LMP Focus Areas

I have a friend who loves to play softball. In 1999, she tore her left Achilles tendon while sliding into first base. Her surgery involved getting cut open and then stitched up, which was painful and created a risk of infection. It put her in a heavy cast for six months, left a five-inch scar and was an all-around miserable experience.

Four years later, while playing racquetball, she (you guessed it) tore her right Achilles tendon. In just those few years, surgical technology had improved so much that she could get her leg patched up with laser surgery. She still had to wear a cast — but for only three months this time, and there was no scar. There was hardly any pain. “It was like night and day,” she says. 

When someone says, “I don’t want to learn the new way. The old way works just fine,” I tell them about this friend.

Imagine that her doctor and care team had not bothered to learn about the laser surgery. Their patients would have suffered with a longer and tougher recovery than necessary. Caregivers want the best for their patients. That wouldn’t have been the best.

In everything we do, we put the patient and member at the center. Developing the skills of our workforce is no different. We learn new treatment methods to help our patients get better faster. We learn new software programs to help them get their medications more quickly and efficiently. We figure out the new technological gizmos so we can have virtual visits with our members, saving them the time, effort and sometimes discomfort of getting to our brick-and-mortar offices. We invent new ways of doing old jobs, or create entirely new jobs, to meet new needs.

Giving up the old way of doing things is scary, but also liberating. Learning new things can be difficult, but also fun. We’re navigating our way into the future together, supporting one another all along the way. 

In the early 2000s, Blockbuster ruled the video rental roost.

Now it’s all but gone.

Blockbuster didn’t adapt to customer needs and technology trends. Netflix did.

Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions recognize that if you don’t change with the times, you can get left behind.

The National Agreement addresses the importance of preparing for the future in partnership; section 1D of the agreement covers workforce planning and development.

Under the 2015 agreement, two educational trusts — Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust and SEIU UHW-West & Joint Employer Education Fund — received additional funding to provide workers represented by a coalition union with a variety of services, and training and education programs. Joint work on addressing experience barriers, which have sometimes prevented newly trained workers from being hired into KP jobs, is also under way.

The agreement details the structure for coordinating workforce planning and development. A national team aligns, integrates and coordinates workforce development and training efforts in partnership with the regions. Each region has a workforce planning and development committee chaired by labor and management co-leads.

The five key components of this work are:

• workforce planning and development
• career development
• education and training
• redeployment
• retention and recruitment

“The goal is to prepare union workers for changes to jobs,” says LeAnda Russell, the coalition’s national coordinator for job innovation. “We support the lifelong learning and career development of our workers.”

It’s paying off. Use of the educational trusts has increased to record levels.

Russell encourages employees to keep learning to build the job skills needed as health care evolves. In other words — don’t hit the rewind button. It’s time to press play.

“Technology is here,” Russell says. “Don’t be afraid.”

For Carolina Aceves, technology and health care go hand in hand.

Shortly after completing a new online digital fluency course for Kaiser Permanente employees, she saw firsthand how technology can transform a life. Her mother needed a kidney transplant, but neither she nor her siblings were a match. In October 2017, however, in a series of matches orchestrated through a national computer system, she donated a kidney as part of a chain of donations that resulted in her mother receiving a kidney.

In December, she returned to work at the California Service Center in San Diego, where she is an account administrative representative, fielding calls from KP members and answering their questions. She also chairs a young leader council for OPEIU Local 30 — and is leveraging that role to mobilize all represented members of her unit-based team, urging colleagues of all ages to take the digital fluency course.

“Health care is changing,” Aceves says. “Be current. Do your homework. Advance your career.”

At ease with technology

Digital fluency is one of four critical skills that will be essential in the health care of the future. The new online program, which helps participants understand the role of technology in health care, is free to workers represented by a union in the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions through the Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust, the SEIU UHW-West & Joint Employer Education Fund, and National Workforce Planning and Development.

The national workforce office also is developing programs for the other three critical skills — consumer focus, collaboration and process improvement — as part of a larger strategy to encourage employees to upgrade their skills, advance their careers and meet the changing demands of health care.

“Whether you work in a medical center, clinic or office, we encourage employees to take the digital fluency program,” says Monica Morris, the director of National Workforce Planning
and Development.

Digital fluency skills are good for workers, KP members and the organization, says Jessica Butz, the coalition’s national coordinator for Workforce Planning and Development. While some may fear technology will eliminate jobs, the push at KP is to use it not to replace workers but to enhance the care and service they deliver.

“Learning these critical skills will prepare our workers for jobs in the future and give them the tools to shape and improve care for our members and patients,” Butz says.