and capabilities. Experiential learning, where employees learn by doing, can also help individuals learn and practice the behaviors they can use on a daily basis to be more collaborative. Not everyone will be comfortable collaborating at first, so it might be necessary to provide training that encourages them to do so and equips them with the skills they need to succeed in the new culture.

4. Leverage Social Collaboration Tools

In the digital age, internal social networks and cloud-based tools can be instrumental in helping employees collaborate. Collaboration is no longer limited to a group of people in a conference room or on a conference call. A survey of business professionals found that 83 percent said they depend on technology to collaborate, while 82 percent said the loss of collaboration technology would negatively impact them. Collaboration tools can also help to bring teams together that work in different geographies and time zones, breaking down barriers that might previously have prevented individuals from communicating frequently.

5. Reinforce and Revisit

Creating a culture of collaboration, like any important company initiative, doesn’t happen overnight, especially if the organization has historically been divided into silos and is not used to working collaboratively. Continuous monitoring and reinforcement are necessary to ensure sustained behavior change and prevent employees from falling back into their old behaviors. Reinforcement activities can be most effective when employees have the tools they need to be effective and leaders are equipped to answer questions, problem-solve, and provide ongoing employee feedback. Examples of reinforcement tools and activities include:

• Team building activities that encourage individuals to practice their skills, build trust, and reinforce supportive relationships. These can include a major company event off-site or smaller-scale daily activities.
• Surveys that gauge employees’ views of the company’s culture and how it impacts their behavior.
• Assessments and content boosts that reinforce what employees have already learned in earlier training.

Conclusion: Creating a Culture of Collaboration Is Possible!

Companies sometimes struggle to foster a culture of collaboration, but it’s not always for lack of trying. Any kind of culture shift is no small undertaking and takes time, patience, and regular reinforcement. With a clear vision, strong leaders, and tools and experiences that support collaborative behaviors, a culture of collaboration is possible.

Employee retention is a concern in every industry because employee turnover is costly and disruptive for organizations, teams, and clients. According to a report compiled by Nursing Solutions, Inc., the turnover rate in hospitals right now is 16.2%, with the average cost of turnover for a bedside RN ranging from $38,900 to $59,700, costing hospitals an average of $5.13M to $7.86M each year. When you consider that each percent change in turnover will cost or save a hospital $410,500 annually, it’s clear that employee retention strategies in healthcare are worthy of serious consideration.

However, the healthcare industry as a whole is not sufficiently addressing employee retention. The same report indicates that 85.7% of hospitals see employee retention as a key strategic imperative, but only 43.4% have a formal retention strategy. Additionally, a Leaders for Today survey showed that 37% of healthcare professionals plan to leave their current hospital within the next two years, and 68.6% plan to leave within five years, reinforcing the seriousness of this continuing problem.

5 Employee Retention Strategies in Healthcare

That being said, addressing employee retention with an ongoing strategy can help reduce turnover, increase patient satisfaction, and improve the overall experience of your employees. Consider these five approaches as you develop or update your retention strategy.

1. Improve Engagement

Low employee engagement in the healthcare industry can be the result of many factors, including unpredictable schedules, excessive overtime, heavy workloads, and a lack of flexibility in the workplace. Though some of these contributing factors may be unavoidable, leadership has the power to play a role in improving hospital staff engagement. Some examples of specific actions leadership can take include:

• Recognizing excellence in patient care
• Celebrating teamwork
• Conducting surveys to learn about the most pressing issues to employees
• Taking action on the results of the surveys
• Doing informal check-ins with staff
• Communicating and managing change effectively and in a timely manner

2. Foster Teamwork and Communication

Teamwork among healthcare workers is an essential element in creating a positive patient experience. Rarely do individual healthcare providers deliver service entirely on their own. Most of the time they operate in teams, and providing excellent patient service requires having the skills to do this effectively. Developing communication skills among team members is essential for reducing errors, resolving conflicts, and creating clarity around task assignments. Good communication between leadership and teams is also important. When leadership is able to clearly communicate expectations and organizational goals, teams are better able to prioritize tasks and understand how their roles fit into the larger hospital strategy. Clear lines of communication also give employees points of contact, where they know they can get answers to their questions.

3. Provide Competitive Compensation

Retaining good employees requires maintaining job satisfaction and engagement among your staff, and compensation is a primary driver in this area. As the healthcare industry continues to grow and the demand for quality employees increases, competitive salaries, bonuses, and other benefits are becoming more important for staff retention.  Given the high cost of turnover, it is the responsibility of leadership to weigh it against the cost of competitive compensation.

4. Give Recognition Where Recognition Is Due

In addition to competitive compensation, there are other ways to reward healthcare professionals for the valuable work they do. Although they may receive positive feedback from patients, it’s also important for them to feel appreciated by their leaders and peers. Ideas for recognizing good work include:

• Annual recognition dinners
• Awards for exceptional service
• Extra time off
• “Shout-outs” or other informal but public communications that recognize exceptional efforts and explain why they are worthy of recognition

Reward and recognition can help drive engagement and contribute to better staff retention. However, rewards can only go so far, especially when an employee feels that they are already compensated appropriately and performing at their highest level. Healthcare professionals want to feel that they are making a difference. For many, this is why they chose this particular career path. Recognizing healthcare staff for their contributions to the patient experience and the organizational goals can go a long way toward keeping them engaged and motivated.

5. Invest in Education and Continual Learning

Ongoing education and professional development can help healthcare professionals improve both their technical and people skills, both of which are essential for providing an exceptional patient experience, improving productivity, and increasing employee satisfaction. Here are two ways to promote continual learning at your organization:

1. Demonstrate a clear growth path: According to the Leaders for Today survey, the lowest-ranked parameter for workplace satisfaction is having the opportunity for career advancement. Having an employee development plan will help keep valuable staff engaged with your organization because they know there will be opportunities for growth in their future.
2. Provide training opportunities: The second-lowest-ranked parameter is having the opportunity to learn and develop new skills. Having a training program in place ensures that employees are being given the tools to help them achieve their career goals, improve the patient experience, and support the organization as a whole.

Healthcare employee retention is a significant challenge to the industry, and employee turnover is not good for anyone involved. It is expensive for organizations, worrying for employees who want a stable work environment, and does not create a positive environment for patients. Addressing some of the largest gaps with these five recommended strategies can help your hospital or healthcare organization reduce employee turnover and attract new, qualified candidates, because your employees, current and potential, will feel valued and excited about being part of the organization. It’s also important to include all employees in these opportunities—encourage everyone in the organization equally to seek improvement opportunities, and ensure they know they have your support.

A high-performance culture helps the organization achieve high levels of performance and results consistently over time. It’s no wonder then that building a high-performance culture is a chief goal for many organizations as it can mean the difference between stagnation and growth, competitiveness and being left behind. Regardless of industry, company size, or location, high-performance cultures can be identified by a range of common attributes. Here are four common characteristics of a high-performance culture:

Even with the right strategy, the necessary budget, and the most efficient systems in place, achieving the desired results comes down to a company’s most important resource: people. Keeping a team engaged and excited about their work can be a challenge for leadership at every level, which is why having a motivation strategy is so important.

Even when people are passionate about their work, it’s easy to get bogged down in the daily grind and lose motivation. Understanding why individuals lose motivation and how to overcome those hurdles will help you develop a motivation strategy that keeps employees enthusiastic and engaged. Use these six strategies to inspire your team to go the extra mile.

1. Communicate the “why”

Understanding what is required to complete a certain task or project is just part of the equation. In order for employees to stay motivated, they must also understand why they are doing it. When leaders clearly communicate the overall vision and keep it at the forefront through consistent communication, employees will have a deeper appreciation for the work they are being asked to do. Even the most mundane task can take on new importance when the reasons behind it are understood and embraced.

2. Create a culture of collaboration

People are much more motivated to complete a task or project if they feel that they have some ownership of it. One way to accomplish this is by inviting participation through a culture of collaboration. When employees know that their ideas and opinions are welcome, expected, and heard, they will become more engaged. Individuals who are able to provide input in the earlier stages of development and throughout the course of a project are more likely to be motivated to see it through to the end and do their best work because they have a sense of ownership and pride in the outcomes.

3. Show your appreciation

Although rewards and incentives can be great motivators, sometimes a few words of gratitude can have a much deeper and longer-lasting impact. Individuals want to know that their efforts are appreciated. When leadership acknowledges their accomplishments, both publicly and privately, this genuine praise can go a long way. Don’t wait until a project is finished to show your gratitude and give credit. Acknowledge the late nights, clever ideas, and other positive moments as they happen.

4. Set challenging but realistic goals

Give teams a challenge that will help them grow as individuals and as a team, offering people an opportunity to do work that extends beyond what they have always done. The occasional special project or urgent push to meet a deadline can help recharge a team that feels stuck in the daily routine. They might find different ways to work together, discover a new sense of camaraderie, or develop new skills that they can use to improve other projects. Make sure the goal is realistic and achievable so that the experience is motivating and not discouraging.

5. Provide development opportunities

People get excited when they learn something new, especially when it helps them do their jobs better. Provide ongoing training and development opportunities for both teams and individuals that enable people to continually improve and hone their skill sets. When teams learn something new together, it helps them bond and build new connections. When individuals bring new skills back to the team environment, it can lift everybody up.

6. Create a positive working environment

No matter what motivation strategy you execute, if the daily working environment is unpleasant, it’s difficult for people to get excited about going to work. Think about how each employee spends their day. Do they have the opportunity to take a break in a comfortable, welcoming space? How do coworkers treat each other? It’s up to leadership to create the type of working environment that sparks inspiration and keeps people motivated. This means that leadership has to create an inviting workspace and model the types of behaviors that contribute to this type of culture.

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of the many ways you can motivate and inspire your team. Think about strategies that will be most effective for your teams and make a plan for executing them. Some approaches, such as expressing appreciation and gratitude, can be implemented immediately and become part of the culture. Others, such as implementing a training and development program, will take more time to fully execute. Remember that people are your organization’s most valuable resource and that investing in them can provide invaluable returns.

Although they might not be directly performing the work that requires safety procedures, leaders play a significant role in safety performance. Leadership establishes the standards and values in an organization and has the power to enforce safety requirements. For these reasons, it’s critical for leaders to have a deep understanding of the day-to-day challenges employees face while doing their jobs.

In addition to the organizational leadership team, individual workers play a significant role in maintaining safe practices and cultivating a culture of safety. Because of this, natural safety leaders tend to emerge among the group. Recognizing these people and empowering them to take on leadership responsibilities in their teams will help your organization maintain a strong track record of safety in the workplace.

Understanding the importance of safety leadership is critical for any organization that wants to create a safe working environment. Learn how to nurture the natural leaders in your team to take your commitment to safety to the next level.

What is Safety Leadership?

A safety leader is somebody who not only exhibits personal safety behaviors, but inspires others to do the same. These are people who not only follow safety protocols to the letter, but speak up in a constructive way when they see that others could be doing something in a safer manner.

Who can be a safety leader? Anybody who demonstrates these behaviors:

• Understanding and following safety procedures
• Reporting safety issues when they arise
• Proactively preventing safety issues
• Implementing new processes to improve safety
• Encouraging others to take safety seriously

Safety leaders don’t necessarily have to be managers or supervisors. It can be anybody who has positive social influence over their peers and an interest in improving safety across the organization. It’s important to note that a safety leader should be less like a hall monitor and more like a cultural influencer. The best safety leaders are the people who help their peers improve without them even realizing it’s happening. They are the people on the team who others come to for advice about best practices because they know they’ll get a response that is both correct and useful.

How to Cultivate Safety Leaders

Ideally, an organization has safety leaders across all teams and departments. This means that multiple individuals have to step into the role of safety leadership. Follow these steps to develop the safety leaders in your organization:

Identify the Naturals

Some employees are naturally inclined toward safety leadership. Identify these individuals and empower them to develop their leadership role. Look for the employees who have the best safety records and observe how they interact with their peers. They might provide gentle reminders to wear safety gear or offer advice about safer ways to do specific procedures.

Invite Ideas

Safety leaders are always thinking about how processes can be improved. When you have identified potential safety leaders, encourage them to share their ideas and implement them. These are the types of people that are willing to take on extra work if it contributes to a safer environment, so tap into that engagement to make improvements across the organization.

Provide Training

Anybody can improve their leadership skills with ongoing training. Provide your safety leaders with development opportunities so they can learn even more ways to engage their coworkers about safety. This might include experiential learning to help people become more comfortable with their new leadership skills before applying them on the job.

Remember that safety leadership is not a singular role. In fact, the more safety leaders you have in your organization, the more likely you are to achieve your safety goals. Always be on the lookout for people who are driven to go the extra mile when it comes to safety.

Conclusion

Achieving organizational safety goals requires leadership, both from executives and among the people doing the work. Be aware that safety leaders are not always in managerial roles and that often the people doing the work have a deeper insight into the steps that will improve safety. Cultivating safety leaders by identifying them, giving them a voice, and providing additional training will increase the motivation they already have and help encourage safe behaviors across the organization.