This week is my second at UHN and I'm continuing to Ask, Learn and Listen (ALL – UHN). I am sending this along as a short summary of everything that I am learning about what a fantastic organization this is!
On Monday, like every new employee, I took part in a full day of orientation and was delighted to meet about 75 other people starting their careers at UHN. If you were in my session, it would be interesting to hear about your experiences as you become familiar with this place, its people and what we do for patients. You can do this by sending me an e-mail at
peter.pisters@uhn.ca and let me know that you were part of orientation on January 12, 2015. Of course, anyone at UHN can get in touch this way if you have comments, questions or something you'd like me to know about this organization and your role.
In a sense, orientation is like coming through the 'front door' of the employee process. It was a starting point with helpful tips about where to find information, what resources are available to employees and what I can expect in the coming months. I would stress that for me, as for everyone who participated in that session, it is such an exciting beginning as we join an outstanding organization.
As most of you know, I started getting familiar with UHN from Texas. It was particularly valuable to be able to look at the UHN News on the internet --
http://www.uhn.ca/corporate/News/. Now that I'm here I have access to the internal stories on the intranet which is at
http://intranet.uhn.ca/applications/inews/default.aspx . I could also check out UHN's Facebook page, Twitter account or YouTube account and many UHN social media sites – some of which are gathered at
http://www.uhn.ca/corporate/News/Pages/connect_uhn.aspx. It's clear that UHN and UHN employees are actively engaged in social media and this list is probably just scratching the surface. It is also clear that there is no shortage of wonderful stories about the people who work here and the extraordinary things that you do each and every day. This week I see that UHN's perfusion team has been awarded Perfusion Team of the Year by their colleagues, I read about the extraordinary career of Dr. Stephanie Brister, and I know that Human Resources is helping people who want to build their careers through the new tool – StrengthsFinder UHN. You will find a wealth of information that is well worth checking out when you have time during the day.
I'm also spending time meeting people who don't work at UHN but with whom we have critical relationships. It won't surprise anyone to know that one of those first calls was on Bob Bell, the Deputy Minister (DM) of Health and Long Term Care for the Province of Ontario and some of his Ministry colleagues. I have also been connecting with hospital leaders around the GTA and with leaders from the University of Toronto – our primary academic partner.
I will continue my visits to different corners of the organization as I make the commitment to connect with as many of you as I can, to help me to learn all about UHN.
Thank you for your ongoing warm welcome!
Peter
