During a panel discussion led by Hanna Patterson, senior vice president of healthcare and applied learning at Guild, a comprehensive education and skilling solution for building talent, as part of Becker's 12th Annual CEO + CFO Roundtable, a clinician and a c-suite leader from Aurora, Colo.-based UCHealth discussed their organization's approach to career growth and commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
The UCHealth representatives were:
- Leigha Bell, certified nursing assistant
- David Mafe, chief diversity officer and vice president of human resources
3 insights from the conversation:
Note: Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
1. Too often, health systems' diversity is primarily concentrated in the front lines of an organization. A commitment to equity can help shift that paradigm.
“Lots of organizations have their diversity pooled at the bottom of their organization. And for UCHealth, that's really not good enough. We want to make sure that the lived experience of all of our staff, that everyone gets the opportunity to have to ideate about having their life improved, and this is really, really important to us, and this investment that we've made, I think, is the best way for us to really articulate that this is important. - David Mafe
2. The partnership with Guild enables UCHealth to grow its internal talent pipeline and address workforce challenges. The program was immediately successful and has helped diversify the types of employees pursuing career growth opportunities.
"I first decided I wanted to go into healthcare was back in 2017 when my grandma was diagnosed with cancer. I applied at UCHealth because I knew they had a great background in diversity and equity. I've been there over three years and have loved every moment. I've always been the type of person who just loves to like learn and get my mind thinking and increase my knowledge. So my manager had told me about UCHealth’s partnership with Guild, and had mentioned about a phlebotomy certification that I could receive, and with the help of my manager, I was able to apply to do the phlebotomy certification, and I was the first phlebotomist on my unit who has also a CNA license. I’m starting nursing school in the fall, and the fact that my financial burden would no longer be there since my tuition was again covered by UCHealth had a really big impact on me. " - Leigha Bell
3. Ms. Bell is continuing her nursing education with the support of a UCHealth-Guild collaboration. The program helps educate and elevate employees already working for the health system.
"This is a way to get better and more qualified candidates into critical roles. These are employees like Leigha who already understand the organization and want to continue to be a part of it." - Hanna Patterson
“One of our DEI goals is to build our workforce in such a way that we can meet our mission of improving lives today and into the future. And that means identifying different workforce pipelines, whether those be external and internal, and Leigha's a really good example of a really motivated individual who just needs some opportunity. This program allows us to be able to do that. It is expensive, but when we think about the cost of bringing people on board the cost of turnover is really a drop in the bucket, and all we did was just divert some of those dollars that we would have spent on talent acquisition towards building our internal teams.” - David Mafe