Latest / Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast / Building a People First Workforce Strategy to Drive Outcomes in Pediatric Care with Janel Allen

Transcript

Building a People First Workforce Strategy to Drive Outcomes in Pediatric Care with Janel Allen · Becker’s Healthcare -- Pediatric Leadership Podcast

• 0:00
  This is Laura Dierda with the Becker's Healthcare
• 0:02
  Podcast. I'm thrilled today to be joined by
• 0:04
  Janelle Allen, executive vice president and chief people
• 0:07
  officer at Children's Nebraska. Janelle, it's a pleasure
• 0:09
  to have you on the podcast today.
• 0:11
  Oh, thank you, Laura. It's great to be
• 0:13
  here.
• 0:14
  Absolutely. And I'm excited for our conversation. I
• 0:17
  know there's so much happening in health care
• 0:18
  right now, and in particular,
• 0:20
  children's health care is in a really unique
• 0:22
  space. A lot happening at Children's Nebraska as
• 0:24
  innovative, so I'm excited to dig in. But
• 0:26
  before we do, can you tell us a
• 0:28
  little bit more about yourself and Children's Nebraska?
• 0:32
  Absolutely. Well, I'm Janelle Allen. My role here
• 0:34
  at Children's Nebraska
• 0:36
  is executive vice president and chief people officer.
• 0:40
  And at Children's Nebraska we are the state's
• 0:42
  only dedicated children's hospital and so our mission
• 0:45
  is to improve the life of every child.
• 0:48
  And what makes us a unique organization is
• 0:51
  that we truly believe our people power our
• 0:53
  mission.
• 0:54
  We've made intentional shifts to put our workforce
• 0:57
  strategy at the center of our business strategy.
• 1:00
  So what we do know it's not just
• 1:02
  a culture perspective we're really driving quality, safety,
• 1:06
  patient experience,
• 1:07
  growth, and long term sustainability for the organization.
• 1:10
  So in my role as chief people officer,
• 1:14
  I lead our people strategy
• 1:16
  and brand across
• 1:18
  talent, culture,
• 1:20
  leadership, development, workforce planning, and overall the experience.
• 1:25
  And, what I'm most excited about is we
• 1:28
  have a people first promise, which is our
• 1:30
  employee value proposition, which really anchors our work.
• 1:33
  And so I know today we'll spend some
• 1:35
  time
• 1:36
  doing a deeper dive into that.
• 1:39
  Well, absolutely. You know, that's fantastic. I think
• 1:41
  all of those things you mentioned looking at,
• 1:44
  talent acquisition, building culture, leadership development, all are
• 1:47
  things that leaders are consistently telling me are
• 1:50
  top of mind as they're trying to build
• 1:51
  the workforce of the future. So I'm excited
• 1:53
  to dig in. Let's do that. Could you
• 1:55
  tell me about, some of the most important
• 1:58
  initiatives that you did in the last year?
• 1:59
  What did you do, and what were the
• 2:01
  results?
• 2:02
  Well, as you know, there are many,
• 2:04
  and so, just focusing on the most important
• 2:07
  initiative
• 2:08
  really was grounded in our employee value proposition
• 2:11
  and advancing that to really operate
• 2:14
  operationalize it.
• 2:16
  How we operationalize it here at Children's Nebraska
• 2:19
  is we call it our People First Promise
• 2:21
  and this work started several years ago,
• 2:24
  but over the last year we've really focused
• 2:26
  on making sure it showed up in every
• 2:29
  leadership decision,
• 2:31
  you know, our workforce
• 2:32
  design and our overall employee experience. So it's
• 2:35
  really not a statement. It is how we
• 2:37
  work and make decisions.
• 2:40
  And a key differentiator for us
• 2:42
  is that we lead with retention first
• 2:45
  and attraction will follow. And so that mindset
• 2:49
  shift
• 2:50
  from, you know, our leadership expectations
• 2:53
  to our well-being
• 2:54
  initiatives,
• 2:55
  career pathways, and how we support flexibility and
• 2:58
  growth, again focusing on that retention first and
• 3:01
  attraction
• 3:02
  next. The results have been significant for us.
• 3:06
  We've grown our workforce
• 3:08
  in the last five years by over 40%
• 3:12
  and at the same time while we were
• 3:13
  doing that we reduced turnover by 35%.
• 3:18
  Our engagement scores of our providers and our
• 3:20
  staff have increased
• 3:22
  up to an 89%
• 3:23
  engagement rate which we are very proud of
• 3:26
  that.
• 3:27
  You know, our culture of safety has improved
• 3:29
  by over 30%, and that's really a transformation
• 3:33
  around
• 3:34
  people feeling very safe
• 3:36
  and,
• 3:37
  through that experience that they're having while they're
• 3:39
  working.
• 3:40
  And so at the same time, we've had
• 3:42
  corresponding gains with our patient experience, which is
• 3:45
  about our consumer experience. And so we've seen
• 3:48
  those increase at the same levels of our
• 3:50
  team members. So, you know, just really reinforces
• 3:53
  something I feel deeply about and that investing
• 3:56
  in people.
• 3:57
  It's not separate from the business performance. It
• 4:00
  is actually what drives the performance.
• 4:03
  I love that. I think the point you're
• 4:05
  making is so clear when you look at
• 4:07
  how you can reduce the turnover and do
• 4:10
  some really solid things, in order to improve
• 4:13
  employee satisfaction,
• 4:14
  safety,
• 4:16
  and and experience there, and then the the
• 4:18
  patient experience as well is boosted. So,
• 4:21
  that's amazing to hear. I'm curious, you know,
• 4:23
  when you look at these,
• 4:25
  different results that you've had,
• 4:27
  is there anything that you've changed or pivoted
• 4:29
  or done differently,
• 4:30
  that has really catalyzed some of this,
• 4:34
  these results, whether it's looking at, improving the
• 4:37
  culture or retention.
• 4:39
  I'm curious,
• 4:41
  how were you able to do that? What
• 4:42
  unique things actually worked for you? Mhmm.
• 4:45
  Yeah. That's a great question because as you
• 4:47
  can imagine,
• 4:48
  you know, you're trying to balance all of
• 4:50
  these. Right? And you do have to prioritize
• 4:53
  as you had said. And when I think
• 4:54
  about early on,
• 4:56
  what really we had to ground in quite
• 4:59
  a bit of well-being work. Right? And that
• 5:02
  was, you know, getting your staffing right, but
• 5:03
  then complementing it with well being. And well-being
• 5:06
  to us was
• 5:08
  where we emerged for it to say, you
• 5:10
  know, not only are we being proactive to
• 5:13
  support people on their journey, should it be
• 5:17
  mental health, physical health, nutrition,
• 5:21
  other components,
• 5:22
  but at the same time it was also
• 5:24
  around our decisioning as an organization because what
• 5:27
  we know is that well-being isn't just about
• 5:29
  support and services we offer, it's also how
• 5:32
  work happens.
• 5:33
  And so we really looked at an organized
• 5:36
  back at our organization
• 5:38
  and and focused on
• 5:39
  gosh how are we prioritizing our goals and
• 5:42
  making sure that we have the right amount
• 5:44
  of goals so it doesn't feel like it's
• 5:47
  too much for the organization
• 5:48
  to handle. And at the same time
• 5:51
  with our goal setting we were really really
• 5:53
  intentional around our change leadership and how our
• 5:56
  leaders
• 5:57
  are working with our teams through the change.
• 6:00
  So, we tackled well-being again to be you
• 6:03
  know your your holistic well-being offerings for people
• 6:06
  to access one times that matter,
• 6:08
  equipping our leaders really to lead and
• 6:12
  lead with well-being, but also that change,
• 6:16
  ability as well as we had a lot
• 6:18
  of growth as you heard me talk about
• 6:20
  within our organization.
• 6:22
  That makes a lot of sense. Thank you
• 6:24
  so much for digging a little bit deeper
• 6:25
  there. Now looking ahead, what are your big
• 6:27
  priorities and headwinds that you're focused on for
• 6:30
  2026
• 6:30
  and beyond?
• 6:32
  Well, as we look ahead, our focus is
• 6:35
  continuing to build the workforce, right, and build
• 6:38
  the workforce of the future
• 6:40
  while we
• 6:41
  really focus on strengthening the foundation we've already
• 6:44
  built. So when we think about the workforce
• 6:46
  of the future as
• 6:48
  that includes things of pipelines, right? We talk
• 6:51
  about pipelines at Children's Nebraska
• 6:53
  that is starting,
• 6:55
  workforce development all the way in the elementary
• 6:58
  school levels, right? Through
• 7:00
  high school into colleges and even working with
• 7:03
  many nonprofits.
• 7:04
  We are doing a lot with our internal
• 7:07
  team and we call that workforce pathways
• 7:10
  and it is
• 7:11
  allowing them to find their path within our
• 7:14
  organization should it be getting really strong in
• 7:16
  role or doing something different
• 7:19
  in helping to support them through schooling and
• 7:23
  flexible schedules to accomplish it. That's really important
• 7:26
  because in healthcare
• 7:28
  what we do know we're going to continue
• 7:30
  to face labor shortages and increased competition for
• 7:34
  talent.
• 7:36
  In addition, we're focused on
• 7:39
  AI
• 7:40
  and the human centric approach and how do
• 7:42
  you blend both of those and how do
• 7:44
  we do it responsibly
• 7:46
  adopting AI and technology
• 7:48
  in a way that really strengthens
• 7:50
  our individuals
• 7:51
  our team
• 7:53
  And what we're going to do is we're
• 7:54
  going to approach it by ways of reducing
• 7:57
  friction right through processes and improving workflows.
• 8:00
  And through that, we should be able to
• 8:03
  give that time to our team so that
• 8:05
  they can focus on the human side of
• 8:06
  care. You You know we hear from our
• 8:08
  team members, we came into this profession
• 8:12
  because we love relationships with people and taking
• 8:15
  care of people. So we're really trying to
• 8:17
  find ways how do we give that time
• 8:18
  back to our teams.
• 8:21
  Leadership development is also another major priority
• 8:25
  you know the expectation of leaders it's changing
• 8:28
  and it is changing quickly.
• 8:30
  We need leaders who can navigate complexity and
• 8:33
  help us to lead through innovative change
• 8:35
  but do it by building trust
• 8:38
  and delivering
• 8:39
  results
• 8:40
  with people at the center of it. So
• 8:43
  while there's headwinds ahead, right, when we talk
• 8:45
  about workforce shortages, burnout, and just the increased
• 8:48
  demand of health care,
• 8:50
  We feel that if we balance that
• 8:52
  with really maintaining our focus on investments on
• 8:55
  our culture that we're gonna continue to improve
• 8:58
  our employee experience and deliver great outcomes.
• 9:03
  I love that. I I think it's so
• 9:04
  important and critical as you mentioned to have
• 9:06
  that idea of, you know, where things are
• 9:08
  headed, being looking at,
• 9:10
  improvements,
• 9:11
  to workflows and and then finding ways that
• 9:13
  you can continue to build relationships
• 9:15
  within the health care space. So, the innovation
• 9:18
  is so important and, you know, to your
• 9:20
  point, the increased demand for health care, means
• 9:23
  you need a strong team in place in
• 9:25
  order to do that.
• 9:27
  And, you know, when you look at, everything,
• 9:29
  all the opportunities available,
• 9:31
  what aspects of the culture are are you
• 9:33
  really foreseeing additional investments into? Are you looking
• 9:36
  at more benefits or or more, continuing education
• 9:40
  or or all of the above?
• 9:42
  You know,
• 9:44
  that is a really great question because what
• 9:46
  we are seeing in our in research and
• 9:49
  also insights
• 9:50
  is that the workforce expectations are evolving and
• 9:53
  changing. And so when we think about that,
• 9:56
  areas we are focusing on
• 9:59
  continue to be ways of how do we
• 10:01
  have flexibility for team members, right,
• 10:05
  and do it in a way that,
• 10:07
  they find value of it. You know, certainly,
• 10:11
  when you think about
• 10:12
  health care, we employ many professions, so those
• 10:16
  that are in more corporate or support functions,
• 10:18
  they're gonna have you know more flexibility of
• 10:20
  like where the work happens. When we think
• 10:23
  about team members that are delivering patient care,
• 10:26
  their flexibility
• 10:28
  needs will be different, right? Whether it's, you
• 10:30
  know, how they select their ship, who they
• 10:33
  work with, what they work on,
• 10:36
  and so
• 10:37
  those are things that we are addressing is
• 10:39
  more of that flexible schedule and approach so
• 10:42
  that people could have more of that work
• 10:43
  life integration.
• 10:45
  In addition,
• 10:47
  professional
• 10:48
  growth is really important.
• 10:50
  Our team is looking for ways that you
• 10:52
  know they can have that career
• 10:55
  experience, and our goal is to make sure
• 10:57
  that they do that throughout their whole journey
• 11:00
  and never have to leave our organization. So
• 11:02
  really trying to find ways of growth and
• 11:04
  learning.
• 11:05
  And then when we look at our total
• 11:06
  rewards,
• 11:08
  mental health support
• 11:10
  and services are really, really important and,
• 11:13
  those are ways
• 11:15
  that we are trying to find ways for
• 11:17
  our team members and their loved ones to
• 11:20
  continue to have those resources available
• 11:23
  to them when they need it.
• 11:25
  That's so helpful to understand, and I I
• 11:27
  love, kind of that more personalization when you're
• 11:30
  looking at what the workforce wants today. I
• 11:32
  know it's always changing, always evolving with different
• 11:34
  generations and and and and different perspectives on
• 11:37
  how things are are evolving. So,
• 11:39
  that's really important intel.
• 11:42
  Now looking ahead, obviously, there's a lot going
• 11:44
  on, a lot you'll be adding on and
• 11:45
  investing into, but what do you think the
• 11:47
  hardest thing you'll have to do over the
• 11:49
  next twelve months or so will be?
• 11:51
  It's a really great question, Laura.
• 11:54
  You know, one of the hardest things will
• 11:56
  be balancing
• 11:58
  growth with transformation
• 12:00
  and then just the daily demands placed on
• 12:02
  the workforce.
• 12:03
  What we do know is healthcare is moving
• 12:05
  very fast.
• 12:08
  I'm really really comfortable with it and at
• 12:10
  the same time we think about all that
• 12:12
  you know how do we how do we
• 12:14
  bring in and understand
• 12:15
  AI and what are what's going to be
• 12:17
  our stance in that
• 12:18
  what's gonna be the implications,
• 12:20
  you know, to the workforce and and design
• 12:23
  of workflows.
• 12:24
  At the same time, all healthcare organizations are
• 12:28
  facing financial pressures, right, with reimbursement
• 12:31
  and other,
• 12:32
  factors.
• 12:34
  And what we do know is the consumer
• 12:36
  expectation is changing, so all of this requires
• 12:39
  organizations
• 12:40
  to evolve.
• 12:41
  But what we do know is while this
• 12:43
  is happening, our people also still have to
• 12:46
  carry the very real day to day,
• 12:49
  care and pressures of the healthcare delivery. And
• 12:52
  so this challenge
• 12:53
  is making sure transformation
• 12:55
  isn't just adding more, that when you are
• 12:58
  transformation
• 13:00
  when you are transforming
• 13:02
  it's really to make things better, right, work
• 13:04
  better and the experience better. So that means
• 13:06
  you know simplifying
• 13:08
  processes,
• 13:09
  removing unnecessary
• 13:10
  friction in processes.
• 13:12
  We think technology can help with that and
• 13:15
  really as an organization being focused and disciplined
• 13:18
  about where what we want to invest in.
• 13:21
  At the same time though that means you're
• 13:23
  gonna have to make some hard decisions about
• 13:25
  what should we stop doing
• 13:27
  and that requires
• 13:28
  courage, clarity, and really strong leadership and sometimes
• 13:32
  the hardest work is not starting something new,
• 13:35
  right, it's really focusing on things that we
• 13:38
  no longer,
• 13:40
  will do. Right?
• 13:42
  That, again, we're just has change embedded
• 13:45
  within it.
• 13:47
  That makes a lot of sense. And I
• 13:49
  think especially,
• 13:50
  I love your point as you are mentioning,
• 13:52
  you know, the consumer expectations are changing, health
• 13:55
  care is changing, reimbursement is changing. So all
• 13:57
  those factors coming together,
• 13:59
  in in trying to figure out how you
• 14:01
  need to do things differently in order to
• 14:03
  meet those needs of the community and and
• 14:05
  expectations. And, you know, from from your,
• 14:08
  standpoint and vantage point, what are some of
• 14:11
  those consumer expectations that you're seeing evolve? What
• 14:14
  do you have to do differently in order
• 14:17
  to meet those,
• 14:18
  expectations,
• 14:19
  from the health care lens?
• 14:21
  Mhmm. When we think about consumer,
• 14:25
  it's it's really important that, you know, we
• 14:29
  we think about how their ease of accessing
• 14:32
  us, right, and
• 14:34
  understanding,
• 14:35
  how they can engage with our organization
• 14:38
  should no matter what their need is. So,
• 14:40
  again, that experience around,
• 14:42
  just first impression all the way through and
• 14:44
  then navigating
• 14:46
  it should it be scheduling appointments,
• 14:49
  needing to
• 14:51
  talk with someone and others. So it is
• 14:54
  rooted in again our team and how we
• 14:56
  deliver that and what that experience is, but
• 14:58
  also
• 14:59
  investing in tools and resources
• 15:01
  that helps from that experience. The other is
• 15:04
  doing a lot of investment in those same
• 15:06
  to embark and and ensure that they have
• 15:09
  educational
• 15:10
  tools and resources at their fingertips
• 15:12
  as well. So those are just a few
• 15:15
  when you,
• 15:17
  that is is evolving it because many of
• 15:19
  the consumers,
• 15:21
  even where we think it's going, when you
• 15:22
  think about,
• 15:25
  industries outside of health care, should it be,
• 15:28
  you know, Netflix? That's a very personalized experience.
• 15:31
  When you think about Amazon, it's very seamless.
• 15:33
  Right? Apple has an intuitive nature. And so
• 15:37
  while we can do all these things in
• 15:39
  our personal
• 15:40
  situations or outside of scheduling appointments, how do
• 15:44
  we translate those same experiences to our consumers
• 15:48
  and also our team members and and how
• 15:50
  they interact with the organization,
• 15:52
  how they interact with HR
• 15:54
  and other services
• 15:56
  to ensure that they have a really great
• 15:57
  experience.
• 15:59
  I hear you. I I, I really appreciate
• 16:02
  those,
• 16:03
  comparisons and and certainly scheduling, of course, is
• 16:05
  so important and then being able to invest
• 16:08
  in the areas that consumers are going to
• 16:10
  be able to engage further within the healthcare
• 16:12
  system, so that makes a ton of sense.
• 16:14
  I think lastly here, where do you see
• 16:16
  some of the best opportunities for organizational growth?
• 16:19
  You know when we think about growth the
• 16:21
  biggest opportunity is to connect our workforce strategy,
• 16:25
  you know continue to connect it right into
• 16:27
  our organization performance. You know when I started,
• 16:31
  it's really about how people drive outcomes and
• 16:34
  so
• 16:35
  we've seen very clearly that that
• 16:38
  connection backed for our team to have the
• 16:40
  experience around the purpose, the mission of the
• 16:42
  organization.
• 16:44
  Are they supported in their well-being? Are they
• 16:46
  able to grow?
• 16:47
  It does strive stronger outcomes for our organization
• 16:51
  and directly impacts that patient experience, safety,
• 16:54
  engagement, retention, and then the organization's overall performance.
• 16:59
  So there is a tremendous opportunity in how
• 17:01
  we use technology and AI to help continue
• 17:03
  to better our and
• 17:05
  improve our work environment.
• 17:08
  It's really more than
• 17:09
  efficiency. It's about a better experience. So, you
• 17:12
  know, if we can reduce some administrative burden
• 17:15
  or create simpler, more intuitive systems that will
• 17:19
  allow our teams to spend more time
• 17:21
  where they create the most value and find
• 17:23
  the most value in.
• 17:26
  That will be really incredible
• 17:28
  and you know finally leadership development remains one
• 17:31
  of our greatest growth opportunities.
• 17:34
  You know, organizations that have leaders who are
• 17:36
  both outcomes driven and deeply people centered,
• 17:40
  they're gonna have a real competitive advantage. So
• 17:43
  ultimately,
• 17:44
  organizations that are gonna win in healthcare will
• 17:46
  be the ones where people,
• 17:48
  want to stay at the organization, they want
• 17:50
  to grow and do their best work.
• 17:53
  And that's what I'm most excited about
• 17:55
  here at Children's, you know, the opportunity that's
• 17:58
  in front of us. And what we do
• 18:00
  know is that health care is changing,
• 18:02
  the workforce is changing, and organizations that are
• 18:05
  willing to rethink
• 18:06
  maybe how work gets done, how leaders lead,
• 18:09
  how people experience work will be the ones
• 18:12
  that thrive. And at Children's Nebraska,
• 18:14
  we are leaning into that.
• 18:17
  I love it. Janelle, thank you so much
• 18:19
  for your time today. This has been such
• 18:20
  a fun conversation. I appreciate
• 18:23
  the opportunity to learn from you and, really
• 18:25
  learn more about what you're doing at Children's
• 18:27
  Nebraska. So thank you so much, and look
• 18:29
  forward to continuing the conversation soon.
• 18:31
  Thank you, Laura.