20 more ways to build employee loyalty - Building Employee Loyalty

Physician Executive, July-August, 2003

Nearly 200 physician executives across the country responded to an ACPE e-mail asking about their organizations' efforts to gain employee trust. Here are some of the insights they and their employees shared.

1 Building employee trust is like making a marriage work

As a 31-year employee of Dr. Louis Wright, I can speak from personal experience that the primary reason for longevity and loyalty is flexibility. The company has always given their employees-rank and file, middle management, and senior management-the opportunity to have a flexible work schedule, especially during the childbearing and child-raising years. This ranks #1 for me personally.

The #2 reason for loyalty and longevity is that Dr. Wright has always been a proponent of growing management teams 'within" the organization. He would always challenge and encourage each individual.

I started working for Dr. Wright's practice as an administrative assistant and transcriptionist. Today, I hold the position of chief operating officer for a national company with approximately 300 employees.

Working for someone like Dr. Wright and his partners could easily be compared to making a marriage work. It takes dedication, hard work, trust and commitment toward the people that you spend at least one-third of your life with,

Suzanne B. Galloway

Chief Operating Officer

Pathology Service Associates, LLG

Florence, S.C.

Most employees want loyalty to be understood as a mutual, respectful and beneficial relationship.

2 Mentoring program makes a difference

Our mentorship program at Olympic Health Management Systems operates on two levels. Our parent company, Aon in Chicago, offers a program for carefully selected high-potential employees throughout the company who fly to Chicago regularly for meetings with their assigned mentors and take part in leadership development educational programs.

This program was so successful and appreciated by the two Olympic employees who participated, that we began a similar program locally. Six promising employees and six experienced mentors (I am one of them) are paired up for regular education programs as a group and also for individual get-togethers over the course of a year.

I meet with the person I mentor every two to four weeks for lunch and a chat. He is in Finance and I am in medical, so it is a good learning experience for both of us and has fostered an ever-improving relationship between our two departments.

3 Holiday charity also boosts employee morale

The company charity participation is common in corporate America, but I didn't realize its full impact until I worked here at Olympic where we are small enough to hear the positive feedback from employees.

The giving tree sat in our lobby during December and every single child's card on the tree was taken, every single wish fulfilled. The building landlord even brought the "leftovers" from giving trees in his four other buildings to hang on our tree to make sure that no child was left out.

I heard many remarks from our employees about how wonderful it was to have the opportunity to contribute to the community and how easy it was to do right here at work. Many employees chose gift cards for children the same age as their own and shopped as a family.

My own son remarked on Christmas morning that he was thinking of the four children for whom we shopped and how pleased they must be.

G. Kristin Crosby, MD

Vice President & Chief Medical Officer

Olympic Health Management Systems

Bellingham, Wash.

4 Pediatricians throw a party

Pediatric Associates of South Florida instituted a program last year called "Let's Get Connected" to unite staff and clinicians and improve company morale. With more than 350 employees, 70 providers and 17 locations, it was important to establish both office and company-wide programs that help staff feel that they were part of our family. The program consisted of monthly events, held at either the office or company level. To keep the excitement going throughout the year, calendars were hung in each office listing the monthly events.

On an office level, each staff was given a budget for the program. Doctors, nurses and staff went bowling, ate dinner together, held ice cream socials and baking contests and hosted family picnics.

One of the highlights of the program was "Employee Appreciation Week." The five-day celebration allowed doctors to thank employees for their hard work. Employees received daily surprise gifts preceded by mystery clues. One of the most popular surprises occurred when physicians dressed up as chefs and served lunch to the employees. Some offices added themes to their lunches with doctors dressing in luau and Italian garb to add a dash of authenticity.

In its first year, the program helped reduce turnover by 12 percent and employees were happier than ever.

Peter J. Sulman, MD, MBA

Chief Medical Officer Pediatric Associates

Lauderdale Lakes, Fla.

5 Loyalty vs. obedience

Most managers want loyalty to be understood as obedience to the person(s) in charge or the board of directors.