Path to Performance

One of a manager’s most important roles may not appear on the job description — but goes hand in hand with getting results.

“Managers have a key role in helping employees build successful careers,” says Maria Aldana, a career counselor with the SEIU UHW-West & Joint Employer Education Fund, one of two education trusts supported by the Labor Management Partnership between Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. “A great leader creates other leaders.”

Fortunately, Kaiser Permanente managers have many ways to support their employees’ development and ensure their department’s success. Here are five.

1. Have career conversations with employees. Talks can be brief and happen anytime and anywhere during the work day, not just during annual performance evaluations. Get tips at Kaiser Permanente’s leadership and management portal (sign-in required) and at Skillsoft @ KP (sign-in required), an on-demand, mobile-ready catalog of learning resources.

“We need to keep and grow our people so they are ready for the changes in health care,” says Beth Levin, a career counselor and outreach coordinator with the Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust, which serves all members of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions outside of SEIU UHW.

2. Know what resources are available. HRconnect and KP Learn have resources available for all KP employees, and the LMP website offers tips, tools and practices for individual and team development. Employees can learn about the four critical skills, explore career paths and access tuition reimbursement at kpcareerplanning.org.

The two education trusts offer courses at every level of development, many at no cost to employees, as well as career counseling, tuition assistance programs and more.

3. Work with career counselors. Education trust career counselors can tailor training, provide one-on-one career planning and coaching, and help with skill assessments.

For example, an indexing clerk manager in Colorado told Aldana how his employees needed more computer skills to keep doing their jobs effectively. She met with employees, discussed changes in their field, informed them of available resources and developed a plan that included onsite training.

4. Schedule time for employees to take classes. “Labor and management can come up with a schedule that works and we can offer the training,” Aldana says. “We usually can find vendors that come on site.”

5. Look for development opportunities for employees. Managers can suggest that an employee lead a huddle, serve on a committee, or become an active unit-based team participant or health and safety champion to “gain experience, build skills and network,” Levin says.

Building such engagement can get employees excited about change and encourage them to build their skills.

“When one person is successful, it inspires and motivates other people,” says Levin.

Looking to stay current in the fast-changing world of health care? You’re not alone.

Kaiser Permanente leaders, labor representatives and industry experts offered insights at November’s Workforce of the Future Conference in Berkeley, California.

“We’ve made a lot of progress over the last few years,” said Monica Morris, director of National Workforce Planning and Development, who welcomed the audience of 200 labor and management representatives tasked with advancing the Labor Management Partnership’s Workforce of the Future initiative. “Now it’s time to do even more.”

Here are six strategies you can follow to prepare for the workforce of the future.

Learn new ways to work. During the Industrial Revolution, cobblers and weavers had to adapt or get left behind. This process continues today—only now, it’s happening faster, said keynote speaker Art Bilger, founder and CEO of WorkingNation, a nonprofit group seeking solutions for economic change.

“The solutions are local,” he said. “Communication of these issues and solutions is critical.”

Become lifelong learners. Skills used to last a lifetime and career paths were clear. Now there’s a new development every 18 months. Get on the cutting edge and imagine the opportunities technology provides.

“Be deeply curious. We’re all newbies,” said keynote speaker John Seely Brown, an author, scholar and former director of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, who gives high marks to the innovative learning approach of the new Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine.

Keep developing your career. Age is not a barrier to lifelong learning, said keynote speaker Sandi Vito, executive director of 1199SEIU Training and Employment Funds, which partners with Montefiore Health System in New York.

“People tend to think that employees in their 50s can’t aspire to career advancement,” Vito said. “It just requires different approaches. Adults learn more by doing.”

Indeed, the average age of participants in the two LMP-supported educational trusts (Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust and SEIU UHW-West & Joint Employer Education Fund) is 44.

Use available resources. Kaiser Permanente employees have many resources to advance their careers, including targeted training programs for workers represented by the Coalition of KP Unions.

To start, learn four critical skills that will be essential to the future of health care. A digital fluency program launched in October, to be followed by programs in consumer focus, collaboration and process improvement.

“We don’t know what the jobs of the future will be,” said conference facilitator Tony Borba, Northern California regional director for The Permanente Medical Group. “We need to use our resources so we are ready for changes in the workforce.”

Tap the power of partnership. As Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of KP Unions have successfully partnered, Montefiore and 1199SEIU have developed collaborative training programs, such as community health worker apprenticeships that benefit employees, the organization and the community, said keynote speaker Lynn Richmond, Montefiore’s chief strategy officer.

Get involved. The conference produced actionable ideas such as developing a communications strategy to show the value of continuous learning and generate more on-the-job training. Other ideas included apprenticeships and reverse mentoring.

“How do we leverage the power of preceptors, mentors and the educational trusts?” said conference speaker Jessica Butz, the union coalition’s national program coordinator for Workforce Planning and Development. “This is your chance to help shape what we do at Kaiser Permanente.”

“The No. 1 reason for the success of our teams has been personal engagement,” says Alan Kroll, a primary care area administrator in Colorado who co-sponsors nine unit-based teams with his labor and physician partners. “Everyone needs to buy into the process to make partnership work.”

Building engagement and ensuring a consistent work experience have been goals of the Labor Management Partnership since the beginning. But, at the same time, there’s been a good deal of variation around these efforts from location to location across Kaiser Permanente, to the frustration of many managers, workers, and KP members and patients.

That’s why the 2015 National Agreement mandates partnership training for everyone, including the mid-level managers and union leaders who guide others. Early versions of the partnership training for mid-level leaders, which will be available this year, have gotten high marks from UBT sponsors and other leaders who have taken it. 

Consistency counts

The agreement calls for “a learning system that supports sustained behavior change, partnership and performance.” This includes joint training and refresher courses—delivered in-person
and/or online—to “achieve the same partnership and employment experience wherever one works in KP.” 

The new training for mid-level leaders will include segments on: interest-based problem solving examining the forces that support or undermine partnership core partnership behaviors and principles the strategic importance of the LMP 

Joint training is key 

The programs are designed to develop successful leaders who can model partnership and spread successful practices—and to ensure that the managers or union representatives helping teams have what they need to support those teams.

“It is very powerful for managers and union leaders to be in training together,” Kroll says. “It sends the message that everyone is important, and sets a foundation to work from when an issue gets stuck.”

The training served as a reminder that good partnership practices also are good leadership practices. 

“People want to hear from their leaders,” he says, and to “know what issues we are dealing with and that we can help remove obstacles.”

See the 2015 National Agreement, section 1.E, Education and Training (pages 31–33) for additional information.