Peer evaluation part of new governance model
Rewards to be tied to team goals
When reorganization eliminated most of the supervisory positions at Memorial Hospital in Gulfport, MS, it also changed the employee review process.
Instead of being evaluated by their supervisors, the staff are evaluated by their peers on their treatment team.
Peer evaluation is part of a performance management system that will reinforce working together as a team, says Karen Clarke, RN, MSN, rehabilitation services division manager.
The performance management system has three parts: a market adjustment of salaries to put Memorial’s in line with those paid by other providers in the area; a peer evaluation process that determines an employee’s eligibility for merit raises; and an incentive system that provides financial rewards for all members of a treatment team if the team meets certain goals.
Here is how the peer evaluation process works:
Each staff member gets an evaluation form to fill out. Each member of the treatment team on which the employee works also fills out an evaluation, rating that person’s performance on issues such as being flexible and being a team player, says Deborah Woods, RN, MSN, CCM, inpatient rehab team facilitator.
Members of a staff member’s discipline fill out a rating form on discipline-specific issues.
The facilitators on the staff coordinate the process, compile the scores on each part of the form, and review the evaluations with each individual staff member. (For more on the facilitators’ roles, see related story, p. 27.)
The peer evaluations are used to determine an employee’s eligibility for merit increases, Woods says.
Salary, plus incentive
When the incentive system is finished, each staff member will receive a base salary, plus an incentive if their team meets its goals. Among goals being discussed are patient satisfaction, cost containment, and outcomes.
"We are walking out of an old historical human resources evaluation system where you are encouraged to be here from birth to death. This encourages deadwood because every year people get merit increases just for staying on the job, regardless of what they bring to the team," Clarke says.
The teams will be expected to identify what the targets need to be and to work with management to determine what key success factors are needed to make the business successful.
That is the philosophy of the systems governance model Memorial Hospital is adopting.
"If we stay in our individual silos, we will all drown. If we are incentivized to work together as a team, we will be stronger.
Clarke believes the incentives will prompt staff to communicate honestly with their peers about their expectations.
"If someone isn’t quite up to snuff, it’s difficult to go out on a limb and say so because you have to work with the person every day. But this mechanism allows the team to take a proactive stance and point out things that affect outcomes or patient satisfaction," Clarke explains.
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