Ideas That Work: Staff Satisfaction

I never need an excuse to have fun with my incredible surgical team. We celebrate birthdays, babies and big-time staff achievements. We even turned our employee engagement survey into a celebration. To encourage participation, we crowned the first male and female staffer who turned in a survey King and Queen of the OR. They received superhero-themed capes, masks, crowns and scepters. We then toasted their reign during a barbeque feast in the staff lounge. It was fun and kind of silly, but it worked — for the first time, we had 100% participation on the employee engagement survey, which gathered the team’s feedback about our daily workplace culture.

You can hand out gift cards to staff who overachieve, but that’s boring and, let’s be honest, a played-out way to show your appreciation. I’ve found that staff are more likely to respond to creative celebrations with their teammates than to having an extra $25 to spend at the local Applebee’s.

Ebony Mitchell, MSN, RN
Memorial Hermann Hospital & Houston Methodist Hospital
Houston, Texas
[email protected]