Mission statements and guiding principles – opposites or two sides of a value framework?

Lots of companies are currently revising their mission statements. In addition to 'sustainability', the issue of 'appreciating employees' is also being reworked. The shortage of skilled workers is putting pressure on a range of industries. At Sch?n Klinik Group we have also developed a new mission statement. But we quickly realised that it is not easy to reconcile all our interests in a shared, easily understandable and above all brief statement.

And even more importantly: can we also live up to our mission statement through our leadership principles, i.e. how we deal with our employees on a day-to-day basis? We all want commitment, motivation, coaching, collaboration rather than commands; we want 'we' instead of 'me'. But how do we build a bridge to critical conversations or even separation talks, all within an atmosphere of appreciation? How can we make sure that everyone gives their constructive input willingly and proactively, even though there is often no guarantee that the decisions taken will go in this direction? After all, the majority of companies is not led by a purely democratic system, with good reason. And how important or unimportant is money in all this? Often pay rises are not perceived as sufficient, and can even be perceived as lack of appreciation.

I will never forget a workshop where a very experienced HR manager posed a provocative question as to whether we could just scrap the whole 100 part benefits program for our employees and simply pay them more money. Someone would always complain that something was missing or that the programme was not sufficient.

Before revising our own mission statement, of course we took a look around the industry to find out how others had done it. The result was rather mixed. Then we tried it from the ground up: it should be tailored to us, and above all it shouldn't make any promises it won't be able to keep. And it was essential to have a mission statement we can refer to for guidance in all manner of everyday situations. Even in difficult situations. It was important to us that the issue of appreciating employees should not be dealt with in one isolated bullet point. Instead, it should be a common theme running through all the aspects of our mission statement.

The six dimensions of our mission statement and what they mean in terms of appreciating our employees in detail:

Patient well-being

Here, we are not very different from other healthcare providers. For us, too, our top priorities are our patients and excellent medical quality. The quality of our medical outcome results also has a prominent position for us, as we are firmly convinced that for the most part this comes down to the quality of our structures and processes. Providers that offer excellent quality outcome results rarely have poor structures or processes. In the pandemic we have also experienced the importance of adapting our findings and principles to constantly changing conditions. Evidence and constantly reviewing our own results are what set us apart. For employees, this means that they can use their expertise at the highest level and at the same time constantly benefit from their colleagues' expertise to learn more and develop.

Employees

We encourage and expect independence. This means that we are not all waiting around for information, a project update or feedback, but are also proactively approaching our colleagues. We are interested in our employees' professional as well as personal interests. When developing our colleagues, we generally prefer to look for individual solutions rather than one-size-fits-all programmes. A culture that is open to mistakes offers us great learning opportunities for the future. Nobody has to fear the consequences of mistakes if these are dealt with openly and transparently. Escalating to a manager helps finding a solution faster, not to punish someone.

Medicine, quality and profitability

We believe in a direct link between good medical quality and profitability. Why should our industry be different from the entire world of business? Good quality creates more demand, which in turn leads to growth and economic stability. Economic stability, in turn, is the foundation for financing future medical quality. Using our resources responsibly and economically is a contribution that every employee can make on a daily basis. We express our appreciation here by offering our employees a stable and prosperous working environment in which they can develop and grow professionally.

Competition and change

Competition and the constant changes in our environment encourage us to regularly rethink, adapt and change our actions. It's essential here that everyone is always willing to change. In order to use our economies of scale, we share our findings with each other constructively and as equals. Every employee is important here and every employee can contribute their own expertise.

Laws and internal company instructions

No large organisation can function without legal and company-specific guard rails. We are trying to find a healthy middle ground here between necessary rules and excessive bureaucracy, with the aim of continuing to make decisions quickly while fostering creativity. Working within a reliable framework provides our employees with security and orientation. There are clear rules and codes of conduct for everyone; no one gains an advantage at the expense of others.

Social and environmental responsibility

We are very tolerant and do not discriminate against anyone on the basis of ethnic origin, gender, religion, beliefs, age, disability or sexual identity. We contribute to sustainability and environmentally friendly solutions wherever this does not stand in the way of medical quality and care. All employees have the freedom to develop as individuals.

The issue of appreciation, then, is not one that is expressed in a purely monetary sense as a box to be ticked. Instead, our claim is holistic and broadly diversified. Instead of focusing on isolated measures, we focus on mapping the employee, their strengths and their contribution to our company's success in every area of our mission statement.

You can find our mission statement in full here: https://www.schoen-clinic.co.uk/about/mission-statement

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