The devastating cost of ignoring workforce burnout

How can companies drive employee retention, engagement and performance? We explore that in this episode featuring Dr. Thomas Jenike, Novant Health senior vice president and chief well-being officer. Dr. Jenike unravels the ways companies can engage their workforce and promote wellness after a year of loss with COVID-19.

Show Notes

Gina DiPietro  0:04  

Turns out there's a playbook for starting programs that drive employee retention, engagement and performance, and Dr. Thomas Jenike has the answer key. I'm Gina DiPietro with Industry Insights, a healthcare podcast presented by Novant Health. In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Jenike, Novant Health Senior Vice President and Chief Well-being Officer, to learn why it's so important for companies to invest in their employees well being. Something on the forefront of many minds after a year of loss from COVID-19. Join us as we unravel the ways companies can engage their workforce and promote wellness.

Gina DiPietro  0:45  

As chief well-being officer, workforce burnout and trauma are some of the things you're really tuned into. Was there's something on a personal level that endeared you to this field or what initially captured your interest? 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  0:59  

I think for me, the fact that I'm trained as a physician, and work around people that are called to do work that is in service of others. What I saw for my whole career is that people are so committed to helping others that oftentimes they put themselves on the back burner, if there's a group of people that deserve to have meaningful lives, great relationships, create experiences, and get fulfillment out of their work as people that are so committed to help others. And oftentimes, if we don't nudge them towards that, that just does not seem to be what happens by default. So, for me, it's just to help investment people who are so committed to helping others.

Gina DiPietro  1:34  

With COVID-19, last year was especially tough. You know, in April of 2020, just a short time after the pandemic began, an emergency room doctor in New York City who treated a lot of Coronavirus patients died by suicide. And at the time, her father said that she had been describing some of the devastating scenes that the pandemic took on patients. How does it feel to know that a physician, and I'm sure others too, got to that point? And how are you doing amidst everything? 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  2:07  

That was one of the stories that as heartbreaking as it was as shocking as it was, at the time wasn't at all surprising to me, this type of emotional toll has been in a place well before COVID. So this has always been part of the water that we swim in as healthcare workers is this emotional outpouring for the people that we take care of, of course, like many things, COVID was an accelerant to that. So the amount of trauma, the amount of death that came in such a short period of time, and for many of my colleagues, not being able to really do something about it, many things that we treat, we actually can treat. So this is just something that was unique. So I think the fact that it's been so hard to actually get our hands around how we can help people has been even more emotionally draining. So I'm not surprised by that incident. Of course, it's devastating. And it's something that we just have to keep talking about, I think the most important thing that we need to do is just to be honest, that these things are having impact on us. And not to be afraid to say that we're struggling, that we are suffering, I think historically speaking, that has not been the mindset of my colleagues is typically don't show any weakness, grin and bear it. And if you're struggling, keep it to yourself. So I think the most important thing we can do, and that even I've been doing is being in conversation around the impact of this and being honest with ourselves and each other. 

Gina DiPietro  3:28  

It's interesting to me how you say healthcare workers often think about others before helping themselves. And your answer to that question kind of drives home that point. You know, I also asked how you are doing. 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  3:41  

I imagine the mindset is, I shouldn't say that I'm doing well. But I really am. And I think part of the reason I'm doing well, is because I'm in this work all the time, I'm constantly in conversations around, how are people doing, and that allows me to share how I'm doing. So I'm allowed to grow. And I'm allowed to emote, how I emote. And that doesn't mean I don't have bad days. That doesn't mean I don't have times where I feel unsettled or fearful. But in general, the fact that I get to talk about a lot in my work allows me to have a sense of peace and calm about it. So I'm actually doing really well. And part of it is I do practice what I preach in terms of taking care of myself so that I can take care of others. And I guess the bottom line is it doesn't mean that I don't feel stress or worry or anger or fear. I just don't let them stay with me as long as I might have. 

Gina DiPietro  4:33  

Historically, healthcare workers may have never seen this much death in this short of time in their careers. And I know what Novant Health a lot of employees assisted with Operation All In, stepping into roles that they don't traditionally work in perhaps they're even more traumatized because they don't typically see depth up close. So how can leadership not only recognize where people are in stages of grief, but also help people begin to emotionally recover from a year of loss? 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  5:07  

Yeah, it's a great question because you know, one mantra is just do it and move on. And it seems if you just do it and move on to the next new normal that sometimes you don't heal along the way, I think there's a number of steps that people can do. One is just to honor the lives that are lost both in the nation and the country, in our communities, and even amongst our family, the lives that are lost, honor, the sacrifices that people have made. This has impacted people beyond just their well being from a socio economic standpoint, from a relationship standpoint, or societal standpoint, it's just had impacts I think, give me the honor that, and then really appreciate what we've done. I think all the things you talked about us stepping up, and really being at the very pointy end of the sword of dealing with this pandemic. It's, it's amazing. So I think this is gonna sound weird, but celebrating the fact that we've made such great strides in a year, it was really hard. And we did it. And then as you said, I think we just have to be honest about how we're feeling. And that starts with asking people you don't ask, they're not going to volunteer, typically. So getting out in front of people and saying, Well, how are you doing? What is your level of stress, grief, or whatever. And then the last thing is just showing compassion for the healing process, knowing that everyone's on their own journey. That's a really a cultural sort of way that you run your business. And I think for us, that's been part of the success of starting to come out of this stronger rather than weaker. 

Gina DiPietro  6:30  

I think a lot of times, the initial question might be asked, so for example, how are you doing? But if that person isn't doing well, or maybe needs support, what do you do at that point? 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  6:43  

I think part of it is getting people connected to the resources that are in place. And, you know, the ''How are you doing? Question is one that, you know, society speaking, we ask that all the time. What we might want to get to is, well, how are you doing -really? And get beyond the typical platitudes of I'm fine, but really, how are you doing? Sometimes that comes in a conversation, sometimes that may come in a more of a survey like thing where it's, it's more anonymous, and then it's to give people the menu of support services that are available and make sure that's front and center, easy to access. So some of it can be individual linking people to support services, others it can be making sure that people know where to find them and make it easy for them to access them. 

Gina DiPietro  7:27  

You alluded to some of the resources in place. Are you able to discuss the How We H.E.A.L. program and how that's being utilized right now at Novant Health? 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  7:36  

How We H.E.A.L. is going back to - what do we do coming out of the pandemic? What is the new normal? And how do we acknowledge all the sacrifices we made? How We H.E.A.L. is an acronym. So H is for honor. So this goes back to honoring the sacrifices people have made, honoring the losses that we had even honoring the feelings that people have, he is for empathy. So showing empathy for those that are impacted and not trying to make them feel like they need to be in a certain place where they need to get better, faster, just being empathetic. And then the A is for appreciate. So appreciating the hard work that people have done, and Alice for loving and supporting each other. And what we've done as we put into place workstreams under each of those acronyms. So honoring, we have memorial services, ways that team members can honor people that they've met and lost part of closure when a health care provider loses a patient is just to talk about them and honor them. So creating a space where they can do that creating a way for people to really share how they're feeling and have forums peer support, which is under the empathy part. And then having celebrations around, you know what we've done and made sure we say thank you as part of the appreciate and then also giving more resources for team members around their own personal development. We have numerous programs that allow team members to turn to build on their personal wellbeing journey. So that's another way we want to appreciate and love and support them. 

Gina DiPietro  8:59  

COVID didn't just impact the healthcare industry. Some may be grieving the loss time spent with elderly family members or others may have lost their jobs picked up new side hustles like driving for Uber just to pay bills and a lot of kids were home more often with virtual schooling. What is the process people can go through to grieve or cope in a healthy way? Where can they start? 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  9:25  

In my experience for myself and for the people that we work with, I think it is all about communication and connection. People suffer worse when they're in silence when they're by themselves, just creating a dialogue around how they're really feeling like really like you talked about. I think that's a great place to start that can be done on a corporate level. And it can be done individually, however you are feeling along this journey because as you said, everyone's been impacted by this pandemic in some way. I can assure you that there's other people who are feeling the same way our minds might suggest to us I'm the only one suffering or I'm the only one feeling this way, I can assure you that other people feel that way. So just being able to support whether it's your family, your friends, your work colleagues, being able to talk about the struggles, and just name them is a great place to start. And again, that can be done just on an individual level or can become part of a corporate culture. 

Gina DiPietro  10:20  

I'd like to transition to this concept of workforce burnout, which was likely exacerbated by COVID. How else can organizations approach team member resiliency and wellness? 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  10:33  

Yeah, as you said, this is something that's always been in play. And I think COVID has been an accelerant to many things, and this is one of them is accelerated, the need to really highlight this, because of the constant give, it can start to wear people out even more. So I think one of the things that we have found to be most important, is to really start to tether the performance of the organization to the well being of the people that are taking care of the organization. Meaning that we don't want to do this, because this is the right thing to do, we want to do it because of that. And that for a company, whether it be a healthcare organization or some other industry, they know that from a business standpoint, they can't be the type of organization they want to be, and sustain that level. If they're not taking care of the people who are making up the organization, what I've learned is that if you can get the most senior leaders talking about, the only way for us to maintain our high level performance or be the type of organization we want to be, is if we invest in our people. And that becomes how they run the business that really starts to work. And I know at Novant Health, our CEO Carl Armato knows that this is a human industry. And if we aren't investing in humans, we can't take care of others. So I think what you get that mindset to be high performing on a consistent basis, you have to build this into the organizational fabric and make it part of the thing we talked about regularly, and offer things that are in support of human being growth and development. Otherwise, you're just going to lose people from burnout and have to keep replacing them. Rather than keeping together the team and having them come together through this to stronger. 

Gina DiPietro  12:11  

How has that mindset proved successful? What sort of results have you seen from some of those tactics that you've put in place?

Dr. Thomas Jenike  12:18  

What we've noticed is that when a person feels that their company cares about them, not just as cares about them, and the role they played, but cares about them as a human being as an individual, as a father, son, mother, friend, as they care about all those aspects of their lives, that person cares back about the company. So the company cares about the person. And through our research and through our data, the person cares back about the company, meaning they're more engaged. And this is like any human relationship. If I know you care about me, from a personal basis, I'm going to care more about you. And the same thing works corporately as well. So when we put processes into place programs in place, that is for the sole benefit of personal growth, or personal well being, that people who go through those processes, those programs, they become much more engaged with the organization, they become much more aligned with the organizational mission, and they take greater pride in the outcomes of the organization, they feel more of a sense of we. And when you have that engagement, drives, performance drives retention. And it's a very simple formula. But it takes commitment, and it takes persistence. You don't just talk about we care about you, but you have to keep putting into place. things that make people feel that we care about you that it's really driven engagement, alignment and performance. 

Gina DiPietro  13:40  

You mentioned engagement and retention, as key strategic initiatives. How do you quantify the business value of employee satisfaction and retention because this costs money for organizations to implement? 

 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  13:56  

I think there's a couple ways to think of this one is certainly you can do a very detailed analysis on the business case of investing into people. We know that for example, when a physician leaves the organization has replaced a typically costs two to three times their salary to replace them. So just on that fact alone, if you can save one physician from leaving the organization, you more than make up for the investment. So we know that. And then there's the what's the cost if you don't do it conversation, which is really the one that probably resonated most with our leadership and may resonate most with a lot of other leaders is that if we don't do this, what's the cost on the performance of our team? What's the cost on the engagement of our team, we know that engagement equals performance. There's plenty of data to suggest that so in healthcare, for example, we get paid now on quality. So if a physician a nurse is less engaged or less well, there is a direct correlation to quality, which will then correlate to the bottom line. So the business case is pretty simple to make, you can get really down into the details of the numbers. But the bottom line is, when you invest in people, it typically returns about three fold. And if you ask our CEO, what's the single best investment he made as a CEO, time and time again, talk about the investment he makes into his people.

Gina DiPietro  15:25  

For organizations who are thinking critically about this concept of wellness, how do they parlay that into a program that an entire workforce can benefit from? 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  15:37  

Well, you know, I don't think there's a one size fits all, I think it is starting to understand your workforce, what are the needs of your workforce, even inside of Novant Health, we need to get very specific about who needs what, not everyone has the same needs. So it starts first with the decision that we're going to care about you, we're going to care about you holistically, not just so you can show up at work and be productive, but we're going to care about you. From an emotional standpoint, from a physical standpoint, financial social standpoint, we're going to care about you. And then you have to start to understand well, what are the needs of the different subsets of our employees? Who are team members? And then having a commitment to start to tactically look at? How do we solve for the financial needs that some people may have? But others don't? How do we solve for the emotional needs that some job families or people might have, and others may not? So it becomes a first decision than a commitment. And then you start to look at what are the needs we have and start to tackle them one at a time. And my advice would be don't get overwhelmed. Don't feel like you have to boil the ocean, but just start to show something that is tangible. And then just stay in the game and keep asking what people need and ask them well, how did this program or this benefit impact your life? 

Gina DiPietro  16:54  

That's an interesting point that you made about one size not fitting all I think, you know, even personally, just as an employee with different companies over the years, sometimes I think the tendency is just sort of slap a band aid on it and say, Hey, here's a pizza party. 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  17:10  

Yeah, I agree with you. I think some of those things are nice, right? And then they make you feel better in the moment. If that's not really what speaks to me, it's not going to give that lasting effect. So this is why organizations that are on the cutting edge have a department of wellbeing resiliency or a human resources department that don't just look at, you know, how do we tear language, throw a band aid over this, but really have solutions for all of our team members and really understand them better. So I think that's critically important. If you're going to play this game, in the highest level for the longest time.

Gina DiPietro  17:42  

Is there anything else that you would add that you think folks could benefit from?

Dr. Thomas Jenike  17:46  

I think that's the take home point is that if you aren't talking about this, you're missing the boat. If you aren't talking about it, honestly, and from a place of true authenticity and vulnerability, it's a risk point. Not only to the individuals that are struggling, his risk point to the organization, just like wounds that are not covered, they will fester. Addressing them head on is really important. What do we talk about most consistently? What do we do behaviorally, what seems to be valued here, that really starts to set your culture. And it starts with just the honest acknowledgement that this is an important topic, and one that our company and the mission that we are striving to achieve dependent upon. So I think that's really the most important take home point. 

Gina DiPietro  18:31  

If you're really creating a culture, it's not just a one-time conversation, or a two-time conversation, it's really embedded into what you're doing month after month. 

Dr. Thomas Jenike  18:42  

Even more importantly, it's what you're talking about. If the messaging to the team members is strictly about the bottom line, for example, like this week, we're gonna talk about the bottom line. Next week, we're talking about where the gap is on our budget. And then the next week we talk about the next year's budget, well, it becomes very clear to the people that what's valued here is certainly the bottom line. And of course, that's important. But if you're going to create a culture, you have to talk about the things that are most important. So I promise you every time our CEO gets in front of our people, he is talking about performance, but he's also talking about well being. And when the most senior leaders start talking about this regularly, people start to get an idea of like, Wow, that's really valued here. As a leader, I better make sure that I take care of myself and I take care of my team because that's valued in this organization. So you're right. It's a constant drumbeat. It can't just be a campaign. It has to be part of the normal conversation. And behaviorally, we have to walk the talk.

Gina DiPietro  19:48  

Gina DiPietro again. And a great takeaway there from Dr. Jenike that when a person feels their company cares about them, and not just as an employee, but as a human being, it drives alignment, performance, engagement and employee retention. And next time you see a co-worker, you might ask them, 'How are you? Really?' Thank you for listening to this episode of Industry Insights. You can find more episodes under the Industry Insights channel of the Novant Health podcast family. There's tons of great content there. So feel free to browse around. We're on Apple, Google, Spotify, or anywhere you listen to podcasts.

 

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