Perspectives
2016 Healthcare Executive Imperative: Lead across Generations in a Multigenerational World
Healthcare organizations (HCOs) deliver care to increasingly diverse patient and consumer populations. With long-standing, public commitments to diversity and inclusion, these HCOs increasingly recruit, retain and engage people who represent differences in ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation and age.
Healthcare executives, employees and clinicians, for example, can easily represent up to five generations, including the following:
Generation Birthdate
The Post War or Silent Generation 1928-1945
Baby Boomers 1946-1964
Generation X 1965-1979
Millennials 1980-1995
Generation Z 1996 forward
Following is a blueprint for how senior healthcare executives can approach the development of a more diverse, multigenerational workplace:
Zero in on commonalities, not just differences. Instead of focusing on what separates generations, identify common concerns, including meaningful, satisfying work, learning and development, work-life balance and leadership that embodies respect, inspiration and support. Among the issues:
- Expectations: What do executives, employees and clinicians expect from the workplace and the work experience?
- Satisfaction: How do they define job or work-related satisfaction?
- Learning: How, where and when do they want to develop work-related knowledge, skill and competence?
- Balance: How do they perceive the interaction between work, family and personal life? How do they define balance?
- Leadership: How do they expect managers and executives to speak and act? What do they need from business and clinical leaders?
- Deal Breakers and Makers: What would cause these executives, employees or clinicians to seek a position with another organization? What would influence them to remain with the HCO?
Make the business case for multigenerational recruitment, development and engagement. Work from existing analyses of entities like the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), which points to improvements in organizational competitiveness, culture, recruitment, engagement, morale and retention via a multigenerational workforce. Just as vital, says AARP, are multigenerational team benefits, which include flexibility, decision making, creativity, innovation and insight into new markets.
Be ready to share how the HCO could enhance its clinical, financial and operational performance through a more diverse, multigenerational workplace. Rely on case studies and examples from organizations as diverse as Aflac, Baptist Health, Johns Hopkins Medicine and Marriott, focusing on underlying opportunities, implementation steps, results and lessons learned.
Champion structures for flexible management and leadership. Educate and train executives and managers to vary their approach to working with different generations. Older generations, for example, might prefer more formal, written communications, while Millennials will likely appreciate the opportunity to deliver candid face-to-face feedback on an executive decision.
Consider hosting a series of forums designed to facilitate cross-generational knowledge sharing and idea generation. Such forums can help varied generations identify areas of common ground, gaps in understanding and opportunities for moving forward on HCO goals and strategies.
Also begin to construct and reinforce teams with people of varied ages and cultures. Such teams can support the HCO in tackling priority issues like readmissions, value-based reimbursement, population health, patient experience and engagement, clinical integration or financial performance.
Develop enterprise-wide policies to support multigenerational needs. Simply making a decision to recruit, retain and engage more Baby Boomers isn’t enough. Only enterprise-wide policies and practices can deliver programs that meet the diverse needs and expectations of multiple generations.
A first step is conducting research--typically via one-on–one interviews and focus group—to uncover what employees and clinicians need, want and expect from senior executives, colleagues and co-workers.
Baby Boomers, for example, may seek flexible work schedules, phased retirement, contract work and ongoing personal and professional development. They may, for example, appreciate the chance to share their knowledge, insight and interpersonal savvy with members of Generation X and Millennials.
Members of Generation X, who tend to value professional development over job security, may seek career and development programs that focus on healthcare knowledge, skill and experience. Like Boomers, they may want more flexible work schedules to enhance work-life balance.
Millennials, in contrast, offer technology knowledge and experience. HCOs could respond through reverse mentoring programs where Millennials tutor Boomers in electronic communications and social media, and Boomers instruct Millennials on problem-solving, decision making, conflict resolution and interpersonal relationships.
Moving Forward
Healthcare C-Suites and boards can mobilize the power of a multigenerational workplace, but only if senior executives are willing to function as advocates and champions of multigenerational diversity and inclusion.
C-Suite executives can no longer delegate recruitment, retention and engagement of a diverse workforce to mid-level human resources professionals. Nor can they view diversity and inclusion as nice-to-have organizational window-dressing.
Among the 2016 action steps for forward-looking senior healthcare executives are the following:
- Make sure that every healthcare executive, employee and clinician reaches an enhanced understanding of the attitudes, preferences, needs and expectations of multiple generations within the HCO. Such differences surface in healthcare workers, consumers, patients, family members, vendors, payers, and community leaders.
- Foster information, idea and knowledge exchange among generations. Doing so combats generational stereotypes, short-circuits conflict, closes gaps and shift the focus to shared values, needs and expectations. Such forums can take the form of small, intimate issue-focused gatherings or more expansive summits aimed at exploring a series of multigenerational issues.
HCOS that recognize and celebrate the contributions of multiple generations will reap the rewards in the form of enhanced outcomes across the continuum of care. Those that embrace age-based stereotypes and resist the power of a multigenerational workforce may lose the war for business and clinical talent.