During a panel session at Becker's 14th Annual Meeting, Molly Friedland, group vice president at InStride, led a discussion with chief talent and people executives from top health systems that focused on the importance of developing talent within healthcare organizations.
Panelists included:
- Heather Brace, chief people officer, Intermountain Health (Salt Lake City)
- Trevor Walker, senior vice president of talent, learning and capabilities, CommonSpirit Health (Chicago)
- Shaun Smith, group senior vice president, chief people and culture officer, NewYork-Presbyterian
The leaders shared the myriad challenges and opportunities their organizations face in building talent pipelines — and how this aim, if successful, can influence both business and social change in communities. Panelists emphasized the need for strategic workforce education, flexible work schedules and the imperative to invest in employees. Additionally, they highlighted the role of leadership in fostering talent development and where they see ripe opportunities for rethinking traditional education and hiring practices. Diversity, equity and inclusion in talent development strategies and the impact of organizations reflecting the communities they serve were throughlines in the discussion as well.
Editor's note: Quotes have been edited for length and clarity.
Key takeaways:
- "Legacy thinking" and conventional hiring practices are key barriers to developing talent pipelines.
Heather Brace: "We have to bring together our leaders and make sure we're rethinking how work is done, how we hire people and the places that we go to look for people. And that actually comes with a different kind of leadership thinking. In addition to all the work we're doing with pipeline building, we're combining that with leadership development because it takes an entirely different kind of leader to lead today." - Evaluating social factors — such as economic mobility — when building workforce development programs will benefit both healthcare organizations and the communities they serve.
Trevor Walker: "We know if we help communities in need to develop and sustain family-sustainable wages, it will raise their health in those communities. Part of what we want to do with our workforce development plan is to create pathways wherein those individuals can enter into the organization in our entry-level positions; start to develop those family-sustaining wages; and start to bring up the communities that they're in while also looking at how to advance within our organization … We've got to create that visibility for those community members that in many cases don't see a possible future for themselves." - Meaningfully supporting career pathways requires consistency and organizations' commitment to a long-term approach.
Shaun Smith: "Across our system, we've used a number of forums, Career Wednesdays and other events to really allow people an opportunity to ask the question: 'How do I get from here to there?' But this journey is about aspiration. They may not get there tomorrow; school might take six years; but they can move from environmental service work to a radiology x-ray tech role because we've invested in them … Really, truly what I'd like us to be is the organization that people know if they come and work here, they're going to thrive. The system is going to support them."