Turning Town Hall Meetings Into Game-Changing Performance Sessions

By The SHSMD Team posted 09-04-2018 08:11 PM

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Located in a competitive hospital market, the marketing team at Dayton Children’s Hospital knows that providing an exceptional patient experience and gaining market share starts with having a highly engaged staff.

When marketing leadership concluded several years ago that a brand study was needed to reposition the hospital, the study showed that only 78 percent of employees would be extremely likely to recommend Dayton Children’s; and only 84 percent said it was the best pediatric hospital in the area.

“We were in a significant competitive situation in which we absolutely needed our employees to recommend us and rate us as the top pediatric hospital in the region,” said Kelly Kavanaugh, marketing and strategic planning vice president.

Destination 2020
At the same time, Dayton Children’s was introducing a major, multi-faceted strategic initiative called Destination 2020 aimed at heightening engagement with physicians and staff, improving clinical quality and performance, enhancing customer service, establishing strong care alliances with providers and other complementary health care organizations, and growing market share.

To help address the employee engagement aspect of Destination 2020, the marketing team believed that going directly to employees through a revamped town hall format was key to success. The team re-christened the new town hall meetings as Game-Changing Performance Sessions, or GPS.

Game-Changing Performance (GPS)
“We wanted to get employees’ attention through a new, lively format that was inspirational, authentic, and even fun. We place a strong emphasis on employee participation in these sessions, and that has made a tremendous difference.”

The GPS formula includes:

An interesting singular focus for each meeting: Past topics have included expansion plans and world-class surgeons performing new techniques. One key axiom is that GPS delivers content that employees can’t get anywhere else.
Rumor Lane: Between GPS sessions, employees are encouraged to anonymously submit rumors they have heard. Rumor Lane allows the CEO to address each rumor head on and speak frankly to employees.
Above and Beyond: Leadership utilizes this portion of the agenda to recognize top-performing staff and teams. Story¬telling is frequently employed.
Mission Moment: At the conclusion of every GPS, the CEO celebrates the hospital’s mission in an inspirational way that reminds employees about the vital role they play in caring for sick children and their families.

A Formula That Works
Since GPS was introduced in 2014, Dayton Children’s has seen movement in its employee engagement and perception scores. From 2015 to 2017:

Employee engagement as measured in the annual survey increased from the 11th to 85th percentile.
Employees’ score for likelihood to recommend Dayton Children’s rose from 4.45 to 4.50 on a five-point scale and from 4.37 to 4.45 on their rating for the hospital’s quality of care.
GPS sessions experienced an 830 percent increase in attendance in two years.

In the latest employee survey, 94 percent of staff also “strongly agreed” or “agreed” they learned important information about the strategic direction of the hospital during GPS sessions.

Through engagement surveys, employees have been freely sharing the impact that GPS has on their outlook. One nurse commented, “I loved learning about all the ways that Dayton Children’s is improving the workplace for employees. It makes me proud to work here!”

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Christer Osterling

09-24-2018 03:03 PM

Great article. I know that there is no silver bullet to these types of meetings, but honestly this is such a step in the right direction. I like throwing the honestly out on the table with the rumor mill. Thanks for sharing.

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