Employee suggestion programs in hospitals: Lessons learned from adopters and non-adopters

One of the key human resources strategies in health services organizations over the past 15 years has been the implementation of employee involvement or employee engagement efforts. These efforts typically include establishing programs to elicit employee suggestions, providing greater opportunities for staff feedback to management, and delegating greater decision-making to employees. Recent evidence suggests that these efforts can increase employee satisfaction and morale, and can lead to higher organizational productivity and performance. The purpose of this paper is to briefly review the literature on the movement to employee suggestion programs in health care organizations, and present findings from an exploratory study of hospitals to determine the existence of employee suggestion programs, attributes of these programs and characteristics of organizations that have adopted such programs. Based on the literature, a structured survey was developed and distributed to all hospitals in a large mid-Atlantic state. Findings are based on responses from 25 hospitals representing diverse ownership types, geographic locations and hospital sizes. Findings reveal variations in the intended purpose of employee suggestion programs, how these programs are structured and administered, and perceived effectiveness of these programs. In addition, information is presented for those responding hospitals that do not have a program and shed light on why these organizations have chosen not to offer an employee suggestion program. Implications for administrators and managers in hospitals, health departments and other health services organizational settings are discussed that are helpful to those organizations that are considering implementing such programs.