Latest / Beyond the Paycheck / Maurice M. Lewin, EdD, Chief Human Resources Officer at Providence Swedish
Transcript
- Kelsey Willock (00:42) Welcome Maurice Lewin, Chief Human Resources Officer at Providence, Swedish. We are so beyond excited to have you today. To kick us off, I would love for you to introduce yourself to our audience. A little bit about your career and background, where you're calling in from, and your current role today. Maurice Lewin (01:00) Sure, thank you, Kelsey. It's really good to be here. I've been practicing human resource, in fact, my first job at age 18. On my 18th birthday, I've been in human resources. I studied it first year out of ⁓ college and have been practicing in that area since. Actually practice both in Jamaica, the Caribbean and here in the US. ⁓ Currently now just serving as the North Puget Zone Chief Human Resource Officer for Within Providence, Swedish System and Providence Services as an overall ⁓ organization. So I'm really happy to be here. Thanks for having me. Right now I'm in Edmonds, one of the areas I work, Edmonds, Millicreek and Everett. Though I live in the Bondi Lake area, so I'm now in the Edmonds office today talking with you. So really happy to be here. Kelsey Willock (01:53) Wonderful. And thanks so much for joining. Before we get into all the amazing work that you do at Providence Swedish, I'd love to learn a little bit more about your personal story and particularly your money story. So can you tell me a little bit about your earliest money memory? Maurice Lewin (02:14) You know, I am from a Christian background by and large, and I always laugh at it because I grew up with my grandmother and she taught me to read from the Bible and she taught me to count through money. And so I always say one good and then the root of all evil and spiraled my career into education and all the way to my doctorate. So. That's my early day with money. I grew up in this community in Jamaica and I'd always go to the shop and they would always try to give me incorrect change just to see if I'm going to know that the change is incorrect. And I would always just correct them and they would use it for fun every time, know, just to test me on that. So I've always been, it's part of my journey when I think about. dollar, cash, the value of that as well. And I wasn't from what I would say a well-off background. I was really from a challenged background. so for me, acquisition of funds, earning meant ⁓ schooling, investing to grow yourself. ⁓ So a dollar meant a whole lot. And how you spend that dollar meant a whole lot. to me as well. And so that's really where I've started in that space. Kelsey Willock (03:37) How did it shape how you see security, freedom, or even responsibility? Maurice Lewin (03:44) Well, that's a great call. I grew up with my stepfather, my mom, and again, as I said, challenging background financially. But my stepfather taught me never to get your electricity, your utilities cut off. You pay your bills first, and then you deal with the rest of the funds. And so as I grew up as a child going into high school and so on, I would get my Kelsey Willock (04:04) Mm. Maurice Lewin (04:13) weekly or monthly stipend. They'll try to give me something and I would save from that. And when I went into high school every year, I would either purchase one of my books from my savings or I'd contribute something towards paying off my school fee. And I developed from there going into work and it's the same concept. I've funded my entire Kelsey Willock (04:19) Mm. Maurice Lewin (04:39) ⁓ education, some maybe five degrees in total that I have by savings and investing in myself and growing and investing in my family as a result of that. because of that humble background, seeing what my parents did and then taking responsibility from there, then for me, monument your way out, your way into the future that you want. I had to look at life differently. When I saw my friends buying the latest gadgets and sneakers, I had to hold back with the hopes that one day it will all make sense. I can actually walk into a shop and actually purchase something without having to hesitate how much this cost me and I'm going to be set back. I could wear what I want to wear. And that's the joy. But I remember one thing my mom said to me, and I'll end on that, is... said, Maurice, you're not going to buy a car and live in our house. Yes. Um, and I was like, that's serious. Right. So you're working on the easiest thing you could get is a car. Right. She's like, no, no, no, you're not going to own a car and live in our house. You're going to make plans for your future. Uh, and then you can go and buy a car. And I moved out of my mother house into a house, um, at about age 26, um, before I purchased my car. Start with the discipline. Kelsey Willock (06:08) It's incredible discipline and maturity at such a young age, but it sounds like it's such a gift that your family was so supportive of these sound behavior patterns. I want to know a little bit now more about your first job and what you did with your first paycheck. Maurice Lewin (06:26) First job, always prayed to start working on my 18th birthday. Just so happened that my 18th birthday fell on a Monday. Got my first job the same day, starting the same day. So that was fun. And I got the job working as a clerical officer with the Ministry of Health ⁓ back in Jamaica. And when I got my first paycheck after three weeks, so I got my two weeks paycheck, Kelsey Willock (06:35) I'm you Maurice Lewin (06:55) I took 50 % of my paycheck and I went to my grandmother and I gave it to her. I grew up with her, as I said, leading up into going into high school. I consider her creating the foundation. So I gave her 50 % of my paycheck as my first paycheck as a thank you. She actually looked at me and she said, you're the first of my children or grandchildren that's ever done that. But I just saw that as a way of honoring her for the investment that she made in my life. And then for the remainder of it, I actually put down 10 % for my tithes in church. And I opened a savings account and I put down some of it in that savings account. And then the rest I put towards funding my schooling and also. ⁓ Decided I met with my mother and I said I am going to start paying a bill in the house. So select one of the bills. I want to start paying a bill and contribute to the household. So that was my first paycheck. Kelsey Willock (08:03) The thoughtfulness around how you spent that first paycheck, and I have had many of these conversations, is one that I feel very moved hearing about. Especially at the age of 18, to be so generous is just absolutely wonderful. So thank you for sharing that. Can you tell me about how you think your money story has influenced how you think about pay and benefits for employees? Maurice Lewin (08:26) I think my background, my parents' experience, my very own lived experience helped me to understand especially the concept of one set of benefits don't work for all. I ⁓ call it the stocking effect. It's not one size fits all and then queen. You know, I think as persons in this space, you you have to think about where people are at and what's the profile of the people you're looking for. But I want to step back a little bit and I want to say to you that, you know, one of the biggest challenge is as people are looking for jobs, you have to think about not only the paycheck, you have to think about the benefits and where you are at. So for me, I wanted to go back to school. So was critical for me that when I looked at an organization, yes, I'm going to get paid, but do they have any benefits that supported me growing a career, building a career? What were their thoughts around promoting people from within? That was critical to me because if I was going to invest in them, I needed to know that there was a way that I could actually self-actualize at the same time. And so that shaped how I looked at who I'm going to work for. And then it also shaped when I went into HR, how should I think about benefits and pay? And exactly when I'm designing a job, who's the right candidate for that job? Because there are those candidates who want just a paycheck, because they want a lifestyle. And then there are those who want a career, and so they're concerned about benefits as well. And then there's those that contemplate the circumstance that they're in in life. And so a particular paycheck or benefits is a means to an end. And I need to understand that and do I have that? And so are you the right fit for my job at the time? Kelsey Willock (10:21) Where do you think that compensation and benefits break down most often today? Whether it is pay equity, transparency, understanding your benefits and total rewards. What's coming up most for you? Maurice Lewin (10:34) I'll say to you, think that all of those that you're hit on are critical, but the primary one is pay transparency. ⁓ I remember my first job, anybody asked me how much I get paid, unless you were extremely close to me, you would not know how much I get paid. Now it's the easiest conversation. So even with laws selling employers that you should advertise it, but what the person eventually gets normally would have been close to their heart, right? Kelsey Willock (10:40) Mmm. Maurice Lewin (11:03) No, it's a common conversation and it is allowed, you know, and that's fine. So because of those conversations, then pay transparency becomes even very, very critical. People want to know that how much they are being paid relative to the next person. And then that brings into the question of the pay equity. I will tell you from the benefit side, a lot of employees, unless they are mature employees, have experience and circumstances in life, they enter in the workforce, they don't think about benefits as much. And that I think is an opportunity for our schools, that I think is an opportunity for families to engage them when they're going in to think about those kind of things. it makes you break. You can fall in love with a company that don't have the benefits to support your future growth in life. But you're in love with that company and so you're gonna end up getting miserable when it's benefits that's more important than the paycheck. But I think that the knowledge of benefits is critical. I mean, for organizations, benefits cost anywhere between 15 and 30 % of the person's actual pay. But do the employees even know that that's part of their value to the organization? I don't think that is, and I think that's an opportunity that we can lean in on to help persons that they're selecting from job to job. Kelsey Willock (12:26) I loved how you mentioned before that benefits really aren't one size fits all and that's true for the length of time that you've even been in the workforce. What I'm hearing from you is... Maurice Lewin (12:34) Thanks. Thanks. Kelsey Willock (12:37) There's room to improve in how we educate those that are specifically new to the workforce that may not understand the value of those benefits, particularly when we understand time and utilizing benefits is only ever on your side, particularly when it's financially related, whether it's saving for your future, saving for your future education, home, et cetera. So I really love how you're thinking about that. Can you? Can you share a change that we've seen that has moved from attracting talent within a workforce to really transforming people's lives? Maurice Lewin (13:17) There are a lot of them that I've seen. mean, right now in our organization, we're pushing the idea of moving persons to six-figure salary, which means it doesn't matter what job you come in at, ⁓ you have the potential to grow into a job if that's your ambition into six-figure. pushed a lot of benefits around identifying the jobs, showing what the gaps in the competencies are from job to job, and then allowing persons to be able to go back to school. Some of those jobs, actually provide the classes in-house and the apprenticeship programs to allow persons to grow into those jobs to be able to earn higher incomes. So that's one of the ways I've seen a shift from, well, I would even say it's a shift going back to what was the original way of developing workforces where companies used to do it in house. The other one is really just recognizing when you are not able to do it, but providing the benefits to allow for that. You've also seen where top opportunity, student loan, debt forgiveness, a challenge. know, one of the things that we have seen is employees have a challenge of paying their student loan and then participating in things like the 401k program. Yeah. And so one of the things we're now doing is like, okay, pay your student loan, register with us so you know that you're paying your student loan. And whatever the matching in the 401k would have been, had you been paying in it, we're going to give you that. ⁓ Still, so it's allowing them to be able to save for their future, even though they're invested in their future. And because of that investment, they can't also contribute to their saving. We're now saying, if you are doing what being good stewards of your resources and being responsible with the loan that you got. Kelsey Willock (15:00) Wow. Maurice Lewin (15:21) we are willing to allow you to continue to earn that matching as though you were contributing so you're still getting a benefit. Kelsey Willock (15:28) And was there a measurable impact? You can talk about every example or particularly this one, but whether it is student loan reimbursement or workforce mobility, what was that impact? Maurice Lewin (15:34) Mm. Well, for us, we've been focusing a lot on retention. mean, the health care sector, you know, have had a lot of hits coming out of COVID and the great resignation. During that time, we had high double digits turnover rates, 18%. I mean, in my exact ministries, we had 24 % for one ministry. We had 31 for another, now we are now seeing 17%, 16%. One of my locations have 11.4%. So we're seeing retention as a result of that. The other thing that it allows us to be able to do is make sure that your future, like 401k becomes an auto registration and not a voluntary thing. Because as I said, if you're contributing, you can always reduce what you get, but we are making it easy for you to be able. to get something from the organization as a result of that. So we're seeing that. We're seeing a lot of our employees, we call them caregivers here, growing their careers. It's interesting, had a conversation with the other day and I was saying, were comparing how many CNAs we had that moved to RNs. And we had like 10 in five years. And I was able to say to them, well, guess what? This year alone, I had like 12 in one location. We're using the benefit, developing their careers, and transitioning into higher opportunities. ⁓ So that's what you get when you begin to diversify. ⁓ You allow a not only to earn a living, but you allow them to, one, build a career, and also, ⁓ able to gauge a lifestyle. And I think that's critical. Kelsey Willock (17:35) compensation and benefits trends do you think are going to shape the employee experience most in the next year? Maurice Lewin (17:44) Well, I think a lot of what we're doing now is still going to be ⁓ critical. The pay transparency is going Maurice Lewin (17:54) The issue of flexible work is going to be, I mean, it's still knocking on our doors. think part of the reason why a lot of employers are seeing a resistance in going back into the office is because working from home created a flexibility for persons. And how do we design going back into the office that gives them that flexibility is going to be something that we're going to have to. Kelsey Willock (17:58) Mm-hmm. Maurice Lewin (18:22) manage in a different way. Right? People want that. We're also seeing the generation that is in demand in work-life balance. know, the emerging generation is they don't necessarily want to stay in office for 40 hours per week when they can actually complete the task in 30 hours. They want to be able to complete, know what the task is, complete the task within the timeline. and you pay them for the task rather than paying them to just be in office for 40 hours. How we look at that change and the importance of what then are we paying? Are we paying for time or are we paying for the accomplishment of the organization priorities? And that is the one I think is gonna be the hardest one for most organizations. I think some organizations are able to do that well. But I think when we stop looking at at a task and we stop looking at time over task or activity or completion of goals. It's going to make better for those workers who are able to deliver at a higher level to have the kind of work-life balance that they want and give the organization the opportunity to grow. And then those who naturally want the space of the time to do what they need to do and to make connections, they will also benefit from that. So I see a few moving parts. The pay equity still going to be very high. The pay transparency is going to be very high. You're not going to get away from pay equity, especially the more you introduce pay transparency. The flexible work is going to be needed and organizations are going to have to begin to think about how do we go back to providing benefits where if I don't want it from you, can I still get a dollar value towards that? Kelsey Willock (20:12) Mm-hmm. Maurice Lewin (20:14) And I think we operate in a space where the masses contribution to the benefits as health organizations to provide benefits. And so it's a challenge for them to be able to say, you could get a dollar value. But I think to the extent that we can, we're going to see a lot of that being asked for. There's some work that can be done in that space, a lot of work. Kelsey Willock (20:38) One of the things that comes up for me, and I've actually recently interviewed another leader like yourself that had shared, they're very focused on measuring output over input. And so it's kind of exactly what you were sharing. Can we look at what people deliver rather than just the hours they show up to deliver them in? ⁓ However, I think there's also a lot of research that shows collaboration in-person participation can boost that output. So I'd love to hear from you a year from now how you actually found that experiment to go. So I'm really curious, are there any specific tools or data sets that you're using to measure and particularly improve pay equity and transparency? Are you building it in-house? Maurice Lewin (21:01) Yeah. you We build our tools in-house for that. first of all, I think we participate in a lot of the surveys. think we go throughout. We operate in several states. Mine is within Washington. But we survey all the different. We participate in maybe 15 or more surveys, compensation. Kelsey Willock (21:33) Good. Maurice Lewin (21:46) So we're always in the market looking at what the jobs are paying. I mean, for us, we consider that we do not minimum wage, but live-able wage as our approach to compensation, part of our philosophy. And so with that, there are multiple things that we would do, but that's the one. And then we have an internal tool that helps us to do that. We also have our field HR team. So outside of just the... broader base, we constantly monitor at the local levels in our ministries, hospitals, to make sure that no one is falling out of that equity alignment, especially for those that are non-unionized. And if they are, then we realign those throughout the year. For our union folks, it's a lot easier because we have our salary scales and prescribe how persons enter the organization and are paid. So, That becomes a lot more manageable, but outside of that, we're always making sure that we're creating the balance from an equity perspective using different tools designed inside the organization. Kelsey Willock (22:53) Wonderful. So I want to bring us kind of full circle and very started talking about your money story. I'm super curious, what's one 30 day experiment you think listeners could try to boost their own financial well-being or engagement? Maurice Lewin (22:57) Thank You know, that's a great one. first of all, it depends on where you are financially. think one of the first things persons need to do and acknowledge is life happens. And so, You can't just set a plan in place and that plan will work for the rest of your life. Life will happen. And so sometimes you plan to save 10, 15 percent and you can't save anything for three months, four months. Life happens. Some of the things that I'll say is evaluate where you are spending in areas that you don't have to. Let's first determine that. ⁓ And then I always say don't just cut it all away. you owe yourself an opportunity to celebrate and to treat yourself. But instead of treating myself every week or every month, sometimes I just do it once a quarter or decide that I'll do it in six months. And so I then save that money, put that money in different investments. There are different investments out there. There's Van Daar, there is Fidelity. You take your pick. And I just say, OK, well, I'm going to... don't have an account in one bank. Some people like that as a good idea. I came upon the culture, don't put all your eggs in one basket. And so I have a bank that is my primary bank. And so while my funds go there, I have one or two satellite ⁓ banks or credit union that I will push out a hundred dollars, I'll push out a 50 dollars into those accounts. That way I'm always saving and it's not the easiest for me to touch those monies. That's part of my discipline. If it's in my regular bank, I'm going to see it when I open it off and look and have an opportunity to spend. ⁓ That's another thing. Sometimes you put your money in a space where it's either difficult to get it out, takes a couple of days. That will encourage you to save. The other thing is I think everyone should try to maximize their 401k. contribution from their employer. So if your employer is giving you 4%, 6%, whatever they're giving you, make sure you're contributing to maximize that. Because automatically, it means that you're now saving twice the amount that you had planned to save. If you're a mature worker, consider an IRA as a good place to invest some of your funds. So you're saving for your rainy day, but confident on IRA. And the reason I always think an IRA is good is that it locks you into going to a particular age. So it's a more difficult task to get your money out without penalties. And that way you will save. And I'll even say to the worker that's entering the workforce as well, if you can start an IRA from now and you're putting $10 in it, it doesn't have to be a lot. you are going to be surprised as to this place you're going to be in by the time you hit 10, 12 years into your employment. so start by saying, what can I genuinely do to increase my savings? And then start, if it's even with $10, $25. And the other thing that I'll say, Kelsey, that in a practical way that I do is gift giving. and we're coming up to the season for gift giving. Be real with your family and friends. If you want a blender or you want a, just think of a gadget that you'd want. Say that's what I want, right? Tell them, know, if you're thinking about giving me anything, here are some things that I would like. And, ⁓ they may contribute towards that or they might be able to give you that. And you do that to your friends too. So you give meaningful gifts. What it does is that it saves me from having to buy that item for myself. So that's some funds I can set aside for savings. And I still get the item that I want. We think of, just give me what you want to give me. And then they give you something and you don't like it. And so some persons re-gift it or leave it alone and it becomes a waste. Be open to those you can about what are the things that you would like and ⁓ then convert the funds that you've gotten from them or the gift that you've gotten, convert that funds into a savings opportunity via stocks, some stocks or whatever you can do to get that and start growing your future financially in that way. Kelsey Willock (27:43) I think that's phenomenal and very actionable ideas that our listeners can take away and could not agree more. It's all about how you really automate the things that are going to help your future self. So Maurice, thank you so much for the conversation. I learned so much from you. I loved how you shared about challenging and combating turnover through boosting mobility, student loan repayment particularly, what an incredible way to support the next generation of the workforce. I also loved how you shared how employees should really assess their employers and future employers on how they can support their future life goals. And lastly, I loved how you're thinking about the next generation as well as the future and how we still provide flexibility in this post-COVID era. So I'd love for you to share before we sign off how our listeners can get in touch with you. Maurice Lewin (28:35) ⁓ Kelsey, I'm on LinkedIn. So, you need this place to find me, Maurice Lohan on LinkedIn. ⁓ that's one shortest way to get to me and the quickest way to get to me. I looked through my LinkedIn. I respond to whoever send me messages and evaluate and join and accept. That's one way to get to. And it's, coming to the end of a year for benefits, Kelsey. And we're starting the new benefits period. I'll say it's a wonderful time for persons to think about how they maximize using their benefits now. So if you have something that costs you, let's say $5,000, you want to do braces, for example, and your dental plan covers 50%. And I say, do start it now so you get the benefit from this year and this pays 50%. And then next year when your plan reopens, then you are able to access the next 50 % to complete the payment without having to do it out of pocket. These are some of the ways in which you can save money by maximizing on things that are available to you, that some persons will just start it in January and then six months, that benefit is finished. They have to pay it out of pocket. when instead they could have actually started on this cycle and ended in the next cycle using the same benefits to close the loop for them and they have some savings in their accounts. Kelsey Willock (30:10) Thank you so much for that last really negative wisdom. We're so beyond appreciative to have you Maurice and look forward to our listeners tuning in. Have a great rest of your day. Maurice Lewin (30:21) Thank you, Kelsey. Pleasure. Thank you for having me.