A Relationship-Based Approach to Human Resources
At Southcentral Foundation, relationships are a key component of how our organization operates. Relationships between providers and customer-owners are the core of the Nuka System of Care, but SCF values many other kinds of relationships as well, such as between co-workers, and relationships with the community. This focus on relationships is present throughout the organization; one of the workforce competencies that all employees are evaluated on is “Customer Care and Relationships.” All SCF departments emphasize relationships, and this includes SCF’s Human Resource department.
SCF’s HR department is divided into multidisciplinary teams, and each team has a customer group that they work with regularly to maximize relationships. This helps avoid problems which can arise in large organizations when an employee or a department has HR needs, and the HR professional working with them does not know them or understand the unique character of their work environment. When HR teams build relationships with customer groups, it allows them to quickly and efficiently help them with their HR needs, because they already have a great deal of knowledge and understanding about the people they are working with.
One common function of HR departments is to deal with personnel problems that arise at an organization. At SCF, the HR department maintains a toolbox for performance management that goes beyond corrective action. By working with employees, and understanding the unique story of each employee, HR can help them with issues that might be impacting performance. HR focuses on motivating the right behaviors over correcting undesirable ones.
Through employee performance development plans which are focused on SCF’s mission and vision, “right-fit” hiring to recruit the best employees, career paths for employee development, and many other tools, SCF has maintained an effective and dedicated workforce while making major changes and improvements to the health care system. Thanks in part to SCF’s HR practices, SCF maintains an employee turnover rate that is below the national average for health care organizations. SCF has an employee satisfaction rate of 95 percent, as well as a 97 percent customer satisfaction rate.
For more information about SCF’s HR practices, contact the SCF Learning Institute.
