Many hospitals are facing shortages of nurses and other
professional staff, forcing tired employees to work longer and
longer hours. At the same time, the fifth anniversary of To Err
Is Human -- a 1999 Institute of Medicine report showing that
up to 98,000 people die each year from medical errors -- is
approaching and many studies show that medical errors continue to
be rampant.
Does all the negative publicity about healthcare workplaces
reflect the actual work environment? How do healthcare employees'
feelings about their workplaces compare with those of other types
of employees? One way to answer these questions is by asking the
healthcare employees themselves.
Gallup's employee database contains satisfaction and engagement
data for hundreds of thousands of healthcare employees, as well as
hundreds of thousands of employees in other industries. In a
special analysis, Gallup researchers compared the mean satisfaction
scores from 2001 to 2004 (as measured by the question, "How
satisfied are with your organization as a place to work?") for
employees of "average" healthcare organizations and employees of
"average" organizations in all U.S. industries. "Average"
organizations are defined as those scoring in the 50th
percentile of the Gallup database for employee satisfaction. Scores
for best-practice organizations (those scoring in the
75th percentile of the database) were also compared.
How do healthcare organizations measure up? With the exception
of a slight jump in 2002, employees of average healthcare
workplaces are consistently less satisfied with their organizations
as a place to work than are employees in all U.S. industries.
However, for the past three years, employee satisfaction at
best-practice healthcare organizations has been on par with that of
employees working for best-practice organizations in all
industries.
Are Healthcare Employees Engaged?
Productive employees must be more than satisfied with their
workplaces -- they must also be engaged with their workgroups (see
"Engagement vs. Satisfaction Among Hospital Teams" in Related
Items). Engagement, as measured by Gallup's Q12 survey,
indicates a strong level of psychological commitment to one's job
and to his or her workgroup.
The "GrandMean" for the Q12 is measured by averaging
the scores for all 12 questions. In 2001, the GrandMean scores for
healthcare workers in both the 50th and 75th
percentiles were lower than those for the 50th and
75th percentiles of all industries. However, the
healthcare industry no longer lags behind at either level. Relative
to U.S. workers as a whole, employees of both average and
best-practice healthcare organizations have increased engagement
with their workgroups every year. Healthcare worker engagement is
now above that of U.S. workers.
Bottom Line
Despite the challenges they face, healthcare organizations have
made progress over the past few years in improving the cohesiveness
of their workgroups. Employee engagement is directly related to
positive outcomes such as turnover and safety. A study of hospitals
in Gallup's database showed that facilities with high levels of
employee engagement also tend to have lower levels of patient
mortality and medical errors.
The true strength of today's healthcare organizations is in the
performance of their individual workgroups. The overall images of
many healthcare workplaces are suffering, and those negative images
may be reflected in lagging employee satisfaction scores in those
average healthcare organizations. However, strong employee
engagement scores for healthcare organizations give cause for
greater optimism.
