Wellstar: Optimizing Workplace Performance with Recognition

At Wellstar, employee recognition and trust go hand in hand. The company builds a culture of trust and empowerment for their over 25,000 employees in more than 300 healthcare locations with recognition, leading them to be a best place to work and receive care. Trust and recognition have empowered employees to improve revenue cycle management.

Situation

Wellstar’s ShineWell recognition platform allows the company to:

The company wanted to rally their employees around a common goal: reducing workqueue age. By reducing workqueue aging, the company would benefit from overall reduction in accounts receivable aging.

"This Initiative provides me clear goals and helps us track our progress, all while fostering a sense of accomplishment and teamwork."
—Wellstar employee

Solution

The company turned to the Initiatives feature in their ShineWell recognition platform (powered by Culture Cloud) for help.

Direct managers were instrumental in driving the workqueue Initiative. The company also has a network of professional wellness champions who promote recognition through ShineWell.

Michele Harris, Manager of Work Life Services at Wellstar, says, “The interconnectedness of ShineWell works so well. You have the ability to use Initiatives, but leaders also have the ability to give out eCards and awards for people who have gone above and beyond to supplement that. Giving employees more ways to be recognized gives them more opportunity to do great work that moves the business.”

“The ease of being able to move in and out of Initiatives allows us to try different things and be creative with recognition,” explains Harris.

Results

In just 3 months since the workqueue Initiative started, Wellstar has:

“Employees are saying things like, ‘We are actually excited to work now’. For revenue cycle streams and workqueues, it is hard to make work fun. The competition and giving employees points is a big deal, they feel the love. It gives them something fun and something to achieve.  We feel their excitement about work.”
—Adam Gobin, Assistant Vice President, Revenue Cycle

Recognition helps Wellstar track who did great work and tie it to results, which have gotten the attention of senior leaders like the Epic team’s Vice President and the company’s CFO. Now everyone is in sync with the goals of the workqueue Initiative. “It is now embedded in the DNA of the team,” says Adam Gobin, Assistant Vice President, Revenue Cycle.

While the results of Wellstar’s workqueue Initiative are impressive, what’s important to the company is their people. “While we are tied to the financial success of the Initiative, we can’t get there without our people. When our people are energized and motivated on the front lines who are driving the business, I know we can tackle any financial hurdle we come across,” explains Gobin.

“The fact that Wellstar offers a unique engagement and rewards program such as ShineWell is a tremendous benefit in and of itself. The ability to incorporate this into important initiatives at a team level to drive engagement, excitement, and results has not only improved team member satisfaction but has accelerated our progress and driven significant value for our organization. The team members are excited and happy and the organization is succeeding, a true win-win for all.”
—Jason Siedman, Vice President, Revenue Cycle Management