Health care leaders may face many challenging scenarios, such as conflicts between coworkers and departments. During the first 2 months as the administrator of a new management team for a long-term care facility, you have noticed an increase in conflicts between your coworkers and other departments, such as pharmacy and nursing staff. This prompts you to analyze leadership challenges sooner than later. Your manager sees this as an opportunity for you to assess and write a report on the actions needed to improve employee relations in the facility. How do you address the department changes so you and your team have a good performance appraisal?

Preparation
Review the following articles on leadership challenges from the University Library as you prepare for this assessment:

• “The Challenges of Leadership”
• “Priorities and Challenges for Health Leadership and Workforce Management Globally: A Rapid Review”

Assessment Deliverable
Write a 1,400-word report for your manager in which you:

• Describe 3 to 5 other challenges a health care leader may face in a health care organization (e.g., negative employee morale, poor customer service, and outdated equipment).
• For each challenge:
  • Explain the impact of the challenge on the organization and how you, as a leader, could address the challenge.
  • Explain how these challenges can affect a team and the morale of an organization.
  • Explain how these challenges may affect the performance of employees.
  • Explain how you could increase employee satisfaction during these challenges to show effective team leadership skills.
  • Explain how you could improve employee relations in the facility during these challenges.
  • Explain what types of efficiency measures can be used during these challenges from a leadership perspective.

Cite a minimum of 3 references to support your report.

Format citations and references according to APA guidelines.

Submit your assessment.

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Performance Appraisal Report: Addressing Leadership Challenges and Improving Employee Relations in a Long-Term Care Facility

As the newly appointed administrator of a long-term care facility, I have witnessed an uptick in conflicts between coworkers and departments, most specifically between the pharmacy and nursing staff. The paper tries to look at some of the leadership challenges affecting employee relations in our facility and recommend steps toward improving them. I will describe some of the challenges healthcare leaders may face, explain their effects, and propose strategies to mitigate them effectively.

Challenges Faced by Healthcare Leaders

Negative Employee Morale

Impact on the Organization

The organization is usually significantly affected by negative employee morale. Further, it leads to reduced productivity, increased cases of absenteeism, and increased turnover rates. Poor morale in the staff at a long-term care facility is bound to taint quality patient care, a result that often puts patients’ health in jeopardy through their falling health standards and lower satisfaction levels (Ginter et al., 2018).

Addressing the Challenge

As a leader, I would put several strategies into action to improve negative employee morale. Among them are regular employee surveys to identify specific problems, an open-door policy that enables staff to come forward with their concerns, and a recognition and rewards program in appreciation of the efforts that employees put in. Besides that, offering professional development opportunities and engaging in team-building activities can enhance cohesion and thus relationships in the work environment (Weberg & Davidson, 2019).

Impact on Team and Organizational Morale

If the morale of employees is negative, this will build up into a toxic environment at work that will bring down collaboration and communication between colleagues. There is the potential for this to result in a vicious cycle of negativity, which eventually infects the whole organization and affects overall performance and quality of care delivered to patients.

Impact on Employee Performance

Low morale is usually associated with low motivation, less care in undertaking a task, and a lack of initiative among employees. This leads to errors, missed deadlines, and a general decline in the quality of work performed (Sfantou et al., 2017).

Improved Employee Satisfaction

By regularly sharing my vision and goals regarding the organization, I will be able to demonstrate effective team leadership skills and increase employee satisfaction. This can be done through support and constructive feedback, work-life balance, and investment in employee wellness programs. These techniques will yield job satisfaction because people feel their everyday work has a purpose; it fits into something more important. I would, therefore, create mentorship to offer support for professional growth and allow them to participate in decision-making.

Improved Employee Relations

Regular team meetings, the institution of mentorship programs, conflict resolution in a prompt and just manner, and social events for bonding among the staff members. All these activities might serve to improve professional relations and foster a positive working environment. Cross-departmental project teams can also be designed to break down silos and facilitate better communication throughout the organization.

Efficiency Measures

In my view, the management would ensure efficiency measures such as regular performance reviews, key performance indicators for productivity and satisfaction, suggestion box systems, and continuous workflow checks about optimization. These are means of spotting problems and enhancing job satisfaction. I would also delve into the application of lean management principles to simplify processes, reduce wastage, and potentially lighten some of the stress and frustration that contributes to low morale.

Poor Customer Service

Impact on the Organization

Poor customer service in a long-term care facility can lead to decreased patient satisfaction, negative reviews, and subsequent loss of patients to other competing facilities. This affects the organization in terms of revenue generation and, at the same time, tarnishes its reputation according to Ginter et al. (2018). For a long-term care industry relying much on word-of-mouth referrals and community reputation, poor customer service is bound to have long-term negative implications for a facility’s viability.

Addressing the Challenge

The challenges presented by bad customer service can be solved by instituting broad customer service training programs, setting clear service standards, regular collection and analysis of patient feedback, and establishing a patient advocacy program. These are strategies that can improve communication and help resolve patients’ complaints. I would also think of setting up a service recovery program to fasten the handling and resolution of patient complaints, hence turning potentially bad experiences into good ones.

Impact on Team and Organizational Morale

Unless customer service is built into the organization’s purposes, it may create a spiral effect whereby the dissatisfaction of patients automatically trickles down the line to the staff. This will lower further the quality of care offered and contribute to low morale in the facility. Staff members may get demoralized due to constantly dealing with dissatisfied patients; this might culminate in burnout and low job satisfaction.

Effect on Employee Performance

It may further lead to a decrease in the performance of employees who continually get negative feedback from patients. Demotivation may set in and the employee becomes less engaged in his work, hence declining care quality, and making more errors (Sfantou et al., 2017). Such stress due to dissatisfied patients can also result in further reduced quality through increased absenteeism and turnover.

Improved Employee Satisfaction

The employee’s customer service skills need regular training and motivation. I would therefore undertake continuous training and support for the employee to enable him to offer improved customer service. Incentivize staff members whose customers or patients give positive feedback about their services. Develop a peer-to-peer recognition program that enables employees at the same level in the organizational structure to recognize good deeds among peers. Offer career growth opportunities to employees who perform well in customer service. When the culture is changed to value and prioritize customer service, employees will feel more confident and satisfied.

Improved Employee Relations

Considering that employee relations are poor, coupled with poor customer service, I would nurture the work atmosphere as one of teamwork and shared responsibility for patient satisfaction. This could be enhanced through cross-departmental collaboration, a system for sharing positive patient feedback, and provision for staff to provide input on the improvement of customer service processes. Regular team meetings with a focus on service improvement can engender a feeling of common purpose and collective responsibility.

Efficiency Measures

To improve the efficiency in addressing poor customer service, I would implement a customer relationship management (CRM) system; develop standard operating procedures for attending to common concerns by patients; use data analytics to identify trends in patient satisfaction; and review and update periodically the policies and procedures on customer service. The initiation of a robust feedback system that allows for the prompt resolution of issues may enhance efficiency and patient satisfaction.

Performance Appraisal Report

Outdated Equipment and Technology

Impact on the Organization

Obsolete equipment and old technologies hamper the efforts of a health organization in providing effective and quality services. It increases operation costs and reduces staff productivity, posing a safety risk to both patients and the staff in the facilities (Figueroa et al., 2019).

Addressing the Challenge

This would involve an audit of current equipment to identify needed upgrades, crafting a plan to do so in order of priority, finding out about leasing options and vendor partnering opportunities, and setting up a maintenance and replacement timeline. All these are plausible ways to ensure the facility is current with all the needed equipment and technology.

Impact on Team and Organizational Morale

Health professionals may become frustrated working with outdated equipment and technology; as a result, job satisfaction and morale may decline. This could also cause an increased rate of stress and burnout in the staff.

Effect on Employee Performance

The old equipment and technology tend to slow down processes, and the risk of making errors is greatly increased. This further tends to limit the capability of the employees in terms of delivery of optimal care, thus negatively impacting job performance and satisfaction (Weberg & Davidson, 2019).

Increasing Employee Satisfaction

I would engage employees in decision-making for buying new equipment, fully train them on new technologies, update them regularly on the plan for upgrades, and appreciate those who adapt to new technologies quickly and help train others.

Improving Employee Relations

I would establish an open discussion about technology issues, establish cross-functional teams to study new technologies, create a culture of continuous learning, and implement a system by which employees could offer suggestions on needs for equipment and technology.

Efficiency Measures

The efficiency measures that I will undertake in dealing with outdated equipment and technology involve the implementation of a technology assessment tool, developing relationships with technology vendors, scouting for process automation opportunities, and providing a solid IT support system that can help in the resolution of fast technological issues to avoid downtime.

Conclusion

These issues, therefore, have to be approached from a multidimensional perspective of improving communication, creating a work-friendly environment, and utilizing tools and technology for high-quality care. We hope that through the use of strategies proposed in this report, we will improve employee relations and job satisfaction, which has a direct link with the quality of care our patients receive. This, therefore, would require periodic evaluation of the effectiveness of each strategy applied and necessary adjustments made. Continued open lines of communication with staff and patients would assist in the continued identification and solving of challenges and, thus, would secure the long-term care facility’s future success. 

References

Figueroa, C. A., Harrison, R., Chauhan, A., & Meyer, L. (2019). Priorities and challenges for health leadership and workforce management globally: A rapid review. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 239. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4080-7

Ginter, P. M., Duncan, W. J., & Swayne, L. E. (2018). The strategic management of health care organizations (8th ed.). Wiley.

Sfantou, D. F., Laliotis, A., Patelarou, A. E., Sifaki-Pistolla, D., Matalliotakis, M., & Patelarou, E. (2017). Importance of leadership style towards quality of care measures in healthcare settings: A systematic review. Healthcare (Basel), 5(4), 73. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare5040073

Weberg, D., & Davidson, S. (2019). Leadership for evidence-based innovation in nursing and health professions (2nd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning.