August 13 , 2004

Summer Fun program recognizes employees

Meg Clapp, director of the MGH Pharmacy, wanted to find a way to show
her appreciation to her staff for the hard work they have been doing. She found that opportunity with the Summer Fun Employee Recognition program, which was developed by the MGH Strategic Planning Committee's Workforce Taskforce.

Through the hospital's strategic planning process, the taskforce allocated funding to help recognize MGH departments, employees and staff for the quality of their work and commitment to the hospital. Since the beginning of July, managers and department heads throughout the hospital have been given the opportunity to recognize individuals or teams within their unit or department by submitting information to the program. The program provides up to $1,000 in start-up money for recognition efforts that managers and department heads may choose to maintain in their own budgets in the future.

"So far, we've had a wonderful response to the program,"says Marianne Ditomassi, RN, executive director for Patient Care Services and co-chair of the Workforce Taskforce. "This is a great opportunity for managers to acknowledge their employees for the incredible work they do every day."

To date, examples of requests include funding for movie tickets, pizza parties, bowling outings, picnics, ice cream socials, Duck Tours and Boston Harbor cruises. Clapp's group had a Hawaiian-themed party (shown above) with fruit smoothies from Coffee Central.

The Summer Fun program's funding must be used during fiscal year 2004 — which ends in September — so proposals still are being accepted until the funds are depleted.

To submit a proposal, managers should send an e-mail to Ditomassi at mditomassi@partners.org with the following information: the person or department nominating; the individual or department being recognized and why they should be acknowledged; how the individual or group should be recognized; and the projected cost up to $1,000. The program excludes bonuses, monetary gifts and gift certificates to external shops and services.