Page 145 - How America's Best Places to Work Inspire Extra Effort in Extraordinary Times

132B RE-ENGAGE

The biggest difference maker, I believe, is trust. When I came here
10 years ago as the VP of HR, a group of employees came in and
told me a story of how a previous senior leader had denied that there
would be layoffs just days before layoffs were announced. What struck
me was that this had happened 20 years ago, and they had held on
to their anger and sense of betrayal all those years. It was like it had
happened the day before. My point is if you betray trust, it will stay
with you forever.

Q: What advice would you offer to leaders at other companies
regarding what they can do to create a culture where employees
perceive managers as effective and caring?
Lang: Educate all your leaders and hold them accountable for being
effective and caring. Senior leaders know the 10 percent of managers
who aren’t operating optimally, but often do not hold them account-
able and coach them to improve.

Postscript
As this book was going to press, we contacted Lang again to get an
update on how the hospital was surviving the continuing economic
turbulence. She responded that patient volume was down, partly be-
cause many patients were putting off elective procedures. As a result,
the hospital had decided to take some extraordinary measures, includ-
ing suspending pension plan payments, reducing employee time off
and allowable vacation days, forcing the use of some vacation, and
sending employees home from time to time. “These were difficult to
announce,” Lang admitted, “but we announced them in such a way that
employees knew we were doing what we had to do and that it was in the
hospital’s best interests and theirs. They understood that these actions were
necessary in order to preserve their jobs. We believe we moved in to make
these changes earlier than most hospitals in our area. We were straightfor-
ward and honest in the way we presented the situation.”
The hospital also reduced unnecessary spending, which included
many niceties for employees, such as hospital-sponsored picnics, spot