As Gen Z employees become a larger part of the healthcare workforce, the different ways they prefer to experience work, compared to their older colleagues, present novel challenges for health systems.
During a September Becker's Hospital Review podcast sponsored by NRC Health, Jennifer Baron, chief experience officer at NRC Health, discussed how generational experience gaps manifest and impact patient care, as well as what strategies health systems could consider to address these issues.
Three key insights were:
1. Communication styles, career development pathways and work setting preferences are major areas of generational differences. Compared to boomers, many of whom are retiring, younger generations — especially Gen Z — want more frequent, bi-directional communication and engagement with their organizations and individual leaders.
Newer employees also have different expectations for their career development and for the extent to which they are required to work on-site versus remotely or in a hybrid environment.
2. To address these concerns, health systems are rethinking how they listen to their workforce. Historically, the way most organizations have listened to employees has been via annual surveys, often delivered via email. Now, faced with younger employees' preference for more involved communication and engagement, many are adapting their approach.
"Organizations are starting to think more about the listening ecosystem," Ms. Baron said, noting some of the questions on top of healthcare leaders' minds: How do we listen daily? How do we listen monthly? How do we listen quarterly? And how do we listen annually?
Beyond increasing the frequency with which they solicit employee feedback, hospitals and health systems are also re-evaluating the tools they use to capture that feedback. They are incorporating more handheld mobile devices so that employees can tap out answers or other feedback on the go, mainstreaming the use of QR codes and using a variety of listening apps, including apps for crowdsourcing ideas on how to improve the organization.
"It's really important to diversify your listening strategy and make more of it mobile for your younger generations," Ms. Baron emphasized.
3. The key to matching employees' changing expectations is improving human understanding. For leaders, this means making sure they touch base with their teams on a regular basis, such as during patient rounding. Further, one-on-one conversations should not be limited to performance evaluations, but should aim to understand employees' desires for the extent to which they wish to be involved in the evolution of the organization.
"Younger generations want to be more involved in the conversation. They're better at asking questions and less willing to accept something just because it's always been done a certain way," Ms. Baron said. "That is the most important point that we have to understand as healthcare leaders: we have to create space for their voices and their ideas."
Otherwise, Ms. Baron cautioned, "Younger employees are less likely to stick around if they are not feeling seen and heard and are not a vibrant part of the community where they work."