Physicians rate the institutional culture of their organizations as the most important promoter of their well being. In turn, well being is a key factor in physician engagement and retention.1 The culture-retention connection is one major reason why organizations are rightly concerned to understand their culture—its strengths and weaknesses—and how to improve it.
A more focused tactic is to use some form of culture survey. It may involve interviews, responses to written questions, or both, and can take various forms.
One example: In a 2018 post on Inc, HR professional Alison Davis lays out a sequence of survey questions designed to elicit truths about culture.3 These include:
Davis then recommends that leaders analyze the responses. “Pay particular attention to what employees care about most, what motivates them, and what they perceive the organization's strengths and weaknesses to be,” she writes. “These insights will form the foundation for developing both immediate and long-term action steps for taking your culture from where it is today to where it needs to be.”
Your culture survey doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive. It simply needs to be focused on what’s important to you and your people: mission, values, rewards and what it’s like to work in your organization. The results can be eye-opening.
For more on institutional culture in health care, and the crucial role that communication plays in it, see our article, “Organizational Retention: How to Build a Culture Optimal for Physicians.”