27 Dec Strong Job Fit and a High Performance Culture are the Key to Clinical Excellence
The Predictive Index® has been a critical tool in helping to develop, define and maintain our strong corporate culture.
– Dan Hirschfeld, CEO, Genesis Rehab Services
Genesis Rehabilitation Services, a division of Genesis Healthcare, is a leader in the long-term care rehabilitation industry. With 500 million dollars in revenue, they are one of the largest rehabilitation organizations in the United States. Genesis Rehab employs 8,000 therapists and serves over 850 locations in 23 states including nursing centers, assisted living facilities, hospitals, home health companies, and outpatient clinics. The company is both patient-centered and employee-focused, priding itself on its commitment to clinical excellence and staff development.
The Challenge:
Four years ago, Dan Hirschfeld rejoined the company as President. He quickly realized that to become a leading long-term care provider, the executive team needed to address several challenges. These included the need to gain a better understanding of the key role of a therapist to grow and retain their workforce, improve communication and group interaction to create a culture built around cohesive and effective work teams and to better manage their operations by installing a new clinical system, which included the selection of a strong team to lead the implementation effort.
Dan and his VP of HR, Rebecca Haley, enlisted the help of senior sales consultant, Joan Mueller of AUGUR, Inc., a PI® member firm. Joan presented the behavioral assessment tool, Predictive Index® (PI),to the Genesis Rehab team. Dan saw PI as the tool to gain a deeper understanding of the behavioral insights of the individual therapists and enable them to communicate and work more effectively as a team.
The Process:
To stabilize their workforce, Genesis Rehab applied the knowledge from the PI to help ensure that employees were aligned with job opportunities that best fit their particular behavioral style. In preparing to launch the new clinical system, Genesis Rehab needed to identify those therapists who could step into the role of system champion, where a high attention to detail was necessary. Using the insight from the Predictive Index, the team of therapists chosen to lead the project were those identified with an “area expert” skill set and the ability to make change happen.
Genesis Rehab also found PI to be an excellent tool for team building, allowing the company to effectively address tough issues like conflict resolution. For instance, the program manager’s role is to oversee each of the 850 rehab locations. They complete a rigorous leadership training program which also includes PI training. Dan explains “We use PI as a coaching and team building tool in our leadership training program. PI is absolutely embedded in everything we do. The managers find the tool very effective in opening up communication and handling conflict resolution. Therapists typically try to avoid conflict. They view themselves as caregivers who inherently want to make everyone feel better. PI allows you to introduce a ‘tough’ topic, and gives you permission to have an otherwise difficult conversation.”
Dan cites an example at the executive level where the Predictive Index was used to manage conflict. Dan and one of his senior managers, have very different communication styles. Dan has a very social style while the manager does not. This difference created friction between them. Dan wanted to communicate thoroughly about a project and his manager didn’t feel the need for that much discussion, interpreting Dan’s need to share information as he didn’t trust him to handle the project on task. Dan felt the manager didn’t care enough about the success of the project. They have learned through their PI analysis that they work differently while sharing the same goals. Utilizing PI, they identified their differences and now work together with mutual success.
The Results:
Genesis Rehab has redesigned the career section of their website. Using their knowledge of both The PI Behavioral Assessment and The PI Job Assessment, they create job descriptions which are written specifically to attract high-performing therapists. This has resulted in a stronger candidate pool, a more selective hiring process and improved retention.
The company’s turnover rate is lower than ever, having dropped from 32% to 8% since PI’s implementation. “We want to do the utmost to keep our employees engaged and motivated in their roles by creating a strong corporate culture that emphasizes mutual respect and open communication.”
Using PI, Genesis Rehab’s program managers identify therapists with high potential talent. These therapists are selected to develop programs on dementia or nutrition. They design the program requirements and develop the content. They have the opportunity to share their specialized knowledge and enhance their overall work experience by applying their skills in program development. Dan credits the Predictive Index with this improvement in understanding the individual needs and drives that positively impact the therapist’s performance.
The new clinical system has generated a tremendous increase in productivity. Dan attributes the success of the system implementation, including a cost savings of several hundred thousand dollars, to the utilization of PI in identifying the key individuals with the skills required to manage the project to a successful launch.
The company has collaborated with Allied Health Research Institute to develop a career assessment tool for future therapists which they plan to make available on the Genesis Rehab website. Based on the knowledge of PI and PRO, college students who select a career in therapy services can use the process to consider discipline and work setting options. Dan is excited about the new tool and shares, “We leverage the knowledge of PI in virtually everything we do.”
Dan shares, “The key to my job is to make sure our employees know what they need to accomplish, and leverage the support systems and resources to align our employees with our business standards of clinical excellence. The knowledge that we are all connected in the workplace motivates our teams and increases performance. The Predictive Index has been a critical tool in helping to develop, define and maintain our strong corporate culture.”