Health care leader engagement is declining nationally—and much more quickly than frontline engagement.

But if organizations are going to succeed in today's market, they need leaders who are energized and excited by their work.

This study offers strategies to solve the top five challenges of manager and director engagement.

Download the study

The leader engagement decline

Leader engagement often looks strong when compared to frontline staff engagement, but a close look at year-over-year trends tells a different story.

Leader engagement is in fact declining much more rapidly than frontline engagement. Between 2012 and 2014, leader engagement dropped four percentage points—10 times more than frontline engagement.

Change in engagement level, 2012-2014

How to improve—even in a challenging market

One challenge when it comes to reversing the decline is that market forces can have a significant effect on leader engagement—and those market forces are beyond the control of any engagement strategy.

Five key market forces are in the mix: constant connectivity and 24/7 communication, acute margin pressure, the increasing pace of change, uncertainty about the future, and the rise in mergers and acquisitions. And none of these challenges are likely to abate anytime soon.

The good news: It is possible to engage leaders despite these market challenges. The analysis we used to inform the framework included in this study comes from more than 21,000 responses in the Advisory Board Survey Solutions national employee engagement database, supplemented by more than 100 interviews with health care leaders and engagement experts.

Best practices for your leader engagement strategy

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Promote executive ownership of engagement

• Help executives identify opportunities to interact with staff (p. 29)
    Supporting resource: Structured Rounding Template
• Determine which engagement initiatives executives should own (p. 37)
• Include an engagement goal in executive incentive plans (p. 39)

Tell leaders first—and help them tell staff

• Stagger communication so managers receive news before frontline employees (p. 45)
• Help managers understand the larger context for organizational financial decisions (p. 49)
    Supporting resource: A 'Doomsday' Exercise
• Solicit feedback on key decisions from alumni of leader advisory councils (p. 53)

Recognize leaders individually and through their teams

• Have executives hold proactive "stay interviews" with high-performing leaders (p. 59)
• Establish performance criteria for earning awards and recognition (p. 61)
    Supporting resource: Department of Distinction Nomination Form

Set guardrails around work-life balance

• Create an after-hours "email blackout" policy (p.68)
    Supporting resource: Reminder Card with Email Tips
• Champion a regular "meeting-free" time (p. 71)
• Encourage leaders to take time off when they need it (p.74)

Decouple development from promotion

• Formalize individual development conversations (p. 81)
    Supporting resource: Leader IDP Template
    Supporting resource: Picklist of Resources for Leader Development
• Give leaders experience in a care setting that's not their primary work area (p. 84)
• Create a peer-led book club to discuss books on leadership (p. 87)
    Supporting resource: Peer-Led Book Club Facilitation Guide