Dear RESO team,
I appreciate everyone’s diligence in getting our annual goals cascaded and completing reviews for 2023. As we head towards the end of the first quarter of 2024, I will continue to provide updates on our progress on our goals for this year. If we focus on a few key things, our performance will hit targets and we can keep building on the progress from last year.
As our number one goal, we are prioritizing retention of our greatest asset: our caregivers. This is a system wide focus for Providence and part of creating an environment that truly makes RESO a great place to work and serve our communities. By fostering a supportive and fulfilling work environment, we aim to retain top talent and cultivate a culture of excellence. As part of that work, I’m excited to announce that Loriann Duffy has accepted the role of Executive Director, RESO Operational Excellence. Loriann was selected from a field of 78 candidates from across the country following an extensive interview process with panels of leaders across RESO and Providence. She has a great record of driving excellence and customer service and spectacular reviews from the leadership at Northwestern Healthcare in Chicago. Her first day will be March 11th and you can see the full announcement here.
Connected to our first goal – Retention – is our continued focus on addressing workload and ensuring a sustainable balance for our teams. We’ll continue exploring initiatives to streamline processes, leverage technology, and optimize workflows to enhance productivity without compromising well-being or Mission. There are several teams working together to solve issues that eliminate unnecessary or duplicative work and move our culture towards supporting our teams and easing the burden of our caregivers.
Technology will be a key enabler in our pursuit of operational excellence. We are investing in dedicated resources and innovative solutions that empower our teams, improve efficiency, and drive strategic decision-making so we can proactively plan for the future. Providence Chat is a new tool with limitless potential, and I encourage you to experiment with it to see how you can utilize it to support your role. We will highlight Prov Chat in an upcoming town hall meeting.
While we must continue to focus on being good stewards and achieving our budget targets, we are uniquely positioned to drive savings initiatives and reduce the operating expenses of the Divisions. We had great examples of targeted savings efforts last year and saved about $26M over the 2023 budgets. If you have an idea for savings, please pursue it and make sure to enter your savings into our Savings Tracker. If you need additional resources to support your savings initiative, please escalate it. We are blessed with so many people with great ideas and I don’t want to delay any initiatives because we are lean. We will figure out the right way to support what’s best for Providence.
I also want to add recognition this week for the real estate teams who are on track to hit our 2024 goals related to dispositions and portfolio optimization. As we develop our 5-year real estate plans, our ability to mitigate expenses will grow and we will be able to ensure that we are maximizing the value of our assets and aligning our portfolio with strategic objectives.
Ultimately, our overarching goal for 2024 and beyond is to deliver operational excellence in all aspects of our operations. By prioritizing retention and supporting our teams with workload management and technology, we can achieve our targets for savings, budget performance and portfolio optimization. We are in a great position to strengthen RESO’s position as a leader in our industry and increase our support of Mission in 2024.
Thank you for your dedication and commitment to our shared goals. Together, we’ll build on our progress in 2023 and make 2024 a successful year for Providence.
Mike Denney
RESO, GVP