Launch/Implement - Color

Even during a pandemic, it’s important to keep learning.

When Kaiser Permanente storekeeper Vincent Woodard heard about skills days in May at Oakland Medical Center, he signed up.

“You’ve got to keep up with the times,” says Woodard, an SEIU-UHW member who orders and delivers supplies for doctors and nurses. “I’m always wanting to learn more. The more I know, the more I can teach and share.”

Kaiser Permanente encourages lifelong learning. With COVID-19 reshaping health care from the emergence of new roles to increased virtual care, the 2 Labor Management Partnership-supported education trusts are tailoring trainings to help employees adapt by building career resilience and digital skills.

Partnership Supports Upskilling

Northern California’s Workforce Planning and Development Committee was planning skills days when COVID-19 hit. The committee wanted to proceed. The administration agreed. In 2 weeks, labor and management organized skills days with the SEIU UHW-West & Joint Employer Education Fund.

“It’s a trying time with workflows changing to adapt to COVID-19,” says committee labor co-chair Sonya Allen-Smith, an SEIU-UHW contract specialist. “You have to stay skilled up because the work world is constantly changing.”

More than 80 employees participated in 2 Oakland sessions. Housekeepers, medical assistants and radiology techs met in a large conference room, wearing masks and keeping social distance, learning in person and virtually about communication, leadership and emotional intelligence.

Woodard, a 7-year Kaiser Permanente employee and longtime youth basketball coach, related to lessons about teamwork, bringing positive energy and managing frustrations.

“I’m definitely going to use this,” Woodard says. “You’re not always going to get your way. You’ve got to know when to walk away. Hold yourself accountable.”

Northern California is looking to expand skills days. Other regions also are exploring virtual skills days.

“This training is good for labor and management,” says Janis Cruz, support services administrator for the East Bay. “It helps develop soft skills to navigate uncertainty and ignite interest in continued learning.”

Building career resilience

To help adjust to changes, Kaiser Permanente and the education trusts offer online critical skills courses in collaboration, consumer focus, digital fluency and performance improvement.

In May, the Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust launched the Career Resilience Quest, an online course that explores the characteristics of resilience — the ability to adjust to workplace change as it happens.

“We’re experiencing drastic change,” says Ben Hudnall career counseling project manager David Rosenberg. “Developing resilience in general, and career resilience specifically, really helps to respond constructively.

“Career resilience characteristics are like muscles. We need to exercise those muscles, so they’re strong.”

Pharmacy assistant Sergio Romero, a UFCW Local 324 member in Southern California, knows the power of resilience. A few years ago, his mother and roommate died months apart.

He reflected on his career, worked with Ben Hudnall career counselor Jan Cummings, completed a certification program and then began the resilience course.

“With this pandemic, there’s a lot of hopelessness,” Romero says. “The resilience quest boosted me back up. It kept me going.”

“You have two ears and one mouth for a reason,” television’s Judge Judy frequently says, quoting an ancient Greek philosopher. “You should listen twice as much as you talk.” Successful co-leads realize that making a partnership work requires listening and learning from one another. 

Caroline Masikonde, RN, had been a management co-lead with the urgent care team at Largo Medical Center in the Mid-Atlantic States, an experience that helped her understand the importance of valuing her partner’s input. But when she accepted a new role as clinical operations manager in Northern Virginia Audiology in January 2016, she didn’t have any experience in audiology. So she’s relied heavily on her new labor co-lead, Lynn M. Reese, Au.D., a UFCW Local 400 member. Masikonde has learned why audiology UBT members escort patients outside (so they can try out new hearing aids in different conditions)—and her willingness to listen helped the co-leads bond quickly. 

“Lynn is very experienced,” says Masikonde. “I lean on her even now.” 

Reese, on the other hand, was new to the unit-based team structure, since the audiology UBT had just formed. That’s where Masikonde’s expertise came in. “We fit together pretty well,” says Reese. “Caroline is very open to listening and learning new things.”

Reese, too, expanded her knowledge, growing into an appreciation that she and Masikonde have equal say on what’s now a Level 4 UBT. “Everyone contributes,” says Reese. The ability to speak up led to Reese and the rest of the team requesting and receiving approval for an additional booth to test patients’ hearing. 

Relationship tested

Their new relationship was tested when a member—after waiting more than 12 weeks for a refund on a hearing aid that had cost more than $1,000—alerted them, loudly and angrily, to the problem. 

Instead of pointing fingers, UBT members figured out the issue: The refund request had to be processed through a department in Southern California, but the team had no way to follow up once the request was submitted. 

“This lady forced us to look at this and do better for our members,” Masikonde says. “It prompted us to come up with a better workflow,” and now the team has names and contact information for the people who work on the refunds.

“Even though it was a bad situation, she made us want to improve,” Reese says. 

Because the co-leads already were accustomed to relying on and listening to each other, they were able to quickly and calmly handle this tense situation with the unhappy member.

“We really learned our lesson,” Masikonde says. “Recently, we did a refund on a Monday—and by Friday, the member had the check. Lynn and I know our parts and do our dance.”