Health care learning from other sectors The goal of this article is to Identify resources and industries outside of health care that have deployed innovative management techniques, operational practices, or technology to improve their workforce. Furthermore, to identify best practices within those organizations which could be implemented to improve the workforce for a specific health care service, facility, or other health sector-related occupation. I have selected the Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Program as a key source to identify best practices from non-health care industries. The Baldrige Quality Award is the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive ("NIST: National Institute of Standards & Technology", n.d.). The Baldrige framework criteria is applicable to any organization and is available for four main categories. The "NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology" (n.d.) website lists offers the framework for Business/Nonprofit (including Manufacturing, Service, Small Business, Nonprofit), and Government, Education, and Health Care sectors. Therefore, prior Baldrige National Award winners are a good place to start for anyone that wishes to find proven best practices across many industries. Industries outside of health care that have improved their workforce The Baldrige program website provides access online to past winner from all sectors since 1988. These award-winning organizations have achieved world-class performance levels and share their stories and techniques freely on their website ("NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology", n.d.). Although, there are health care organization winners freely available on the Baldrige web site, I will use this opportunity to identify organizations outside health care to test if those non-health care workforce improvements can be applied to health care work forces. I have selected two organizations outside health care to search to see if their workforce improvements are applicable within health care organizations. The first, Howard Community College (HCC) in Howard County, Maryland an education sector organization. According to "Howard Community College; You Can Get There From Here"(2019), “A public community college, HCC offers associate degrees, certificates, and courses that prepare students for careers, help them attain new skills, or transfer to four-year institutions. HCC is an “open access. With its mission of providing pathways to success, HCC educates 30,000 students each year for the workforce of the future” Organizational Profile). The City of Germantown, Tennessee is the second non-health care organization I have selected. According to "Germantown, Tennessee" (2019), the city was “Established in 1841, Germantown is in Shelby County on the eastern limits of Memphis, Tennessee, with a certified population of 40,123. Of the City’s 19.8 square miles, 11,476 acres are zoned residential with 16,081 total housing units with 96% occupancy” (Organizational Profile). The two organizations selected were chosen prior to reading their application summaries. They are the first two non-health care award winners listed on the Baldrige website from 2019. I selected this approach to picking a non-health care organization to see if best practice and value can be gleaned from award winners irrespective of their sector. Let us begin by reviewing the workforce approaches, methods, and achievements reported by the two award winning organizations to identify workforce improvements or best practices for health care use. Best practices to improve health care work forces The Baldrige program framework addresses workforce within category five for processes and category 7.3 of results. Category five is split into two items. Workforce environment is addressed with item 5.1 and workforce engagement is covered by item 5.2. Although, results of organizational workforce effectiveness are noted in item 7.3 of the results categories, I will focus the best practice improvements to the processes noted in 5.1 & 5.2. If one is interested in the effectiveness of such approaches used by the organizations in 5.1 & 5.2 one may wish to review the organizations’ results for confirmation. What do these award-winning applicants offer for workforce improvement within health care? HCC offers many innovative, best practice approaches and methods to workforce excellence. Here are just a couple of the dozens listed in their award summary: Change Management: “The college employs several systematic steps to effectively implement and manage change, including initial assessment, planning, communication, training, adoption, feedback, and refinement.” Career Development: “HCC has a multi-faceted strategy for managing career progression for its workforce and future leaders. Every year, employees address personal development and career goals with their supervisors during the performance appraisal process and identify what the college might do to facilitate progress towards those goals. Faculty members have established steps to advance in rank, that are rigorous, but attainable.” HCC also offers areas of improvement ideas for workforce hiring, recruitment, on-boarding, benefits, capacity planning, engagement strategies to name a few. But what approaches does Germantown note as ways to improve their workforce? Organizational Culture: “The Play Like a Champion (PLAC) program provides a deeper dive into the organization’s culture and allows employees to experience the work that takes place in other departments, broaden their understanding of City responsibilities and form relationships with coworkers from other areas. A total of 107 employees have graduated from the ten-month employee engagement program designed to: Promote employee ownership, empowerment, and pride Combine experiences, training, reading, and mentoring as part of the learning experience Promote knowledge of one’s strengths and areas of development, Demonstrate how collective efforts contribute to economic, environmental and social sustainability” Employee Engagement: “Germantown uses a bi-annual employee engagement survey with the following measured drivers: Trust and respect for leaders Opportunity for personal and professional growth Satisfaction with the recognition received Satisfaction with the benefits received Job satisfaction Strong support from management Development of trusting relationships” Conclusion Learning from other sectors is possible and readily available to health care organizations. The Malcolm Baldrige Performance Excellence Program offers dozens of award-winning organizations with hundreds of deployed innovative management techniques, operational practices, or technology to improve their work forces. One just needs to search the Baldrige list of award-winners to identify many best practices that will add value and may help improve work forces within the health care industry. References Germantown, Tennessee (2019). Retrieved from https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/2019-City-of-Germantown-Application-Summary.pdf Howard Community College: you can get there from here (2019). Retrieved from https://www.nist.gov/sites/default/files/2019-HCC-Application-Summary.pdf NIST: National institute of standards and technology(n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.nist.gov/baldrige/award-recipients
