St. Elizabeth Healthcare: Recognition Builds Care and Belonging

St. Elizabeth Healthcare provides exceptional healthcare close to home and relies on their over 11,000 associates to help care for their patients. The company also helps their own people feel cared for and builds belonging with recognition.

Situation

As a community hospital, St. Elizabeth’s workplace culture is special and unique. It’s a place where associates genuinely care about one another as individuals. The company wanted an associate recognition platform that reflects this culture.

"It’s the people who make us who we are at St. Elizabeth. Our culture is servant culture. We’re here for the service of others, not money. We’re here for careers, not jobs. We’re respectful and beyond fair. We treat others how they want to be treated."
—Garren Colvin, President & CEO, St. Elizabeth Healthcare

“We have to take care of our workforce so they can take care of our patients,” explains Peggy Essert, Manager of Human Resources. So St. Elizabeth looked for a recognition partner who could help.

“We chose O.C. Tanner for their mobile app and ability to recognize on the go. Everyone loves the animated ecards and a big library to choose from, which ties recognition back to our values and life events. Yearbook™ gives leaders and associates the opportunity to add comments so they are personalized and unique to the individual. Their customer service team is very responsive to questions and special projects we want to do.”
—Peggy Essert, Manager of Human Resources 

Solution

1) St. Elizabeth worked with O.C. Tanner to create the I Care and Beyond Excellence recognition platforms for their hospitals and physicians to give everyday recognition

2) Yearbook helps the company recognize associate anniversaries in real time

3) Expanded offerings for gifts make recognition even more meaningful

4) They recognize life events like birthdays, new babies, new homes, etc. “When you recognize these life events, you see people for more than just the work that they do. You see the whole person. That helps build a sense of belonging and community, and that makes people want to stay. When you see the whole person, you help them thrive,” says Essert.

5) Leaders are automatically notified when associates are recognized, and the social wall enables everyone to see great work happening across the organization

“You don’t always think about the impact you make, so when people tell you, it really moves you. Our culture is one where you care about each other, and that is so rare. These programs we have just add to that culture.”
—Sara Warning, Manager of Associate and Provider Experience

“O.C. Tanner gave us best practices and research on how much recognition should be happening. Using those metrics, we’ve been able to set organizational and team goals in each work unit,” explains Luke Willman, Engagement and Culture Consultant.

“It’s had a very positive impact. The metrics O.C. Tanner provides drive home the importance of recognition and the impact it has. It really has helped to move the whole program forward,” adds Essert.

Résultats

“We have correlation to show that the impact of taking care of each other means we’re taking care of our patients. Recognition is not just lip service. It’s who we are,” says Warning.

Analysis shows associates who are recognized less than once a quarter have lower engagement. But by building recognition into the new hire process, where all new hires are assigned a Personal Advisor Liaison and receive an eCard welcoming them to the team, St. Elizabeth creates a sense of belonging from day one and, as a result, first-year turnover is very low.

“When you recognize people for the great work they are doing and the impact they have, they feel good about being part of the organization. And when people feel good and feel connected to the organization, they stay. We really do see that play out in our numbers,” says Essert. “You can have lofty goals around belonging, but it’s the people you work with day-to-day that make you feel like you belong.”