Here's a practical concept for all of you managers: managing up. It's the idea of positioning people so as to accentuate the positive. You can manage up your boss, your staff and even your organization. When you think about how managing up creates an environment where people feel valued and respected, the sustainability implications become pretty clear: easier to recruit, easier to retain.

Quint Studer outlines the concept of managing up in a short piece he published in December. It's definitely worth your time. 

A lot of people have asked me about how social media can be used to benefit SANE and other victim service programs. People feel very intimidated by the process, which is a shame, because I think it's an incredibly approachable and democratic tool. And I think we could harness its broad appeal and reach to allow for not just awareness and fundraising campaigns, but also recruitment efforts. If anyone's using social media to help with recruitment I'd love to hear from you!

For those of you who'd like to explore just how social media can be of use, but aren't sure where to start, I really like this post by Amy Sample Ward. It's the perfect step-by-step intro on how to organize your approach.

BTW, I will be at the LaFASA conference this week talking about sustainability at one of the Thursday morning plenary sessions, so I hope to see some of you there. Please come by and say hello.

[Amy Sample Ward's Version of NPTech]

From the current issue of Nursing Economics (and summarized by Medscape), an article on retaining an aging nursing workforce. Access is free, but registration on the site is required.

We've talked about rehiring quality SANEs who've left the program as one effective recruitment tool in a previous post, but there's a great Conversation Starter this week that touches on the same topic. Keep in mind, it was written for the business world, but the principles are still applicable...

[Should You Rehire Former Employees, Claudio Fernandez-Araoz]

Here's an interesting idea: boomerange recruitment. It's essentially the concept of targeting former employees (high-performing ones) to bring back into the organization. After all, these are people with a proven track record, who know the organization and many (if not all) of its leaders.

I mention this because 1.) Medscape has an interesting article on the subject; and 2.) it came up at the last site visit I did. One of the constants with SANE programs is that staff turnover in most programs is pretty high. Life always manages to rear its complicated head, and because so few people work as SANEs as their sole source of employment, we lose good nurses left and right to illness, pregnancy, family stressors and more. A lot of the nurses who leave our rosters might actually come back, though, once their given life issues have resolved, if we make an effort to keep them connected and woo them sufficiently. It's certainly a smart financial move: an already trained and experienced SANE who simply requires a little updating is a beautiful thing from an economic perspective.

I'd love to hear from people who have found this to be an effective (or lousy) recruitment and staffing solution (disaster stories can be as illuminating as success stories). I know in my home program we've had some success with this strategy. Surely others of you have tried this, as well. Feel free to email me with your stories if you're too shy to post. 

Anthony Tjan has a great post today about keeping employees happy. It's something we talk about all the time, since we know people aren't always paid what they deserve, and we know the hours people give to call are often ridiculous. And yet, there are some programs that have very little turnover, and it's not necessarily because they have more money than everyone else.

A couple weeks ago I posted a larger piece on this topic, but I love this one for its conciseness and common sense. Don't let the business focus put you off--it speaks to our world, as well.

[Four Simple Ways to Make Your Employees Happy, Anthony Tjan]

I often find articles about recruiting and retaining nurses to be irrelevant to our work, because they generally miss the major issues we face. However, I just read this article from Hospital & Health Networks, and I think it makes some excellent points. I especially like their 9 Principles to Foster Staff Retention:

1. Respectful collegial communication and behavior    
• Team orientation
• Presence of trust
• Respect for diversity
2. Communication-rich culture    
• Clear and respectful
• Open and trusting
3. A culture of accountability    
• Role expectations are clearly defined
• Everyone is accountable
4. The presence of adequate numbers of qualified nurses    
• Ability to provide quality care to meet client/patient needs
• Work and home life balance
5. The presence of expert, competent, credible, visible leadership    
• Serve as an advocate for nursing practice
• Support shared decision-making
• Allocate resources to support nursing
6. Shared decision-making at all levels    
• Nurses participate in system, organizational and process decisions
• Formal structure exists to support shared decision-making
• Nurses have control over their practice
7. The encouragement of professional practice and continued growth/ development 
• Continuing education/certification is supported/encouraged
• Participation in professional association encouraged
• An information-rich environment is supported
8. Recognition of the value of nursing’s contribution    
• Reward and pay for performance
• Career mobility and expansion
9. Recognition of nurses for their meaningful contribution to the practice
 

[Nurse Retention: An Executive's Guide to Keeping One of Your Hospital's Most Valuable Resources]

I will be presenting on sustainability here at EVAW this morning, and one of the areas of focus will be the nexus of nursing leadership and staff retention. I've always said that when looking for guidance for effective recruiting, a lot of the nursing literature isn't relevant, because the role of SANE has so many elements of volunteerism (both figuratively and literally) that the nonprofit literature's often a better fit. However, when it comes to retention, the nursing literature's right on the money. Particularly as it pertains to nursing leadership and how it impacts retention rates.

The Studer Group, in an article published on strategies for nurse retention, had this to say about nursing leaders:

"One of the top qualities nurses need to be happy is having a good nurse leader," says Quint Studer, president of the Studer Group and author of Hardwiring Excellence (Fire Starter Publishing, 2004). As a health care consultant who works with nurses across the country, Studer sees an increased need for training nurses who are promoted to leadership positions.

"Being a good nurse doesn't automatically make you a good leader," Studer says. "If you're going to promote a nurse to a leadership position, you need to give them the training they need to be successful in their new roles."

Studer is also a big proponent of nurse rounding.

"Once nurse leaders are trained, they need to have a regular presence in their units," Studer says. "Leaders should be approachable and recognize the accomplishments of their staff, both in person and through written thank-you notes."

In addition to recognizing stellar performers, nurse leaders should be cognizant of employees who don't hold their own.

"Low performers can suck the energy out of other staff members," Studer says. "If someone isn't doing their job, these issues need to be immediately addressed."

Nurse leaders need to do more than oversee staff; they also need to build relationships with their direct reports, Studer says.

"Ask your staff what systems need to be improved and what tools and equipment they need to do their jobs better," Studer says. "If they don't feel adequately prepared to do their jobs, they will leave, so make sure they have access to continuing education and professional development programs."

I think this is fantatsic information. And it as easily applies to forensic nursing as any other type of nursing. Even in programs managed by non-nurses, this info is useful because it reminds us that nursing leadership isn't just about titles. It's much more grounded in actions than job descriptions at its core. If you are one of the many advocacy run programs out there, consider identifying nurse leaders on your team who have the ability to lead by example in the clinical arena, talk frankly with other members of the team about their needs for education and tools and generally provide mentorship to new nursing staff on your teams. This small change in organizational structure could have surprising impact on your retention rates.

Good morning from beautiful Newport, RI!

This weekend I had occasion to chat with colleagues about screening potential employees prior to hiring. The conversation took a heated turn when one of the participants in the conversation mentioned she didn't screen at all, that her program was too desperate for people to turn anyone away. While I understand the importance of filling rosters, the fact remains we must do so with people who are a good fit for our teams and our patients. I maintain that some due diligence up front can make a significant impact on employee turnover and on the expenditure of valuable resources training and orientating new SANEs.

How you evaluate new employees can be done in a variety of ways. Some people prefer the straight forward interview process. EnCorps has a document that offers tips on establishing criteria for a position and evaluating whether a candidate meets those qualifications you might find useful. For a more extensive tool, the Non-Profit Risk Management Center has a toolkit for screening potential employees. Feel free to email me off line if you're interested in it-I can't post the whole document, but you can see the table of contents and introduction here (PDF).

I am thrilled to finally have a bit of bandwidth at my disposal now that I am laying over in the Amsterdam airport. So just a quickie for you before my flight boards for Washington--this from our colleagues in the EMS community. EMS Magazine had an article on employee retention in their October 2007 edition (updated in July 2008), and I thought it was interesting how many of their suggestions apply to us, as well. The article is a brief one, so check it out if you get a chance. I have to say, though--I'm intrigued at what people think about the Gen X section of the article...

And don't forget, tomorrow is Friday, so please come back for another SANE Coordinator Q&A!