Speakers
Graham Lowe is President of The Graham Lowe Group Inc. (www.grahamlowe.ca), a workplace consulting and research firm. He also was a founding partner (2005-08) in the Great Place to Work Institute Canada, an affiliate of the U.S.-based global consulting firm specializing in cultural transformation. For over 25 years he was a Professor of Sociology (now Professor Emeritus) at the University of Alberta, as well as a visiting professor, lecturer, and researcher at other universities in Canada, Europe, and Asia.
Grahamâ’s extensive publications examine work environments, human resource strategies, organizational change and performance, labour market trends, and employment policy. He has contributed many articles to practitioner publications, including Canadian HR Reporter, Canadian Government Executive, Working Well, Canadian Business, the Globe and Mail, and Healthcare Quarterly. His next book, Creating Healthy Organizations: How Vibrant Workplaces Inspire Employees to Achieve Sustainable Success, will be published in April by University of Toronto Press.
Details
This presentation outlines a comprehensive framework for assessing, reporting and improving the quality of work environments in healthcare organizations in Ontario and across Canada. Drawing on evidence showing that healthy work environments (HWE) contribute to positive outcomes for healthcare employees and physicians, the same HWE ingredients also can reduce operating costs, improve human resource utilization, and ultimately support higher quality patient care. The presentation offers a blueprint for how health system employers, governments, quality agencies and professional associations can implement cost-effective and sustainable HWE metrics. A common measurement tool and reporting framework will enable managers and policy makers to use HWE ingredients as levers to improve organizational performance. The benefits flowing from a common healthy work-environment measurement and reporting system should convince stakeholders to reach consensus on HWE metrics and overcome the pitfalls of indicator-it that beset other health system performance metrics. Moving down this path requires the active involvement of stakeholders in developing a core set of common metrics, integrating these metrics into existing measurement and reporting systems, building in managerial accountability for work environment quality, and supporting on-going improvements at the front-lines of care and service delivery.
Resources
Webcast: http://mediacast.ic.utoronto.ca/20100317-HSPRN/index.htm