The Heart of Recruitment and Retention: Respect, Quality, Career Development
By Jackie Middleton, Vice President, Human Resources Operations
At Methodist Health System hospitals, the hallways are filled with people smiling, engaging with others, helping visitors find their way. Employees pitch in to help each other, even when it’s not on their job description. Some employees have spent their entire careers at Methodist. There are second generation employees who followed their parents’ footsteps. And if you’re a newcomer? There are open arms, ready to welcome you to the team.
While the Methodist culture developed naturally to some degree, it’s one we’re dedicated to keeping. Our commitment to sustain a positive work environment for all employees focuses on these three pillars that stand behind our recruitment and retention philosophy:
1. Respect. With a variety of education levels as well as backgrounds within each hospital, diversity is a fact of life at Methodist. Understanding diversity in gender, ethnicity, experience, and age helps to break down any communication barriers and promotes teamwork. Ultimately, celebrating our diversity enhances patient care. To that end, we have diversity classes to help clinicians better understand differences in backgrounds and experiences, while focusing on our common goal to serve our patients.
We also listen to employee opinions and provide opportunities for employees to get involved, grow professionally, and receive recognition through our award programs. Our goal is for employees to know they are supported.
2. Quality. We are vigilant about quality care, analyzing reports daily to look for ways to improve our processes. First and foremost, we design quality processes around what’s best for the patient. It’s one thing to develop theoretical processes, but can it be implemented? That’s why we involve our employee team on all quality initiatives. They’re the ones who know what is practical and what will work.
Methodist Mansfield Medical Center, for example, has not had a bloodstream infection in over 413 days as of March 31, 2011. That is a direct result of a cross-functional team that worked together to determine how to deliver consistent, quality care, patient after patient, day after day. It is a noteworthy achievement that speaks to the depth and breadth of our commitment to quality.
3. Career Development. Our commitment to cultivate strong, compassionate leadership is one reason we have been recognized as a Best Place to Work by the Dallas Business Journal seven years in a row. Our Leadership Institute offers programs to nurture leaders, and includes the Leadership Intensive program, Emerging Leader program, Firing Up Engaged Leaders program, and ongoing training and development opportunities. We also have a dedicated in-house organizational effectiveness team.
We encourage clinicians to shadow other clinicians to help them determine possible career paths, and we have established clinical ladders. Tuition reimbursement enables employees to go back to school or enhance their skills with continuing education. When we say we promote from within, we really do it.
In other words, recruitment and retention at Methodist mean “we support you.”
To be part of a system that shines the spotlight on respect, quality, and career development for all employees, visit us at Jobs.MethodistHealthSystem.org.
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© Methodist Health System
