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This is Chris oss with the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
I'm thrilled today to be joined by Janelle Adam,
executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Children's Hospital and
Medical Center in Omaha. Janelle, thank you so much for joining us today.
Oh, thank you. I'm excited to be here with you today.
Excellent.
Could you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your background?
Absolutely.
So I have a long career in building great cultures and people
practices for large healthcare systems, universities,
academic medical centers, and now at a pediatric healthcare center, as you said,
Chris, I am the, uh,
E V P and Chief People Officer at Children's Hospital Medical Center here in
Omaha. And I oversee the human resources,
diversity and inclusion marketing and communications areas.
And our teams are completely focused on culture, brand reputation,
experience for all the people. So that's our workforce, patients,
learners, and community partners. So prior to joining Children's,
I was the Chief Human Resources Officer at Creighton University
in their medical center, um, academic medical center.
So they've got campuses in Nebraska and Arizona.
And then I've also held HR leadership roles at Sanford Health,
and that's the largest rural health system in the United States in Avera
Health, which is a integrated health system in the upper Midwest.
So some things about me, I love music, travel, fitness.
I'm a wife and a mom to two kids are ages seven and 12,
and they motivate me to live our organization's mission,
which is to impact the life of every child.
So I'm excited again to be with you and share about the journey we're on at
Children's.
Well, we're happy to share that journey with our audience. For sure.
So on that note, regarding the employees,
how does Children's of Omaha grow about investing in their wellbeing and how has
that evolved since the pandemic hit?
You know, coming out of the pandemic healthcare professionals,
they really experienced extreme burnout and healthcare leaders were faced with
how to combat this. This is really a unique challenge for our industry.
And every health system was in this together,
and it really focused on what do we do to ensure that we can keep people in
healthcare professions and then also within our organization.
And that related what we believed was to employee engagement and wellbeing.
So what that meant for us was we are gonna address wellbeing and
we're gonna do it through a holistic, inclusive, and a multi-dimensional lens.
So we did engage and listen to our team members to hear what
was important and meaningful for them.
And so then in 2022,
we launched a variety of wellbeing programs and initiatives that were tailored
to our workforce.
And the key areas for us were emotional, social,
financial, um, physical and community wellbeing.
So this is an important pillar.
We have focused on a people first culture and many organizations say it,
but we are saying it and we're walking it. And through this,
the wellbeing is a key pillar to that.
We are putting our people at the beginning of every equation,
and that's every decision. And so we believe that if we take care of our own,
they're gonna take better care of our patients families in the community.
And so this has positively impacted our quality and
safety outcomes. We've seen it in our engagement numbers,
our patient experience, feedback,
and then our strategic growth as an organization.
So there's definitely a connection to engagement and
wellbeing being a driver of that.
So we do believe that if you as an employee feel steady,
safe and supported personally and professionally,
that you can be fully engaged while you're at work.
So we did broaden this definition and launch these programs,
and we just completed our 2023 engagement survey,
and we received the results here in May.
And we did receive validation from our team members that the wellbeing
is noticed and having an impact.
So nearly nine out of our 10 employees had a favorable perception
of the availability of resources to support their wellbeing.
And we were really pleased to hear this because in our 2021
engagement survey,
this was one of the lower scoring areas for our organization.
Well, congratulations on such an improvement.
I'm sure your employees very much appreciate it. There's no doubt your,
your patients and everyone else who's involved with the hospital.
So you mentioned those programs.
So let's go from the 30,000 foot view to a little more zoomed interview.
What are those programs exactly that have proved successful?
You know, this is a great question and there are many.
And so when I think about this, you know,
first I'd like to highlight our Be Involved program. And this is a,
a new paid volunteering program. And this again,
came from the voice of our team members with our mission.
We are focused on the clinical component, advocacy, research, and education.
And they wanted to find a way to go out and help advocate and be
part of our community and give back.
So this program was launched and it really mobilizes our mission and the
great gifts and talents of our team.
So these paid volunteering programs send a strong message to our team members
that we care about our community and we care about them.
So this program launched in 2022, and within the first six months,
there was tremendous engagement.
We had over 800 volunteer hours at, um,
nonprofit organizations across the state of Nebraska. And to date,
we have over 1400 hours that have been logged. And again,
it's really helping to carry our mission forward.
We're finding the team is experiencing great wellbeing for it with it because
they get to spend time with their team members and get to know each other there.
But then also, as research says, when you give to others,
it does help your satisfaction and wellbeing. You know,
the other area that we've spent, um,
a lot of time and energy on is recognition.
And that's really important again, from an engagement driver.
So we launched a new recognition platform and we call it the Sunshine
Hub.
And this platform elevates and really integrates our children's
core values so that team members can recognize each other when they
demonstrate, you know, elements around innovation,
collaboration, accountability, respect, or excellence.
And this platform launched in February of 2023,
and we've had over 33,000 recognitions sent
today. So our vendor was like, wow, you are gold star here.
They've never seen, um, that type of engagement. So again,
it's, we're really proud of that.
We heard from our team members that engagement from the organization,
but also their colleagues and leaders are important.
So that one's had great success, great success. You know,
another program I'd like to highlight is around social determinants of health.
And I know every health system is,
is really trying to have an impact and are deeply committed to this and
making a difference for their patients families and the communities that they're
in. And we at Children's are in that exact same environment.
So as we were making this commitment to our strategic plan
to begin to address this for our patients and families in our community,
we as a leadership team took a step back and said to ourselves, gosh,
I wonder if our team members,
as we ask them to go out and identify individuals that may have needs
and connect them to resources,
do we have individuals that may be having those same experiences?
And we made a decision to survey our team members and ask them
questions around social determinants of health. And that survey,
we had high engagement with it and we did receive feedback that there were
team members struggling with this and needed help. So we,
from there we started on this quest to find out what programs can we do and
community partners can we engage with to help our team members that have
experiences either with economic instability,
food or transportation, security issues,
childcare challenges, education interventions,
all of those behaviors and components of social determinants of health.
So through that, you know, from an economics standpoint,
we invested in pay, right? We wanted to make sure we had living wage and,
and minimum wages were at a place that we could be really competitive and people
would have a living wage. We also, um,
invested a lot in our financial wellbeing series, uh, again,
helping individuals really understand their finances and also if
there's needs, how to access, you know, if it's Medicaid, um,
other resources available there.
From the food and and transportation security,
we launched what we call a WeCare fund.
And this is a fund that employees can access, you know, if a need arises, um,
again related to really anything in their life that is, is difficult.
We also, um,
have different ways that if people have food and and gas assistance,
we they can reach out and, and, um, access those resources.
You know, from the education intervention,
we've invested a lot in our tuition programs. So for our employees,
we've built relationships with local universities,
community colleges to have reduced tuition options.
We've also extended our tuition remission reimbursement benefit to our,
uh, their dependents if an employee's not utilizing the benefit.
And the one I'm really,
really proud of is we just had our first graduating class of our English as a
second language cohort,
and that is a class that we offer on campus.
We pay employees for their time and also studies
to, to participate in that program,
provide 'em with laptops and other resources so that
they, um, can increase their English proficiency.
And that's been really great and well received.
We just had our graduating class and what we found is this area, um,
not only has it helped the individuals,
but it's helped with retention and reducing turnover, um,
in the key departments where individuals were actively participating in
this program. The other piece is we had, I had said earlier, you know,
we've got great partners in our community and we wanna partner
with them. Again, they help to serve our, our patients and families,
but we also know they can help with our team members.
So two of the programs I thought would be fun to share with you today,
Chris is the first one is a Grow Navigator program,
and that's actually through our local chamber.
And this is a social worker that is on site on campus
here that any team member at any point in time can access confidentially and
voluntarily.
And this person helps them to understand their situations and
also, um,
align them with any services that they may need near term or
long term.
What we found with that is one of the frequent inquiries and support needed
there work again around the housing, financial, legal, and childcare.
The other is Habitat for Humanity.
Our local Habitat for Humanity has an incredible program to help
individuals become mortgage ready. So there's a lot of education,
support and services available for team members who are, um,
on that journey.
So those are two great partner ships that we've formed
and our employees are really having a great experience.
They're engaging with them and it is helping them, um,
with areas that they've indicated they have needs with. You know,
you can do all these programs,
but in order for it to be sustainable and long-term, you,
you as an organization have to commit to having the structure in the people to
do this work. So we have, um,
what we have identified is,
and we call 'em our We Thrive team and their roles and their part of our
HR team and their work is, is again,
to support these many programs and those five key areas and
pillars of our wellbeing program.
The other recent additions we have, we have got a, our new,
our new chief morale Officer Howie. He is our four legged friend.
He is our team member, facility therapy, dog and therapy.
He has just been a great addition to our We Thrive team.
How are you not loving having a dog in the office? I
would you mind sharing some of the insights as how these
programs connect with your program's goals?
You know, absolutely. You know, we,
we say it's pretty simple here at Children's that by taking care of our people,
they can take care of our patients in the communities we
serve. And in the recent years, children's leadership,
we've made a significant investment in our people for the long-term
success of our organization.
And ultimately our strategic goals and objectives can only
be accomplished and powered through our people. And they are,
we wanna lead the way in safety, quality, and exceptional care,
championing the needs and welfare of children,
improving the health and wellbeing of children through discovery and innovation.
We wanna train and develop the pediatric healthcare workforce and
foster an environment where individuals,
teams and our organization will grow and thrive. So again,
by taking care of our people,
they can take the very best care of our patients and the communities we serve.
Well, I also wanted to ask you, Janelle, so spinning it forward a little bit,
I mean everyone it seems has had trouble with staffing issues,
not just the healthcare industry, but just about every industry in the us.
How do you think these efforts are reflected in your recruiting efforts? You.
Know, that's a great, a great question, Chris, because, you know,
as we've been spending time talking through our time together,
it's been a lot on retention and that's certainly an area where we've doubled
down is retention. But in order to meet our,
our goals or our strategic focus and, and growth,
because we have many individuals wanting to utilize our services, we do need to,
to build and, and grow our team.
So recruiting has had great success
because of the reputation.
If I just start with the brand and reputation that we have built as an
organization over the last couple years around taking care of our people,
being a place where, you know,
we're gonna support you and care for you personally and professionally,
but our leaders have also gotten really, really, really creative around,
you know, flexible schedules. What can we do?
Because people do have needs that are different and the
workforce has forever changed coming through the pandemic. And so,
you know, our, our clinical areas are looking at shorter shifts, you know,
four to six hour shifts.
They're looking at weekend only options or seasonal opportunities,
like a nine month schedule over 12 months. So when we do that,
we have seen an increase in our applications and also our time to fill.
We also have reduced our reliance on contingent contractual
labor, um, significantly that has decreased significantly.
So as we continue to move forward and we look at our, our,
what we're calling our employee value proposition, our people first promise,
we are in a position of strength again because of our wellbeing
efforts, our flexibility,
and also a lot of the work that we're doing around our learning and growing for
our team members. You know, as I think about the why, you know,
when we talk about attracting and retaining team members, you know,
I want children's to be a destination workplace, you know,
not just a pit stop in somebody's life,
a place that they can come and stay.
And so really to be an amazing workplace in 2023,
I believe it's essential to intentionally invest in our team's wellbeing.
I think that's the critical differentiator and you know,
it's definitely requiring us to think differently,
being much more agile, flexible, creative,
so that we can be really a leader and stay as a leader
in this just really dynamic job landscape that's out there.
So in addition to this,
we know that wellbeing's important belonging is important, um,
for our long-term success as an organization.
Janelle, thank you so much for sharing your insights with re our listeners,
and I can't wait for them to hear them.
And I look forward to connecting with you soon.
Thank you so much, Chris. I so appreciate it.
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