Employee retention, need for space drive telecommuting focus at CHS
Candidates ranked on 'where they stand in productivity'
Employee retention, an ongoing need for space, and the visionary thinking of a senior vice president are among the driving factors of an ongoing focus on telecommuting at Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) in Charlotte, NC, says Chris Johnson, FHFMA, vice president for patient financial services.
Fifty employees within the CHS revenue cycle areas at its five Charlotte-based facilities are working from home, Johnson adds, including 16 in pre-service, one in financial counseling, and 23 in patient accounting. Another 10 telecommuters make up the reference lab registration staff, he notes.
"The whole telecommuting concept began about five years ago," he says. "It started slowly. The first year we had three people, and we did it as a trial. Space is always at a premium and there is documentation that those who work at home are more content."
Providing additional impetus, Johnson notes, was a senior vice president "who is always saying, 'Why can't we do this?'" regarding a variety of cutting-edge ideas.
"[The senior VP] even brought up the issue of the pending pandemic what to do when everyone has the flu," he adds. "When that does hit, how can we keep people working?"
Weather conditions also were factored in, including the employee absentee rate on a "snow day" in an area not accustomed to severe weather, Johnson says. "If we had people at home, they could continue working and we could get our jobs done."
The results have indeed been positive with a 5% or greater increase in productivity, he says. Telecommuters don't have as many interruptions as their on-site counterparts, Johnson points out, and are not tied to break times or distracted by people coming by to chit-chat or by meetings or unplanned events.
On the other hand, notes Katie Davis, CAM, director of pre-service, not everyone is a good candidate for telecommuting.
"We really rank people on where they stand in their productivity," she says. "We feel we have to be very fair about the process. Are they meeting their key performance indicators? For insurance verification, for example, 'carryovers' is one of their measures. They can't have over a 2% carryover rate. If they do, they understand that prohibits them from going home at this point."
Working at home is a privilege, Davis says, whether the employee in question is a "top A" or a "B" performer.
When CHS started the process, Johnson notes, "we would allow only our high-performing employees to go home. Their most recent evaluation had to be 'exceeds expectations.' Then we realized all of our best people were at home. That created some dissatisfaction with managers."
With only the average and below-average employees left at the facilities, he adds, "there were no more 'go-to' people on-site."
Once CHS leadership determined that the telecommuting initiative was workable and would be a long-term commitment, Johnson says, the decision was made to allow average employees to participate.
"Our conclusion," he adds, "was that if you're a good, solid, dependable employee and you want to be a telecommuter, what is the downside to us? We haven't lost anything. That has proven to be true."
Employees who have received disciplinary actions still are not allowed to work at home, Johnson says, but a "'meets expectations' evaluation is sufficient to qualify."
There are some employees those who like social interaction and the office environment who don't want to telecommute, he says. "It's not for everybody. In our experience so far, there was only one person who tried it and said, 'This is not for me,' and one about whom we decided, 'This is not for you.'"
In the latter case, Johnson says, the person needed more supervisory oversight.
If a telecommuter's productivity level drops or there is any significant disciplinary action, he adds, "we have a conversation about why."
Disciplinary action might be required, for example, if there is a bad interaction with a patient or if calls are made before or after the allowed times, Davis says, noting that all phone calls are recorded.
Additionally, she says, "our policy is plain about the fact that you must have working space at home. If there are small children or elderly parents who need care, they must be taken care of by somebody else [during work hours]. A screaming child in the background is not a customer-friendly situation."
CHS has established a number of guidelines for its telecommuters, who must abide by all the requirements HIPAA-related and otherwise that on-site workers follow, Davis points out.
These requirements, she adds, relate to such concerns as, "If the employee gets up and leaves the desk, is the computer locked, with no patient data up on the screen? Is paperwork turned over so no one can see anything?"
Unannounced home visits are made throughout the year, Davis says, including HIPAA compliance checks.
One of the most clear-cut measures of the program's success, notes Johnson, is that none of the telecommuters have left their positions.
"One of the questions on the annual employee survey that we do for [home-based employees] is, 'Would you continue to telecommute, even if you were offered a [non-telecommuting] job that paid 10% to 15% higher than your current pay?'" he says. "They said yes."
[Editor's note: Chris Johnson can be reached at [email protected]. Katie Davis can be reached at [email protected].]
Employee retention, an ongoing need for space, and the visionary thinking of a senior vice president are among the driving factors of an ongoing focus on telecommuting at Carolinas HealthCare System (CHS) in Charlotte, NC, says Chris Johnson, FHFMA, vice president for patient financial services.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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