Commitment is at the center of many relationships, including your employees’ relationship with you and your healthcare organization. If your good employees already have a high level of commitment, they will trust you and be loyal to you. They will look for and see the good in you and willingly provide their time, energy, hard work, and talent to help you and your organization succeed. With employee commitment, everything is possible.
Conversely, when employee commitment levels are low, even good employees are likely to become cynical and stop caring, according to Eaton.(1) They may go through the motions every day, but they won’t excel. Often, they will look for the flaws and faults in your healthcare organization and in your leadership, and most assuredly, they will find them. They will stop expending energy to help you and one another. Ultimately, they may become the dead wood in your healthcare organization, or they may seek employment elsewhere.
The quality and depth of your good employees’ commitment is, therefore, a critical factor in your success. Fortunately, you can use tools to assess, foster, and increase your employees’ commitment.
WHAT IS COMMITMENT?
Commitment is a willingness to persist in a course of action and a reluctance to change plans, often owing to a sense of obligation to stay the course. According to Robert Vance,(2) “Commitment manifests itself in distinct behavior. For example, people devote time and energy to fulfill their on-the-job responsibilities, as well as their family, personal, community, and spiritual obligations.”
Commitment also has an emotional component, Vance says. People usually express positive feelings toward an individual, organization, or cause to whom or to which they have made a commitment. Commitment also has a rational component. Vance explains, “Most people consciously decide to make commitments. Then they thoughtfully plan and carry out the actions required to fulfill them.”
Commitments require an investment of time as well as mental and emotional energy; therefore, most people make commitments with the expectation of reciprocation. They assume that in exchange for their commitment, they will get something of value, such as favors, affection, gifts, attention, goods, money, or property. In the healthcare organization, employees and employers traditionally have a tacit agreement: in exchange for the employee’s commitment, the organization will provide forms of value for its employees, such as skill training, secure jobs, fair compensation, bonuses, and opportunities for career advancement. Reciprocity affects the intensity of employee commitment. Vance suggests, “When an employer to whom an employee has made a commitment fails to come through with the expected exchange, the commitment erodes.”
Commitments are likely to weaken quickly when employees feel that their organizations have let them down. This can be observed, for instance, when an organization goes through cutbacks and downsizing. Once-committed employees who believe that their employer has changed the deal often feel betrayed. They then put in less effort or look for employment elsewhere.
ASSESSING YOUR EMPLOYEES’ COMMITMENT
It is relatively easy to get employees to comply but often difficult to get them to commit; however, employee commitment is far more important to your healthcare organization’s long-term performance. Michael Beck(3) suggests, “When someone is compliant, they simply obey — doing what is asked of them, but no more. Typically, they’re doing just enough to keep their job.” Conversely, Beck suggests, when an employee is committed, they will spend time and effort “outside of normal business hours thinking about work and solving problems, finding better ways to get the job done, seeking out new insights, and then acting on them.”
When assessing employee performance, it is not sufficient to look at their compliance with your organization’s rules and, management; it is also necessary to look at their commitment. That means that you need to consider not only what your employees say and do, but also what they don’t say and don’t do. The following questions will help you assess employee commitment. Do your employees:
Go above and beyond minimal job expectations?
Demonstrate through actions a willingness to put others first?
Volunteer to do more when your healthcare organization hits a rough spot?
Show consistency between what they say and their body language?
Suggest new and better ways to do things that will benefit others?
Offer suggestions that they developed on their own time, outside of usual work hours?
Speak positively about your healthcare organization when they don’t know you’re listening?
Maintain a high-quality work level when no one is observing?
Genuinely celebrate the success of your healthcare organization and of other employees?
Show enthusiasm for new opportunities that will improve your healthcare organization?
If you were able to answer yes to these questions, your employees are likely to have a high level of commitment; however, if you’re not sure of an employee’s level of commitment, or if you know that it is low, it’s important to have a one-on-one conversation with that employee to learn more.
DISCUSSING COMMITMENT WITH YOUR EMPLOYEES
Below is a list of questions to ask an employee whose commitment level to your healthcare organization is low or unclear. It’s wise to carry on such conversations in private and in a helpful, nonthreatening way.
Encourage your low-commitment employees to answer honestly and to express their feelings. Through a free give-and-take, you may be able to uncover reasons for an employee’s lack of commitment and to turn things around. In your meeting with the employee, ask: “Do you feel that…
You want to participate on our healthcare organization’s (or your department’s) team?
You had/continue to have a choice about working here?
You have input about our direction, goals, and choices?
Our mission is important?
You are part of something that is bigger than yourself?
Your work is valuable?
You make a difference through your work here?
Our healthcare organization provides valuable and needed services to our patients?
The work you are doing now will advance your long-term career?
You are growing professionally because of this job?
You would stay with our healthcare organization even if you were offered a comparable position and similar pay and benefits at another organization?
You have a good use for your discretionary time at work?
Our healthcare organization is the right place for you?
You are proud of our healthcare organization and the work you do here?
You would recommend our healthcare organization as a place to work?
You are recognized for your achievements?
Our healthcare organization and its leaders are committed to you?
Our healthcare organization inspires you to do your best work?”
INSPIRING COMMITMENT IN OTHERS THROUGH YOUR LEADERSHIP
Inspiring, creating, and nurturing employee commitment is possible when healthcare leaders practice and master a few key leadership activities. Jody Rogers(4) developed a four-part “roadmap” for inspiring commitment through leadership:
Care. Employees who know that you care about them are likely to return the consideration with greater commitment. On the other hand, if your employees don’t believe you care about them, they probably won’t be as committed to you; therefore, openly demonstrate your caring attitude toward your employees. Tell them that you care, but also demonstrate your commitment through your actions. Show that you mean what you say.
Create ownership. You can enhance employee commitment if your employees believe that your vision is also their vision. Give your employees a voice in how the work should be accomplished and explain how and why each team member’s role is essential.
Ensure security. Your employees are more willing to commit to you and to your healthcare organization when they feel secure. For example, if your employees know that you won’t punish them for taking prudent risks, they will more freely give the talent, time, and effort it takes to get the job done. On the other hand, if your employees believe you will punish them for making reasonable errors, they may not give you 100% of their effort and commitment.
Practice accountability for everyone, including you. Employee commitment and accountability are closely related. Make sure that each employee in your healthcare organization knows that they are held to a certain level of accountability. Rogers says that a culture of accountability encourages teamwork, reciprocity, and a willingness to cover for one another when needed.
FOUR DRIVERS OF EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT
Employees commit to your healthcare organization for different reasons. Observe and carefully listen to each employee to determine how to increase their commitment. According to Beck, there are four possible drivers of employee commitment:
Intrinsic motivation. Committed employees are self-motivated, or at the very least, they have the capacity for self-motivation, Beck suggests. You may not be able to increase their commitment to your healthcare organization if they lack self-motivation or are overwhelmed by other commitments in their lives, which you cannot control. Assess whether each employee’s commitment is within your control. If not, that employee may not be a good fit for your healthcare organization and may be better off elsewhere, Beck says.
Leadership. Some employees find it easier to commit to individuals rather than to organizations and are therefore more likely to pledge their allegiance to a healthcare leader, manager, or supervisor they admire, like, and respect. Likewise, Beck suggests, motivated and committed employees quickly become unhappy and their commitment deteriorates if they even mistakenly believe that their healthcare leaders are untrustworthy.
Organizational culture. An organization that claims certain core values but acts in ways that clearly demonstrates that those values don’t matter soon causes widespread disillusionment and disengagement, Beck warns. For example, an organization that claims to value work/life balance but requires employees to work long hours of overtime is sending an inconsistent message. Similarly, an organization demonstrates a lack of integrity and consistency when it says that it values excellence but tolerates sub-par behavior and performance from its employees. Such inconsistencies lead to a loss of employee trust in, respect for, and commitment to the organization.
Initiatives. An organization’s new initiative undertaken without clear intent is simply a purposeless goal. Unfortunately, goals without purpose are “cold, unemotional targets, lacking any purpose other than to make the person who set the goals look good,” according to Beck. Employees become more committed when they believe in what they’re doing and when they believe that they are making a difference through their work; therefore, projects and goals require employee buy-in. Your employees must know the why, not just the what, Beck warns.
25 STRATEGIES TO INCREASE EMPLOYEE COMMITMENT
Good employees will be committed to your healthcare organization when you create a positive, nurturing work environment worthy of their commitment. Here are 25 strategies for making that happen:
Study employee retention. Conduct exit surveys with your departing employees to learn what you did well and what you can do to improve. Employees who choose to leave to work in another healthcare organization or in another industry may be able to help you diagnose a management problem that weakens or interferes with employee commitment.
Clarify and communicate your mission. Gary Dessler(5) suggests that you create a shared mission and ideology that lays out a basic way of thinking and doing things in your organization. He also suggests that you can create “charisma” for your healthcare organization by linking your mission to a higher calling. Committed employees believe they are part of something larger and greater than themselves.
Use values-based hiring practices. In many organizations, the process of linking employees to the organization’s ideology begins before the employee is hired. Values-based employers first identify their basic values. Then they create and enforce procedures for screening new employees, requiring evidence from job applicants of their commitment to the organization’s values. They reject applicants who do not demonstrate those shared values. Dessler explains, “Value-based hiring screens out those who might not fit.”
Stress values-based training. Steep new and current employees in your healthcare organization’s values and culture through training to foster commitment.
Commit to people-first values. Treat your employees as important and demonstrate that you respect them. Employee commitment also increases in healthcare organizations that put patients first.
Build your traditions. Tradition-building symbols, stories, rituals, and ceremonies can further enhance employee commitment.
Promote organizational justice. Organizational justice is simply the extent to which fair procedures and processes are perceived to be in place and followed. It includes the extent to which employees see their leaders as being fair and sincere and having logic or rationale for what they do. One obvious source of organizational justice is fair procedures embodied in formal grievance procedures. Involving employees in decisions that affect them is another.
Create a sense of community. Frequent team meetings and contact can enhance your employees’ sense of community. A community creates commitment among its members, who typically develop a “we” attitude, as though they are part of a family or tribe.
Clearly define responsibilities. Each position in your healthcare organization should have a formal job description. Employees must know up front to whom they report, what kinds of decisions they are allowed to make, and what is expected of them each day. It will be hard for you to earn employee commitment without these essentials in place.
Seek proper training. Healthcare leaders should receive training in management techniques and in people skills. Employees may lack commitment to an organization because of a poor relationship with their managers and not because of the organization.
Map out career plans. Make career planning a regular part of your performance review process. Employees will be more likely to commit to a healthcare organization when they believe a career path is carved out for them.
Conduct employee satisfaction surveys. Ask your employees what they want more or less of in their positions, then do what you can to show them that you are listening to them, even if you can’t accommodate every request.
Enrich and empower. Empowering your employees fosters their commitment. Increasing the breadth of responsibility and self-management in a job can appeal to your employees’ higher-level needs.
Promote from within. Your employees’ commitment can soar when they believe that your healthcare organization provides opportunities for higher-level positions and pay.
Encourage upward evaluations. Healthcare leaders who ask their employees to offer ideas for improving productivity must be open to their suggestions. They must ask their employees to tell them how they can do their jobs better and how they can improve their employees’ work lives. When employees see managers willing to improve themselves, their commitment to management and the organization is enhanced.
Provide fair and competitive salaries. Stay up to date on what other healthcare organizations in your area are paying for similar work and be competitive Below-market wages do not foster employee commitment; they encourage employees to look elsewhere for employment.
Create an effective employee onboarding program. New employees feel a stronger commitment to your healthcare organization when you demonstrate your interest in their success from the start. Therefore, start strong. If you get off on the wrong foot, it is difficult to turn things around.
Be forthright with news. Keep your employees informed of any changes you must make and why. Let good and bad news come from you first.
Create learning opportunities. Make professional development a part of your employee review process. Developmental activities such as workshops and conferences enhance employees’ opportunities for promotion from within, appeal to their desire to grow and learn, provide opportunities for lateral moves, and provide a chance to grow personally and professionally. Employees interested in advancement want to learn new skills and knowledge so they can create value in their positions. Provide those opportunities with internal or external education sponsored by your healthcare organization.
Offer competitive benefits. Your employees will be more committed to your healthcare organization if they believe you are taking good care of them and their families.
Provide tools. Employees need equipment and supplies to do their jobs well. Employers who lag on technology and best practices or provide insufficient resources often thwart employee commitment.
Listen. Your employees want to know that their voices and opinions are heard. Healthcare leaders who listen actively are often rewarded with employee commitment.
Ask employees to verbalize their commitment. Ask your employees to speak to their commitment to your mission and vision, to their colleagues, and to providing the best healthcare possible for every patient.
Get employees involved in something they enjoy. Provide opportunities for your employees to be creative and to exercise their talents. Look for projects that engage your employees and that have wider implications and benefits for your healthcare organization. Provide opportunities for your employees to be creative and to exercise their talents.
Reinforce employee commitment. Hold ceremonies to recognize outstanding employee commitment, to award years-of-service certificates or pins, and for milestone employment anniversaries. Or put the number of years your employees have worked in your organization on their nametags for all to see. Even small numeric stickers to indicate years of service applied to name tags can increase commitment, especially when distributed to employees inside personalized and signed cards on their annual employment anniversaries.
THE FIVE COMMITMENTS OF LEADERSHIP
Employees know that there is a huge distinction between what leaders say about commitment and what they actually do. As Mark Leheney(6) suggests, the concept of commitment means that it shows up in leaders’ actions, not just in their words. This can be the difference between the “talk” and the “walk,” he suggests, citing five commitments every leader must make:
Self. Leaders must learn to know themselves first. With self-knowledge, commitment can follow. For example, self-committed leaders do not dictate strategy; they explain their thought process and request feedback. Self-learning can occur when blind spots, oversights, and faulty assumptions surface. Leaders who ask for feedback demonstrate that they do not think they always have all of the answers. Self-committed leaders check their egos at the door and are interested in other opinions. They are committed to their own development and are humble enough to learn from others.
People. When employees see leaders focusing only on a task, output, or goal, they may feel as though they are no more respected than machines in a factory; employees want to know that their contributions are valued. No one ever thanks a machine, Leheney says. Therefore, committed leaders respond by saying thank you to their employees and by doing more. For example, you can help your employees learn new skills to further careers. You can recognize your employees’ willingness to help and acknowledge how they have made a difference. A genuine display of empathy, gratitude, and praise can be welcome to those looking for signs that their leader respects their work.
Organization. A committed leader finds meaning, value, and purpose in the organization and then shares that commitment with others. Anything less than a total commitment to your healthcare organization and its mission is likely to be detected by sensitive “employee antennae,” Leheney warns. This, in turn, can easily hamper or weaken a leader’s effectiveness.
Truth. Commitment to the truth is perhaps the most difficult of all commitments because it requires up-front honesty. Any attempt to sanitize reality through spin or less-than-forthright assessments may permanently damage credibility and erode any possibility of trust. That is why Leheney suggests, “Anything less than the truth from leadership is unsustainable.”
Leadership. Committed leaders are resolved to lead. They may be incredibly ambitious, but their ambition is directed first and foremost to their organization and its mission, not to themselves. In fact, leadership-committed leaders often display surprising humility and don’t let their egos get in the way of their effectiveness, Leheney says.
Excerpted from Next-Level Healthcare Employees Improving the Performance of a Good Team by Laura Hills, DA.
REFERENCES
Eaton R. Why Commitment Matters So Much to Leaders and Teams. Bizxcel blog July 15, 2014. http://bizxcel.com/blog-post/why-commitment-matters-so-much-leaders-and-teams . Accessed September 17, 2015.
Vance RJ. Employee Engagement and Commitment: A Guide to Understanding, Measuring, and Increasing Engagement in Your Organization. SHRM Foundation’s Effective Practice Guidelines. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resources Management; 2006. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/trends-and-forecasting/special-reports-and-expert-views/documents/employee-engagement-commitment.pdf .
Beck M. Compliance vs. Commitment. Eliciting Excellence blog, January 9, 2020. https://www.elicitingexcellence.com/employee-engagement/8515/amp/ .
Rogers JR. Enabling Others to Act — Inspiring Commitment. The Leadership Challenges. www.leadershipchallenge.com/resource/enabling-others-to-act-inspiring-commitment-aspx . Accessed September 28, 2015.
Dessler G. How to Earn Your Employees’ Commitment. Academy of Management Perspectives. 1999;13(2):58–67. https://doi.org/10.5465/ame.1999.1899549 .
Leheney M. The Five Commitments of Leadership. BA Times for Business Analysts blog, July 21, 2009. www.batimes.com/articles/the-five-commitments-of-leadership.html .