I returned from the WMHH Summit in Chicago grateful for the people I spent time with and reflective about the workforce challenges healthcare leaders are preparing to address.
A personal highlight was the quality time and meaningful discussions I shared with friends like Andrew “Andy” S. Lawrence, Vice President of HR, Talent Development at the University of Maryland Medical System and Brittany Taggart, Senior Learning Architect, of Intermountain Health. I also appreciated sharing the experience with my colleague Amoi Black. Getting to know one another and exchanging perspectives made our time in Chicago especially rewarding. These connections matter. They give us opportunities to understand the people behind the priorities and build relationships that continue long after an event ends. I will look forward to seeing Andy at the BHG AI event next week and Brittany at our HCM Excellence Conference® in January in Florida.
For Brandon Hall Group™, attending had a clear purpose. Healthcare leaders need meaningful benchmarking, practical best practices and research that helps them make informed decisions amid significant workforce challenges. We came to listen, better understand their needs and share evidence they can use.
My breakfast session, “Megatrends Shaping the Future of Healthcare HR: The Soft Skills Are Now the Hard Skills,” focused on a question that will become increasingly important: How do we help people perform, collaborate and lead effectively as healthcare work changes? I prepared a review of 27 Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards® Excellence in Practice blueprints across 11 healthcare organizations that deliver patient care. The examples connected human skills with leadership reinforcement and the conditions under which employees work. Together, they offer practical lessons for the future.
Human Skills Need to Be Defined In Everyday Actions
In healthcare, communication, empathy and judgment have consequences for patients and employees. Developing these capabilities requires clarity about what people should actually do. Listening without interrupting, explaining what happens next, checking understanding and responding constructively to a concern are behaviors employees can practice and managers can observe.
- Ascension’s Elevated Service Actions initiative translated service commitments into six observable behaviors. Leaders reinforced one behavior each month through huddles, staff meetings and coaching. Its case reported a 13 point improvement in care team responsiveness and nearly five points in clinician interaction scores.
- Acibadem Healthcare Group used actual patient complaints to create realistic simulation scenarios for 2,268 Patient Services employees across 22 hospitals. Employees practiced empathy and communication in situations reflecting the pressure of their work.
These examples suggest a useful direction for healthcare HR: Make human capabilities specific, build realistic practice into development and evaluate whether those behaviors carry into the workplace.
Leadership Development Must Extend Into the Next Shift
An employee’s ability to use a skill depends partly on how their leader pays attention and responds. If an organization encourages employees to raise safety concerns, managers need to know how to listen and follow through. If employees learn new ways to communicate, leaders/managers need to coach and reinforce those behaviors. IHH Healthcare’s Speak Up for Safety program recognized this relationship through a separate manager pathway. Managers learned to receive concerns professionally, provide feedback, follow-up and protect employees from retaliation.
The Acibadem case also offered an important implementation lesson. Investing in managers as coaches mattered alongside the learning experience itself. As healthcare organizations prepare future leaders, they should give managers practical support for these daily responsibilities. Development has greater value when it changes what happens during a difficult conversation, a team huddle, or a demanding shift.
AI Will Bring New Questions About the Value and Design of Work
The priorities represented in the attendee briefing included AI education, reduced administrative burden and improved staff efficiency. Those priorities create important work and contemplation for HR.
As technology changes tasks, organizations will need to reconsider responsibilities, skills and performance expectations. Employees will need opportunities to learn, ask questions and understand how their roles are evolving. One question I believe leaders should ask early is: What will we enable people to do with the time technology gives back? There may be opportunities for more patient interaction, stronger coordination and continued development. Achieving those benefits requires intentional decisions about workflows and staffing.
Workforce Readiness Depends on Retaining Experience and Developing New Talent
Retirement, succession and early tenure retention were also reflected in the attendee priorities. These issues need to be considered together. Organizations need to preserve experienced employees’ knowledge while helping newer colleagues build capability and confidence. Mentoring, structured onboarding and opportunities to apply learning can support that transition.
- Advocate Health’s Emerging Leader Program illustrated one approach to preparing people for greater responsibility. It combines development in areas such as feedback, emotional intelligence and collaboration with mentoring and applied projects. Its case reported an 87% conversion or internal mobility among graduates. For healthcare HR, the broader opportunity is to connect development with visible pathways forward. Employees need to understand how they can grow, while organizations need greater visibility into the people preparing for future roles.
Supporting Retention Requires Understanding People’s Circumstances
Workforce support also requires a closer look at the specific barriers employees face. This particularly resonates with me, as over the course of my career you never know what someone may be facing. Advocate Health’s Teammate Success Coaching found that departures attributed to personal reasons could reflect difficulties with transportation, childcare, housing, or finances. Coaches identified barriers during the first 90 days and coordinated practical assistance. The case reported early tenure attrition falling from more than 70% to as low as 16% in key participating sites. Those results are specific to the settings described, but the underlying lesson has wider relevance: organizations need to understand the problem early enough to help. An empathetic conversation becomes more useful when managers and support teams know exactly what the issue is and have a way to act on what they learn.
Addressing Workforce Strain Means Examining Working Conditions
- Oak Street Health’s PROPEL Coaching Program identified potential burnout and paired providers with experienced peer coaches. Studies show that people respond to their peers and direct managers, I loved reading about this program. Managers and coaches worked together to address workflow barriers and support needs. The case reported a 15% reduction in first year provider turnover and 92% of leaders reported improved performance. Those findings describe retention and performance outcomes, rather than a measured reduction in burnout. They demonstrate how coaching can connect with practical changes to the employee’s work experience.
Brandon Hall Group Perspective
Healthcare’s workforce challenges require more than filling vacancies or introducing new technology. Leaders need to strengthen the conditions that help people succeed: clear expectations, practical development, supportive managers and opportunities to grow. The award-winning blueprints offer concrete examples of how organizations are putting these priorities into practice. For healthcare HR leaders, the next step is to identify which approaches address their own workforce challenges, adapt them to their environment and measure the results.
This is why Brandon Hall Group’s engagement with the healthcare community matters. Through research, benchmarking, HCM Excellence Awards® Excellence in Practice blueprints and advisory support, we help leaders connect evidence with action. Conversations with healthcare executives also help us focus our research on the decisions and challenges that matter most to them.
I left Chicago with a deeper appreciation for this community and the work ahead. To Andy, Brittany, Amoi and everyone who shared their time and perspectives, thank you for making the experience so meaningful. I look forward to continuing these conversations, building on new friendships and helping healthcare leaders support the people shaping the future of care.
