While it’s a truism to say that people are the lifeblood of any enterprise, it’s especially true for an organization like ours that helps people overcome the challenges of a lifetime," says Donna Marafioti, Toronto Rehab’s Vice President of Human Resources and Support Services.

"We are blessed with an outstanding team of staff, physicians, volunteers and researchers who are dedicated to instilling hope and restoring function to those who have experienced disabling illness and injury," Donna explains. "Although our buildings and our equipment are important, nothing important happens without our people. No matter what role they play in the organization, the energy and commitment of the Toronto Rehab team are what make our mission and vision come to life."

Fostering a rewarding employee experience
As well-trained healthcare practitioners become harder to find, the hospital is adopting innovative recruitment and retention practices to attract and keep the best and brightest employees.

Once on-board, soliciting and acting upon employee feedback is essential in fostering staff engagement and commitment, Donna notes. With support from managers across the organization, her team continues to implement improvement plans.

"We are looking forward to conducting another employee survey within the next year," she says. "Its feedback will help us shape our HR priorities for 2010/11." The hospital is also active in growing its talent pool by leveraging the talents of existing staff through ongoing leadership development (Click here to view Leadership Development Framework).



"A key priority for us is supporting front-line managers," Donna explains. "This involves supporting them as people managers, helping them recruit great employees, delivering what’s needed to retain staff, providing learning and development opportunities for staff, and helping to encourage great performance."

Ultimately, it’s about impact
Toronto Rehab makes a difference whenever its work touches people in a positive way, Donna says. "That could involve students who’ve had a great learning experience deciding to pursue a career in rehabilitation; patients who’ve gained new hope for the future because of our therapeutic or research work; volunteers who’ve experienced the pride and fulfillment of helping us serve our patients; donors who’ve decided that supporting Toronto Rehab is an important part of their personal legacy; or hospital staff who’ve seen what is ‘humanly possible’ come to work inspired to make a difference. At the end of the day, it’s all about how we touch people’s lives."

Key successes in 2008/09

Safety and wellness
Lost-time injuries were a cause of concern last year, with 26 injuries happening in 2008/09 versus five the previous year. As a result, the hospital launched E-alerts for serious injuries, along with quarterly review meetings and business process changes. In addition, all 40 Occupational Health & Safety policies were reviewed, with two new policies added and 34 policies revised.

Recruitment and retention
Toronto Rehab operates in a labour market where talent is mobile and top calibre practitioners are in high demand. To address this, the hospital successfully employed new proactive recruitment practices, and met its targets for both nursing and therapy positions. In terms of retention, exit interviews with employees who departed voluntarily suggest the majority of individuals are departing on positive terms.


Employee engagement
One example of the hospital’s commitment to engaging employees was its decision to set the ambitious target of completing performance reviews of all full- and part-time staff by June 2009 (in response to employee concern about performance reviews expressed in the 2007 employee survey). By yearend, over 510 reviews had been completed.

Promoting learning
Since the hospital’s e-Learning capability went on-stream in September, 16 courses for employees have been launched. Participation in the ‘Code Yellow’ pilot achieved over 70 percent participation, while more than 90 percent of e-Learning users surveyed felt comfortable taking the course.

Leadership development
Over 90 percent of the participants rated leadership development workshops as ‘Excellent’ or ‘Very Good,’ and programs have now been expanded to include medical and executive directors and directors.


Performance highlights

Attendance / On-the-job injuries

Initiative	Performance Highlights
Reduce absenteeism and sick time costs	Cut staff turnover rates from 7.73 percent in 2006/07 to 7.20 percent in 2008/09. Lowered absenteeism rate from 7.84 days per eligible employee in 2007/08 to an average of 6.19 sick days in 2008/09 using wellness activities/programs.

Leadership Development

Initiative	Performance Highlights
Design and deliver best practice modules to managers and staff	Launched mandatory Occupational Health & Safety Training for managers. Over 770 staff members underwent Occupational Health & Safety Training; remaining staff to complete online training.
Continue development of management leadership competency	Implemented Year III of the Leadership Development Program for 30 new managers; Year II of the Rotman Program for seven managers; and Interactive Coaching Workshop for directors. Continued with Year II of Future Leaders Program.

Employee Satisfaction

Initiative	Performance Highlights
Develop and implement actions plans in response to 2007 employee survey	Addressed top three areas of concern (recognition: performance review; opportunities for advancement): Held employee focus groups to understand staff expectations around recognition; recommendations scheduled for 2009/10. Developed plans to complete performance reviews for all full/part-time staff by June 30, 2009. Launched improved performance review tools; provided education and support for managers. Launched process to ensure that all employees have a learning plan discussion as part of their performance review by June 30, 2009.
Enhance employee engagement through internal communications and 10th Anniversary celebrations	Held celebrations that included education about the hospital’s history and employee contributions to the organization’s significant achievements to date. Increased staff’s overall rating (good to excellent) of corporate communications from 90.5 percent to 93.7 percent.

Recruitment and Retention

Initiative	Performance Highlights
Develop and implement recruitment and retention strategy	Through proactive recruitment practices, met all recruitment targets for nursing and therapy positions (including filling all therapy positions within six weeks). Met target of filling 50 percent of externally recruited full-time and part-time nursing vacancies with baccalaureate prepared nurses.
Implement a creative volunteer recruitment plan	Hosted inaugural Dorothy Aldridge Education Workshop for Volunteers to address identified need for additional education opportunities. Developed new volunteer recruitment strategy to be implemented in 2009/10.