Perspectives
Leading Healthcare’s Millennial Workforce: Agenda for Action
This is the fourth in a series of posts focused on the priorities of healthcare of chief human resources executives (CHROs).
Amy Rislov, chief human resources officer (CHRO) at Milwaukee-based Aurora Health System reports that of the employees Aurora hired in 2015, 70 percent were Millennials. Healthcare organizations (HCOs) are eager to learn how to manage, engage and retain the generation of workers born between 1980 and 2000.
The need is urgent: Millennials now account for 38 percent of the U.S. workforce, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By 2025, they will make up 75 percent of the global healthcare workforce, says the Business and Professional Women’s Foundation.
Retention is as critical as recruitment. Organizations invest some $24,000 to replace each Millennial employee, according to Millennial Branding (http://millennialbranding.com/2013/cost-millennial-retention-study).
Based on 30 years of experience recruiting C-Suite executives for HCOs like Scripps Health, St. Joseph Health, Boston Children’s Hospital, and University of Missouri HealthCare, I have learned that unlike Baby Boomers and Gen-Xers, Millennials tend to exhibit the following tendencies and characteristics:
- Diversity: Millennials connect and work well with diverse people, including those who display cognitive diversity or multi-layered thinking styles.
- Teams: Millennials achieve positive results and outcomes via groups, teams, committees and task forces. However, they disdain traditional meetings.
- Confidence: Millennials tend to display a can-do attitude about fulfilling goals and objectives and completing assignments.
- Feedback: Millennials seek frequent, sometimes ongoing feedback on their performance rather than intermittent, formal performance reviews.
- Variety: Millennials crave novelty, interest and fun in tasks, assignments and the work environment.
- Speed: Millennials anticipate success in completing assignments and achieving rapid career mobility via salary increases and promotions.
- Self-Sufficiency: Millennials project an attitude of competence, commitment and self-control. They are ready to take on the healthcare workplace and healthcare system--if not the world.
- Support: Millennials seek motivation, guidance and insight from older co-workers, managers, executives, clinical leaders, and industry experts.
- Input: Millennials expect workplace leaders to elicit, acknowledge and integrate their ideas and opinions into future HCO plans.
- Excitement: Millennials resist workplace boredom and stagnation. They look forward to new and emerging work and life challenges.
- Balance: Millennials juggle varied friends, activities and interests--from music and technology, to food and online politics.
- Control: Millennials seek flexible schedules and work arrangements to pursue fulfilling lives outside the workplace.
- Anticipation: Millennials are eager to hear about their career path and trajectory. They want to know what’s required to achieve career objectives on time and on target.
- Connection: Millennials are wired like no previous generation. They tend to bail on workplaces that resist their demands for total connectivity and independence.
How can CHROs recruit, hire, and retain Millennial employees and professionals? Following are recommendations from healthcare leaders:
Structure: Create structure for Millennials via clear instructions on due dates, work hours, goals, assignments, success factors, agendas and daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly activities.
Guidance: Offer Millennials regular feedback, inspiration and inside-scoop insights on the HCO and healthcare system. Be prepared to invest time in coaching, teaching and mentoring Millennials via teams and one-on-one encounters.
Honored as a Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work for 2015 and as one of the 100 Best Places to Work for Millennials, Arlington, TX-based Texas Health Resources engages Millennials via teamwork and collaboration.
Adds Michelle Kirby, Texas Health senior vice president and chief people officer: “We want Millennials to know that they are an essential part of our workforce, and that Texas Health is a place where they can enjoy a long and rewarding career.”
Listening: Create opportunities to probe Millennials’ attitudes, beliefs, values and perceptions. Millennials tend to have parents who scheduled their lives around their children’s activities, interests and appointments. Small wonder that Millennials seek a work environment that acknowledges and embraces their ideas and opinions.
“We value generational differences and understand the importance of each generation learning from other generations,” says Christina Ryan, CEO of Evansville, Indiana-based Deaconess Women’s Hospital, which was honored as a 2015 Best Place to Work for Millennials. “Taking the time to understand how our coworkers think, work, and what they value – regardless of their generation--creates an environment that allows us to work better together and ultimately sets up our teams for success and positive results.”
Challenge: Millennials seek challenge and change. They never stop asking: “What’s next?” Resist the temptation to bore, ignore, or trivialize Millennials. Instead, use their presence as an opportunity to develop insights into the burgeoning Millennial healthcare market.
“Unlike generations before them, Millennials seek a more mobile, immediate and personalized experience when it comes to their health care,” says Atlantic Health System President and CEO Brian Gragnolati. “We believe they will be vital to helping Atlantic Health System redefine access to health care for everyone we serve.”
Networked: Take advantage of Millennials’ social media and mobile device savvy. Mayo Clinic, for example, morphed into “the gold standard for use of social media by healthcare organizations” (http://www.socialmediatoday.com/content/big-brand-theory-how-mayo-clinic-became-gold-standard-social-media-healthcare). Supported by specific policies, (http://www.prnewsonline.com/Assets/File/digitalpr_presentations2012/MayoClinic.pdf), Mayo integrated social media into internal communications via a campaign titled “The Mayo Effect” (https://www.melcrum.com/strengthening-employee-engagement-social-media-mayo-clinic).
Balance: Offer Millennials a life-work balanced workplace. Millennials tend to have lives filled with diverse experiences--from playing sports and raising funds for social causes to supporting the arts and hanging out with family and friends.
Honored as a Best Place to Work for Millennials, Coral Gables, Florida-based Baptist Health South Florida offers its employees flexible scheduling, 10 on-site gyms, 112 community fitness classes and a one-year fitness and nutrition program called My Unlimited Potential (http://careers.baptisthealth.net/benefits).
Engagement: Millennials seek a patient centered but employee-focused healthcare workplace. They want to enjoy their work, their workplace and the relationships they develop while working.
Dallas-based Methodist Health System, which promotes itself as a workplace “where careers shine bright” and “where life shines bright,” offers multiple activities designed to engage employees in the system’s mission, vision, and values.
The American Heart Association (AHA) designated Methodist a Platinum-Level Fit-Friendly Worksite (http://www.methodisthealthsystem.org/body.cfm?id=93&action=detail&ref=972) for helping employees eat better and exercise more. Equally powerful is the system’s Live Better, Shine Bright employee wellness program (https://livewellshinebright.methodisthealthsystem.org/dt/v2/lwsbindex.asp) and nursing initiatives that incorporate internships, externships and residencies, associate degree and refresher education and awards (http://www.methodisthealthsystem.org/nursing).
Millennials are destined to change and revitalize the healthcare workforce. CHROs can contribute by building cultures that meet Millennials’ expectations for fun, structure, balance, connection, challenge, guidance and engagement. In doing so, CHROs will create the workforce needed to sustain healthcare to 2050 and beyond.