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Sheila Rankin Vice President, People & Organizational Development Annapolis Valley District Health Authority All sites across AVDHA Health Region Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia sfoster@avdha.nshealth.ca
When was your practice implemented? 2005 onward
Describe the issue that prompted the implementation of your practice: A history of constant change, downsizing and reorganziation, low morale, loss of knowledge and experience, budget constraints and increasing costs prompted AVH to embark on a journey that focused on its people, leadership and organizational structures.
Describe your practice: Our organization's approach was to accept the commitment to create a healthy and supportive workplace and to define what that commitment meant. We defined the principles and practices as organizational health, population health, leadership, vision, mission, values and expected behaviours,interprofessional collaboration, ethics and quality, safety and health for the people who provide the services and those who receive that service.We implemented specific initiatives targeted at developing our management team to help them become self aware of who they are as leaders, how they influence the culture, and how they integrate and align the principles and practices in their work. We defined our leadership model and developed universal competencies which serve as the foundation for all parts of our integrated management system.
Describe how your practice was implemented and the resources required (e.g. people, time, money): Commitment from Senior Management was confirmed. We partnered with external subject matter experts to create and implement initiatives. Developed a process by which formal leaders in AVH participated in leadership assessment, mentorship programs, and leadership development sessions. We developed leadership champions who have responsibility to actively support leadership development across the organization. We integrated leadership assessment with our recruitment and selection processes. We promote and distribute monthly leadership notes to engage people in thinking about leadership. We integrated the AVH universal competencies in policies, procedures and practices.
Explain the impact of your practice: We have seen improved satisfaction in our Manager/Formal Leader group as demonstrated by our employee surveys, emerging leaders survey, and mentorship and leadership assessment program evaluation. In addition the foundation has been set to roll leadership development out to informal leaders and everyone in AVH.
How did it improve quality of worklife? The improvement on the quality of worklife for our managers/formal leaders was realized from the results of the employee survey. Improvement in areas with respect to satisfaction with work, required resources to do the job and control over job activities were realized from the 2005 to 2008 surveys. Emerging leaders have indicated that they are influenced by other leaders or specific leadership activities and felt supported by their colleagues. All of the emerging leaders (100%) who responded to the survey felt they had the support of their supervisor/manager.
How do you know? (e.g. surveys to staff, a formal evaluation process, specific outcomes, feedback) The results of the employee survey of our managers/formal leaders indicated that there was an improvement in 20 or 21 items that were measured (including control over job activities, satisfaction with resources to do the job and training, satisfaction with current work, trust with AVH, satisfaction with supervisor and overall intentions to remain in AVH). A survey was administered to our emerging leaders and it supported the employee survey results that the focus on leadership development and quality worklife has had positive impact on our employees.
What lessons learned and issues to consider are you able to share with colleagues? Leadership development is a journey and is continuously ongoing within the organization. It is necessary to evaluate your progress, focus on your goals and pay attention to organizational/workplace culture. Leadership development must occur across the organization and people must be encouraged and supported to take leadership roles.
