Introduction
Recognition and reward is an important tool for motivation in every organization. There are two main departments in a healthcare organization; the clinical division and the nonclinical division. This paper seeks to address the issues of rewards and recognition in a clinical department, the specific goal that employees have to work on to get the award, the motivation theory that would be most practical, the type of rewards that will motivate employees to achieve the goals, as well as the communication tool eligible for announcing the rules and awards.
Suitable Department for Recognition
The department that will be selected for motivation, reward and recognition is the clinical department in a bid to enhance job satisfaction. Although workers in the nonclinical department are equally important in the healthcare organization, their duties may be considered non-core, and there is need to address the clinical department first because they perform the core duties in the organization. Clinical roles entail activities like diagnosis of patients, treatment and continuing care. Examples of clinical roles are positions like registered nurse, nurse practitioners, physicians, surgical assistants, among other allied health professionals (Perkins, 2020). Nonclinical duties may be defined as duties that are not treatment related such as cleaners, cooks and other activities that help in facilitating the clinical roles. Therefore, there is a need to look at the hospital’s core mission, duties and objectives in determining which group to be prioritized for rewards.
Specific Goal to Work On
In the United States, the department of health has been in the limelight because of the myriad of challenges involved. Medical health practitioners have to deal with increasing cases of cancer, obesity, drunken driving related accidents, gender and ethnic bias in healthcare delivery, medical scams, medical errors, restrictive practices related to care management. While these challenges might seem like too much, an additional burden has joined in the bandwagon; the corona virus outbreak that has made the situation move from bad to worse. The number of patients has increased significantly; corona virus related deaths have increased too, complicating the situation in the United States healthcare (Perkins, 2020). These overwhelming situations to healthcare workers are likely to impact the quality of service, which is the reason why employee rewards and recognition is aimed at improving the quality of service in the organization under review, as well as increase patient satisfaction.
Just like in any business, a healthcare organization needs to provide quality and satisfying customer service to prevent customers from switching over to competitors (HHS, 2020). The twenty first century consumer is enlightened and is demanding nothing less than quality customer service. Customers have so much power because of the availability of alternatives, and dissatisfied clients will not hesitate looking for healthcare services elsewhere. The goal of quality customer service and customer satisfaction cannot therefore be underscored.
Specific Theory of Motivation
The goal-setting theory would be the most practical and effective to work towards the goal of customer service and patient satisfaction. The goal setting theory stipulates that people who set difficult and challenging goals are likely to do well than people who set simple goals. Goal setting theory was advanced by Edwin Locke and founded the goal on five main elements highlighted below.
Ø Clarity- The set goals have to be clear, explicit and measurable. The goals have to be SMART in that they must be time specific, realistic, and achievable. Goals that are poorly defined are difficult to achieve because they lack clarity.
Ø Challenge-the goal to be realized is one that has a given level of complexity, thereby challenging the goal setter to strive to work hard to work towards the goal.
Ø Commitment-this tenet of the goal setting theory highlights that the person setting the goal has to put deliberate effort at meeting the goal like sharing the objective with someone else who will help in working towards the goal.
Ø Feedback- the goal setter must have a way to receive feedback and other important information concerning the progress of the goal.
Ø Task complexity-this is the final aspect of the goal setting theory that stipulates that the goal has to be challenging to make the goal setter learn something new, as well as challenge the goal setter to look for information on how to achieve the goal.
Why goal setting is most practical
The theory of goal setting is the most practical and effective since it offers guidance on how patient satisfaction will be realized. The five main elements of goal setting can be applied to the current situation of motivating clinical department workers to help them improve customer service and patient satisfaction. The goal of improving customer satisfaction is clear and measurable because the outcomes of the goals will be measured in terms of increased number of customers. The goal of providing quality customer service is challenging in that clinical workers have to balance between limited time and the large number of customers. Clinical workers have to balance between working fast and working smart in that they have to work fast to reduce the waiting time for patients. The turnaround time that doctors spend with each patient is minimal as workers strive to reduce the disquiet that comes with patients waiting time.
In regards to commitment tenet, clinical department workers must collaborate with each other to improve patient care. The nature of healthcare organization is that patients move sequentially, and clinicians in the subsequent step rely on information from the first officer. Or instance, the triage stage is usually the first stage whereby essentials are taken such as blood pressure, body temperature, weight, height and brief history of what brings the patient to the institution. If the officer in the triage stage does not perform his or her duties well, it might be challenging to the officer in the next stage because the officer in the consultation room will have to relook at the details again, which time is consuming. Therefore, clinical workers have to commit to share the effort and goal as a department to improve patient care hospital wide.
Regarding the issue of feedback, there are different ways that the department can receive feedback on whether the goal is working or not. Social media can be an effective channel to obtain feedback whereby the social media manager will post updates enquiring from the general public about how they perceive the services at the organization. The kind of comments and responses received will provide green light as to whether the goal of improved quality of care is yielding customer satisfaction. The final element of goal setting theory is task complexity. Improving the quality of service is not a walk in the part. Implementing this goal will require clinical workers to receive training on customer service, communication skills, multi-tasking skills, customer etiquette, and active listening skills among others (HHS, 2017 p 57 ). Clinicians will experience a sense of pride when they accomplish challenging goals and feel that they are ready to take on other challenging goals.
Types of rewards
In motivating workers in the clinical department, monetary and non-monetary rewards will be used. Non-monetary rewards will include praise and recognition, as well as red chainsaw. Red chainsaw is a plaque containing the picture of the worker of the quarter whereby workers will be undertaking a quarterly peer review to identify the worker with desirable traits such as sociable, walking the extra mile, warm, among other traits. The winner will have his or her plaque on the entrance of the department to motivate other workers to be sociable. Praise and recognition will be provided during meetings to ensure that other department members feel acknowledged. Stephens observes (Stephens, 2017, p 214) a simple gesture like employee recognition in a companywide meeting goes a long way in serving as a currency of motivation.
Because of the limited shelf life that praise and recognition have, Capobianco (2014) observes that the management ought to provide fiscal rewards as a way of acknowledging superior results. Workers lose their enthusiasm if their extra efforts are not rewarded. In the case of the clinical department, immediate and long term monetary rewards should be used. Immediate rewards are such as taking department members for lunch, and setting some funds aside to engage workers in a team building exercise upon completion of a given task.
Salary increment and year-end bonuses are examples of long term rewards that the organization will use to tie rewards with goal achievement (Stephens, 2017). The organization will conduct an evaluative comparison of customer numbers starting with the two years prior to the goal setting, the year the goal was set and the subsequent years following goal setting. Patient satisfaction should be accompanied by increase in the number of patients. Customers who are happy will come back for a subsequent service and refer their friends. If the results show that customer numbers have increased as a result of improved customer care, the organization will give bonuses to motivate employees, as well as energize them to be willing to take part in future goals.
Communication Tool
The ideal communication tool that will be used to convey rules, awards and general communication is an internal Facebook post. Use of Facebook may sound unofficial, but it is important because it creates an opportunity for employees to post their responses and comments, as well as promote fun through posts and comments. Use of emails or newsletters might be too official and may not provide an opportunity for participants to make fun. As the old adage goes that “too much learning without play made jack a dull boy,” being too official might be boring and monotonous. A WhatsApp group will also be created for participants, but the group will be used strictly for downward communication of program rules. The rationale behind the discretionary use of WhatsApp is to limit the number of comments to ensure that important information is not overshadowed by other replies and kind of messages that may not be related to the goal. That way, communication will reach the participants without channel ‘noise’ associated with WhatsApp.
Recognition and reward is an important tool for motivation in every organization. There are two main departments in a healthcare organization; the clinical division and the nonclinical division. This paper seeks to address the issues of rewards and recognition in a clinical department, the specific goal that employees have to work on to get the award, the motivation theory that would be most practical, the type of rewards that will motivate employees to achieve the goals, as well as the communication tool eligible for announcing the rules and awards.
Suitable Department for Recognition
The department that will be selected for motivation, reward and recognition is the clinical department in a bid to enhance job satisfaction. Although workers in the nonclinical department are equally important in the healthcare organization, their duties may be considered non-core, and there is need to address the clinical department first because they perform the core duties in the organization. Clinical roles entail activities like diagnosis of patients, treatment and continuing care. Examples of clinical roles are positions like registered nurse, nurse practitioners, physicians, surgical assistants, among other allied health professionals (Perkins, 2020). Nonclinical duties may be defined as duties that are not treatment related such as cleaners, cooks and other activities that help in facilitating the clinical roles. Therefore, there is a need to look at the hospital’s core mission, duties and objectives in determining which group to be prioritized for rewards.
Specific Goal to Work On
In the United States, the department of health has been in the limelight because of the myriad of challenges involved. Medical health practitioners have to deal with increasing cases of cancer, obesity, drunken driving related accidents, gender and ethnic bias in healthcare delivery, medical scams, medical errors, restrictive practices related to care management. While these challenges might seem like too much, an additional burden has joined in the bandwagon; the corona virus outbreak that has made the situation move from bad to worse. The number of patients has increased significantly; corona virus related deaths have increased too, complicating the situation in the United States healthcare (Perkins, 2020). These overwhelming situations to healthcare workers are likely to impact the quality of service, which is the reason why employee rewards and recognition is aimed at improving the quality of service in the organization under review, as well as increase patient satisfaction.
Just like in any business, a healthcare organization needs to provide quality and satisfying customer service to prevent customers from switching over to competitors (HHS, 2020). The twenty first century consumer is enlightened and is demanding nothing less than quality customer service. Customers have so much power because of the availability of alternatives, and dissatisfied clients will not hesitate looking for healthcare services elsewhere. The goal of quality customer service and customer satisfaction cannot therefore be underscored.
Specific Theory of Motivation
The goal-setting theory would be the most practical and effective to work towards the goal of customer service and patient satisfaction. The goal setting theory stipulates that people who set difficult and challenging goals are likely to do well than people who set simple goals. Goal setting theory was advanced by Edwin Locke and founded the goal on five main elements highlighted below.
Ø Clarity- The set goals have to be clear, explicit and measurable. The goals have to be SMART in that they must be time specific, realistic, and achievable. Goals that are poorly defined are difficult to achieve because they lack clarity.
Ø Challenge-the goal to be realized is one that has a given level of complexity, thereby challenging the goal setter to strive to work hard to work towards the goal.
Ø Commitment-this tenet of the goal setting theory highlights that the person setting the goal has to put deliberate effort at meeting the goal like sharing the objective with someone else who will help in working towards the goal.
Ø Feedback- the goal setter must have a way to receive feedback and other important information concerning the progress of the goal.
Ø Task complexity-this is the final aspect of the goal setting theory that stipulates that the goal has to be challenging to make the goal setter learn something new, as well as challenge the goal setter to look for information on how to achieve the goal.
Why goal setting is most practical
The theory of goal setting is the most practical and effective since it offers guidance on how patient satisfaction will be realized. The five main elements of goal setting can be applied to the current situation of motivating clinical department workers to help them improve customer service and patient satisfaction. The goal of improving customer satisfaction is clear and measurable because the outcomes of the goals will be measured in terms of increased number of customers. The goal of providing quality customer service is challenging in that clinical workers have to balance between limited time and the large number of customers. Clinical workers have to balance between working fast and working smart in that they have to work fast to reduce the waiting time for patients. The turnaround time that doctors spend with each patient is minimal as workers strive to reduce the disquiet that comes with patients waiting time.
In regards to commitment tenet, clinical department workers must collaborate with each other to improve patient care. The nature of healthcare organization is that patients move sequentially, and clinicians in the subsequent step rely on information from the first officer. Or instance, the triage stage is usually the first stage whereby essentials are taken such as blood pressure, body temperature, weight, height and brief history of what brings the patient to the institution. If the officer in the triage stage does not perform his or her duties well, it might be challenging to the officer in the next stage because the officer in the consultation room will have to relook at the details again, which time is consuming. Therefore, clinical workers have to commit to share the effort and goal as a department to improve patient care hospital wide.
Regarding the issue of feedback, there are different ways that the department can receive feedback on whether the goal is working or not. Social media can be an effective channel to obtain feedback whereby the social media manager will post updates enquiring from the general public about how they perceive the services at the organization. The kind of comments and responses received will provide green light as to whether the goal of improved quality of care is yielding customer satisfaction. The final element of goal setting theory is task complexity. Improving the quality of service is not a walk in the part. Implementing this goal will require clinical workers to receive training on customer service, communication skills, multi-tasking skills, customer etiquette, and active listening skills among others (HHS, 2017 p 57 ). Clinicians will experience a sense of pride when they accomplish challenging goals and feel that they are ready to take on other challenging goals.
Types of rewards
In motivating workers in the clinical department, monetary and non-monetary rewards will be used. Non-monetary rewards will include praise and recognition, as well as red chainsaw. Red chainsaw is a plaque containing the picture of the worker of the quarter whereby workers will be undertaking a quarterly peer review to identify the worker with desirable traits such as sociable, walking the extra mile, warm, among other traits. The winner will have his or her plaque on the entrance of the department to motivate other workers to be sociable. Praise and recognition will be provided during meetings to ensure that other department members feel acknowledged. Stephens observes (Stephens, 2017, p 214) a simple gesture like employee recognition in a companywide meeting goes a long way in serving as a currency of motivation.
Because of the limited shelf life that praise and recognition have, Capobianco (2014) observes that the management ought to provide fiscal rewards as a way of acknowledging superior results. Workers lose their enthusiasm if their extra efforts are not rewarded. In the case of the clinical department, immediate and long term monetary rewards should be used. Immediate rewards are such as taking department members for lunch, and setting some funds aside to engage workers in a team building exercise upon completion of a given task.
Salary increment and year-end bonuses are examples of long term rewards that the organization will use to tie rewards with goal achievement (Stephens, 2017). The organization will conduct an evaluative comparison of customer numbers starting with the two years prior to the goal setting, the year the goal was set and the subsequent years following goal setting. Patient satisfaction should be accompanied by increase in the number of patients. Customers who are happy will come back for a subsequent service and refer their friends. If the results show that customer numbers have increased as a result of improved customer care, the organization will give bonuses to motivate employees, as well as energize them to be willing to take part in future goals.
Communication Tool
The ideal communication tool that will be used to convey rules, awards and general communication is an internal Facebook post. Use of Facebook may sound unofficial, but it is important because it creates an opportunity for employees to post their responses and comments, as well as promote fun through posts and comments. Use of emails or newsletters might be too official and may not provide an opportunity for participants to make fun. As the old adage goes that “too much learning without play made jack a dull boy,” being too official might be boring and monotonous. A WhatsApp group will also be created for participants, but the group will be used strictly for downward communication of program rules. The rationale behind the discretionary use of WhatsApp is to limit the number of comments to ensure that important information is not overshadowed by other replies and kind of messages that may not be related to the goal. That way, communication will reach the participants without channel ‘noise’ associated with WhatsApp.
