Vision, mission, values to be part of job descriptions, performance reviews

Beginning Oct. 1, Yale New Haven Health System employees will see modifications to the success factors they'll be evaluated on during their annual performance reviews.

The changes aren't drastic, yet they are important because they more closely align the behaviors the health system expects of staff with YNHHS' values. "When Yale New Haven Health System shared its new vision, mission and values in 2014, we committed to embrace those values and reflect them in all of our processes and procedures," said Kevin Myatt, senior vice president and chief human resources officer, YNHHS. "Including them in our success factors, and therefore having them as part of our performance review, enables us to reward the behaviors our values represent."

While the first part of each employee's performance review is specific to his or her department and job, the second part covers success factors that all YNHHS employees are evaluated on. The categories of the success factors — including team player, open-minded/flexible, problem-solver, helpful and personally effective and accountable — will remain the same. However, the behaviors that demonstrate "successful" and "outstanding" performance have been updated to reflect the YNHHS values and important system-wide initiatives such as diversity and inclusion, the patient experience and being a high reliability organization.

For example, employees who earn a "successful" rating in the personally effective and accountable category consistently do the right thing by being responsible and taking action, which ties to the YNHHS value of integrity. Employees who earn an "outstanding" rating in the team player category always demonstrate respect for the individual by encouraging diverse perspectives and experiences, which ties in to the respect value. These are just some examples of these success factors; each success factor category consists of multiple items. Managers have received copies of the revised success factors and will be discussing them with their staff.

In addition to including the values in the success factors, language about the values has been added to employee job descriptions to set the expectation that all staff will consistently demonstrate these values in their decisions and actions.

The job description and performance evaluation changes are the result of work by a system-wide human resources team, which also updated success factors for management staff. Managers' success factors now more closely align with employee engagement survey questions about leadership effectiveness, including open communication, timely and helpful feedback to staff and staff development.

"All of the changes reinforce that all employees, regardless of their position in Yale New Haven Health System, understand and share in our vision, support our mission and live our values," said Myatt. "They also reflect the integral role employees play in health system efforts to improve safety, quality and the patient experience for everyone we serve."