Our Promise August 2024 – Horizon Childcare Pilot Program to Launch in Support of Health Care Worker Retention Horizon Health Network, in partnership with the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation and the Chalmers Foundation, is excited to launch a new childcare pilot program for Horizon staff and physicians, in response to the increased need for childcare access. Among the first of its kind to launch in New Brunswick, this pilot supports health care worker retention and helps enable staff and physicians to provide much-needed services to patients in the regional health care hubs of Saint John and Fredericton. In each community, the pilot program will offer 51 net new, dedicated childcare spaces for permanent full-time and part-time Horizon employees and physicians. In response to the needs of Horizon employees, childcare will be available for infants to five-year-olds (prior to starting elementary school) with 12 flex-time spaces available in each community between 6:30 a.m. and 8 p.m. These dedicated childcare spaces will be offered in newly renovated centres near the Saint John Regional Hospital and Dr. Everett Chalmers Regional Hospital by local childcare operators, Origins Natural Learning Childcare in Saint John and Go-Go Group Inc. in Fredericton. Childcare funding normally subsidized by the government will be covered by a Horizon Endowment Fund administered by the hospital Foundations in Saint John and Fredericton, with $2 million allocated to each community. Horizon employee parents will pay the remaining applicable fees for the spaces, comparable to other designated childcare spaces, and cover additional fees for flex-time options. Permanent full-time and part-time Horizon employees will be able to apply for spaces through their local childcare operators starting on Tuesday, September 3, 2024, with childcare services beginning in fall 2024 in Saint John and winter 2025 in Fredericton, pending the opening of newly renovated centres by Origins and Go-Go. Horizon will continue to explore childcare partnership opportunities in other areas. Our Promise is a commitment by Horizon’s leadership team to continue improving the employee and physician experience. It was developed as an authentic, transparent program to help build trust with employees and physicians. Strengthening employee engagement directly improves patient experience and outcomes. The program is also intended to serve as a reminder that retention is a top priority for Horizon. You show up everyday to care for New Brunswickers. Our Promise is how Horizon is showing up for you. Our Promise will demonstrate Horizon’s progress in improving the employee and physician experience in four focus areas: Our Promise includes 30 initiatives developed in response to the feedback we heard from employees and physicians in our last Worklife Pulse survey. These 30 initiatives fall within each of the four Focus Areas. These include numerous initiatives that employees and physicians have identified as important to them, such as flexible scheduling, wellness hubs, enhanced security, mentoring and coaching. Our Promise Initiatives LISTEN & ACT RECOGNIZE & APPRECIATE HEALTH SAFETY & BELONGING LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT What you say matters at Horizon New Our Promise Initiatives ★ HR Self-Serve HR Operations is creating resources that support employees and managers. Phase 1 of this initiative will see improvements accomplished through Skyline content and layout changes, in addition to improved flows and self-service information. This will allow for the ability to get answers and information to frequent scenarios and questions and access to forms and how-to 24/7 without waiting for answers from the HR Ops team. We want to use words, language and situations that make sense to employees and managers and reduce the HR speak. In-Progress Our Promise Initiatives ➔ Vocantas Launch Vocantas Future Planner software is one of the more recent scheduling software initiatives that the Workforce Optimization team has undertaken to provide a solution that better fits the needs of our employees. Vocantas Future Planner is an extended module from our current Vocantas shift offer tool that will allow employees to express their interest on shifts in advance (15 days to 8 weeks in advance) without the need for the Kronos self-serve availability module. Through our listening strategies and Scheduling service surveys, we were provided feedback that entering when you were available and unavailable in the software was not user friendly. As a result, this new software was procured and the roll out to impacted facilities is underway. ➔ Flexible Scheduling for Non-Bargaining Employees HR Operations has launched a pilot related to flexible work arrangements for permanent non-bargaining employees. As an employer of choice Horizon wants to provide options to positively impact on engagement and retention of the non-bargaining workforce in addition to enabling work-life balance. The pilot has seen 109 non bargaining employees opt in. To date the pilot has seen positive results: 98% satisfaction with the flex schedule and 89% improvement in work-life balance. The pilot is set to end July 11th following which data will be analyzed and a recommendation on continuing presented to ELT. ➔ Digital Screens The digital screens program is an innovative and modern channel that will improve overall engagement and effectiveness of communications with employees. Using a cloud-based content management system, Horizon’s digital screens program allows central, fast, and flexible content management of all screens at all facilities! Horizon’s Communications & Community Engagement team is managing the Digital Screens program and working with other departments and Horizon partners to drive value and employee engagement through this initiative. To date, over 200 digital screens for staff and physicians have now been installed across Horizon facilities. This means thousands of staff and leaders now have access to an engaging mode of internal communications. Soon, a Digital Screens Resource Page will be launched on Skyline where teams across the organization can find templates, guidelines, and content standards to submit their own local content! ➔ Continuous Conversation Technology We want to make two-way internal communication easier and more convenient for our people leaders, employees, and physicians. Our internal notice board launched at the end of March, and we are so excited to have another method of communication to reach our front-line healthcare team. You can like, comment, and engage with the posts! We want you as ambassadors and SLT to share good news stories about our Horizon team for us to share on our notice board. Send us submissions at Engage@HorizonNB.ca. Phase two will be an app, launch date to be determined! Launched Our Promise Initiatives ✔ Onboarding Technology HR Operations and Talent Acquisition have launched a cloud-based onboarding system with the goal of supporting early employment and a positive candidate experience. This new portal will improve the candidate experience, increase visibility for those involved and create streamlined and efficient processes. The onboarding portal went live since November 2023 and has obtained an 85.6% satisfaction rating with new hires. The portal provides visibility and reminders to the candidate as well as the Manager. The portal has moved to the phase of continuous improvement and changes are occurring to enhance the experience for various users of the portal. ✔ Listening Strategies Technology Horizon’s engagement team is working with independent research organization Perceptyx to conduct employee surveys that are being used to identify trends and reasons for turnover; assess the quality of work life at Horizon; recommend changes in policies, procedures, and practices; and identify training and development needs. We successfully launched candidate experience, onboarding, exit and on demand surveys this past year as part of our new listening strategies. To date we have had over 64 different targeted surveys launched with our on-demand platform and we have “listened” to thousands of employees. Next up! we will be launching a leader dashboard with customized results for their area of responsibility and a new action plan process to ensure that we are actioning the feedback that we can and demonstrating accountability to our valued healthcare workers. ✔ Flexible Scheduling for NBNU The Workforce Optimization team is providing more flexible options by piloting self-scheduling at Horizon. Self-Scheduling is the process of unit employees working collaboratively together to develop a short‑ term schedule by scheduling shifts from the master rotation to improve flexibility for commitments such as childcare, events, coursework, etc. and to improve work-life balance. Work-life balance is important, and we want to provide options to find that balance. Horizon acknowledges your value New Our Promise Initiatives ★ THRIVE Nursing Conference Horizon will host the 2nd Thrive Nursing Conference at the Marco Polo Cruise Terminal in Saint John, NB on November 13-14, 2024, entitled ‘Thrive: Empower Your Purpose’. This conference is made possible through the generous support of the Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation. Conference themes include “Power of Laughter”, “Self-Discovery”, “Transformation”, and “Mental Wellness”. In-Progress Our Promise Initiatives ➔ Professional Services Awards of Distinction Preparations are underway for the 2nd Annual Professional Services Awards of Distinction Ceremony, which will be held on Wednesday, May 22nd. We are excited to invite and honour all nominees to the ceremony. Invites will be coming soon. This year, the ceremony will be held in person in each of the four sites and we encourage all managers to encourage their staff who are nominated to join the celebrations. We received almost 100 nominations this year across Horizon. The committee seeks nominations in six Awards of Distinction categories: Excellence in Patient Care, Next year, we will be opening nominations and awarding to the Community portfolio as we strive to engage and recognize more of our staff and colleagues. ➔ Awards of Distinction in Nursing The Awards of Distinction in Nursing serve to recognize Nurse Practitioners, Registered Nurses, Licensed Practical Nurses, and Patient Care Attendants who: Exhibit attributes of professionalism in the nursing team Demonstrate excellence in clinical care and promote a high-quality practice environment through their role as a mentor and leader Exemplify the mission, vision, and values of the organization. Make a difference every day, from providing patient care to supporting their colleagues ➔ Patient Safety Hero Awards The Patient Safety Hero Award provides Horizon staff an opportunity to commend the work of a colleague, volunteer, or Horizon team who exemplifies excellence in patient safety while providing Exceptional care. Every person. Every day. This award is given to an individualand a team who excel in their commitment to patient safety, their innovative approach to create change that enhances patient safety, their collaborative spirit that proves we are all leaders, yet work as a team, and through valuing and understanding the role of safety concerns expressed by patients and their families. Nominations, for both awards, are accepted year-round with the annual awards based on submissions received each year by August 30. ➔ Enhanced Bravo! Program This fall marks the return of the Bravo! Awards to celebrate Horizon employees, and physicians’ incredible work and to ensure they feel valued, appreciated and part of a team. Twenty Bravo! Award recipients will be selected quarterly, recognizing individuals who are living our values. We are also excited to announce the launch of the next phase of our Bravo! program upgrades. This launch includes new features such as; sending a Bravo! to multiple people, enhanced search functionality, and new bubbles to highlight events. ➔ Monthly Apprecication Initiatives We are committed to creating experiences, sharing appreciation, and providing recognition with our employees and physicians & provided a unique experience each month. These monthly initiatives focus on bringing recognition and appreciation to mind for all Horizon staff such as our yearly BBQ, Holiday Café, Years of Service, Retirement Luncheons, Family skating, Sunshine Carts, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) focused education events and concerts etc. Launched Our Promise Initiatives ✔ One-Year Recognition for New Hires Horizon has introduced a one-year pendant that recognizes the completion of one year of service for our new hires. In addition to re cognizing the first year of an employee’s career with Horizon, these pendants are a symbol to welcome and support our new Horizon colleagues. Ensuring our new hires feel connected and part of the team is a priority at Horizon. We also have a “New Hire Mix & Mingle” every November for new hires to connect with vital resources across our organization. ✔ Innovative Solutions We are continuously thinking of new ways to improve employees’ and physicians’ work experience. Our 2023 pilot of bringing food trucks for our facilities was a great success. We hope to do this again next year. In 2024 we have more trucks, sites and dates being offered around the region. This is where our employees come in! Please send us ideas that you would like us to try – our most recent Sunshine Cart initiative was an idea from an employee. Email us at engage@horizonnb.ca. Horizon cares about your wellbeing New Our Promise Initiatives ★ Critical Incident Stress Support: Hug in a Box Navigating the immediate aftermath and ongoing impacts of critical incidents can be difficult, for individuals, teams and leaders. To assist in providing a menu of support options, the Wellness Team is piloting a new critical incident stress support initiative; a Hug in a Box. With the launch of this new pilot, managers will be able to request a Hug in a Box to be delivered to their team in tandem or following the debriefing of a critical incident. The Hug in a Box will contain treats and resources for healthcare workers in navigating the aftermath and impacts of critical incidents. In-Progress Our Promise Initiatives ➔ Psychological Health & Safety Framework Creating a psychologically healthy and safe work environment is necessary and a priority for Horizon. The results of the “Guarding Minds” survey identified areas of opportunity, and we are moving forward with a framework that will empower everyone at Horizon. After completing a comprehensive environmental scan, we are consolidating research and evidence in best practices to create a framework to support and empower everyone at Horizon. ➔ Enhanced Security Project Horizon is launching a pilot in five locations for enhanced security. To increase response time to workplace violence incidents, increase safety in high-risk areas and enhance de-escalation of workplace violence. These pilots will be evaluated for security improvements across Horizon. An enhanced security officer presence will complement our existing tools. ➔ Improved Physical Environment We understand a conducive physical environment can foster collaboration, creativity, and a sense of belonging among team members. As well, it can significantly impact employee satisfaction, retention, and overall positive outcomes. We are pleased to say our promise to improve the physical environment has been making considerable progress with the rollout of new furniture in staff areas, cafeterias, waiting rooms, and patient rooms. The furniture and equipment rollout has been successful, with approximately 6300 items already deployed. The infrastructure upgrades, which include wall protection, LED lighting, flooring, and countertops in staff and patient rooms, is progressing as expected and is considered a longer-term project. This is primarily due to the complexity of the work, availability of the space and the need to balance with other competing priorities. Those priorities being other essential initiatives, such as enhancing critical building systems, life safety systems, capital equipment upgrades, redevelopment projects in both acute and in community to improve functionality, flow, and access. Our efforts to enhance the physical environment are multifaceted, encompassing upgrades to furniture, infrastructure, critical building systems, life safety systems, capital equipment, energy reduction and Climate change projects. While progress varies across these fronts, our commitment remains steadfast. We acknowledge the importance of a favourable physical environment in fostering engagement, well-being, and success and we are dedicated to advancing these initiatives continuously. With our promise, we strive for ongoing improvement across all aspects of the physical environment, ensuring an environment that nurtures our staff, patients, and upholds our Horizon culture. ➔ Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Framework Training has been rolled out with success stories recorded across the organisation. This was supported by a massive DEI awareness campaign: New DEI Banner, Logo & Tagline – “Everyone is Welcome Here” Huddle-Based DEI Learning – Distribution of huddle kit (flipbook and table calendars) to all managers to facilitate the training of all employees. – Addition of facilitation guide and PowerPoint slides and expert led workshops to support the training program. – Partnership with NB Multicultural Centre to organise anti-racism training (ART) for managers and OP ambassadors for two days in Fredericton and Moncton. – Launch of Culture Café concept to deepen the conversation. – DEI Series posted on Skyline. Awareness Campaign – Weekly and monthly post of inspiring DEI-Friendly quotes on digital screens and Teams. – Use of social media (LinkedIn) to spread the message outside the organization. – Table toppers in the cafeteria. Purple Flag Initiative – Launch of a symbolic purple flag to promote open communication and inclusive practices. Success Stories – We estimate that over 5000 employees are trained on DEI across the organization. – Well attended and successful International Women’s Day event was organized in March, with Senator Krista Ross giving the keynote speech. – Pride event to be held in June. NB Lieutenant Governor, Brenda Murphy, will be the keynote speaker. – Over 160 participants attended the Anti-Racism Training. Launched Our Promise Initiatives ✓ Pet Therapy We are thrilled to share that the Therapy Dog Program is now offered in each of the four Wellness Hubs, located at the SJRH, DECRH, TMH and MRH! In partnership with Horizon Volunteer Resources and St. John Ambulance, our Employee Wellness team is pleased to offer Pet Therapy Dog visits for employees and physicians, and this is our most popular initiative to date! This program can be arranged for Community sites (if they have the space, the handler and therapy dog are able to visit, and the Wellness Coordinator is available to oversee the session). We hope to continue to expand the program, due to many employee requests. Every time we have Dog Therapy, employees make comments about how much they LOVE it and how much of a difference it makes in their day! It is wonderful to see the smiling faces that result from a visit! ✓ RecharjMe Cabins The immersive and relaxing Recharjme cabins – located in nine of our hospitals across the province – provide every Horizon employee and physician with the opportunity to rest and recharge to help reduce job stress at no cost to them. Recognizing, acknowledging, and addressing these pressures is key, and we are so pleased to not only provide this innovative and accessible resource to each Horizon employee, but to each employee of our partner organizations at Vitalite and EM/ANB. ▶ Learn more about RecharjMe Cabins ✓ Respectful Workplace Policy Horizon’s new Respectful Workplace Policy was successfully launched in September of last year. Since the launch, training sessions have been provided to managers across the organization and a new e-Learning module was created. The e-Learning module, titled, “Respectful Workplace: Making It Happen, has been added to the mandatory training that is completed by staff on an annual basis. Awareness of the policy and the process used to submit complaints has led to an increase in the number of Respectful Workplace complaints filed in fiscal year 2023-24, compared to previous years. Although this may not sound like a success, it demonstrates that faith employees have in the process. It also provides labour and employee relations the opportunity to thoroughly investigate complaints and address misconduct in a timely manner. We have also seen a significant decrease in the number of Human Rights Complaints. ✓ Wellness Hubs Horizon is embracing a culture of mental health in the workplace by launching Wellness Hubs in each of our four regional hospitals. We have also hired four full-time Wellness Coordinators to support employees, physicians and leaders and promote wellness services and resources available to staff. Since launching, our Wellness Hubs have been centers of innovation in piloting new wellness services and resources for staff, including April’s Sunshine carts, pet therapy and a free Headspace trial to name only a few! A lot of our work involves providing support to individuals and teams; our knowledgeable and caring Wellness Coordinators are in place to support you! No matter where you work or what your role is, your mental health and well-being matter to us. ▶ Learn more about Wellness Hubs ✓ Safe Patient Handling Our front-line health care workers will benefit from a new education program to promote safe patient handling across Horizon. This will ensure staff are safely lifting and handling patients, decreasing injury and absenteeism related to lifting. ▶ Learn more about Safe Patient Handling Horizon believes in your potential New Our Promise Initiatives ★ New Initiatives are coming soon! In-Progress Our Promise Initiatives ➔ Leadership Development In addition to Horizon’s two leadership development programs, Cornerstone and Leading One Horizon, all managers and supervisors now have access to Skillsoft Percipio to expand their leadership knowledge and skills. Additional leadership development programs will be added for individuals new to Horizon management roles in the coming year. Success Stories In the last 12 months, 739 unique learners accessed content from the Skillsoft platform. There were 19,401 content accesses and 2,355 course completions. We continue to make the platform available to managers to enhance their learning options. In February we launched a New Manager Orientation Program with continuous intake as new managers are hired. Currently there are 20 enrolled in the program and 3 managers have completed the program. Initial feedback is positive: “I liked the program layout and I found it reasonable enough that it wasn’t stressful but short enough that I actually stayed on task – I feel accomplished this week to have finished the program AND I know I have the tools I need to do my job – what could be better than that?” We doubled our seat capacity in the Cornerstone and Leading One Horizon programs to meet the demand for the programs with 97 graduates in the Cornerstone program and 65 graduates in LOH (Leading One Horizon) program. Program evaluations from the most recent cohorts indicate 97% of participants feel better equipped to perform in their roles. The series of Leadership Development workshops were well attended with a combined total of 1047 participants. Launched Our Promise Initiatives ✔ Mentoring & Coaching Implementing mentor and coaching options for employees across Horizon has been identified as a key growth area. A new nurse mentor program has launched and a buddy system for internationally educated employees across Horizon is being piloted this summer. The New Manager Orientation program has a mentoring component embedded in the program where new managers are paired with an experienced manager. ✔ Flexible Learning Our learning and development team has changed their delivery model for education programs. They are committed to providing opportunities to learn and develop in ways that best meet our employees’ and physicians’ needs, from daytime OR evening sessions, to online OR in-person courses. We want to be flexible and recognize that as a health care organization, we operate 24/7. The flexible learning schedules have provided staff with additional options for training, including but not limited to Basic Life Support training. As an example, the after-hours BLS classes have had good uptake from staff. Facilitators have noted that staff are encouraged by the additional after-hours sessions and are thankful Horizon’s Learning & Development department (L&D) are able to provide these additional resources. Another example includes the promotion of our Workplace Violence Prevention programs in a variety of options. The most recent example was providing in-person physical skills training to a group of healthcare professionals at a rural health clinic. Thus, allowing the participants to train in their own facility, and meeting the needs of the group. ✔ Performance Development (Phase 1) Horizon’s new performance development system supports employees’ ongoing learning and development needs. Periodic conversations throughout the year will lead to an annual performance summary, with development plans created by the employee and the manager that outline concrete next steps, resources, timelines and expected outcomes. Phase 1 has been fully implemented. Phase 2 (technological integration) is in progress. Performance development is now becoming part of our culture at Horizon with a focus on development plans. A variety of resources are available on skyline to assist managers and employees in the performance development process including e-learning modules, guides, demos, forms, and submission guidelines. Video Our Promise Recap Respectful Workplace Policy Improved Physical Environment Flexible Scheduling Wellness Hubs Safe Patient Handling Our Promise Ambassador Program Our Promise Ambassador Program is critical in bringing Our Promise to life! Our goal is to ensure that all employees and physicians know this program and how to get involved to shape it. Our Promise Ambassadors will build excitement about the program and help spread the word to other employees and physicians. We will continue seeking employee and physician feedback on the program through them, test and learn new, innovative initiatives to improve the employee and physician experience.