Lenox Hill Hospital

Eleonora Shapiro

Finding talent is just as hard as retaining talent. Staffing is the most valuable commodity in any work area regardless of the industry. Whether you are a health care sector or a business market, it is the people that make your hospital or firm. It is the human talent that brands everything valuable. There are many qualities of staff that comprise talent. Talented people are smart, efficient, effective, witty, graceful, and strong always create full thinking and imagining outside of the box.

Retaining talented people becomes a craft. You have to be able to give them enough freedom to be challenged, to develop and to be able to reward them. Having staff meetings is key to positive relations within a team. Being able to ask staff what is important to them and how that significance to them can synchronize to the group or team. Staff meetings essential components are:

Current status
Next steps
Required outcomes
Questions and answers

Current status will let the team know about current volume reports, financial standings, or issues that are coming up to current or future state. This is moment where the staff hears what the existing condition is and what is the problem or topic of the organization or the department.

"At meetings, the more liberty and freedom for the discussions, the healthier will be the outcomes"

Next steps are the diagrams of thought or outlines the staff need to get from their leaders. We must improve on patients’ satisfaction or the financial targets have to be real. When staff hears what the problem is, they need to think how they can bring out change. Every staff member needs to feel that they are part of the change and that a transformation or modification can’t come if the team is not aligned. Staff on a floor or unit comprises a team and it is the team or squad that makes the goals achievable. Unity for goal setting and moving targets represents strength. The clearer the message the robust the results.

Required outcomes conveys to the team the exact results or outcomes required. Examples: patient satisfaction with our unit must improve because if we move the scores from 2 to 4 we can then work on, dollars spend must equate to products produced.

Staff meeting are the forums that a leader makes the connections with the team or unit. Questions and answers are a part of every meeting. Staff needs to feel they are being heard and sense that what they know and can do matters. Asking people what they think can help, how you are changing the atmosphere after this meeting will loop the staff to think, prepare, perform and solve differently. The meetings must empower and strategize the staff. One person can’t change everything but as a group we are resilient.

Staff meetings can be performed in a group setting or scheduled 1:1 sessions. Standing meeting should be scheduled in a consistent time frame. The time for a meeting should be minimal but the period spent must be meaningful. When meeting times are scheduled lengthy there is a time where one may not have enough material or substance to chat about. There should not be a moment you are trying to look at what to say or discuss. At meetings, the more liberty and freedom for the discussions, the healthier will be the outcomes.

As leaders we must hear what the person has to say and encourage innovative pathways. The dialog should have open-ended questions and a moment to pause so people can think about what is being discussed. You want bring out the creative thinking, the reasoning that is innovative, new and effective.