Below you can see a reading material featuring Evidence-Based HR.

Using the concept of threshold, target, and optimal goals, relates the progress to date your team has made on the term paper project. What are examples of threshold, target and optimal goals for your team? As with the example at Children's Hospital, team members must work together to achieve the goals. What behaviors would help your team meet higher level goals?

EVIDENCE-BASED HR

Children's Hospital in wanted to improve cash flow and shorten the billing cycle (the time to receive payment of a bill). The hospital’s accounts receivable department was taking more than 100 days to receive payment. To do this, the hospital decided to evaluate and reward team performance. Managers determine who will be rewarded and on what basis, and they have to communicate the plan and its benefits to employees. Team members have a set of three goals. In order of difficulty from least to greatest they are threshold, target, and optimal goals. These categories are defined in terms of how long a bill remains in accounts receivable. Teams receive a quarterly payment of $500 for meeting the threshold goal, $1,000 for meeting the target goal, or $1,500 for meeting the optimal goal. The payment is divided by ream members according to the number of scheduled hours they worked. To reach the goals, team members must work together bill by bill, to process the paperwork faster.

To make sure employees understood the plan, the hospital held a series of meetings that presented information about the dollar value of each day a bill spends in accounts receivable and how the hospital is affected by poor cash flow After employees understood ho"' their work affects cash flow and how their efforts could improve it, they began working as a ream. Employees started to rake the initiative to follow up with patients, insurers, and medical records personnel. If any team members were not carrying their weight, pressure persuaded them to contribute more. Employees receive Weekly progress reports they can monitor their performance. The performance system has resulted in positive results. At the end of the first year, employees reduced the average number of days a bill spent in accounts receivable to just under 76. The plan also helped the hospital recruit and retain employees for its accounts payable team.