Nursing Staff Engagement

By Rose O. Sherman, EdD, RN, FAAN

Are your staff engaged in their work? If you are like most nurse leaders, your answer to this question is probably that some staff are but others are not. A 2013 State of the American Workplace Report from the Gallup organization indicates that only 30% of US employees are actively engaged in their work. In the report, they have 3 key findings. The first is that engagement has a direct impact on the organization’s bottom line. The second key point is that leaders make a difference in employee engagement. A third finding is that different types of employees need different engagement strategies. These survey results don’t surprise Vicki Hess, a nurse expert and author of the book 6 Shortcuts to Employee Engagement. I met Vicki at the OR Managers conference last week in Washington DC where she was presenting on this important topic. As a follow-up to this conference, I interviewed Vicki to learn more about her ideas about keeping staff engaged in their work.

What is Employee Engagement?

Throughout her years as an organizational consultant working on topics like patient satisfaction and leadership development, Vicki found that employee engagement was a missing part of the equation and poorly understood. She uses the definition of the Aon Hewitt consulting group to define employee engagement – “engagement is the emotional and intellectual commitment of an individual to build and sustain business performance”. She has simplified this definition into a three part formula Satisfied + Energized + Productive at Work = Employee Engagement. Satisfied is about being psychologically connected with the work. Energized means being willing to put effort into your work. Productive means that our efforts contribute to the overall vision and bottom line of the organization (and we can clearly see this).

So how can we foster greater employee engagement?

Vicki feels that one reason why employee disengagement is so high today is that a key part of the puzzle has been missed – that is the employee. To some extent through media messages, it has become OK to say that you are not engaged in your work and individuals fail to see that they too have a responsibility in the engagement process. She believes that the solution to employee engagement is threefold:

1. An organization that deliberately and consistently supports engagement;

2. A leader who regularly drives engagement at the tactical level;

3. Individuals who are accountable for engagement at a personal level.

To foster engagement, nurse leaders need to promote the idea that it is a shared responsibility. To help drive engagement, leaders need to be intentional with employees through one to one conversations or part of leadership rounding. Ask staff what specifically helps them to feel satisfied, productive and energized. What parts of their job are demotivating and how can they change it. Connecting with employees and creating a culture of inclusion is the key. When nurse leaders observe disengagement – they need to address it and recognize that keeping staff happy at work is a joint responsibility.

What mistakes do nurse leaders make in promoting staff engagement?

Vicki feels that the most common mistake is the failure to confront disengagement in staff when they observe it. Staff often complain to leaders about their work environment and that is where the conversation ends. Rather than to promote these feelings of powerlessness, nurse leaders should review with staff what is within their control in their environment and how they could feel more engaged. A second problem is that some nurse leaders are themselves not engaged – especially in today’s chaotic, complex and ever changing healthcare environment. Feeling overwhelmed, they shut down and disengage from their work. It is impossible to create employee engagement without the engagement of the leader. Vicki suggests that to avoid feeling overwhelmed – leaders should set better boundaries and ask themselves what they could stop doing. She reminds leaders that like the message given on airlines before takeoff – “put your own oxygen mask on first.” Finally, she advises nurse leaders to measure engagement on an ongoing basis – don’t rely on old data – things change in environments and on teams.

Read to Lead

Hess, V. (2013). 6 Shortcuts to Employee Engagement. Catalyst Consulting, LLC.

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