Long-term and post-acute care publication
A toxic work environment doesn’t suddenly appear. It finds a welcoming host and grows slowly. HR can help identify signs of trouble—such as instances of discrimination, lack of accountability, hostile leadership, fearful staff, and information guarding—and address these before they have a chance to take root.
In May of 2017, an armed man with a history of domestic violence approached a nursing home where his ex-girlfriend worked. In a short period of time, he took two men hostage and killed three people, then turned the gun on himself. Sadly, this isn’t an isolated incident. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), homicide is the fourth leading cause of workplace deaths. To keep employees safe, HR needs to develop holistic programs addressing mental as well as physical health, plus stress management and financial well-being.
If you’re still wrestling with how to harness technology and digital change, you’re not alone. A recent survey of 1,200 global HR executives suggests there is a huge gap between action and indecision. However, survey authors suggest that a “wait-and-see” approach to digitalization is risky at best and has the potential to leave stragglers in the dust. They say, “The trailblazers are exploiting uncertainty and doubt as a critical opportunity to drive new competitive advantage and leap ahead of the pack.”
In a recent blog, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) administrator Seema Verma detailed her commitment to maximizing safety and quality in long-term care. Her comments have triggered conversations about these issues; and they also present an opportunity for HR to get involved and promote safety and quality care in their organizations.
Verma stated that her agency is “not settling for the status quo.” She said, “I have directed my team…to undertake a comprehensive review of our regulations, guidelines, internal structure, and processes related to safety and quality in nursing homes.” She talked about CMS’s “five-part plan to ensure the care provided in America’s nursing homes is of the highest possible quality.” This plan involves strengthened oversight, enhanced enforcement, increased transparency, improved quality, and efforts to put patients over paperwork. She noted, “While we pursue these efforts, we welcome interest and input from all stakeholders, Congress, and our other federal partners. But we have already started executing our plan, and we’ve got our eyes on the future.”
Conflict is one of the most often explored topics in just about every discipline, industry, and organization; and long-term and post-acute care is no exception. It seems that we just can’t seem to figure it out. We are taught to create win-win situations while working with simply irascible characters and to have candid conversations with unreasonable tyrants. No wonder there is so much fuss! In truth, most conflicts do not reflect those extremes. Run-of-the-mill conflicts are between reasonable (or semi-reasonable) people with different positions and perspectives.
What follows are three strategies for addressing conflict. Notice that I did not say resolving or managing conflict. That is because I do not believe all conflicts are manageable or solvable. There are some conflicts that are simply there. Participants live in a truce state and agree to peacefully coexist.
There is lots of talk about employee recognition, but a recent survey suggests that employers could do a better job of walking the walk on worker rewards and appreciation efforts. According to research from the staffing firm OfficeTeam, only 43% of employers think their company is very effective at recognizing employees for good performance. Over one-tenth (14%) said they are not at all or not too effective at celebrating workers.
This is a particularly relevant topic during this Administrative Professionals Week (April 21-27), with employees wondering what their company will do to recognize them. According to the survey, 43% of respondents said they plan to organize a celebration or lunch at work, 35% said they intend to praise staff during a meeting or other public forum, 27% indicated they will provide a handwritten thank-you note, and 14% plan to bring in an educational guest speaker. Nearly one-quarter (20%) of companies don’t show appreciation to administrative staff in any way.
According to findings of the 2019 Global Human Capital Trends survey of nearly 10,000 CEOs and executives, future success means reinventing organizational approaches to human capital with a focus on employees’ continuous learning, accelerated development, and personal and professional growth.
More than three-quarters (86%) of survey respondents said they believe they must reinvent their ability to learn, and 84% said they need to rethink their workforce experience to improve productivity. At the same time, 80% said they believe that they need to develop leaders differently.
When asked to rate their most important measures of success in 2019, respondents almost unanimously said “impact on society, including income inequality, diversity, and the environment.” They rated this higher than customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction/retention, financial performance, and regulatory adherence. Social enterprise issues are growing in importance, according to respondents, and nearly half (44%) said that these concerns are more crucial to their organization now than they were three years ago.
Positive workforce drug tests hit a 14-year high last year. According to Quest Diagnostics, a national diagnostic information service company, marijuana is the most commonly detected illicit substance across workforce categories (general U.S. workforce, federally mandated, safety-sensitive workforce, and combined U.S. workforce) and in all specimen types (urine, oral fluid, and hair). Positivity for post-accident urine testing went up more than 51% between 2017 and 2018 and increased nearly 81% between 2014 and 2018. This increase was likely driven by the addition of prescription opiates to the panel addressed in testing.
One of the best ways to learn is from others’ mistakes and successes. That is why a crowd gathered at the 2019 Society for Human Resources Management Talent Conference for a session on recruiting trends and technology. Among other things, they learned that while companies are increasingly counting on artificial intelligence (AI), they have come to realize that technology alone is not the answer.
How you address workplace sexual harassment can play a powerful role in how staff feel, work, and interact; but too many companies spend money and time on training that isn’t effective and develop programs that don’t have a lasting impact. Experts suggest a variety of ways to ensure the organization’s words, actions, and policies engage and resonate with employees for the long term.
