Throughout her career, Elizabeth Veliz, the first chief human resources officer of Ithaca, N.Y.-based Cayuga Health System, has seen a range of strategies to recruit more women or people of color and retain them. She has also gained insights on successful leave policies for mothers.
Ms. Veliz has served in her current role since August 2023.
Prior to joining Cayuga Health, Ms. Veliz held various roles, including assistant vice president of talent management/organizational development at VCU Health in Richmond, Va., and vice president of human resources at Faneuil, a business services company in Hampton, Va. She also served as vice president of human resources at Virginia Premier Health Plan, which is now part of Hampton Roads, Va.-based Sentara Health.
Ms. Veliz connected with Becker's to discuss how successful strategies have evolved and how they have been implemented. Here are four takeaways:
1. Commit to specific strategies. Ms. Veliz said successful strategies she has seen implemented to recruit women and people of color have centered around intentionality.
"These have to be actual strategies that organizations are committed to. We commit to those strategies by offering environments where working parents can thrive," she said.
"I say 'working parents' because I think that's probably the single hardest thing to do: create an environment where you can have synergies between work and life. I don't believe in the concept of 'work-life balance' because that is a fallacy. It's unrealistic to expect that both sides are going to actually balance."
2. Focus on flexible work arrangements. Ms. Veliz suggested that healthcare organizations should learn from those that have successfully implemented flexible work arrangements.
"Creating an environment where we stop looking at the clock and start focusing on results is going to be very attractive to working parents trying to balance being successful at both home and work," she said.
3. Create "out-of-the-box strategies." Ms. Veliz specifically noted a successful Infant at Work program at Virginia Premier Health Plan. The program allowed new parents to bring their infants to work until they were 8 months old or began crawling, whichever came first.
"It was extraordinary. There was an application process, and you had to name two support people in the organization for when it wasn't appropriate to bring your infant to a meeting. We had amazing pumping rooms, and everyone in the organization bought into it. I remember our [then-]CEO, Linda Hines, was giving a town hall speech, and a baby in the back started crying. Without missing a beat, she walked to the back, picked up the baby, and kept speaking while soothing the baby. It was amazing."
She added that "out-of-the-box strategies" such as this and considering flexible work arrangements for bedside roles can lead to increased retention and engagement.
"Staffing models like rotating shifts, which don't cater to working families, need to evolve," Ms. Veliz said. "When organizations take human needs into account, that's when we see Employer of Choice environments develop, word spread, and people knocking down your door to work for you."
4. Champion the work. When it comes to recruiting more women or people of color and retaining them, or successful leave policies for mothers, she recommended that hospital executives champion the work.
"You cannot delegate the championing of these initiatives," Ms. Veliz said. "It has to be a visible priority — both behind closed doors and publicly — and you have to lead by example. If it's not a priority to you, it won't be to anyone else. You have to lean into the execution of these strategies, measure the results, and ensure they're driving the desired outcomes."
Cayuga Health, which includes a 204-bed acute-care hospital in Ithaca, a smaller hospital in Montour Falls, N.Y., and a physician-hospital organization, as well as other services, is in the process of completing an affiliation with Elmira, N.Y.-based Arnot Health, a three-hospital system.
Cayuga also recently conducted an employee engagement survey and is intentionally working toward creating an Employer of Choice environment to attract and retain working parents, people of color, veterans and others, Ms. Veliz said.
"We're excited about what's to come in the new year, especially after our affiliation with Arnot Health," she said.