Jennifer was at the end of her rope. It was time for a new job, a position that would let her use all of her skill and experience. The exit interview was uneventful, and then she was finally free! Her manager was baffled. How could Jen leave? She was on the fast track, with great potential, numerous promotion opportunities and was a key member of the HIM team. What went wrong? Does this sound familiar?

A recent study confirms that this vast divergence between employee satisfaction and management appraisal is quite common--as well as confusing and expensive for health care providers today. How could an employee be so unhappy while management is thinking everything is hunky dory? There are five big mistakes that when addressed properly, will reduce unnecessary turnover and immediately improve morale, productivity and profits. With some minor changes in management's communication style, your employees will want to bring their "A game" to work every day.

Mistake #1: Not being believable
Most managers claim to value their staff; but are they getting the message? Recognition programs, incentives, bonuses, and "at-a-boys" are common in many facilities, but are often seen as manipulative by the very employees they're meant to incent. Why? There's a fine line between the perception of true appreciation of employees and feeling that you're just "throwing them a bone."

Unfortunately with staffing down, workloads up and everyone busier than ever, it's easy for a manager's recognition efforts to be perceived at just going through the motions, not coming from the heart. When managers understand what's in it for them and begin to "make it real," their interactions will be seen as genuine, with the employee in mind--not as leverage that benefits the company and leaves workers feeling unappreciated.

Mistake #2: Not being organized
The next mistake relates to the number of disjointed programs facilities use to recognize and reward their people. Each care provider has its own history, function, author and responsible party, so even if they're working, there's no easy way to tell. It's impossible to properly train your management team about how to use them correctly and in the right order, so effectiveness suffers.

By coordinating all of your employee communications, training, recognition and performance processes into one organized system, you will be able to understand and control costs, manage and rate results and get the most for your investment in workers.

Mistake #3: Not using a strategy
An organized approach is great, but the system won't last if it's not tied into a strategy based on your organization's core values and goals. Strategic planning is a leadership function that allows all employees to understand where they fit into the total scheme of patient care provision and how their performance directly affects outcomes.

Once everyone begins to see they are all on the same team--marching in the same direction for the same reasons--synergy happens and your combined recognition efforts yield much more than the sum of the individual parts.

Mistake #4: Not having buy-in at the top
Even if you've completely solved mistakes one through three, your best efforts are likely to fail if you don't have strong, honest and consistent support from the top. Care providers could use a professionally produced video featuring a top executive(s) to not only launch any new programs, but to continue to demonstrate their passion and dedication to the goals and objectives over time. Employees are very quick to see through any signs of the company being disingenuous.

Poor upper management involvement is the No. 1 sign that you're using recognition as a manipulative lever, not an appreciation boost. To keep your top managers and administrators intrigued, committees must present program enhancements that show significant and measurable results, not just emotional blue sky and hype.

Mistake #5: Not following through
Any program, no matter how exciting, rich, well organized or effectively supported will lose its momentum over time if  not fully integrated into your performance management culture. This is by far the most overlooked weakness in many recognition strategies--very disappointing after you've done so much right. A quality reporting system along with an empowered team prepared to manage the information is critical to keeping your programs relevant, fresh and impactful. The true test of a well functioning recognition strategy is when you can quantitatively prove that it's turning expenses into profits over time.

These mistakes are quite common and extremely costly, but relatively easy to avoid with some simple communications training and the ability to look at entitlement programs with an open mind. Yes, they are called "entitlements" because that's what your awards programs become if they are left alone for very long. It's nobody's fault, so don't point fingers. Just decide to address each mistake in order, gain support, and then develop a measurable set of initiatives that will make the best use of your dollars. The good news is that today's health care tools and technology solutions make it easy to develop, measure and analyze an effective recognition strategy.

John Schaefer is a consultant based in Glendale, AZ, with more than 20 years of experience helping companies realize and react to what he calls the employer/employee disconnect.