Change initiatives require support from the full range of organizational stakeholders, from the Chief Executive Officer to frontline employees. The alignment assessment provides a method for gaining buy-in, gathering baseline information for an initiative, and developing a common understanding across the organization of the goals of an initiative. It also provides an opportunity to determine an initiative’s “fit” with an organization’s strategic goals and the portfolios of executives and managers.
An alignment assessment of beliefs regarding workplace conditions was completed for executives, managers, frontline employees, and union representatives in four BC health authorities. Between January and June 2006, nineteen executives, eight managers, and seven union representatives were interviewed and 187 healthcare employees attended focus groups to discuss the status of current workplace conditions, solutions to address workplace stressors, facilitators and barriers to implementing those solutions, employee health, and effective coping strategies.
A majority of participants identified workload among the top stressors and noted that in recent years frontline workers’ workload has increased due to higher patient acuity and volume, rapid patient turnover, and staff shortages. The most frequently reported strategy to reduce workload was to increase and re-allocate resources to provide adequate staffing and reduce overtime.
Real-time monitoring is required to ensure basic needs – staffing levels, workload, patient flow, supplies, supporting services, training, communication, and management – are effectively met for frontline workers. For instance, there is a lack of effective communication that provides administration with insights from frontline workers and frontline workers with a clear understanding of organizational processes.
Participants agreed that it is vital to shift from reacting to crises to developing proactive sustainable integrated structures that have the capacity to respond to rapid change. With the aging population and workforce (mean age of BC nurses is 47), participants identified that now is the time to spend the funds necessary to improve the work environment. Short-term benefits include improved retention among nurses who are becoming eligible for early retirement and long-term benefits include the ability to attract and retain nurses in the future.
Although many frontline workers reported that being in a healthcare profession contributes to their job satisfaction, few administrators considered that frontline workers would gain job satisfaction from being associated with healthcare. Frontline workers asserted that their work is important and valuable, and they experience daily success when patients go home healthy. However, they indicated they do not have the resources to do their jobs well. In addition, the successes achieved by frontline workers and administration are overshadowed by an ongoing focus on reacting – rather than proactively anticipating and preventing – problems.
For the full results of the alignment assessment, please download the Project Focus below.
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Project Focus: |
Changing the Workplace Project Update (Phase I)
(230 kb, 2 pgs) |
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