Measuring and monitoring employee sentiment

Measuring and monitoring employee sentiment

How can your hospice organization find out what your employees are thinking? How do you know if your employees are satisfied? Dissatisfied? How do you know if employee satisfaction varies across different agencies in your organization? Do you have a systemic problem in one of your agencies? Is one of your regions better or worse than the others?

Using employee surveys to measure employee sentiment

Hospice organizations typically conduct employee surveys to try to dig into this information.  Employee surveys are prepared by the corporate office and survey the entire organization – that is – all hospice agencies across the entire organization.  The surveys are typically conducted no more frequently than once per year and involve significant planning and cost. A survey response rate of 70% is considered a good response rate.

Organization may also conduct more targeted “pulse surveys” – to gather the employee sentiment on a targeted issue. Pulse surveys are run more frequently, and a 50% response rate is considered a good response rate.

Using public data sources to measure employee sentiment

However, there is another valuable source of employee sentiment that is often overlooked by hospice organizations: both current and former employees post valuable company reviews on public employment websites. These reviews provide valuable and actionable insight that can be used to monitor employee sentiment, detect trends over time, identify differences between agencies or regions in the organization and a wealth of other useful information.

How can information from public websites be used?

How can a review from a public website be used to provide insight to a hospice agency? Let’s examine some reviews to see what insight can be gained.

Data points that we can gather from this review are the following:

  • Rating: 5 star
  • Employment status: current
  • Date of review: March 10, 2023
  • Type of employment: per diem
  • Job role: Home recovery RN
  • Location: Marshfield, WI
  • General comments: supportive management

Here is another review: 

Data points that we can gather from this review are the following:

  • Rating: 5 star
  • Employment status: former
  • Date of review: April 10, 2017
  • Type of employment: contractor
  • Job role: data entry
  • Location: Brentwood, TN
  • General comments: excellent company to work for

 

Here is a third review:

Data points that we can gather from this review are the following:

  • Rating: 3 star
  • Employment status: former
  • Date of review: August 1, 2021
  • Type of employment: full time
  • Job role: Patient care coordinator
  • Location: Vestavia Hls, AL
  • General comments: management does not respond to input

 

How can the data be stored so maximum value can be extracted?

A hospice agency should store the data in a database format – either in a database or in a spreadsheet – so that maximum value can be extracted.  By storing the data in this manner, metrics of interest and can be created.  Performance over time can be monitored.  We provide an example below. Suppose the three reviews above are for three different locations for the same hospice organization – one for an agency located in Marshfield, WI, one for an agency located in Brentwood, TN, and one for an agency located in Vestavia Hls, AL. The data can be stored in a spreadsheet as follows:  

Additional columns in the spreadsheet can be added to provide additional information. For example, categories of interest may be:

  • classify the employee type by categories such as clinical, corporate, office team, etc.
  • classify the city / state by regions in the organization.

As the number of rows in the spreadsheet grows patterns can be identified and valuable metrics can be created and monitored – in time and over time.

Where can you learn more?

Leadership and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Leadership and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory that can be used to provide leaders and organizations with guidance on how to motivate employees. But what is this hierarchy and what is Maslow’s theory?

What is Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs?

Maslow developed his theory on the Hierarchy of Needs in the 1940s. The hierarchy suggests that people are first motivated to fulfill basic needs before they move on to more advanced needs.

The theory states that there are five fundamental human needs that can be represented as a pyramid. Each of the five needs builds on the prior need. Individuals want to meet needs at a lower level before progressing to needs at a higher level.

The highest-level need in Maslow’s hierarchy is self-actualization, where an individual achieves self-fulfillment.

How does Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs relate to leadership?

A good manager understands this hierarchy of needs and leads his team so that he is meeting each employee at the employee’s current level of need while simultaneously encouraging the employee to continue to move up the pyramid so that the employee eventually achieves self-actualization.  In the workplace, self-actualization translates to an employee’s desire to maximize his potential at work.

What are the levels of the hierarchy?

In Maslow’s hierarchy, Level 5 is the lowest level and Level 1 is the highest level. An individual or employee will start at a lower level and move up levels as he tries to achieve the highest level in the hierarchy.  

Level 5: Psychological needs – survival

This is a most basic need for survival.  Employees at this level want to feel secure that they have a steady income.

Level 4: Safety and security

Managers and leaders need to make employees feel secure. Some managers do not realize this and think that employees will work harder if they are “kept on their toes.”  But this strategy usually fails. Rather than working harder, employees become obsessed with job security.

  • How can a leader make employees feel secure?
    • Communication: Share the big picture with employees.
    • Clear rules: Employees should know where they stand at all times
    • Be supportive: Support employees if they are struggling or if they fail
    • Be consistent: Be the same every day
    • Be fair

Level 3: Belonging (social needs)

Employees enjoy a team environment and a social workplace.

  • How can a leader create a social environment and a feeling of belonging?
    • Conduct team meetings
    • Create an area where people can gather, e.g., for coffee
    • Encourage a feeling that people are a part of the team
    • Organize social events outside of work

Level 2: Esteem/status

Employees want to be noticed, on occasion, and to stand out for their accomplishments and for what they do better than others. People like to feel important, occasionally.  

  • How can a leader meet this need of employees to feel important?
    • Give employees regular recognition
    • Spend time with employees

Level 1: Self actualization

Self-actualization is maximizing an self-fulfillment where an individual discovers his potential and uses his skills to the utmost. This is the highest level of Maslow’s hierarchy, where employees are maximizing their potential at work.

  • How can a leader help employees maximize their potential?
    • Give employees ownership of tasks or projects
    • Empower employees
    • Help employees find ways to advance in their careers

What defines a great organization?

Maslow believes that in a great organization, employees will be at the level of self-actualization. That is, all employees must achieve Level 1.  For employees to achieve Level 1, leadership must support employees through all the lower levels of the hierarchy.  The pyramid will crumble if employees are lacking the supporting levels.  

Further, leadership must make it possible for employees to achieve self-actualization.  Employees need to be trained, to acquire new skills, and to have an environment where they gain a sense of satisfaction. A good leader will learn his employees’ potential and create an environment where people are trusted, can flourish, and are given important tasks to complete. A good leader will create an environment where employees can achieve self-actualization.

Where can you find more information?

 

Why is inclusive leadership important?

Why is inclusive leadership important?

Hospice agencies rely on the successful coordination of their teams to deliver quality care to their diverse customers and clients who have varying demands and needs. These teams are often highly diverse – with varying cultures, genders, and age ranges.

But simply combining individuals with different backgrounds is not sufficient to ensure customer satisfaction and client success. It also requires inclusive leadership – leaders that create an inclusive environment where team members feel that they belong and matter, where a diverse workforce is respected, and where team members with varying opinions and perspectives feel heard and respected and are willing to share, contribute, and collaborate. 

What are the benefits of inclusive leadership?

Workplaces with inclusive leadership are not only nice to have; they are also shown to improve performance.  Teams with inclusive leaders are 17% more likely to be high performing, 20% more likely to make high quality decisions, and 29% more likely to be more collaborative, as discussed in a study published by Deloitte.  

What are the characteristics of inclusive leadership?

There are several traits that are commonly observed in inclusive leaders:

  • Commitment: See the value in diversity and inclusion and holds themselves, the team, and the organization accountable to ensure equality is factored into all processes
  • Humility: Modest about their capabilities, admit mistakes, and create space for others to contribute
  • Aware of bias: Aware of personal blind spots and flaws in the organizational processes, and work hard to ensure meritocracy
  • Cultural intelligence: Exceptional leaders stretch their curiosity and learn about customs that are important to different employees. They aim to boost the level comfort to build inclusivity.
  • Effective collaboration: Empower others and focus on team cohesion
  • Curiosity about others: Be curious and learn about other employees, acknowledge the value that each individual team member brings to the whole

How can leaders exercise these traits?

Leaders need to practice these traits and get regular feedback on their performance. How can they do this and how can they get regular feedback on their performance?

  • Establish a diverse personal advisory board – Leaders can create a group of peers with whom they have regular contact and who they know are willing to give them direct and straightforward feedback on day-to-day interpersonal behavior. Members of their advisory board can give them feedback on activities such as whether they are favoring certain groups, whether their language is language is biased, whether they are inclusive during meetings, and the like.
  • Leaders can immerse themselves in new/uncomfortable situations that involve diverse stakeholders, providing them with the opportunity to disrupt preconceived ideas.
  • They can share learning journeys that involve recognizing and addressing bias. This can be in the context of town hall meetings or 360 assessments with management. These settings allow a leader to role model the importance of humility.

Summary

Diversity is at the heart of every organization. If properly managed, it can enhance the success of an organization but if improperly managed, it can lead to dissatisfied employees and inability of an organization to achieve its goals. A successful leader must promote and encourage diversity in an organization, as this will draw out each individual employee’s talents and lead to improved organization success.

Where can you find out more?