Improving staff engagement is an important focus for VCH leaders.  Research has shown that engaged employees have greater job satisfaction and are less likely to leave their organizations. As well, high engagement levels contribute to a focus on safety, quality and patient experience.

There has been significant work in recent years surveying staff on engagement and building plans based on those results to support engagement.  As we have seen, it is in the actions we take as individuals, as teams, and as an organization, where we find the greatest value and meaning in this journey.

2015 survey postponed

The biennial employee engagement survey – scheduled to take place in October – has been postponed for several months while the health authorities identify a new survey provider. We believe that it’s preferable to further advance engagement through partnering with a survey provider that enables a closer tie with Accreditation Canada, benchmarking in the Canadian health care context and closer alignment with our provincial privacy requirements.

The health authorities and the Ministry of Health are working together, along with key health care partners, on a renewed provincial engagement strategy that focuses on the full engagement of the health workforce in BC, in keeping with the new Health Human Resources Policy paper and our goal of an engaged, skilled, well-led and healthy workforce.  This new strategy will include medical staff in our engagement planning and surveying – acknowledging their critical role in the shared goal of patient-centred care.

Enhanced survey process to come

Vancouver Coastal Health is committed to employee and medical staff engagement as we move to transform the health care system in BC. Later this year, we will be identifying the key conditions required to foster an engaged workforce, develop a strategy and implementation plan and select a new measurement tool for the next survey, to ensure momentum is maintained.   We look forward to an enhanced survey process in the coming months to measure the engagement of all of our care providers and staff.

Thank you

We wish to take this opportunity to thank our Steering Committee members for their efforts and leadership in preparing for the 2015 engagement survey and putting VCH in a great position to succeed in 2016.

We will keep you up-to-date as plans are outlined for the next survey. Questions can be directed to EmployeeEngagementInquiries@vch.ca.