How has HR managed economic pressures while still growing Tenet’s presence and work force in the Florida Region?
Even with economic pressures, Tenet has still invested in developing its employees through leadership and educational development programs. While many other large health care delivery systems have cut back on employing newly graduated nurses due to the cost of training them, Tenet has continued to invest in its Versant and other customized nurse residency programs in the region. With these programs, we are proud to hire newly graduated nurses and instill Tenet’s culture and expectations to prepare them for their professional careers.
While we’ve had to face cutbacks, we’ve made every effort to keep employee morale high through various recognition programs. All of these efforts have helped us retain our work force and continue to develop our future leaders.
What recommendations do you have for other large companies who are striving to successfully retain, develop and motivate their employees?
For any organization, it’s critical to create a culture that is reflected in HR strategy and planning. At Tenet, we’ve focused on creating a culture of caring and open communication that is enforced from the corporate and regional perspective as well as with the HR teams at each hospital. Throughout all employee programs and initiatives, there must be a clear and consistent message. At Tenet our message is clear: we want to understand our employees’ needs and do all that we can to keep them productive, motivated, happy and healthy in their work environment.
To keep employees motivated and productive, it’s also critical to consider how employees are managing their work-life balance. As the economy has forced many large employers to do more with less, discrepancies in work-life balance can affect job satisfaction and performance. This is something I would recommend companies consider. At Tenet Florida, we care about this balance and are developing programs to encourage and support employees in meeting all of their responsibilities, both at work and personally.
Kathryn M. Fisk, SPHR, MBA, is the Regional Director of Human Resources for Tenet Florida.
