More than an employee benefit, recognition programs are used to engage employees, encourage repeat positive behavior, and execute on the hospital’s goals and objectives, as well as support its mission, vision and values.  Top performing hospitals across the U.S. leverage a combination of hospital-wide, grassroots, and or department-level employee recognition programs. 

Yet, despite the strategic importance executives place on employee recognition, a recent Sodexo study, Recognizing and Rewarding Hospital Employees, found an opportunity to enhance the methodology regarding the creation and management of recognition programs.

The question then is, are your recognition programs really achieving the goals you set forth – increased patient and employee satisfaction, higher retention, reduced employee injury, or otherwise? 

Consider this: Many hospitals do not have a cohesive structure for departmentally-based employee recognition programs, instead letting each department decide what works best for them in order to improve unit cohesion and to encourage specific behaviors.

Reality: Some department heads are more thorough in the execution of these programs than others, leading to an uneven distribution of rewards across the hospital – creating an adverse effect on employee morale in its wake.

This diversified approach has its benefits, but more often fosters confusion among managers who are not clear which types of recognition to use at which times. Moreover, deserving employees may harbor feelings of animosity if their peers are rewarded and they are unacknowledged.

Is there a Solution?  Hospital executives interviewed in the study expressed interest in streamlining their varied programs into a larger, inclusive system that enables autonomy to remain at the department and direct-supervisor level. This consolidated approach is invaluable toward creating a balanced system that is aligned with the hospital’s objectives and communicates precise program goals to all employees –those giving recognition as well as the recipients.  As hospital administrators approach moving to a unified program management platform for recognition and rewards, they realize the true benefit of reducing complexity is greater hospital-wide program awareness, ability to track key metrics, tracking, organizational efficiency, and positive qualitative and quantitative results.

See more on the benefits of reducing complexity in recognition and reward programs in this white paper: Recognizing And Rewarding Hospital Employees