Category Archives: Talent Management

What the “org chart” can reveal about physician culture 

Posted on by • Posted in Chief Clinical Officer, Chief Physician Executive, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Leadership, Leadership Alignment, Leadership Culture, Leadership Physician Alignment, Leadership Skill Sets, Organization Chart, Physician Alignment, Physician Leadership, Reporting Relationship, Strategic Leadership, Talent Imperative, Talent Management • Leave a comment

https://mailchi.mp/ce4d4e40f714/the-weekly-gist-june-10-2022?e=d1e747d2d8

A consultant colleague recently recounted a call from a health system looking for support in physician alignment. He mused, “It’s never a good sign when I hear that the medical group reports to the system CFO [chief financial officer].” We agree. It’s not that CFOs are necessarily bad managers of physician networks, or aren’t collaborative with doctors—as you’d expect from any group of leaders, there are CFOs who excel at these capabilities, and ones that don’t. 

The reporting relationship reveals less about the individual executive, and more about how the system views its medical group: less as a strategic partner, and more as “an asset to feed the [hospital] mothership.” Or worse, as a high-cost asset that is underperforming, with the CFO brought in as a “fixer”, taking over management of the physician group to “stop the bleed.”

Ideally the medical group would be led by a senior physician leader, often with the title of chief clinical officer or chief physician executive, who has oversight of all of the system’s physician network relationships, and can coordinate work across all these entities, sitting at the highest level of the executive team, reporting to the CEO. Of course, these kinds of physician leaders—with executive presence, management acumen, respected by physician and executive peers—can be difficult to find. 

Having a respected physician leader at the helm is even more important in a time of crisis, whether they lead alone or are paired with the CFO or another executive. Systems should have a plan to build the leadership talent needed to guide doctors through the coming clinical, generational, and strategic shifts in practice. 

Cartoon – Our Most Valuable Asset

Posted on by • Posted in Cartoon, Employee, Employee Appreciation, Leadership, Management, Most Valuable Asset, Recruiting, Retention, Talent Acquisition Strategy, Talent Competition, Talent Identification, Talent Imperative, Talent Management • Leave a comment

Hospitals feel the brain drain

Posted on by • Posted in Brain Drain, Decision Making, Knowledge Deficit, Leadership, Leadership Continuity, Management, Recruiting, Retention, Talent Acquisition Strategy, Talent Competition, Talent Imperative, Talent Management, Team Tenure, Tenure • Leave a comment
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/hospital-management-administration/hospitals-feel-the-brain-drain.html?utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter

Hospitals are feeling an enduring consequence of experienced employees’ early retirements and resignations: collective knowledge loss. 

“Even when missing people can be replaced, missing knowledge cannot,” Ed Yong wrote for The Atlantic May 18. 

Beyond hospitals’ challenges in recruiting and retaining employees are the stubborn and sometimes subtle problems resulting from decreasing median tenure within their organizations. The ripple effects of losing older, seasoned employees to resignations or early retirements can be harder to quantify, but are nonetheless felt by colleagues who stay, newcomers to the organization, and patients and their families.  

Team tenure is a significant determinant to the cost and quality of hospital care. For example, a one-year increase in the average tenure of registered nurses on a hospital unit was associated with a 1.3 percent decrease in length of stay, a 2014 study from researchers at Columbia University School of Nursing and Columbia Business School found. 

“I don’t think the public really understands how great the loss of this generational knowledge is,” Kelley Cabrera, a nurse based in New York, told Mr. Yong. She described the six-week orientation for her current job, led by some people who had been in the ER for less than a year, as “shockingly short.” 

“When inexperienced recruits are trained by inexperienced staff, the knowledge deficit deepens, and not just in terms of medical procedures,” Mr. Yong wrote. “The system has also lost indispensable social savvy — how to question an inappropriate decision, or recognize when you’re out of your depth — that acts as a safeguard against medical mistakes. And with established teams now ruptured by resignations, many healthcare workers no longer know — or trust — the people at their side.”

National data on average tenure in healthcare has not yet caught up to compare with pre-pandemic longevity numbers. The median years of tenure with current employers for healthcare practitioners and technical occupations was 4.7 years in 2020, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, ticking up to five years for workers in hospitals.

The benefits of lengthy tenures are felt at the front lines as well as hospitals’ most senior levels. Marc Boom, MD, CEO of Houston Methodist, told Becker’s this year the cumulative tenure of the health system’s executive team was a game changer throughout the pandemic. At the start of the pandemic, Dr. Boom had been CEO for more than eight years and at the institution for almost 22. The executive team of nine leaders, including him, collectively shared more than 150 years of tenure with Houston Methodist. The team had worked together without any changes for about seven years, when the most recent person joined. 

This longevity lends itself to major systemwide decisions almost feeling instinctive due to their familiarity working together. “I had a team that was very tenured,” Dr. Boom said. “To work with people who you’ve known for a long period of time — you know the ins and outs, the strengths and weaknesses. You have almost an understood language. You can talk in five-word sentences, move on and everyone goes and does their thing. There are a lot of advantages to that.”

Physician residents and fellows unionize at two major California health systems

Posted on by • Posted in Collective Bargaining, Employee Benefits, Employee Compensation, Employee Engagement, Employee Expectations, Employee Overtime, Employee Raise, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Physician Residents, Physician Workforce, Physician's Labor Union, Residency Programs, Resident, Talent Management • Leave a comment

Seeking stronger workplace protections, physician residents and fellows at both Stanford Health Care and the University of Southern California’s (USC) Keck School of Medicine have voted to join the Committee of Interns and Residents, a chapter of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU).

Despite being frontline healthcare workers, most Stanford residents were excluded from the first round of the health system’s COVID vaccine rollout in December 2020. The system ultimately revised its plan to include residents, but the delay damaged Stanford’s relationship with residents, adding momentum to the unionization movement. Meanwhile, Keck’s residents unanimously voted in favor of joining the union, aiming for higher compensation and greater workplace representation.

The Gist: While nurses and other healthcare workers in California, as in many other parts of the country, have been increasingly banding together for higher pay and better working conditions, physician residents and fellows contemplating unionization is a newer trend. 

Physicians-in-training have historically accepted long work hours and low pay as a rite of passage, and have shied away from organizing. But pandemic working conditions, the growing trend of physician employment, and generational shifts in the physician workforce have changed the profession in a multitude of ways. 

Health systems and training programs must actively engage in understanding and supporting the needs of younger doctors, who will soon comprise a majority of the physician workforce.

Businesses face major benefits questions amid Roe uncertainty

Posted on by • Posted in Abortion, Employee Benefits, Health Insurance Benefit Design, Health Insurance Coverage Adequacy, Health Policy, Recruiting, Reproductive Health Benefits, Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court, Talent Competition, Talent Management, Womens Health • Leave a comment
https://www.axios.com/2022/05/13/businesses-face-major-benefits-questions-amid-roe-uncertainty?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosvitals&stream=top

Corporate America is facing a flurry of questions about how it provides health benefits in the wake of a leaked U.S. Supreme Court draft that indicates the federal right to abortion could be overturned.

Why it matters: Businesses hoping to use reproductive health benefits as part of efforts to recruit and retain employees would have to be careful not to run afoul of laws should states be allowed to ban abortions.

  • The balancing act over the next several months could get messy, experts warn.

What they’re saying: “It’s a serious issue for employers,” said Candice Sherman, the CEO of the Northeast Business Group on Health. The group represents roughly 80 large companies such as American Express, Colgate, Moderna and Pfizer.

  • Limits on abortion coverage have the potential to impact the physical and mental health of the workforce and could come as many employers are addressing equity and inclusion for women, people of color and LGBTQ employees, Sherman said.
  • That is often communicated by companies through benefit design.

State of play: Some large companies like Amazon, Apple and Lyft have already announced plans to provide workarounds in those states with abortion restrictions.

  • But many others are still on the sidelines as they tease out employees’ priorities on abortion-related benefits, as well as the potential costs and legal risks.
  • Eleven states restrict insurance coverage of abortion in all private insurance plans written in the state, including those offered through Affordable Care Act markets, according to the Guttmacher Institute. Six other states require abortion coverage in private health insurance plans.

Zoom in: One of the most immediate questions is what kind of employer-sponsored abortion coverage — as well as enhanced benefits like travel stipends — might create legal liabilities for companies in states that ban abortion.

  • “There’s a question as to whether providing transportation benefits could be construed, or at least alleged by the states in enforcement, as aiding and abetting,” said Garrett Hohimer, director of policy and advocacy for the Business Group on Health. That group counts corporations like The Walt Disney Co., Walmart and General Motors among its members.
  • Companies like Citigroup that pay for out-of-state abortions have already been threatened with the loss of business.

Yes, but: In the case of a challenge, companies would have a strong argument that federal protections for providing abortion care benefits preempt state laws, Emily Dickens, the head of government affairs for the Society for Human Resource Management, told Axios.

  • Dickens pointed specifically to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act which specifically says an employer is permitted to provide health insurance coverage for abortion, as well as protections under ERISA law.

But, but, but: It’s not a sure thing. For instance: “ERISA is not a get out of jail free card,” Hohimer warned, saying there is some question about how the law would be interpreted.

  • While experts largely believe the Affordable Care Act would provide protections for birth control coverage, it’s unclear how fertility benefits such as egg freezing, surrogacy or in vitro fertilization might be affected, Sherman said.

What to watch: Many large companies already offer health benefits allowing workers to travel to Centers of Excellence for procedures like joint replacements or cancer care.

  • Those kinds of benefits will likely gain more attention because of the attention surrounding reproductive health, Hohimer said.
  • Sherman said this may also raise questions about whether there’s flexibility in the tax code to expand the scope of Flexible Spending Accounts or Health Savings Accounts to cover travel for any health care issues.

The bottom line: “Assuming this discussion comes down the way we think it may, organizations are going to have to work very hard,” Sherman said.

Companies should brace for a culture of quitting

Posted on by • Posted in Employee Benefits, Employee Compensation, Employee Expectations, Employee Flexibility, Employee Satisfaction, Employee Staffing Shortage, Health System, Hospital, Hospital Industry, Recruiting, Talent Acquisition Strategy, Talent Competition, Talent Imperative, Talent Management, Turnover, Turnover Rates • Leave a comment
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/workforce/companies-should-brace-for-a-culture-of-quitting.html?utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter

Organizations should prepare themselves for a continuation of quits as a new culture of quitting becomes the norm as the annual quit rate stands to jump up nearly 20 percent from annual pre pandemic levels, according to Gartner. 

The pre pandemic average for quits stood at 31.9 million, but that figure could rise to 37.4 million this year, said executive consultancy Gartner in an April 28 news release. 

“An individual organization with a turnover rate of 20 percent before the pandemic could face a turnover rate as high as 24 percent in 2022 and the years to come,” Piers Hudson, senior director in the Gartner HR practice said in the news release. “For example, a workforce of 25,000 employees would need to prepare for an additional 1,000 voluntary departures.”

The reason for the likely increase in quits is new flexibility in work arrangements and employees’ higher expectations, according to Gartner. A misalignment between leaders and workers is also contributing to the attrition. 

“Organizations must look forward, not backward, and design a post-pandemic employee experience that meets employees’ changing expectations and leverages the advantages of hybrid work,” said Mr. Hudson.

More Americans are quitting — and job openings hit record high

Posted on by • Posted in Employee Staffing Shortage, Job, Job Market, Job Search, Job Security, Labor Cost Structure, Labor Shortages, Labor Spend Management, Recruiting, Sign of the Times, Talent, Talent Acquisition Strategy, Talent Management • Leave a comment
https://www.beckershospitalreview.com/workforce/more-americans-are-quitting-and-job-openings-hit-record-high.html?utm_medium=email&utm_content=newsletter

Across industries, 4.54 million Americans quit or changed jobs in March, the highest level since December 2000, according to seasonally adjusted data released May 3 by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The count is up from 4.38 million in February. In the healthcare and social assistance sector, 542,000 Americans left their jobs in March, compared to 561,000 the previous month, according to the bureau.

The number of job openings in the U.S. also hit a record high of 11.55 million in March, up from 11.34 million in February, according to the bureau. Job openings in the healthcare and social assistance sector remained similar in February and March, at around 2 million.

During the pandemic, hospital CEOs are among those who have joined the list of workers quitting. Additionally, older, tenured employees in America are part of the trend.

Although there continues to be churn in the labor market, Fitch Ratings projects the U.S. labor market will recover jobs lost during the pandemic by the end of August.