posted 02-24-2001 10:20               

In our setting, however, we are constrained because some of our team are under union contract which prohibits bonuses. This does not apply to management or physicians.

What we have done is to offer team retreats (all expenses paid) and provide a generous reimbursement policy regarding team member professional conference expense.

Obviously, this is not sufficient. I would welcome additional suggestions.

quote:

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Originally posted by Juerg Kuster:
Hello to all

I am a consultant here in Zurich and currently in contact with a fairly large hospital in Europe who wants to introduce a group-bonus program to honor interdiciplinary team efforts (e.g. doctors, nurses, technical pers. in operating rooms). Does anyone have field experience on this subject?
Thank's in advance for any replies!
juerg

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posted 04-24-2001 08:22               

I get the message: - no bonus! "too little too late", "inspired members against team loosers", "hard workers against ..." etc.

Well consider this story:
Up to now in a certain clinical department of a large government hospital, the chief surgeon and his deputy have reaped the big money, because under our system here in Switzerland, they receive a handsome basic salary plus practically all the receipts from private patient treatments because they are famous and the chiefs. In all, quite a lot of money.

Suddenly, the boss has the frightening idea, that he actually can only perform well and write his big invoices if all the staff in his clinic (doctors, nurses, instrumentalists etc.) works well regarding quality and quantity and feels at ease at work. He takes a heroic leap forward and resolves to let his staff participate on his receipts. In other words to create a "Receipts-pool" to be shared by all clinic-staff. So far so good! Scratch! But how on earth do I, the boss, share a good part of my large receipts in a way which makes sense to all my collaborators?

That's where you would come in again, dear fellow healthcare specialists.
Juerg

posted 05-02-2001 02:58               

So I think Jurg that you should try a pilot along the following lines:

a) let the team be voluntary
b) let them do some work in team learning
c) let the team decide what is going to be a significant team improvement. Something or a couple results that can be measured
d) let the reward (bonus) be agreed by team and team supervisor, administrator prior to the commencement of the team program.
e)coach the team's performance
f) if it works set new team performance targets, period, learn from the mistakes and expand to other areas in the hospital

Rawle

posted 05-23-2001 13:52               

Because the results are produced as a joint effort, it only makes sense(linear logic) that the net profits be shared equally with all who contributed. This includes shareholders (provided capital), staff
members, and the business itself (providing investment and/or replacement capital).

So the formula is to pay market wages and salaries to attract and retain the talent necessary to create the desired business results and to share profits equally with all staff.

One company that won a Malcomb-Baldrige award in 1995 is Wainwright Industries. They actually use the formula. The way they implement it is to take 25% of pre-tax profit every 6 months and pay it out equally to all employees. This means that the President and business owner receives exactly the same amount as the janitors.

When I visited this company in 1996, they reported tremendous financial success as a result of having implemented this reward system in 1989/1990 (or around that time). Of course the success was driven by more than just the reward system. They had actually created the conditions for peak performance (subject of another article) for their
company.