Baxter International Inc. (NYSE: BAX), is an American health care company with headquarters in Deerfield, Illinois.[3] The company primarily focuses on products to treat hemophilia, kidney disease, immune disorders and other chronic and acute medical conditions. The company had 2009 sales of $12.6 billion, across three manufacturing divisions: BioScience (producing recombinant and blood plasma proteins to treat hemophilia and other bleeding disorders; plasma-based therapies to treat immune deficiencies and other chronic and acute blood-related conditions; products for regenerative medicine; and vaccines); Medication Delivery (producing intravenous solutions and other products used in the delivery of fluids and drugs to patients, as well as inhalation anesthetics and contract manufacturing services); and Renal (providing products to treat end-stage renal disease, or irreversible kidney failure, including solutions and other products for peritoneal dialysis and hemodialysis).[4]
The company was involved in several controversies. In 2001, malfunctioning dialysis machines resulted in several deaths; in 2008 the company supplied contaminated heparin; in 2009 lethal H5N1 avian flu virus was delivered to laboratories across Europe mixed with seasonal influenza vaccines; also, the company was charged with excessive billing of Kentucky Medicaid.
Baxter International is recognized leader in environmental controls and commitments
The annual turnover rate among health care employees is startling. According to the Human Resource Management Association, 20.4 percent of health care employees one in five quit their jobs every year. The number easily exceeds the 12 to 15 percent turnover rate experienced in most other industries.
As any manager knows, turnover is expensive. One recent survey found that the average cost to replace a departing employee is 30 percent of that employee's salary. The total includes costs incurred while the position is vacant (such as overtime for other employees or the cost of hiring temporary workers); costs associated with finding and selecting a replacement employee (including advertisements, interviews and sign-on bonuses); and costs related to training the new employee.
Some turnover is unavoidable people get married, move away, go back to school or retire. But other types of turnover are preventable. Here, in no particular order, are 20 key strategies to building commitment and loyalty among employees and improving your department's retention rate:
Offer fair and competitive salaries . Fair compensation alone does not guarantee employee loyalty, but offering below-market wages makes it much more likely that employees will look for work elsewhere. In fact, research shows that if incomes lag behind comparable jobs at a company across town by more than 10 percent, workers are likely to bolt. To retain workers, conduct regular reviews of the salaries you offer for all job titles entry-level, experienced staff and supervisory-level. Compare your department's salaries with statistically reliable averages, such as those reported in the 2004 ASRT Wage and Salary Survey . If there are significant discrepancies, you probably should consider making adjustments to ensure that you are in line with the marketplace.
Remember that benefits are important too . Although benefits are not a key reason why employees stick with a company, the benefits you offer can't be markedly worse than those offered by your competitors. To see how you stack up, review the benefits section of the 2004 ASRT Wage and Salary Survey . It includes information on benefits ranging from health insurance to CE reimbursement to pension plans.
Train your front-line supervisors, managers and administrators . It can't be said often enough: People stay or leave because of their bosses, not their companies. A good employee/manager relationship is critical to employee satisfaction and retention. Make sure your managers aren't driving technologists away. Give them the training they need to develop good supervisory and people-management skills.
Clearly define roles and responsibilities . Develop a formal job description for each title or position in your department. Make sure your employees know what is expected of them every day, what types of decisions they are allowed to make on their own, and to whom they are supposed to report.
Provide adequate advancement opportunities . To foster employee loyalty, implement a career ladder and make sure employees know what they must do to earn a promotion. Conduct regular performance reviews to identify employees' strengths and weaknesses, and help them improve in areas that will lead to job advancement. A clear professional development plan gives employees an incentive to stick around. For more information on career ladders, click here .
Offer retention bonuses instead of sign-on bonuses . Worker longevity typically is rewarded with an annual raise and additional vacation time after three, five or 10 years. But why not offer other seniority-based rewards such as a paid membership in the employee's professional association after one year, a paid membership to a local gym after two years, and full reimbursement for the cost of the employee's uniforms after three years? Retention packages also could be designed to raise the salaries of technologists who become credentialed in additional specialty areas, obtain additional education or take on more responsibility. Sign-on bonuses encourage technologists to skip from job to job, while retention packages offer incentives for staying.
Make someone accountable for retention . Measure your turnover rate and hold someone (maybe you!) responsible for reducing it. In too many workplaces, no one is held accountable when employees leave, so nothing is done to encourage retention.
Conduct employee satisfaction surveys . You won't know what's wrong ... or what's right unless you ask. To check the pulse of your workplace, conduct anonymous employee satisfaction surveys on a regular basis. One idea: Ask employees what they want more of and what they want less of. Also check out the results of the ASRT's recent environmental scan of the radiology workplace, which identifies key areas of concern as expressed by radiologic technologists throughout the country.
Foster an environment of teamwork . It takes effort to build an effective team, but the result is greater productivity, better use of resources, improved customer service and increased morale. Here are a few ideas to foster a team environment in your department:
Make sure everyone understands the department's purpose, mission or goal.
Encourage discussion, participation and the sharing of ideas.
Rotate leadership responsibilities depending on your employees' abilities and the needs of the team.
Involve employees in decisions; ask them to help make decisions through consensus and collaboration.
Encourage team members to show appreciation to their colleagues for superior performance or achievement.
Reduce the paperwork burden . If your technologists spend nearly as much time filling out paperwork as they do caring for patients, it's time for a change. Paperwork pressures can add to the stress and burnout that employees feel. Eliminate unnecessary paperwork; convert more paperwork to an electronic format; and hire non-clinical administrative staff to take over as much of the paperwork burden as is allowed under legal or regulatory restrictions.
Make room for fun . Celebrate successes and recognize when milestones are reached. Potluck lunches, birthday parties, employee picnics and creative contests will help remind people why your company is a great place to work.
Write a mission statement for your department . Everyone wants to feel that they are working toward a meaningful, worthwhile goal. Work with your staff to develop a departmental mission statement, and then publicly post it for everyone to see. Make sure employees understand how their contribution is important.
Provide a variety of assignments . Identify your employees' talents and then encourage them to stretch their abilities into new areas. Do you have a great "teacher" on staff? Encourage her to lead an in-service or present a poster session on an interesting case. Have someone who likes planning and coordinating events? Ask him to organize a departmental open house. Know a good critical-thinker? Ask her to work with a vendor to customize applications training on a new piece of equipment. A variety of challenging assignments helps keep the workplace stimulating.
Communicate openly . Employees are more loyal to a company when they believe managers keep them informed about key issues. Is a corporate merger in the works? Is a major expansion on the horizon? Is the hospital's CEO leaving? Your employees would rather hear it from you than from the evening newscast. It is nearly impossible for a manager to "over-communicate."
Encourage learning . Create opportunities for your technologists to grow and learn. Reimburse them for CE courses, seminars and professional meetings; discuss recent journal articles with them; ask them to research a new scheduling method for the department. Encourage every employee to learn at least one new thing every week, and you'll create a work force that is excited, motivated and committed.
Be flexible . Today's employees have many commitments outside their job, often including responsibility for children, aging parents, chronic health conditions and other issues. They will be loyal to workplaces that make their lives more convenient by offering on-site childcare centers, on-site hair styling and dry cleaning, flexible work hours, part-time positions, job-sharing or similar practices. For example, employees of school-age children might appreciate the option to work nine months a year and have the summers off to be with their children.
Develop an effective orientation program . Implement a formal orientation program that's at least three weeks long and includes a thorough overview of every area of your department and an introduction to other departments. Assign a senior staff member to act as a mentor to the new employee throughout the orientation period. Develop a checklist of topics that need to be covered and check in with the new employee at the end of the orientation period to ensure that all topics were adequately addressed.
Hire R.T. aides . To improve both morale and productivity among your technologists, consider hiring aides who can perform non-clinical duties in the radiology department. Aides can stock and prep rooms, assist with clerical duties, transport patients and process films. Assigning these types of duties to non-technologist staff will free your R.T.s to concentrate on patient care. For more information about R.T. aides, click here .
Give people the best equipment and supplies possible . No one wants to work with equipment that's old or constantly breaking down. Ensure that your equipment is properly maintained, and regularly upgrade machinery, computers and software. In addition, provide employees with the highest quality supplies you can afford. Cheap, leaky pens may seem like a small thing, but they can add to employees' overall stress level.
Show your employees that you value them . Recognize outstanding achievements promptly and publicly, but also take time to comment on the many small contributions your staff makes every day to the organization's mission. Don't forget these are the people who make you look good!
The company was involved in several controversies. In 2001, malfunctioning dialysis machines resulted in several deaths; in 2008 the company supplied contaminated heparin; in 2009 lethal H5N1 avian flu virus was delivered to laboratories across Europe mixed with seasonal influenza vaccines; also, the company was charged with excessive billing of Kentucky Medicaid.
Baxter International is recognized leader in environmental controls and commitments
The annual turnover rate among health care employees is startling. According to the Human Resource Management Association, 20.4 percent of health care employees one in five quit their jobs every year. The number easily exceeds the 12 to 15 percent turnover rate experienced in most other industries.
As any manager knows, turnover is expensive. One recent survey found that the average cost to replace a departing employee is 30 percent of that employee's salary. The total includes costs incurred while the position is vacant (such as overtime for other employees or the cost of hiring temporary workers); costs associated with finding and selecting a replacement employee (including advertisements, interviews and sign-on bonuses); and costs related to training the new employee.
Some turnover is unavoidable people get married, move away, go back to school or retire. But other types of turnover are preventable. Here, in no particular order, are 20 key strategies to building commitment and loyalty among employees and improving your department's retention rate:
Offer fair and competitive salaries . Fair compensation alone does not guarantee employee loyalty, but offering below-market wages makes it much more likely that employees will look for work elsewhere. In fact, research shows that if incomes lag behind comparable jobs at a company across town by more than 10 percent, workers are likely to bolt. To retain workers, conduct regular reviews of the salaries you offer for all job titles entry-level, experienced staff and supervisory-level. Compare your department's salaries with statistically reliable averages, such as those reported in the 2004 ASRT Wage and Salary Survey . If there are significant discrepancies, you probably should consider making adjustments to ensure that you are in line with the marketplace.
Remember that benefits are important too . Although benefits are not a key reason why employees stick with a company, the benefits you offer can't be markedly worse than those offered by your competitors. To see how you stack up, review the benefits section of the 2004 ASRT Wage and Salary Survey . It includes information on benefits ranging from health insurance to CE reimbursement to pension plans.
Train your front-line supervisors, managers and administrators . It can't be said often enough: People stay or leave because of their bosses, not their companies. A good employee/manager relationship is critical to employee satisfaction and retention. Make sure your managers aren't driving technologists away. Give them the training they need to develop good supervisory and people-management skills.
Clearly define roles and responsibilities . Develop a formal job description for each title or position in your department. Make sure your employees know what is expected of them every day, what types of decisions they are allowed to make on their own, and to whom they are supposed to report.
Provide adequate advancement opportunities . To foster employee loyalty, implement a career ladder and make sure employees know what they must do to earn a promotion. Conduct regular performance reviews to identify employees' strengths and weaknesses, and help them improve in areas that will lead to job advancement. A clear professional development plan gives employees an incentive to stick around. For more information on career ladders, click here .
Offer retention bonuses instead of sign-on bonuses . Worker longevity typically is rewarded with an annual raise and additional vacation time after three, five or 10 years. But why not offer other seniority-based rewards such as a paid membership in the employee's professional association after one year, a paid membership to a local gym after two years, and full reimbursement for the cost of the employee's uniforms after three years? Retention packages also could be designed to raise the salaries of technologists who become credentialed in additional specialty areas, obtain additional education or take on more responsibility. Sign-on bonuses encourage technologists to skip from job to job, while retention packages offer incentives for staying.
Make someone accountable for retention . Measure your turnover rate and hold someone (maybe you!) responsible for reducing it. In too many workplaces, no one is held accountable when employees leave, so nothing is done to encourage retention.
Conduct employee satisfaction surveys . You won't know what's wrong ... or what's right unless you ask. To check the pulse of your workplace, conduct anonymous employee satisfaction surveys on a regular basis. One idea: Ask employees what they want more of and what they want less of. Also check out the results of the ASRT's recent environmental scan of the radiology workplace, which identifies key areas of concern as expressed by radiologic technologists throughout the country.
Foster an environment of teamwork . It takes effort to build an effective team, but the result is greater productivity, better use of resources, improved customer service and increased morale. Here are a few ideas to foster a team environment in your department:
Make sure everyone understands the department's purpose, mission or goal.
Encourage discussion, participation and the sharing of ideas.
Rotate leadership responsibilities depending on your employees' abilities and the needs of the team.
Involve employees in decisions; ask them to help make decisions through consensus and collaboration.
Encourage team members to show appreciation to their colleagues for superior performance or achievement.
Reduce the paperwork burden . If your technologists spend nearly as much time filling out paperwork as they do caring for patients, it's time for a change. Paperwork pressures can add to the stress and burnout that employees feel. Eliminate unnecessary paperwork; convert more paperwork to an electronic format; and hire non-clinical administrative staff to take over as much of the paperwork burden as is allowed under legal or regulatory restrictions.
Make room for fun . Celebrate successes and recognize when milestones are reached. Potluck lunches, birthday parties, employee picnics and creative contests will help remind people why your company is a great place to work.
Write a mission statement for your department . Everyone wants to feel that they are working toward a meaningful, worthwhile goal. Work with your staff to develop a departmental mission statement, and then publicly post it for everyone to see. Make sure employees understand how their contribution is important.
Provide a variety of assignments . Identify your employees' talents and then encourage them to stretch their abilities into new areas. Do you have a great "teacher" on staff? Encourage her to lead an in-service or present a poster session on an interesting case. Have someone who likes planning and coordinating events? Ask him to organize a departmental open house. Know a good critical-thinker? Ask her to work with a vendor to customize applications training on a new piece of equipment. A variety of challenging assignments helps keep the workplace stimulating.
Communicate openly . Employees are more loyal to a company when they believe managers keep them informed about key issues. Is a corporate merger in the works? Is a major expansion on the horizon? Is the hospital's CEO leaving? Your employees would rather hear it from you than from the evening newscast. It is nearly impossible for a manager to "over-communicate."
Encourage learning . Create opportunities for your technologists to grow and learn. Reimburse them for CE courses, seminars and professional meetings; discuss recent journal articles with them; ask them to research a new scheduling method for the department. Encourage every employee to learn at least one new thing every week, and you'll create a work force that is excited, motivated and committed.
Be flexible . Today's employees have many commitments outside their job, often including responsibility for children, aging parents, chronic health conditions and other issues. They will be loyal to workplaces that make their lives more convenient by offering on-site childcare centers, on-site hair styling and dry cleaning, flexible work hours, part-time positions, job-sharing or similar practices. For example, employees of school-age children might appreciate the option to work nine months a year and have the summers off to be with their children.
Develop an effective orientation program . Implement a formal orientation program that's at least three weeks long and includes a thorough overview of every area of your department and an introduction to other departments. Assign a senior staff member to act as a mentor to the new employee throughout the orientation period. Develop a checklist of topics that need to be covered and check in with the new employee at the end of the orientation period to ensure that all topics were adequately addressed.
Hire R.T. aides . To improve both morale and productivity among your technologists, consider hiring aides who can perform non-clinical duties in the radiology department. Aides can stock and prep rooms, assist with clerical duties, transport patients and process films. Assigning these types of duties to non-technologist staff will free your R.T.s to concentrate on patient care. For more information about R.T. aides, click here .
Give people the best equipment and supplies possible . No one wants to work with equipment that's old or constantly breaking down. Ensure that your equipment is properly maintained, and regularly upgrade machinery, computers and software. In addition, provide employees with the highest quality supplies you can afford. Cheap, leaky pens may seem like a small thing, but they can add to employees' overall stress level.
Show your employees that you value them . Recognize outstanding achievements promptly and publicly, but also take time to comment on the many small contributions your staff makes every day to the organization's mission. Don't forget these are the people who make you look good!