The Perspective June 2009
Violance Prevention in Healthcare
On January 3rd, 2008 Governor Corzine (New Jersey) signed into law the "Violence in Healthcare Facilities Act". You may ask yourself, why was this act necessary? Some quick facts: Healthcare workers have the highest incidence of assault injuries of any worker group. The assault rate among hospital workers is four times greater than among private-sector workers. Personnel at risk include all designations-physicians, registered nurses, patient care technicians and security forces.
Workplace violence can range from offensive language or threatening language to physical assault and homicide directed toward persons at work or on duty. These occurrences may result in: minor or serious physical injuries, temporary or permanent disability, psychological trauma and death.
Workplace violence can also have a negative impact on healthcare facilities, such as: decreased worker morale, increased job stress and fear, increased employee turnover and a hostile work environment.
Some of the highlights of this act: Each healthcare facility must establish a Violence prevention Committee. Each healthcare facility must develop and maintain a detailed, written violence prevention plan. Each healthcare facility must conduct employee violence prevention training annually.
July 3rd, 2009 marks the date when healthcare facilities are required to have a comprehensive violence prevention plan.
McNamara & Associates, Inc. recognizes the importance in decreasing violence in the workplace. With our team of experts, we can help your facility: complete an annual comprehensive facility Security Risks and Needs Assessment,, assist in the creation of a Violence Prevention Committee, assist in developing and maintaining a detailed, written Violence Prevention Plan and conduct annual Violence Prevention training for your employees.
NJHA and NJAMHA Partners with McNamara
McNamara & Associates, Inc is pleased to announce a partnership with the New Jersey Hospital Association (NJHA).
NJHA is an organization that has been assisting New Jersey hospitals and health care systems since 1918.
With NJHA's help, these facilities provide quality, accessible and affordable care to their surrounding areas. Some of the services rendered to support their members are: advocacy, data and education.
During the past months, McNamara & Associates, Inc., In accordance with the Violence in Healthcare Facilities Act, worked with the NJHA members to conduct risk assessments, violence prevention training which includes de-escalation techniques and self-defense and Security Officer Training for their facilities.
McNamara also conducted several Gang Awareness training sessions for NJHA members. In those sessions topics included: recognizing the statewide problem of gang activity in New Jersey, understanding different gang affiliations, local issues that impact hospital providers, assess your organization's gaps in preparedness, discussing best practices in prevention and identify opportunities for organizational involvement in your community.
For more information about the NJHA please visit:
www.njha.com
McNamara Partners with New Jersey Association of Mental Health Agencies, Inc. (NJAMHA)
Last month McNamara & Associates, Inc. partnered with the New Jersey Association of Mental Health Agencies, Inc. (NJAMHA). NJAMHA is a community based system, providing mental health and addiction services to children and adults, regardless of their ability to pay. For more than fifty years, NJAMHA has continued the growth and vitality of this system.
We look forward to working with NJAMHA's members to educate their employees on such topics as: Customer Service, Cultural Diversity, Workplace Violence Prevention and Gang Awareness.
For more information about the NJAMHA please visit:
www.njamha.org
Employee Development
A most important question an organization can ask itself is: Do we need to develop our employees? On what topics? Don't forget the cost involved and the time spent away from work. Let's face it, is employee development the number one priority in any company? You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know the answer. Why do certain organizations focus heavily on developing their employees? They understand the impact employee development has on every level of the organization, especially in the new 21st century world. In today's world, companies realize; developing employees can lead to an economic impact on their business. How an organization manages their multi-generational workforce, while preserving the baby boomer knowledge, leads to shared learning. How an organization attracts and retains their future leaders, can depend on how they develop their current employees. The importance placed on increasing employee skills ca lead to building business, increased productivity, high morale, and demonstrating that your company has an interest in their people.
How many of your employees are able to resolve or act accordingly on:
- -Sexual Harassment Issues
- -Workplace Violence
- -Conflict Resolution
- -Diversity Concerns
- -Managing Change
Is your management staff able to address the following:
- -All topics mentioned above
- -Leadership Concerns
- -Disciplinary Issues
- -Do's and Don't of Recruiting and Selection
- -Performance Issues
If you can't answer the above questions or feel uncomfortable with your answers, then the development of your employees/management becomes essential to your organization. How you develop your employees can shape an entire organization.
Tips from the Boss -- Beware: not done right, an employee award can create a disaster.
Done right, an employee-of-the-year award can be an effective productivity and teamwork promoter. But done wrong, it can be a morale disaster.
Don't make it a surprise. Don't award it without setting specific criteria for winning it. Don't let popularity creep in.
The caveats are many, says management consultant John McNamara of Jackson, NJ. Here are good directions for making it a success.
LOTS OF LEEWAY
An employee award is most commonly given to an individual, McNamara says. But it can be just as effective given to a group of employees or to a department or even to an office site.
Individual departments can have their own employees of the year. Or there can be an award for individual job groups such as secretaries, the paralegals, and so on.
The idea can even be expanded to include every organizational level in the office from individual to practice area to the entire firm, an approach, he says "that encourages a lot of teamwork". At the first level, the staffer can be rewarded with maybe a percentage bonus for reaching individual goals. Then if the department reaches its goals, there's another bonus, though that amount only goes to the individuals who reached their goals.
The choice is up to the firm.
TELL PEOPLE HOW TO GET IT
However the award is made, the firm has to have criteria for choosing the winner, and the rules have to be explained at the outset. Besides letting staff know what they have to do to win, that ensures fairness.
Again, the criteria are the firm's choice.
There might be abase requirement that the winner has to achieve goals set at the beginning of the year. Then add other requirements on from there.
One way to identify criteria is to ask "what do we expect the most excellent employee in this position to look like?" or "what do we expect the most excellent department to look like?"
If there will be group awards, be sure the requirements " are achievable by everyone", McNamara adds. Don't include anything that would be easy for one person but difficult or even impossible for somebody else. For example, if a practice area has a goal of reaching a certain level of legal success, it's not fair to include the administrative staff in the running, because they can't influence that.
LAY OUT THE TIE BREAKERS
While it's unlikely that two or three staffers will make it to the end of the year with equal achievements, it's still a possibility. So along with the criteria, determine how ties will be broken.
The deciding factors might be attendance or seniority, but whatever they are, tell everybody ahead of time. Otherwise, the award looks arbitrary and does no more than generate bad feelings. At it's worst, it could fuel a claim of discrimination.
Without an objective way to break a tie, the only fair option is to give both winners an equal award, McNamara says.
Similarly, if everybody does equally well, give the reward to everybody. Say, for example, "you have all done a great job. We don't have an employee of the year. You are all employees of the year." And then give the same award to everybody.
Don't break a tie by adding things at the last minute, maybe by choosing the person who stayed late or did a good job on a project or whatever. Again, the award becomes arbitrary.
Never out it to a staff vote either. While it's true staff are on the front line and know who's doing the most and the best and the beyond-the-call-of-duty work, people are human. They vote for whom they like. Then the award is popularity contest. And there goes the morale.
LAY OUT THE DEAL BREAKERS TOO
There also need to be parameters for qualifying for the award. Make it clear up front that anybody who is cited during the year for performance problems will not be eligible to get it.
Somebody who has been disciplined for tardiness or who has brought about client complaints can scarcely be seen as the best of the best, McNamara says. If the office gives that person the award, the rest of the office will laugh at it.
And that's not the worst of it. If the firm later has to terminate that employee for some unacceptable performance or behavior, all that person has to do to support a claim of wrongful termination is hold up the award.
In addition, don't let the award insulate anybody from being cited for inadequate behavior later.
If the winner gets so self-satisfied as to start coming to work late or being rude or doing poor quality work, "don't shy away from disciplining that person the same way the firm would discipline anyone else".
NOT EARNED, NOT GIVEN
Another caution: give the award only when somebody earns it.
There's no need to find a winner simply to fill in the blanks. That only makes the award meaningless.
Suppose the requirement was that everybody had to complete 10 goals and the top performer completed only seven of them.
Nobody has achieved the desired result, so nobody has earned the award. Let it sit until next year.
Also, he says, don't make it a personality contest with "we don't have anybody who has met all the expectations, so I'm going to select So-and-So because he met some of them and also because he's a great guy.
Whoever gets the prize "needs to be someone whose accomplishments everyone respects."
ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE
Management agreement is also a requirement.
That's often a problem in law firms, McNamara says, because the partners are in contact with a limited number of the staff and so tend to promote the ones they work with regularly.
If there's going to be a partner participation in the selection, it needs to be done in a private meeting.
What's more, the discussion needs to end when the door opens.
Tell the partners that everybody has to show agreement for the award, which means nobody can tell a staffer "I thought you should have gotten that award instead of So and So." To do that is to invalidate the recognition.
Again, at it's worst, that remark can support a discrimination claim.
WHAT'S THE PRIZE?
And what should the award be? That's another firm choice.
It can be as elaborate as a weekend trip. Or it can be a bonus, dinner at an upscale restaurant, theater tickets, a gold watch, a plaque-it can be anything. It's up to the firm.
Welcome New McNamara Associates
McNamara & Associates, Inc. would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest staff members: Chris Hill, Jeff Mayfield and Fred Bauer.
Sergeant Hill brings twenty five years of law enforcement experience to McNamara & Associates, Inc. He is currently assigned to the Community Service Bureau of a Municipal, NJ Police Department,, where he is in charge of the unit that provides educational programs to the schools and community. Chris is also President of the Howell Township Police Athletic League, and the 1st Vice-President for the National Police Athletic League. He was deputized as a United States Marshall working with the Bureau of Investigations Customs Enforcement (ICE) as a member of the Violent Gang Task Force. He is regarded as a Gang Expert and has testified before the senate committee.
Captain Mayfield has twenty seven years of law enforcement background. He holds the rank of Captain in a Municipal Police Department, in the State of New Jersey. Jeff is currently the Operations Commander, overseeing the Uniformed Patrol Division. As Commander, Jeff is responsible for the successful outcome of hundreds of tactical missions and assignments ranging from Hostage Situations, Barricaded Persons and High-Risk Warrant Services. Capt. Mayfield has assisted various school districts with Crisis Response Policy development, as well as training students and staff regarding: Responding to Critical Incidents, Response to Active Shooters and Ethics in Law Enforcement. Capt. Mayfield is a Certified Instructor in Multiple Firearms Skills, the Use of Expandable Batons, Fixed Batons, Oleoresin Capsicum, Responding to Critical Incidents through Federal Law Enforcement Training Center, Terrorism Awareness, the Use of Thermal Imagers, and others.
Corporal Bauer is a career law enforcement officer of twenty years, with a local Municipal Police Department, in New Jersey. In addition to his duties as a Senior Patrolman, Fred has been a Tactical Officer (SWAT) for 18 years. He is currently one of the Team Leaders for the Monmouth County Emergency Response Team. Fred is an active instructor for both the Police Department and the Tactical Team. Fred was trained by the Gung-Ho Chuan Association (GHCA). The GHCA, is a brotherhood of close combat instructors who research, practice, develop and teach the principles, tactics and techniques used by the elite forces of World War II.
For complete bios of our new staff members, visit
www.mcnamaraassociates.com/managementteam.php
The Perspective June 2009
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