Attitudes and Behaviors Drive Financial Outcomes

Written by Deborah Rozman, President and CEO of Quantum Intech, Inc. (dba HeartMath Inc.) Wednesday, 11 May 2011 15:00

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Study after study has shown a distinct correlation between a harmonious workplace and company profits, states Peter J. Frost in his book, Toxic Emotions at Work (Harvard Business School Press).

HeartMath, a leading stress research organization, has conducted stress and performance research and assessments in companies for the past 15 years. “We have found that employee attitudes are related to organizational culture and culture is created and communicated by the CEO and top executives. Often this communication is nonverbal, in attitudes and behaviors as well as decisions. It’s at the CEO level that change has to start. We learned that to achieve these kinds of results in hospital systems the CEO has to participate in the program,” says HeartMath LLC President and CEO Bruce Cryer.

Once CEOs, chief nurses and hospital staff learn to reset their response to stress and shift to positive emotional and attitudinal states, it creates a shift to a more caring culture that permeates the hospital, reducing staff turnover and medical errors and increasing patient satisfaction.

“As the CEO of my hospital, HeartMath has been a game changer. For me personally, it has improved my health, relationships and productivity and also allowed me to improve the culture of my organization through leadership by example. Since adding HeartMath to our wellness program for our employees in 2009, we have truly bent the cost curve on our medical claims. The past three years, we’ve averaged only a 2.5 percent annual increase in claims compared to an 11 percent increase for the industry – that has resulted in a $3M savings over that time frame! Healthier, happier and more productive employees clearly impact the quality of our care for our patients.”

—Todd Linden, CEO, Grinnell Regional Medical Center, Grinnell, Iowa

“Employee attitudes actually drive financial and sustainability results, not the other way around,” concluded David. Maister, a former professor at the Harvard Business School who surveyed more than 5,500 people from 139 offices in 29 firms in 15 countries on quality of client service, quality of work, market reputation, long-term client relationships, profitability, and growth. Maister found that more than 50 percent of all variations in profit performance were explained by nine key attitudes, none of which had to do with technical skills nor financial acuity, and that by raising employee satisfaction 20 percent, a company can boost its financial performance by more than 42 percent.

“If we knew nothing except that employee attitudes had improved five percent, we could predict that revenue would rise 0.5 percent above what it otherwise would have been... a five percent increase in employee attitude …drives… 1.3 percent increase in customer satisfaction and a 0.5 percent increase in revenues.”

— Harvard Business Review, January, 1998

HeartMath has helped to reduce staff turnover in hospitals for more than a decade, saving each of these hospitals more than $1M per year in costs (10X return). For example, Duke went from 35 percent turnover to less than five percent in one year.

HeartMath is sponsoring a Best Practices Conference for health care system leaders called “Creating Caring Environments,” from May 17-20 in Aptos, Calif., featuring speakers from Mayo Clinic, Arizona State University, Grinnell Regional Medical Center Chesapeake Regional Medical Center and more.

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The science and research behind the HeartMath system with Dr. Rollin McCraty, PhD

Dr. Rollin McCraty, Director of Research, Institute of HeartMath, will present the science and research behind the HeartMath system and the emWave. IHM is a recognized, global leader in emotional physiology, stress management and the physiology of heart-brain research. The HeartMath Research Center is engaged in basic psychophysiology, neurocardiology and biophysics research, and in clinical, workplace and organizational intervention and treatment outcome studies in collaboration with numerous university and health care system partners. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to attend Dr. McCraty's presentation. » Download Webinar