Memorial Health - Creating Team Values

Memorial Health has been named one of the top places to work by Fortune Magazine over the last four years, but it hasn’t always been that way. When they started, they were rated third out of three in the category of hospitals people wanted to visit in the region. When the other two hospitals merged they only moved to second, but it showed there was an opportunity to move up.

Memorial Health appointed a new CEO who understood the value of people and realized that they not only needed a strong staff, but the best staff. The senior level executives went on a retreat and Julie Olsen, Sr. Development Center Consultant for Human Resources, shared stories about some the companies on the Fortune top 100 Places to Work list. The list became a measurement for Memorial Health, not the goal: the goal was to become a great place to work.

The CEO focused on five major themes:
1. Trust
2. Respect for each other
3. Enjoy the work you do
4. Become a place that they’re proud of
5. Ownership

They recognized they needed to behave in a way that was consistent with the core values, which sounds easy but few realize how many daily actions align with the values. Memorial Health realized the change would be phenomenal if everyone focused on a few key things.

The CEO was committed to visiting each department within the hospital. It took him a full month to go through the organization and attend 130 team meetings, making it clear the new values were not a whim of the month and there would be behaviors to support them. Memorial Health created a value contract that established a common set of expectations across the board. People were able to understand and discuss these values in an appropriate manor should any conflicts arise.

The contract was rolled out to vice presidents first, then to all team leaders. Memorial Health discusses their values and recognizes those who uphold them, trying to keep their values in front of their team “so they see that they’re not just paper on a wall.”