Culture Trumps Strategy

I often get asked, “how do you develop and retain a strong, high performing team?”  For us here at Jupiter Medical Center, it starts with building an authentic culture of dignity and mutual respect. We strive to demonstrate to our team members that, first and foremost, we value them as people. And while we certainly hold them accountable for their work and their actions, we seek to provide them with a work environment where they feel supported from a professional perspective as well as an emotional and a personal one.

I truly believe that in order to enhance team member performance and get the best out of my colleagues, I need be as supportive about their time away from the hospital as I am during work hours. For me, it is equally important to provide team members the tools needed to deliver their best work inside the hospital as it is to help them achieve and maintain that all important work/life balance. I want my team members to have fulfilling lives outside of their jobs. I want them to spend time with their families, contribute to their communities, explore their passions and take care of themselves. If they are able to find fulfillment outside of work, this will enable them to bring their best into the medical center each and every day.

This philosophy of management is the cornerstone of the transformational culture model known as Relationship-Based Care. In order to build and maintain a culture of mutual respect and authenticity here at Jupiter Medical Center, all of our team members—regardless of their position - are required to attend a three-day (24 hours) training seminar in Relationship-Based Care. Over the course of three days, team members focus on their own wellbeing and self-care as well relationship building and leadership skills.

We realize that this training is a significant investment in both time and resources, but we believe it is an investment worth making. This approach to management not only allows us to be compassionate and authentic leaders and employers, it also makes strong financial sense. Retaining team members is important from a bottom line perspective as high turnover leads to increased costs and decreased performance. In a 2015 study  by Health eCareers, one-third of healthcare recruiters ranked employee turnover as their top staffing concern and according to the National Health Retention and RN Staff Report for 2016 put together by Nursing Solutions, Inc., hospitals of similar size to Jupiter Medical Center experienced a 21.5% turnover in healthcare employees last year.

The fact is, in today’s workplace, you can have fantastic ideas and innovative strategies to grow your business and lead your market…but if you don’t have dedicated team members that are invested in its execution, you won’t get where you want to go.