Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare

Company: Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare, Tallahassee, FL
Company Description: TMH is a private, not-for-profit community health care system that includes a 770-bed hospital specializing in heart and vascular, cancer, medicine, orthopedics, neurology, women’s and children’s health, behavioral health, surgery and emergency medicine, a Family Medicine Residency Program and five satellite physician practices.TMH has a medical staff of 500 physicians.
Nomination Category: Human Resources Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Human Resources Team of the Year

Nomination Title: TMH Colleague Activities Team

1. Tell the story about what this nominated team achieved since January 1 2009 (up to 500 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

The Colleague Activities HR team, led by Felicia Polk, is a rare, if not
unique, budgeted HR function in the non-profit healthcare organization sector.
While many healthcare organizations, particularly in the not-for-profit arena,
are cutting budgets and experiencing Reduction in Force, Tallahassee Memorial
HealthCare continues to support what it considers the organization’s most
valuable asset, TMH colleagues, through year round celebration and recognition.
Colleague Activities is charged with responsibility for colleague celebration,
and well, simply fun!

While most organization’s have some sort of colleague recognition program, TMH
Colleague Activities has that and much more. Formal colleague recognition
programs consist of the ICARE Caring Hands, the ICARE Colleague of the month,
and the ICARE Ambassador and President’s awards. Monthly celebrations honor
recipients, nominated by their manager or peers or as recognition of
some “above and beyond” behavior related to our customers. The monthly award
ceremony includes an enormous birthday cake to celebrate colleagues with
birthdays that month. Each year the organization celebrates seven holidays with
colleague parties and contests. There are a minimum of three colleague picnics
each year: national Hospital Week, the 4th of July celebration, and the
concluding seafood fest, which marks the end of the Summer of Fun celebration.
These all-colleague food feasts feed in excess of 3,500 colleagues. The late
shifts participate in their celebrations at mid-night on the day of the event.
The “Summer of Fun,” starts in June each year, culminates in late August with
the seafood fest, and includes prizes for all colleagues. The 2009 Summer of
Fun had a pirate theme. Events such as “Walk the Plank Poker,” “Create an ICARE
Treasure Map,” “Pineapple Decorating Contest,” and a “Pirates Cove” game day
are some examples of the events held across the summer. Department contest
winners get the chance to play “Deal or No Deal,” where department colleagues
have the chance to win up to $3,000 to spend for their department. Colleagues
also have opportunities to compete in individual contests to gain points to
spend on prizes at the end of the celebration. The 2009 top prize was $1,500
and 3 days Paid Leave Time, along with a big-screen TV!

TMH Colleague Activities hosts numerous department-based celebrations across
the year to boost morale and recognize colleagues. Colleague Activities
facilitates Blood Drives, a Colleague Craft show, a Softball tournament, a
Bowling tournament, a Golf Tournament and games colleagues may participate in
on the TMH Intranet. Ice Cream socials and “surprise” breakfasts are frequently
held for staff on patient care floors.

Our Colleague Activities team travels to TMH owned physician practices
scattered in rural counties, bringing lunch or breakfast to ensure the distant
colleagues feel included in TMH celebrations. Colleague Activities manages to
put on all of these wonderful events, contests, and colleague recognitions on a
budget of approximately $54/employee per year. By encouraging volunteer support
of celebrations and judging events Colleague Activities involves colleagues
across the organization, and makes TMH Human Resources shine with outstanding
events that are stress relieving, entertaining, and well, FUN.

2. List hyperlinks to any online news stories, press releases, or other documents that support the claims made in the section above. IMPORTANT: Begin each link with http://, and enclose each link in square brackets; for example, [http://www.youraddress.com]:

http://thestevies.com/ABA10Attachments/TallahasseeMemorial/

3. Provide a brief (up to 100 words) biography about the leader(s) of the nominated team:

Felicia Polk is a Certified Activity Director with over 20 years experience.
Felicia joined Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare 15 years ago as the Activity
Director in TMH’s long-term care facility. She later transferred into HR
because she loved the idea of creating programs and events that recognize and
celebrate the value of TMH colleagues. Felicia has transformed the Colleague
Activities function into one of the most successful parts of our HR group. Her
high energy, creativity, and commitment produce results like her recent vendor
negotiation for anniversary awards that dramatically increased the gift choices
while cutting program costs in half