Overview

Overview

Our vision is to be the best place to work in healthcare. To this end, we strive to create an exceptional work experience for our caregivers where they feel safe, valued, supported and empowered to voice ideas and concerns. Our caregiver engagement initiatives are an important aspect of our workplace culture and support our efforts to attract and retain top talent.

Cleveland Clinic engages caregivers through a variety of initiatives and platforms. Our intranet, surveys, Caregiver Celebrations, town hall meetings and team huddles provide caregivers opportunities to share feedback, process improvements and ideas, and to recognize their peers. Caregivers can elect to join a diverse array of communities that are meaningful and rewarding to them, such as our Wellness Champions, green teams, career journeys, employee resource groups and more.

Caregiver Experience Survey

Caregiver Experience Survey

The voices of our caregivers make a difference and help shape the Cleveland Clinic experience. Our Caregiver Experience and Pulse surveys are open to all caregivers across the enterprise, and our leadership actively encourages all caregivers to participate. Through these surveys, caregivers offer valuable feedback on organizational communications, workplace culture, safety measures and opportunities for continuous improvement. Caregivers also provide key insights on engagement, feedback on leader-caregiver relationships and reflections on the function and viability of teams.

While we ensure the anonymity of caregivers who take the survey, several internal teams work together to provide comprehensive and relevant insights on team-based developments and needs. Supervisors and teams review these insights and aggregated results to develop tailored strategies for improvement. Additionally, our survey vendor provides data that shows how our results compare to industry peers, which enables us to better understand and address broader engagement trends in healthcare.

During our 2021 caregiver survey, we received the largest number of responses ever—80%, or more than 52,000 caregivers participated—and 81% would recommend Cleveland Clinic as a good place to work.

Caregiver Celebrations

Caregiver Celebrations

Our comprehensive Caregiver Celebrations rewards and recognition platform enables us to recognize and thank our caregivers for their dedication and accomplishments in support of our mission, vision and values. Our award categories are directly tied to and based on our values (Quality & Safety, Empathy, Inclusion, Integrity, Teamwork and Innovation), which are an essential part of what we do and why we do it. Recognizing caregivers who exhibit our values in their daily work helps reinforce these values as part of our culture, while creating greater alignment across the enterprise. Caregiver Celebrations also supports our “team of teams” approach by empowering caregivers to acknowledge and appreciate one another for outstanding behaviors and performance.

Since its inception in 2010, caregivers have received over 2 million awards. The program features several types of recognition:

Appreciation award icon Appreciation Award: Simple, non-monetary recognition for accomplishments supporting Cleveland Clinic's values and patient experience (awardees receive an e-certificate).
  • Awards sent since inception: 1,606,812
  • Awards sent in 2021: 162,576
e-card award symbol eCard: Peer-to-peer electronic graphic cards to acknowledge anniversaries and birthdays.
  • Awards sent since inception: 17,815
  • Awards sent in 2021: 7,777
teaching award icon Teaching Recognition Award: Simple, non-monetary recognition that recognizes individuals for their skill in, and enthusiasm for, teaching Cleveland Clinic colleagues (e.g. all caregivers, multidisciplinary groups and students) in support of our mission, part of which is to "educate those who serve" (awardees receive an e-certificate).
  • Awards sent since inception (established in January 2020): 4,727
  • Awards sent in 2021: 2,096
excellence award symbol Excellence Award: Quarterly institute-level nomination recognition for excellent performance exhibited by individuals or teams (all award winners receive e-certificates, individual winners receive a desktop award and team winners each receive a framed certificate and a desktop award to share).
  • Awards sent since inception: 6,339
  • Awards sent in 2021: 530
milestone award symbol Milestone Award: Recognition celebrating those caregivers who achieve a milestone service anniversary (5-, 10-, 15-years, etc.,) for their continued service with Cleveland Clinic (awardees receive an e-certificate and other milestone-specific gifts).
Caregiver award symbol Caregiver Award: Annual nomination recognition celebrating the best of the best individual and team award recipients (all award winners receive an e-certificate, individual winners receive a monetary award and desktop award and team winners receive a monetary award, a framed certificate and a desktop award to share).
  • Awards sent since inception: 488
  • Awards sent in 2021: 33
CEO award symbol CEO Award: Annual recognition celebrating the top one individual and top one team of Caregiver Award recipients (all award winners receive an e-certificate, individual winners receive a $10,000 monetary award and a desktop award and team winners receive $10,000 to share equally, a framed certificate and a desktop award to share).
  • Awards sent since inception: 22
  • Awards sent in 2021: 2

In 2021, we added two new award categories to support our philanthropic and wellness efforts:

philanthropy award icon Caregiver Philanthropy Award: Simple, non-monetary recognition that honors individuals and teams who have made a significant philanthropic impact on our organization. Recognitions can acknowledge caregivers for their own personal commitment or their engagement of others encouraging philanthropy.
  • Awards sent in 2021 (introduced in June): 175
wellness award icon Wellness Award: Simple, non-monetary recognition for individuals that demonstrate a commitment to living a healthy lifestyle and inspire others in the behaviors they exhibit through nutrition, physical activity and mindfulness practice. These individuals make wellness a part of their day to day lives and create a wellness culture for their team.
  • Awards sent in 2021 (introduced in December): 42

Legacy Award

100 years legacy award

As part of our centennial observance, Caregiver Celebrations introduced a new Legacy Award in 2021 to honor individuals and teams who have significantly impacted our 100-year legacy. Caregivers can receive acknowledgement for their work at any point during their Cleveland Clinic career. Issuers of the award provide a brief description of the awardee's contribution as related to one of these Legacy-themed categories:

  • A Revolutionary Model of Medicine: Caregivers who continually pursue a commitment to excellence in medical practice and work to provide every patient world-class care.
  • Leadership in Research & Education: Caregivers who dedicate themselves to our mission of researching health and educating those who serve.
  • Innovation in Our DNA: Caregivers who are dedicated to improving public health or caregiver engagement through continuous improvement, and lead the way in developing new operational procedures, medical innovations or technologies.
  • Global Reach & Expansion: Caregivers who leverage our proven model of medicine to positively impact more people in more locations across the globe.
  • Commitment to Our Communities: Caregivers who contribute to revolutionizing community involvement and benefits through health education, research, outreach programs and workforce development, making our neighborhoods better areas to live and work.

Other recognition programs

In addition to our enterprise Caregiver Celebrations program, most institutes, divisions and hospitals provide recognition programs at the local level to reinforce our values. Examples of these include the Nursing Excellence Awards, Sones Innovation Award, ITD Week Awards, Environmental Services Awards, Speak-Up Award, Patient Safety Award, HR Year-End Awards, etc. Our appreciation initiatives are integral to promoting a culture of gratitude and support for our caregiver heroes. Teams regularly post award announcements to our communication channels to recognize their peers and demonstrate gratitude.