Discusses how educational leaders can better contribute to creating healthy and inclusive school communities by cultivating resilience, personal wellbeing and transformational leadership in their roles.
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Tag: Organizational performance and productivity
How to Create a Healthier Organization
Workshop by Graham Lowe at the 15th Annual Health & Safety Conference Society of Alberta. Edmonton, Alberta. November 9, 2016
Workshop description:
This day-long workshop will help participants apply the ideas, tools and leading examples in Graham Lowe’s book, Creating Healthy Organizations: How Vibrant Workplaces Inspire Employees to Achieve Sustainable Success.
The workshop provides a forum for learning and action planning, enabling you to build the foundations for sustainable success. Is your organization nurturing the employee capabilities it will need to thrive in 2025? How can you better support employees to achieve health, safety and performance goals? What are the most cost-effective ways to promote employee wellbeing? By addressing these questions, participants will achieve the following objectives by the end of the day:
– Understand the business case for a healthy organization.
– Learn about the building blocks of a healthy organization.
– Identify opportunities for strengthening these building blocks.
– Find ways to strengthen their workplace culture.
– Leverage existing initiatives to more fully engage employees.
– Define the critical behaviours for wellbeing and performance.
– Assess progress toward healthy organization goals.
– Identify the best metrics for tracking workplace improvements.
The workshop will develop participants’ capacity for effective change. Participants will be encouraged to identify actions they can take in their day-to-day work that will contribute to a more positive, productive and healthy work environment. Participants also will identify cost-effective ways to better leverage and integrate OH&S, HR, learning, wellness, quality improvement, and social / environmental responsibility initiatives.
Linking employee engagement and organizational metrics
Graham Lowe is a panel presenter on this topic at the 2012 Health Care Human Resources Leadership Symposium, sponsored by the Ontario Hospital Association. Toronto, 17 October, 2012. For more information: www.oha.com/HMM
Symposium brochure
The Relationship Between Employee Engagement and Human Capital Performance
The Ontario Hospital Association has published this report, which summarizes findings from the OHA exploratory research project conducted with three pilot hospitals (one acute teaching, one community, and one small). The project examines the relationship between employee engagement and several key human resources (HR) metrics. This is the first attempt by the OHA to link data from two of its major HR data initiatives: the OHA‐NRC Picker Employee Experience Survey and the OHA‐PricewaterhouseCoopers Saratoga HR Benchmarking Survey.
– The project developed a methodology for accurately comparing Employee Experience Survey engagement data with human capital metrics from hospital administrative data at the department level.
– It also identified three HR metrics – the full-time resignation rate, average sick days per full-time employee, and management span of control – which do appear to be related to employee engagement levels at the department level.
– This research will provide HR leaders with support to build the case for making investments in employee engagement. It appears that there are real costs associated with higher absence and resignation rates when engagement is low.
OHA report PDF
How Employee Engagement Matters for Hospital Performance
Managers increasingly understand that employee engagement is a prerequisite for high performance. This article examines how job, work environment, management and organizational factors influence levels of engagement among healthcare employees. Original data come from the Ontario Hospital Association-NRC Picker Employee Experience Survey, involving over 10,000 employees in 16 Ontario hospitals. The article provides a clear definition and measure of engagement relevant to healthcare. In addition to identifying the main drivers of engagement, findings shows that a high level of employee engagement is related to retention, patient-centred care, patient safety culture and employees’ positive assessments of the quality of care or services provided by their team. Implications of these findings for healthcare leaders are briefly considered.
For the entire issue of Healthcare Quarterly (Vol. 15, no. 2) go to: http://www.longwoods.com/publications/healthcare-quarterly/22899?utm_source=Longwoods+Master+Mailing+List&utm_campaign=979422d2d2-HQ_15_2_TOC_Alert6_11_2012&utm_medium=email
Article PDF
Healthy Organizations Inspire Learning and Collaboration
Feature article in Canadian Society for Training and Development (CSTD) September 29, 2010, newsletter. For more information on CSTD: http://www.cstd.ca/
Article PDF
Reducing Stigma: Actions to Achieve Workplace Wellbeing
Presentation at the 5th Annual Mental Health in the Workplace Forum, Rotman School, University of Toronto. 20 October 2010
Presentation visuals
How Work Environment Metrics Can Improve Healthcare Performance
Presentation by Graham Lowe, to the Health System Performance Research Network, University of Toronto. 17 March 2010
This presentation outlines a comprehensive framework for assessing, reporting and improving the quality of work environments in healthcare organizations in Ontario and across Canada. Drawing on evidence showing that healthy work environments (HWE) contribute to positive outcomes for healthcare employees and physicians, the same HWE ingredients also can reduce operating costs, improve human resource utilization, and ultimately support higher quality patient care. The presentation offers a blueprint for how health system employers, governments, quality agencies and professional associations can implement cost-effective and sustainable HWE metrics. A common measurement tool and reporting framework will enable managers and policy makers to use HWE ingredients as levers to improve organizational performance. The benefits flowing from a common healthy work-environment measurement and reporting system should convince stakeholders to reach consensus on HWE metrics and overcome the pitfalls of : indicator-itis that beset other health system performance metrics. Moving down this path requires the active involvement of stakeholders in developing a core set of common metrics, integrating these metrics into existing measurement and reporting systems, building in managerial accountability for work environment quality, and supporting on-going improvements at the front-lines of care and service delivery.
HSPRN presentation
Using Common Work Environment Metrics to Improve Performance in Healthcare Organizations
Presentation by Graham Lowe to the Health System Performance Research Network, University of Toronto. March 17, 2010. Further information is available on the HSPRN website: http://www.hsprn.ca/activities/presentations/20100317.html
Presentation Outline:
This presentation outlines a comprehensive framework for assessing, reporting and improving the quality of work environments in healthcare organizations in Ontario and across Canada. Drawing on evidence showing that healthy work environments (HWE) contribute to positive outcomes for healthcare employees and physicians, the same HWE ingredients also can reduce operating costs, improve human resource utilization, and ultimately support higher quality patient care. The presentation offers a blueprint for how health system employers, governments, quality agencies and professional associations can implement cost-effective and sustainable HWE metrics. A common measurement tool and reporting framework will enable managers and policy makers to use HWE ingredients as levers to improve organizational performance. The benefits flowing from a common healthy work-environment measurement and reporting system should convince stakeholders to reach consensus on HWE metrics and overcome the pitfalls of : indicator-itis that beset other health system performance metrics. Moving down this path requires the active involvement of stakeholders in developing a core set of common metrics, integrating these metrics into existing measurement and reporting systems, building in managerial accountability for work environment quality, and supporting on-going improvements at the front-lines of care and service delivery.
Job quality: What is it, why does it matter, and how can it be improved?
Plenary presentation by Graham Lowe at the Institute for Work & Health.
9:30 – 10:45 a.m. November 17, 2009. Institute for Work & Health, 481 University Avenue, Suite 800, Toronto (Directions).
To confirm your attendance, please RSVP to Lyudmila Mansurova (lmansurova@iwh.on.ca or 416-927-2027 ext. 2137).
Job quality: What is it, why does it matter, and how can it be improved?
This presentation examines the diverse theories, concepts and practices that address the quality of jobs, work environments and individuals’ work experiences. On this broad canvas, we can identify points of convergence around key sets of determinants and outcomes. However, a common conceptual vocabulary is lacking, which impedes cross-fertilization across disciplines and between researchers and practitioners. The most promising opportunity for an integrated approach is around the connection between work environments, employee well-being and organizational performance. Practitioners and policy-makers need a basic model explaining these complex dynamics. By taking up this challenge, researchers would help ensure that future decisions to improve job quality are informed by evidence.
IWH plenary presentation