Vivowire: Healthcare Disengagement, Scrubs & Hugh Laurie

Welcome to edition #92 of Vivowire, the Workvivo newsletter!

This is a special edition of Vivowire for our new report on the healthcare disengagement crisis. 

You can read more about that here, but I don’t think anyone is going to be shocked by the results: that frontline healthcare employees are burnt out, feeling underappreciated and undervalued, and finding it hard to summon motivation.

Let’s talk about some of those issues in true Vivowire fashion… with the help of sitcoms! 

Let's go! 🏥

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This Week’s Top 3 Thumbstoppers

1. The Rachel & Joey Healthcare Disengagement Crisis

TL;DR: Rachel and Joey have an engagement misunderstanding, and so do healthcare employers.

There’s a big (like, really big) gap between how much healthcare leaders think they’re recognizing and engaging frontline employees in the industry, and how recognized and engaged those employees feel. 

Remember when Rachel has just given birth to Emma, and Joey accidentally proposes to her? And she thinks it’s an actual proposal and says yes? That’s how much of an engagement disconnect there is in hospitals right now.

(That reference was almost too perfect for this newsletter.) 

We have a new report on the findings of a survey we held with 1,000 employees in the healthcare industry, in which we asked them about their EX. 

Rachel and Joey – or healthcare leaders and frontline employees – experience a discrepancy in their intentions and feelings, and it’s further exacerbated by miscommunication. 

What Rachel doesn’t realize is that Joey was simply bending to pick up the engagement ring Ross had kept in his jacket pocket, which had just fallen out.

What healthcare leaders and administrators don’t realize, according to our study, is that a whopping two-thirds (67%) of their employees don’t feel appreciated at work. Over half aren’t engaged at work, making them 4x more likely to quit – demonstrated by the finding that 85% of disengaged healthcare employees are currently searching for a new job (compared to 21% of engaged workers). 

The impact of appreciation on employee satisfaction – and, in turn, attrition – is undeniable. In fact, lack of recognition is a larger factor than low salary for frontline employee engagement, especially for those working in healthcare settings. 

81% of healthcare administrators say frontline employees feel recognized, but 64% of frontline workers say they feel unrecognized. It’s clear that the healthcare industry faces a significant disparity dilemma.

And just like Rachel and Joey shouldn’t go on to get married because of a misunderstanding, the current relationship between leaders and employees in healthcare needs to change. Awareness is the first step toward creating better workplaces for healthcare staff.  

Read more about our study and its findings here.

2. Be a Better Internal Communicator Than House MD

TL;DR: 61% of frontline workers want to hear company message from their line manager. Getting that right means steering clear of Gregory House’s leadership strategy. 

In a frontline healthcare setting, how you communicate matters – not just to your patients, but with your colleagues too. You can be a brilliant medical professional but if you’re leading or managing others, your IC skills need to be up to scratch too. 

Dr Gregory House is a great example. In House (2004), the titular character is known for his brilliant diagnostic skills but often struggles with interpersonal relationships and communication. 

He’s dismissive, sarcastic, withholding, and refuses to ask for help from his team. But as a healthcare provider, maybe he didn’t get the right kind of training and support to be able to communicate effectively. 

After all, our research found that…

• 62% of healthcare administrators said their current communication tools limit them from doing better in their roles
• 57% of healthcare administrators feel their internal comms are ineffective
• 71% of healthcare administrators contact coworkers on non-official apps like WhatsApp and iMessage about work-related matters

House is no administrator, but he does manage a team. I can’t imagine that side of his job doesn’t involve some level of admin. 

And nailing that as a manager in a sector like healthcare is critical. In a guest post for our blog, Caitlin Kirwan shared that 61% of frontline workers prefer company messaging to come from their line manager, over any other communication channel.

“Line managers are one of the most important keys to effective internal communication, particularly in the healthcare industry,” she said. “They have the single biggest impact on team performance, and studies have even found that employees with managers who communicate well are almost three times as likely to be engaged than those with managers who do not.”

Caitlin shares one way to equip healthcare managers with the communication skills necessary for a successful business and positive EX. “Providing team leaders with standardized templates and cheat sheets can help them deliver more effective employee briefings and shift handovers. 

“These kinds of handy resources promote consistent communication between different teams, leaders, and departments – reducing the margin for error.”

Read the rest of her advice for internal communication in the healthcare industry here. 

3. Under the Lens… Houston Methodist, Scrubs & Self-improvement

TL;DR: Don't be as sarcastic as Dr Cox to your colleagues, but do take inspiration from his self-improvement journey.

In Glassdoor’s 2024 best large companies to work for in the US, there are two hospitals: Houston Methodist, ranked in 37th place, and Texas Children’s Hospital, in 94th place. 

Houston Methodist scores pretty well on Glassdoor and Comparably. It has a 4.3-star rating on both, with categories like CEO Rating, Executive Team, Leadership, and Perks and Benefits all scoring highly. 

When so many healthcare frontline employees are struggling to engage at work, what’s Houston Methodist doing right?

Highlights listed by its employees say the hospital’s environment is good for teamwork, that there are great opportunities for learning and growth, that leadership is transparent and receptive, and that team members are helpful and respectful. 

Houston Methodist reminds me of Dr Cox, who by many standards was an exceptional doctor, but needed to self-reflect and course-correct to fill the (many) gaps of his professional offering. He was cutting, sarcastic, angry, and stubborn – all traits that probably don’t make for a particularly positive experience if you’re one of his patients or colleagues.

By the end of the show, Dr Cox is able to delegate, juggle his career and personal life successfully, and treat his team mates with respect 

So Houston Methodist, while it’s doing more than most to deliver a positive EX, does have cons – like any company, to be fair – and they echo what we’ve found in our study. 

For example, employees don’t feel fairly compensated, they aren’t happy with their work-life balance, and they want more recognition.

 And remember – this is a frontline healthcare employer sitting less than halfway down a Glassdoor ‘Best Place to Work’ list. By Glassdoor standards, its outperforming other hospitals in terms of culture. 

But two-thirds of its workforce still feel burnt out. Half of them don’t take pride in the work they do for the company. And one-third don’t believe their leadership team is doing what it should to keep employees.

The bottom line? Even the best-rated hospital working environments are facing a disengagement crisis.  

And just like Dr Cox worked on himself and learned to ask for help, so must healthcare employers if they’re to give frontline employees the EX they deserve.  

Quote of the Week

“Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present, Man Not Caring” – Dr Perry Cox, pointing to himself

What’s up at Workvivo?

10 Reasons Building Your Own Intranet Is a TERRIBLE Idea: Currently considering building your own intranet? We have one word: ABORT! Here are 10 reasons why you need to ditch the homegrown intranet for good. Read it here!

49% of Employees in Transportation and Logistics Don’t Feel Recognized at Work: Chances are your transport and logistics employees aren’t feeling the love. Here’s what to do about it. Learn more here!

How compliance management tools can help you navigate the comms landscape: Compliance management solutions come with a variety of benefits, so to help you understand how these tools can help you navigate the tricky comms landscape, here are three things to consider. Continue reading on Zoom's blog!

Final Thought 

Don’t go rooting through your friend’s jacket pockets.

Be a better communicator than Gregory House.

And always consider how you can improve to give your employees a better workplace experience.

I hope you read these in JD’s ‘end of episode learning moment’ voice.

Until next time, Vivowire out! 🩺

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