Ebook: Cómo crear directivos excelentes e involucrados

How Healthcare Organizations Can Build Stronger Leadership From Within

In healthcare there has always been an attitude that the need for a nurse or a doctor is steadfast, no matter what happens to our economic climate. While that may be true, it doesn't mean healthcare workers will always remain in one place. As new nursing graduates enter the workforce, they bring with them the Millennial mobile mentality. These new hires want to move and this can create a lack of leadership needed at healthcare organizations. Strong leadership and talent retention are tantamount in providing the best healthcare services, yet according to Cornerstone's director of industry solutions Gayle Loving, more than 25 percent of new nurse graduates will leave their first job within two years. Identifying talent that wants to stay and grow within an organization is key to succession planning in healthcare. Learning how to identify these folks and understanding their importance was the topic of a recent webinar hosted by Corporate Executive Board (CEB) and Cornerstone OnDemand. While there are always jobs in the medical profession, "buying" leadership isn't as easy in the healthcare industry, says CEB's Jarrett Shalhoop. "Investment in our current workforce is key," he adds. Shalhoop has used his background in psychometrics to identify a key distinction for advancement and retention of leadership at healthcare organizations: high-potential employees are not the same as high-performance workers. While most organizations see high performers as their top talent, it's the high potentials that will become the next leaders at an organization — something the healthcare industry critically needs. Shalhoop says that the leadership trait of confidence (displayed by employees who can grow within the organization as mentors and managers) in the healthcare sector is lower than the international average. These three characteristics of high-potential employees can be indicative of leadership success, Shalhoop says: Ability: Reasoning, interpersonal skills, emotional regulation and technical skills. Aspiration: Interest in responsibilities and challenges associated with senior roles. Engagement: Commitment to organization, effort and intent to stay. Simply identifying people who demonstrate these qualities isn't enough. The most successful healthcare organizations not only identify high-potential employees, Loving says, they also invite them into the leadership conversation. They shouldn't assume that everyone wants to be a leader. "Many times organizations assess folks and look at their career preferences, but they don’t really ask the employee to opt-in," Loving says. Listen to the full webinar here Photo: Can stock

Toxic Employees in Healthcare: Who They Are and How to Deliver the Cure

Toxic employees. We’ve all worked with them – but can one bad apple really spoil the whole bunch? Having toxic behavior at any company yields bad results. But having it on the hospital floor can have serious consequences. According to a study by Mitchell Kusy, forty-nine percent of nurses that reported toxic behavior by team members said that it has resulted in them wrongly administering medication. And 25% of practitioners in the healthcare industry believe disruptive behavior is directly tied to patient mortality. So what does this look like for an RN that’s worked on the floor? A former colleague of mine was sharing about a nurse that was difficult to get along with. She constantly picked up extra shifts, worked long hours and never quite seemed happy about her job. Her peers would help her out where they could, but she never wanted to pitch in when the rest of the team needed help with a patient. Her patients seemed relieved when her shift was over and they got a new nurse. When a team that is there to care for people is divided because they are avoiding someone on staff, mistakes are made, patient satisfaction goes down and the care we promise as nurses inadvertently suffers. 1. What is a toxic staff member? A toxic worker is one who engages in bad behavior while on the job, often to the detriment of the team. And in healthcare specifically, one result is usually poor patient care. Examples of toxic behavior include having a bad attitude, whining, sabotaging others’ work, yelling, and more. Their conduct isn’t done maliciously, but it can still be harmful to their colleagues’ reputations. 2. Can anyone be toxic? Yes. Everyone from the janitor to the CEO has the potential to be toxic. Whether they feel unappreciated – "I’ll show them for not giving me that promotion!" – or don’t work well with others, no one is immune. In fact, according to that same Kusy study, 80% of doctors have displayed toxic behavior towards staff, and 33% say disruptive physician behaviors occur weekly. No growth opportunities and being overworked are the two biggest ways to create toxics. 3. How do toxics affect my hospital? So what else does the Kusy study tell us about having toxic staff members in your hospital? Well, for starters, toxic staff wreak havoc on retention, performance, and clinical care outcomes. Among the victims of toxics, 12% end up quitting, (and replacing them can cost over $57k per role!), 38% felt their work quality decreased, and 78% said their organizational commitment declined. For every 10% of unsatisfied nurses, patient recommendations drop 2%. So what can you do about this in your care center? Cornerstone recently came out with a brief on toxic employees in healthcare that offers some suggestions on how to address this on your team. If you would like to dive further into what you can do to address this in your care center, you can download the rest of the brief here.

Why You Shouldn't Overlook Candidates With an Alternative Education

More students are pursuing higher education than ever before—but at a higher cost. The result? The national student debt burden is approaching $1.5 trillion, and in 2016 the average college student graduated with over $37,000 in student loans. For many potential college students who are now the future of our workforce, this process has become untenable. To find jobs, they need skills, but at what cost? I'm hardly alone in advocating for HR practices that seek unconventional candidates for employment—namely individuals with varied expertise, nontraditional career paths and those who have acquired higher education in a unique university setting (or outside of a university entirely). Scott Pulsipher, president of Western Governors University (WGU), also believes in the importance of competency over a flashy degree. WGU provides an education to students on unconventional learning paths and prepares them for the workforce in more practical ways. The school was founded just over 20 years ago and has awarded close to 100,000 degrees, today serving approximately 85,000 students. I interviewed Pulsipher for the Disrupt Yourself Podcast to understand more about the benefits of alternative education programs and why he believes organizations should recruit talent with non-traditional educational backgrounds. Degrees Aren't Everything WGU's programs aren't designed for traditional college-aged students. Rather, the university provides an opportunity for working adults who have sometimes earned college credits, but not a full degree. There are more than 31 million such adults in the U.S. Often they live in rural areas, where educational access is poor and the education ethos less developed. Because it costs about half as much as a state school, a WGU education is more attainable. "On average, WGU graduates earn nearly $20,000 more in income than they did when they started. Our average student is 37 years old, our oldest graduates are in their late 70s and early 80s," according to Pulsipher. From a hiring perspective, these graduates are a gold mine—they have life experiences, and are often hungry for previously denied opportunities to prove themselves. WGU's programs are fully online, all emphasizing practical, high-demand expertise: business, technology, health services and teaching. Contrary to popular belief, many jobs in these fields do not require four-year degrees. Thanks to technology that can now do a lot of the heavy lifting, many roles now simply require competency in a specific field and adaptability to new tools. WGU's approach ensures that graduates obtain just that. It's About Competency, Not Curriculum WGU employs an entirely competency-based grading model. "If you're competent, then you're meeting the standards that are needed in the workplace environment for that core subject matter. There are no grades; you either pass or you don't," Pulsipher explains. One benefit of this alternative education model is that it ensures that students actually learn everything they need to know in order to perform the tasks associated with the jobs they'll be seeking. Plus, with no required electives or liberal arts courses, students can focus on gaining specific skills targeted to their future jobs. WGU isn't right for everyone, but for a sizeable piece of the adult population, it offers an accessible, cost-effective alternative to the traditional university. Many jobs still require a traditional university education and advanced degrees, but others do not, and for those who've been left behind by unattainable educational opportunities, even basic jobs can be out of reach. Through WGU's model, these students reach their potential, improve their competencies and contribute to the workforce. The takeaway for HR professionals is that unconventional educational paths can provide an expansive pool of well-qualified talent that shouldn't be dismissed. There are advantages to hiring candidates overlooked by others—these capable people can bring not only specialized competency to the table, but also life experience, stability and the drive to prove what they can do. Photo: Creative Commons