The committee should be chaired by an individual who is freed up to devote sufficient time to this effort and has skills and experience with convening large groups and facilitating discussion among stakeholders with varied interests . We will use an outside third party to facilitate the review to ensure that the recommendations are seen as serving the employee base as a whole and not just hospital leadership .
Tactic : Conduct policy review and formulate recommendations .
Conducting a careful policy review is likely to take several months and should include the following steps :
OO
Review all current HR policies and identify those that have specific and direct impact on working parents . The committee should think broadly when identifying these policies . For example , while reviewing maternity leave policies has obvious implications for working mothers , thinking about policies for trading shifts may be less obvious but equally significant .
OO
Determine if there are other community efforts looking at internal family-friendly policies and determine if there is an appropriate and applicable assessment to use at Children ’ s Hospital Colorado . Use the information as a baseline measurement to determine progress and measureable outcomes .
OO
For the specific policies targeted for review , identify best practices nationwide . This can be achieved by conducting literature reviews , speaking to and visiting peer organizations , and consulting with HR professionals .
Once best practices have been identified , develop a prioritized list of potential changes to Children ’ s Colorado policies . Then , analyze the potential costs and benefits of any proposed changes . For example , if Children ’ s Colorado were to consider offering some paid maternity leave , they could survey employees about how such a change might impact their likelihood of returning to Children ’ s Colorado after having a child to determine the potential benefit of the change and then compare the savings associated with the anticipated improvement in retention against the cost of implementing the policy . It is worth considering , however , that potential benefits are likely to be more qualitative while costs are likely to be more quantitative . The benefits side of the equation should take into account the intangible value of improving employee satisfaction as well as the long-term goal of positioning Children ’ s Colorado as a best-practice employer .
Having completed this analysis , the committee should then bring forth a final set of recommendations to the hospital leadership and , ultimately , to the Board of Directors .
42