Dallas Nephrology Associates (DNA), a healthcare organization, began utilizing the People Element platform for employee engagement surveys in early 2021. Although their overall 2021 survey results were good, they identified Growth & Development as an opportunity area. The Growth and Development section measures the extent an employee feels they have support and opportunities to grow within the organization. One question stood out when reviewing responses which read, “I have someone at work who encourages my professional development”. This question received a 77% average favorability score from employees, which was slightly lower than other survey questions. DNA always wants employees to feel they have an opportunity to develop and grow their careers at the organization, so they set a goal of improving on this question in their 2022 engagement survey.
COMMITMENT TO EMPLOYEE GROWTH & DEVELOPMENT
Because managers play a large role in supporting professional development efforts, DNA wanted to analyze the relationship between managers and employees. They believe that this is one of the most important relationships in the workplace. They reviewed their Manager section results, which are made up of questions specifically on the relationship between employees and their manager or direct supervisor. DNA found that there was a positive response in this category, with an average favorability score of 85% from their employees. With these insights, DNA planned to continue to foster the employee-manager relationship and leverage it to support their Growth & Development efforts throughout the coming year.
After reviewing results with their People Element representative and discussing a path forward, the organization developed a three-prong approach to address making improvements in their Manager and Growth & Development categories. They implemented the following tactics:
DIGGING DEEPER
Managers started to incorporate two additional questions into their employee’s annual assessment: “What are your goals?” and “What can we do to help you get there?”.
These questions were implemented to give employees additional outlets to provide feedback on what growth and development opportunities they were looking for in the next 1-5 years. With this additional insight, managers will then be able to support their team’s goals more directly.
BOLSTERING THEIR CULTURE OF GROWTH
The organization’s culture committee, a cross-functional team of employees, was tasked with identifying growth and development opportunities that would be of interest to the team. The culture committee began by looking into items such as education reimbursement, virtual training, and in-house programs. Their ongoing effort has allowed them to collect insights from their fellow employees and collaborate with administrators to develop a plan of action.
ENABLING & SUPPORTING MANAGERS
The organization also renewed its focus on managers, directors, leads, and supervisors. They hosted a managers’ retreat with a goal to strengthen leaders and give them the tools they need to build stronger relationships with their staff. They felt that supporting managers could help give them the ability to further develop their team. One of their guiding principles is that the job of a leader is to develop new leaders.
After implementing this three-prong approach, the organization conducted another annual Engagement Survey in 2022 to measure their progress.
Their 2022 results indicated a 3-point improvement around the question “I have someone at work who encourages my professional development”, increasing from a 77% to 80% favorability score in one year.
The organization also showed improvement on 7 of the 8 questions in the Manager section of their survey. These improvements brought their Manager category score to 86% favorability, a 1-point increase from their already high rating in 2021.
Along with improvements made to these two sections, the organization noted an additional win as they were above the global and healthcare benchmarks for all their survey questions.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Dallas Nephrology Associates continues to work on growth and development with a focus on leadership training in 2022. They aim to continue to provide more development opportunities and innovate as they believe engagement is an ongoing process.
Dallas Nephrology Associates (DNA) is a national leader in providing comprehensive care for patients with kidney disease, kidney transplants, and hypertension. DNA has been a trusted source of information and top-quality kidney care in the Dallas-Fort Worth area since 1971. With over 50 years of experience and 25 locations in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, DNA prioritizes providing excellent care for patients and being a great place to work.
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