Strategic Plan Update on the People Priority

Dear Colleagues,

At the core of Johns Hopkins Medicine are dedicated, accomplished people like you, who sustain our mission to improve the health of the community and world. That is why the people strategic priority tops our list. We continue our efforts to attract, engage and develop the world's best people, and we are pleased to report significant progress on that front. Here are some highlights.

Performance Evaluations: In July, we continued the rollout of the SuccessFactors myPerformance evaluation system. Launched in fiscal year 2014, the online program is in place at Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, Johns Hopkins HealthCare, Johns Hopkins Home Care Group and The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System Corporation. By fiscal year 2017, it will be available to all Johns Hopkins Medicine staff members. Already, the electronic assessment tool has proven effective in better developing and empowering our employees, thanks to features like collaborative goal-setting. What used to be a once-a-year, management-centered evaluation is now an ongoing conversation regarding your performance and development.

Recruitment and Retention Efforts: Did you know that Johns Hopkins Medicine receives tens of thousands of resumes every month? To improve our recruitment and retention efforts for our highly competitive positions, we have begun using a pre-employment assessment tool. This allows managers to make more informed decisions about candidates and determine whether they have the expertise and credentials as well as the potential to be highly vested in the organization—and the temperament to be successful in the position. 

Clinical Recognition: It is important that we recognize employees for their contributions, particularly those who care for our patients and their family members. To honor the best in clinical excellence, we have instituted annual Johns Hopkins Medicine Clinical Awards for Physicians and Care Teams. This fall, we will host a special program to celebrate more than 42 awards recipients, selected from 310 nominations across the institution. We are also making progress on the clinical excellence pathway, which will provide faculty members the opportunity to be considered for promotions based on their innovative contributions to quality, safety and excellence in patient care.

Employee Engagement: Research shows that the more engaged our employees, the better our record on patient safety, workforce productivity and financial performance. Now that we have  completed the Gallup Employee Engagement Survey with a 68 percent participation rate across Johns Hopkins Medicine, many of you have begun working with your team members on action plans to improve the workplace. Overall, efforts like these have boosted our engagement score in 2013 moderately to 3.89 out of 5 in this year's survey. Let us continue to find ways to inspire colleagues to feel a deeper commitment to our organization.

Health and Wellness Efforts: We believe that a healthy workforce is an engaged and productive workforce. To encourage better habits, we are launching a health and wellness effort across the institution that will include diabetes prevention, heart health and a smoking cessation program. In the coming weeks, you can expect to learn more about these initiatives, including how we will report on certain evidence-based health strategies and interventions to the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC scorecard will assess whether our wellness programs are effective in preventing chronic disease. We look forward to your support and participation.

Diversity and Inclusion
Throughout all of our efforts, we want to incorporate diversity, inclusion and cultural competency for students, patients and staff. Since we hired James Page as our vice president of diversity and inclusion/chief diversity officer for Johns Hopkins Medicine last year, we have worked to make employees aware of unconscious bias in hiring practices; promoted improved services for patients who are speakers of other languages, including the deaf and hearing-impaired community; and acted as facilitators for open and respectful communication during times of unrest at Johns Hopkins and in Baltimore.

As we enter the third year of our five-year Strategic Plan, we will continue to share highlights on our progress, efforts and future plans.

Please share your thoughts with us at strategic_plan@jhmi.edu and visit the Strategic Plan website at hopkinsmedicine.org/strategic_plan for more information and resources.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Paul B. Rothman, M.D.
Dean of the Medical Faculty
CEO, Johns Hopkins Medicine

Ronald R. Peterson
President
The Johns Hopkins Hospital and Health System
EVP, Johns Hopkins Medicine