Horizon’s Our Promise aimed at strengthening employee engagement, improving retention

HORIZON – Our physicians and staff show up every day to care for New Brunswickers and Horizon is committed to showing up for them through an exciting new strategy that promises to strengthen employee engagement, build trust and ultimately improve retention.

Our Promise is Horizon’s commitment to prioritizing the retention of physicians and staff through meaningful engagement and recognition, focusing on a healthy, safe and inclusive workplace culture, while empowering our workforce to untap their full potential as health care professionals.

The framework for the Our Promise program was developed with direct input from physicians and staff through various engagement efforts; these efforts resulted in   valuable feedback on strategic measures Horizon can take to improve the workplace experience.

“Strengthening employee engagement directly improves patient experience and outcomes, and Our Promise was developed as an authentic, transparent program to help build trust with employees and physicians,” said Gail Lebel, Horizon VP and Chief Human Resource Officer. “This program is also intended to serve as a reminder that retention is a top priority for Horizon, and that we are committed to holding ourselves accountable to making lasting change by measuring and sharing our results.”

The Our Promise program is currently made up of 19 separate initiatives which can be grouped into four key areas of focus:

• Listen and Act
• Recognize and Appreciate
• Health, Safety and Belonging
• Learning and Development

Examples of projects already making a difference in the workplace include the introduction of an employee self-scheduling pilot project, hosting monthly employee recognition events, implementing a new safe patient handling program, the development of Horizon wellness hubs, enhancing the physical work environment, and introducing improvements to security.

Additionally, a total of 200 Horizon employees have agreed to serve as Our Promise ambassadors.

These individuals will be proactively sharing and discussing the purpose of the Our Promise commitment with their colleagues, while gathering important feedback which that will be used to help shape future initiatives. 

“Seeing the energy and excitement from the ambassadors instilled hope that we are making positive changes that will have a real impact on our health care workers,” said Christie Ruff, Horizon’s Regional Director of Employee Engagement. “We know we have a lot of work to do and that it will require continuous effort on our part to make an impact – we greatly value the opinions and ideas of our employees, and we are acting on them.”

As well, over the course of the summer, Horizon’s employee engagement teams visited 65 different facilities, meeting with hundreds of staff during listening sessions, focus groups and one-on-one meetings.

More information and regular updates on Our Promise initiatives can be found on our website.

Horizon has a plan to improve health care in New Brunswick. Our plan is focused on retention and recruitment efforts, in addition to improving the overall patient experience by addressing patient flow and access to services. Further details about Horizon’s four priority areas are available at HorizonNB.ca.

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