When it comes to ensuring that employees are valued in a rapidly changing environment, the skill of truly listening to your team members tops the list, according to SSM Health President and CEO Laura Kaiser.
“Listening is more important than ever,” she said. “As leaders, we need to stay as close as possible to the people we are serving and the people who are providing that service.
“The best way to do that is to walk in with really big ears. Listen and ask questions; people will tell you what they think, and they will help you. We need that information to design the best type of work environments going forward.”
Kaiser’s comments came in a health care CEO roundtable interview that appears in the most recent issue of Healthcare Executive. The magazine is a publication of the American College of Healthcare Executives, of which Kaiser is a Fellow.
The article, “Untangling Healthcare’s Workforce Challenges,” brought together Kaiser and three of her CEO peers—Michael Dowling of Northwell Health, Rob Allen of Intermountain Health and Robert C. Garrett of Hackensack Meridian—to gain insights into the state of recruitment and retention.
Easing the burden on workers is key, Kaiser added.
“We are experimenting with new approaches to redesign how we deliver care,” she said. “Over the years, there have certainly been dramatic medical advances and the introduction of electronic health records, but those innovations have largely been additive to caregiver workload rather than streamlining or reducing it. We are currently focused on simplifying workload, eliminating duplicative tasks and assigning tasks that foster ‘top of license.’ The idea is to try new approaches to ‘fail fast’ and continue innovating to help ease caregiver load.”
SSM Health also is providing innovative new benefits to better meet team members’ needs. For example, more than 5,000 employees enrolled in Daily Pay, a system that offers greater financial flexibility by allowing people to get paid for work they completed that day rather than waiting for a regular check. Kaiser also noted that SSM Health is casting a wider net in hiring to address workforce shortages, through employment partnerships that reach out to military veterans, working-age adults with disabilities, and residents of economically stressed zip codes who might otherwise lack opportunities.
“SSM Health is focusing more intensely on expanding our inclusive hiring practices,” she said.
