Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Julie Kline, Chief Human Resources Officer at Erie County Medical Center Corporation

Transcript

Julie Kline, Chief Human Resources Officer at Erie County Medical Center Corporation · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

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  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Kelly
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  Gooch, senior editor and enterprise lead at Becker's,
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  and I'm thrilled to interview Julie Cline, chief
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  human resources officer at Erie County Medical Center,
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  on the podcast today. Julie, thank you so
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  much for joining me. I'm excited for our
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  conversation because of your work really sits at
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  that intersection of workforce strategy and patient care,
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  a space that's really never been more critical
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  in today's health care environment.
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  But before we dive in, I'd love to
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  have you introduce yourself and tell us a
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  little bit about your background.
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  Great. Thank you, Kelly.
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  Well, my background is work in working for
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  health care institutions
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  across The United States in which massive workforce
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  development expansion needs to take place given
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  all of the exits that occurred with the
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  workforce
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  with COVID,
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  but then also the high number of people
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  leaving the workforce due to,
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  retirements.
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  And, you know, just referencing back the Becker's
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  article where one in four health care workers
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  are are leaving the field,
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  I really think that we need to start
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  planning for that. So
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  much of my work is in highly concentrated
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  and competitive
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  cities where
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  people are competing
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  for for the workforce
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  or also in rural America
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  or underserved areas where maybe the education
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  opportunities
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  are more limited.
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  Yes. Definitely. Sounds like that retention piece is
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  is a key trend you're watching. And would
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  you like to expand a little bit more
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  on that or mention the other trend you're
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  currently watching right now? Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
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  So
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  there's a few things that I'm watching right
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  now that I think are going to be
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  really exciting for health care.
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  You know, we've got some of the more
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  traditional ideas,
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  that have come forward, which, you know, includes
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  repaying student debt.
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  But what I'm seeing is a lot of
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  energy around innovation
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  in workforce management and operational excellence. So,
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  more organizations are using algorithms and historical information
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  to really predict what future staffing models
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  should should be about,
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  and seeing how AI is going to play
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  a huge positive role,
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  in predicting
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  what the future of,
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  you know, our workforce is going to need.
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  I've also been looking quite a bit into,
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  what some,
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  more,
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  nontraditional
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  education
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  programs
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  are bringing forward. I've I've talked to a
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  couple of universities
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  where
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  instead of using the traditional two year or
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  four year degree program,
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  they are actually building
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  curriculum
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  that uses what they refer to as a
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  stackable
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  competency
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  model.
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  So instead of sitting down and going to
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  that,
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  liberal arts,
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  class that may or may not have anything
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  to do with your future career,
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  instead,
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  these universities
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  are using the stackable competency model that really
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  trains people to hone in on what are
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  the critical skills
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  and,
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  you know, traits that are gonna be absolutely
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  necessary
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  in in health care.
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  Another
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  thing that I've been looking at,
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  and and it's it's really got me excited
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  is the professional development plans that organizations are
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  putting forward
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  where they are looking at long term development
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  plans.
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  I I recently was working with another organization
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  where they had a fifteen year career path
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  for people, which seems unheard of
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  in this workforce climate when people are switching
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  jobs every two years. Instead,
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  what these organizations
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  are doing is they're saying
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  the moment you know that you are going
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  to be entering the workforce, which is usually,
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  you know, eighth, ninth grade at some point,
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  we actually
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  partner
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  with students to say, we're gonna,
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  create what the next fifteen years is going
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  to look like for you based on your
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  interests,
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  where you see yourself going,
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  even, making real time changes. So let's say
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  you go into a phlebotomy program.
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  You get into the program and you decide
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  at six months into the program, it's really
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  not your cup of tea, but maybe you've
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  got a greater interest in lab work.
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  Well, how can the organization
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  shift you into
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  more of that lab competency
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  program
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  so you'll stay with the organization,
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  but you'll also find great success and happiness,
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  and satisfaction
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  by having that,
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  career development plan that really helps you figure
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  out where you're gonna be the happiest, where
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  you're gonna be the most fulfilled,
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  maybe where you're going to have,
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  compensation that matches what your long term career
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  plans are. Maybe it's what you wanna do
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  in your personal life. So I think those
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  organizations
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  that look at those long term professional development
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  plans will really be the organizations that thrive
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  in the future.
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  Right. Sounds like a lot of, as you
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  said, a lot of efforts going on, across
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  organizations really just focusing on
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  getting getting workers no matter their job title
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  into those roles when they need to be
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  in them and
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  exactly how they need to be in them
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  for that.
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  So
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  I wanted to ask you, what are you
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  proud of from the last six to eighteen
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  months at your organization in particular?
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  Whether that's,
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  again, retention or or otherwise?
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  Yeah. Well, Erie County Medical Center is a
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  level one trauma center. We are located in
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  Buffalo, New York, where sometimes just candidly, the
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  the weather keeps people away.
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  We've got a phenomenal opportunity
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  in Buffalo to,
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  work with the different medical schools and attract
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  people into a level one,
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  opportunity.
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  However, we don't necessarily
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  have those learning platforms that are going to
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  be
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  affordable education given, you know, the challenges in
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  the economy with high food and daily living
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  expenses.
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  We're not unusual
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  to what the rest of the country is
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  really feeling.
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  And so part of what I'd say we're
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  excited about here at Erie County Medical Center
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  is we are really raising the bar and
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  the expectations,
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  as an important
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  employer in the community
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  to have high standards of what we expect
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  from
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  our employees and in turn, turn, obviously, what
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  we wanna deliver our patients.
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  And what we have found is when you
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  have higher standards,
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  the the top talent
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  will live up to those higher standards.
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  So many organizations,
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  across The United States,
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  they have actually lowered
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  their standards where
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  they are accepting a greater
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  level of,
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  maybe attendance occurrences
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  or they're putting up with disruptive behavior that's
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  not really conducive to the mission of an
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  organization.
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  Well, at ECMC,
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  we're really raising those standards. So we want
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  the best of the best. And again, what
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  we found
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  is the retention of our employees has really,
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  you know, out surpassed what you see in
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  other health care institutions. So we only have
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  an 8% voluntary turnover rate,
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  and we expect that to continue to go
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  down while the quality of our workforce goes
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  up. So that's something we're really proud of
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  and really excited about.
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  Right.
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  Right. It sounds like that you've already seen
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  success there and and that rate and continuing
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  to to make progress as you said there.
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  So thank you so much for sharing.
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  Yeah.
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  Wondering too, Julie, just what advice you would
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  give to evolving leaders right now?
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  What I would give is is really,
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  something that has become
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  a bit,
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  glossed over historically
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  in in
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  human resources
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  and workforce management is how do you bring
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  creativity
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  to finding solutions,
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  related to how are you going to attract
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  people, how are you going to retain people.
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  We need the new thinkers
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  that are willing to explore things in different
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  ways. One of the things that we're
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  considering right now in our organization
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  is how do we implement
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  positive psychology
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  into our workforce?
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  So the elements of positive psychology include
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  lifelong learning,
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  giving back to others, and then building relationships
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  with people.
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  And so
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  that's unique. It it doesn't sound necessarily like
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  it's the most unique thing, but by applying
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  those positive psychology
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  attributes
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  into our workforce,
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  that brings a creativity and an ingenuity
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  that,
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  I would love to see more evolving leaders
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  bringing forward
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  to their organizations.
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  Because given
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  the challenges we're having with a work force
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  getting closer and closer to retirement and so
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  many people only staying in the field a
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  short period of time, that creative
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  ideas, the solutions,
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  that's what will help us sustain,
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  the health care needs for for the next
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  fifty years.
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  Absolutely. Staying innovative, it sounds like, and creative
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  in the process.
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  So thank you so much again, Julie, for
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  this wonderful and interesting conversation today. I really
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  do appreciate your time, and I look forward
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  to working with you again soon. Thank you,
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  Kelly.