In advance of the AHIMA21 Virtual Conference, we have invited session speakers to explore their healthcare domains through short blog posts. You can learn more about individual speakers and their specific sessions via the links at the end of each post. In this post, speaker Jill Christensen discusses employee engagement in the healthcare industry.

The best way to drive clinical excellence, improve the patient experience and satisfaction, and ensure their return if they need care again is to have engaged employees.

However, Gallup reports that only 36 percent of US workers are engaged in their roles. That is not only disheartening, but scary—especially when talking about workers in the healthcare industry.

How do healthcare organizations inspire employees to get off the sidelines and get into the game? What are the best strategies to turn disengaged workers into a unified high-performing team, able to increase patient satisfaction, employee productivity and retention, profits, and reimbursements?

The COVID-19 pandemic has traumatized and exhausted healthcare professionals. Frontline workers, including doctors and nurses, are the most visible examples of burnout, but those who operate in the inner workings of a health organization, including health information professionals, have also reached a physical and mental breaking point.

Long hours, a lack of equipment, canceled paid time off, threats to their personal safety, and job insecurity have all contributed to professional and personal burnout. And as COVID-19 cases once again climb, there appears to be no end in sight.

Healthcare manager and leaders must keep their finger on the pulse of how employees feel, what they are happy about, and what is causing them to disengage.

Then, management must be open and honest about the trouble spots, and strategically address them head on. They can gather data via a survey or focus groups. The data measurement instrument does not matter. What matters is that leaders take their heads out of the sand. And get in touch with their most valuable asset: employees.

My AHIMA21 session will provide:

  • Insights into why traditional approaches to employee engagement simply don’t work
  • Tactics to engage senior leaders and managers in an employee engagement journey
  • A proven strategy that you can apply immediately to re-engage employees
  • Clarity on next steps and inspiration to achieve goals

This is a critical session for senior executives, managers, and other healthcare leaders, but also for employees seeking to better understand the causes and solutions to chronic disengagement.

 

Jill Christensen (jill@jillchristensenintl.com) is an internationally renowned keynote speaker. She will present the session “If Not You, Who? How to Crack the Code of Employee Disengagement in Healthcare” during the AHIMA21 Virtual Conference on Tuesday, Sept. 21, from 1:40 pm–2:10 pm. Register for AHIMA21 here and add Jill’s session to your calendar of events.