The COVID-19 pandemic took a toll on many in the healthcare industry, with morale plummeting at times. Tiffany Jewell, BSN, RN, clinical director of Wellspring Pain Solutions and Columbus Pain Institute, both in Columbus, Ind.; and Andy Ball, CEO, and Benita Tapia, RN, administrator, both at Beverly Hills (Calif.) ASC told "Becker's ASC Review Podcast" that they've learned some new ways to keep employees motivated.
Note: This is an edited excerpt. Listen to the full podcast episode here.
Question: How do you motivate your teams and keep them excited to have that positive culture?
Tiffany Jewell: First and foremost, we worked right alongside them. I want them to hear the message that we may all feel like we're drowning, but I'm going to drown right next to you. And we're going to get through this together and we're going to come out stronger on the other end of it.
We do little gifts. We actually just did an employee award benefit just a couple of weeks ago where all our locations went off site to a restaurant, had a nice dinner, played some games, got some bonuses and it was just great. Sometimes you can't always reward with cash and so little letters, little gift cards or just verbal acknowledgement — [all that] goes a long way.
Andy Ball: Empowering our supervisors to reward employees in the moment — I think that that's very important.
Benita Tapia: We have our goals and we have our bonuses, but Andy and I are both very big on rewarding in the moment. So if we see an employee that goes out of their way to do something, we actually have cash that we'll give them right there. It's important that people get rewarded and that they understand that they're valued.