WDI is hired by an organization for a variety of reasons, often to help solve sensitive and/or difficult problems.  The following services represent particular areas of our consulting experience and expertise.

Executive Succession Planning

Every organization requires superior leadership to excel, let alone survive.  Too often this requirement is not addressed until the actual need arises.  Executive succession planning provides a formal, confidential and structured approach to anticipating where and when leadership needs will occur and then identifying and developing selected individuals to potentially fill those needs when they do occur.  A beneficial by-product of the executive succession planning process is the identification of leadership characteristics most needed and desired.

Executive Performance Management

Most organizations have some sort of executive incentive system.  An executive incentive system however is only as good as the system used to actually measure performance.  This is the "missing or weak link" in most executive incentive plans.  The WDI executive performance management system is a process and methodology that is flexible and totally customizable to the organization.  Once installed, it stands the test of time and enables the CEO and Governing Board to direct the priorities of the organization from year to year without needing to change the system itself.  The WDI executive performance management system is a practical and proven tool to help achieve outstanding year to year performance.

Executive Coaching and Mentoring

Seasoned and battle tested leadership only comes from experience.  Having proven, successful experience confidently at your side when you need it, can be invaluable.  That is what WDI coaching and mentoring service does.  It brings CEOs, COOs, and VPs of Medical Affairs the personal confidential resource of a seasoned, experienced coach and mentor to shorten the learning curve and develop faster.  In challenging times it can significantly help maximize opportunities and minimize problems.  Whether newly appointed or a tenured executive facing changing times, WDI coaching and mentoring is a valuable resource.

Hospital/Physician Relations Audit

Having a positive, solid, trusting relationship between hospital leadership and members of the medical staff is not a luxury today, it is a necessity.  There are a multitude of issues that can fracture the relationship and balance between a hospital and its physicians.  They are often complex and interrelated.  In the highly specialized field of Hospital/Physician relations, an ounce of prevention is truly worth a pound of cure.  The objective of the WDI Hospital/Physician Relations Audit is to positively and proactively identify issues that can fracture that relationship and to identify opportunities to strengthen and build a positive trusting relationship.  The audit includes independent and employed physicians and has four distinct phases.

1. Phase one involves meeting with the hospital executives to identify goals, objectives and desired outcomes.
2. Phase two involves meeting with the medical staff leadership to identify concerns, problems and opportunities.
3. Phase three consists of structured one-on-one and small group meetings with physicians to identify issues and opportunities.  Depending on the need and size of the medical staff, this phase can be supplemented with a customized WDI on-line physician internet survey.
4. Phase four consists of preparing and presenting the results of the audit along with our recommendations.

Preventive Labor Relations

Remaining union free or minimizing labor disruption is not an end into itself, but rather a by-product of a well designed plan grounded in the art and science of identifying and meeting employees' reasonable needs.  Healthcare unionization and/or labor disruption is not inevitable.  It occurs as a result of changes and insecurities present in the industry and of failure to provide a fair and equitable means to resolve issues before they develop into emotional rallying points.  WDI research shows that an effective complaint resolution process is the number one factor predicting overall Registered Nurse satisfaction and trust in senior management is the number one factor predicting union vulnerability.  The following WDI Preventive Labor Relations services are designed to provide strategic advice and empower hospital management to proactively build positive employee relationships.

• Strategic Employee and Labor Relations Advice.  WDI has more real-life on-site hospital employee and labor relations experience than most any other consulting firm.  Where WDI professionals have an enviable 100% success record of maintaining union-free status, the threat of unionization is not near the threat it used to be.  The emphasis today should be on building a positive, dynamic relationship between employees and management.  Staying union-free is merely a beneficial by-product of that effort.  In this specialized area, we work exclusively with clients committed to achieving the highest levels of employee relations and employee morale.  It is a consulting partnership that allows all of the pieces of the puzzle to come together into one beautiful picture that positively and measurably affects the hospital's mission of delivering quality patient care.
• Healthcare Institute of Preventive Labor Relations.  This is an intensive four-day on-site training program to develop and certify selected internal leaders to be internal preventive labor relations specialist.  It is designed to empower hospital leadership with the training, tools and systems necessary to identify and resolve employee relations issues and, if necessary, counter a union organizing effort.  The institute is 85% employee relations psychology and communication strategy and tactics, and 15% legal to include NLRB rules and procedures.  A hospital's labor law counsel is free to attend and/or participate.

Employee Opinion Surveys

In the ever crowded field of employee opinion survey purveyors, few, if any, can match WDI's blend of experience and technology.  WDI principals literally pioneered the art and science of hospital employee opinion survey research.  An expertly designed employee opinion survey should be a precision diagnostic tool, a key component of on-going employee communications and an objective measure of positive changes in employee attitude and morale.  Trust in senior management is the number one predictor of union vulnerability and labor unrest.  The WDI annual employee opinion survey program has proven to positively and consistently improve employee trust in senior management.  Due to the proven value of the WDI employee opinion survey, we invest heavily into state of the art survey technology.  Despite our technologically advanced survey capability, we are first and foremost a consulting firm and we consider our employee opinion surveys to be an important part of our research and consulting practice.  Just as an experienced cardiologist or radiologist expertly interprets medical diagnostic findings, so does a WDI consultant expertly interpret the results of our employee opinion surveys.  To learn more about our employee opinion surveys, go to our home page and select either "Instant-Online Employee Opinion Survey" or "Instant-Online RN Retention Survey".

Corporate Crisis Management

A management crisis occurs when the corporation leadership, mission, credibility and/or integrity is under attack.  Today, these situations usually do not occur by happenstance, but are part of a well thought out and organized attempt to change leadership and/or take control of the corporation.  We call them "corporate campaigns".  They can be initiated by organized labor, organized medicine and/or special interest groups.  These "Corporate Campaigns" originated in private industry and have proven to be an effective adversarial tool for change.  Today, they are newly emerging in the healthcare industry.  Typically, they hide behind legitimate issues and then transform into a sustained multi-media attack on the corporation's leadership and/or governing board.  They involve both covert and overt investigations into the operations of the hospital and governing board to include:  finance, executive compensation, physician contracting, conflict of interest, tax-exemption, medical staff relations, etc.  When not properly diagnosed and effectively countered, they can and have achieved their desired objective.  Corporate campaigns often involve personal and emotional attacks on the integrity of the corporation's leadership, which makes it difficult to self-diagnose what is really happening.  This is where WDI's experience and investigative services play a critical role.  We know of no other firm that has the experience and ability to accurately diagnose and effectively counter a hospital corporate campaign.  To increase awareness, which is critical to early diagnosis, we have developed a confidential on-site executive briefing of this growing threat.

Corporate Compliance and Investigative Services

WDI corporate compliance and investigative services are designed to protect the integrity, credibility and assets of the corporation, governing board and its executives.  Today, governing boards and their executives must make decisions under the scrutiny of complex laws such as Sarbanes Oxley intended to protect the assets of the corporation from conflicts of interest, misuse and fraud.  Under such laws, governing boards and executives may be subject to criminal and civil litigation if in fact their fiduciary responsibilities have not been met.  Under such scenarios, Officer's and Director's liability insurance may not apply or cover the exposure.  Today, whether it involves pre-hire executive background investigations or sophisticated counter corporate intelligence, we cannot afford to risk not knowing everything we need to know to assure we are meeting our fiduciary responsibilities and are not being misled, manipulated or unscrupulously taken advantage of.  WDI's confidential investigative services are tailored to each client's unique circumstances and where necessary, utilize highly specialized expertise.  The following is a general range of WDI corporate investigative services:

• Extensive Background Investigations
• Conflict of Interest Investigations
• Corporate Intelligence Gathering
• Counter Surveillance Measures
• Fraud Investigations
• Counter Corporate Campaign Investigations
• Corporate Compliance Audits and Recommendations
• Corporate and Executive Security Assessments