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Hospital CEO Uses Hand-On Approach In Showing Appreciation

(September 17, 2014) - Becky Rice likes using a hands-on approach to working with people.

The Upper Valley Medical Center president and CEO put the philosophy in motion when she decided to bake treats for randomly selected departments celebrating their successes over the summer.

Elated by the initial positive employee response, she expanded the project to include a trek with treats to each of UVMC’s 66 departments, large and small. By the time she was finished, Rice had spent seven full weekends baking up celebration treats for staff.

Rice, who became president/CEO in January, said she chose to focus this year on the need to celebrate successes following a tough 2013 when the organization was going through cost reductions and reorganizations.

She could see that many people were feeling downtrodden, so she decided to encourage a better outlook.

“I have always been a person that the glass is half full, even in your darkest hours. There is always some good in everything,” she said. “Last year is over, and we are moving forward with a focused and sharp trajectory.”

That includes employee recognition strategies, she said.

“It is such an honor and privilege to care for individuals who are sick. They and their families trust us to provide excellent care in a safe, high quality and supportive manner,” she said. “We need all of our team to be focused on those patient goals and to always treat people with respect, integrity, compassion and excellence. These are our core values and each patient deserves our full attention to them every encounter, every opportunity, every time, no excuses. This starts with employee engagement and recognition.”

The UVMC family has achieved many successes this year, especially in the areas of quality care and safety for patients, she said.

To help focus on the positives, she first challenged managers to come up with one recent success in their department worth celebrating. The successes were entered into a random drawing with three departments selected.

Rice headed home, baked all weekend and dropped off the goodies with a hand-written note of thanks and recognition to the employees.

“I told them I was proud of their specific accomplishments and thanked them,” she said.

The response was immediate. She received emails, cards and notes and was stopped in the hospital hallways by people thanking her for acknowledging them and their work.

Driven by the initial reaction, Rice decided to expand the program to every department in the hospital along with satellite offices, physicians’ lounges and volunteers.

Rice said she’d head to the store on Saturday morning, buy ingredients for no-bake cookies, cinnamon bread, brownie pizza and popcorn-white pretzel mix, and get to work.

“It was fun and I loved doing it,” she said with a smile. “I think it ignited a spirit among employees that ‘the leaders here do care about us.’”

The only thing asked of the employees was to return the trays so Rice could continue baking.

The project was a one-time endeavor demonstrating to the management team that acknowledging the work people do every day can send a strong, positive message, she said.

“It doesn’t have to be a lot, and it doesn’t have to be terribly expensive to say ‘You are our most important asset. Without you we can’t do our jobs, and without our patients, we don’t need our jobs. We are all in this together,’” Rice said.

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