The Next Generation of Workforce with Healthcare Professional, Tracey Pierce

1Huddle Podcast Episode #11

On this Bring It In podcast episode, 1Huddle’s Director of Customer Success Jared Center sat down with Tracey Pierce, a health care professional and SVP of Development and Strategic Outreach at CommonSpirit Health, one of the country’s largest non-profits. Their mission is to provide for the most vulnerable while advocating for a healthier future.

On this episode of Bring It In season one, Tracey sat down with Jared and discussed the next generation entering the workforce, adapting to technology, effective leadership, and the proper attitude.

Audio available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Google Podcasts. 

TOP 3 HIGHLIGHTS

Below are some of the insights Tracey shared during our chat, edited for length and clarity. You can find more Bring It In podcast episodes here.

• “We gotta start every day with hope and a wicked sense of humor. Those elements will get you far.”
• “The world’s been global for a long time so you are only a call away.”
• “You’ve got to care about what’s going on in the world.”

FULL TRANSCRIPTION

Jared: Tracey, thanks so much for joining us. 

Tracey: It’s my privilege, thank you. 

Jared: I would love to learn a little bit more about you, your background and what you focused on today.

Tracey: I feel really privileged every day when I wake up and can say that I’m part of one of the largest mission-based nonprofits in the country. CommonSpirit Health always looks to serve the underserved. We offer healthcare regardless of one’s ability to pay. And when we look at what we’re facing right now with the pandemic, more now than ever, it’s really important that all of those communities, urban and suburban hospitals, are receiving the support that they need. But regardless of what role I play as a leader in the learning and development role within Common Spirit Health, it’s nothing compared to the first responders that kind of put themselves in harm’s way every day to often care for somebody that they have no relationship with. So the last few months it’s given me a whole new perspective about the quality of  people, frankly. 

Jared: Tracey, when you think about the future of work, when you think of that phrase, what does it mean to you and why do you think it’s important that we talk about it? 

Tracey: Well, for us, it really has forced us to look at and take on board things we’re capable of delivering. We pride ourselves that when a new employee joins the team that they have and get an onboarding, that high touch, that really focuses on the mission, the organization, the tours, all of a sudden, you face a pandemic where your onboarding is all occurring remotely. So how do you do something like that and still make it a high touch and still make sure tools and equipment are where they’re supposed to be? A big portion of those people onboarding are caregivers, so they are going to be on the frontline. So there’s this balance between doing things remotely and having the reality of people not being remote, being on the front line and interacting with the sick and the mean. So it’s really been excellent learning, but I would be lying if I didn’t tell you, in many cases we’re just kind of trying things  and making sure that we’re tracking. So we have a baseline ability to measure, did that work? Why not? Did that work? Let’s do it again. So we try to be very clear about what we did that was different. How was it different? And so we can clearly learn going forward. We need more of this and less of this and this can wait.

Jared: What are some other examples, Tracey, of things that you and your role and your team are working on today? And obviously you’re doing a little bit of reacting in the moment. Of course, not as much time for advanced planning, but of course you need to think ahead a little bit. What are some of the other things your team is kind of focused on right now? 

Tracey: Well, the team originally is a pretty robust team focused on a brick and mortar approach. Right? We have cohorts, we have instructors. Now we’re moving to virtual interactions, and how do you make those interactions using technology like we’re doing today? The Zooms, the Googles, the WebEx’s of the world, how do you use those technologies and in such a way that you can still have breakout sessions, still have that interaction, still have that learning from each other and experiential training not in a classroom format? That’s something you could appreciate when you’re a nonprofit. We don’t spend a lot of money on technology. 

Jared: Right.

Tracey: All of a sudden we’re learning very quickly what technology is a must have, what do we have to work on to at least be able to launch or have the dialogue like we’re having today, Jared? It’s not that it’s challenging, it’s just not a question you ever asked. When you go to a conference room, it’s like “does the video start?” That’s the biggest challenge, your video starts, right? So these are the other things and to still have that ability to connect and have a conversation when the person might be sitting in their home office. 

So all of our curriculums are shifting from being that brick and mortar classroom to 80%, 90% online. Right? The only things that really in this time that are in-person are the things that are standardized to audit, the clinical audits. So things that you actually have to go show people at any service area are the only things that we’re actually doing in person. So we’ve moved 180 to how we operate. And that’s been a lot of days of laughter. 

Jared: Yes. That’s the mindset and that’s the attitude you have to have. What are some of the things that you’ve been hearing from your team, from your employees, from your peers? What are some of the things that you like about remote work or that you’re seeing that are helpful for the future of work? And then what are some of the things that you think we really need to continue to work on?

Tracey: So I think one of the things is that, as I kind have alluded to, a sense of humor goes a long way, but I think one of the things that has been most shocking is that people realize they can do it. That you actually can have a meaningful conversation, make decisions, and deliver good work while working remotely. I won’t say it’s been shocking, but it has at best been surprising for a lot of people that you can actually do this and do it particularly well.

I think what you get out of the employee, depending on what time or era you’re from, this idea that the leadership has to see the team members in front of the office is kind of in the past. It’s like the reality of it is, it isn’t even about trusting your employees. It is about, you can probably get any more work because frankly, we only have to look good from the waist up. You know, if I go jogging and then jump onto a call, nobody really knows. And so the work thing, I think is you get a lot more out of any given Workday. For those people that are the creatives, and I’m very lucky. I got a lot of creative stuff done, a lot of team building activities using the system. 

But on the flip side, I think, the ability to walk down the hall, have an idea and say, Hey, Jerry, let’s go have lunch, people miss that. Because at the end of the day humans, we are clannish, right. We kind of like to go off. So things like that I don’t know long-term how you can replace the ability to just break bread and have a chat that wasn’t expected that we do a lot of groups think out of that.

Jared: Absolutely. And I think what’s interesting to think about when we talk about the future of work too, is the generation that’s coming up and is entering the workforce currently. So when you talk about, you know, walking down the hall and and, and asking me to, you know, let’s go grab a bite for lunch, the current generation that’s coming into the workforce, that isn’t something that they either are used to, or maybe even comfortable with in terms of face to face interaction, which I think is interesting.

But we know how important that is, of course, in building culture, building teamwork. So when you think, Tracey about this next generation entering the workforce, what do you think has to change, if anything, to better prepare them for their first five to 10 years out of school entering the workforce where things are shifting so quickly, what do you think that we need to do to kind of like better prepare this next generation?

Tracey: Well, you know, I think in many ways this next generation has a head start on us. First of all, because they’re very curious, they’ll ask questions that in previous generations, you kind of raised your hand and if you got the nod to ask a question, you would ask it, whereas this generation just asks questions. There’s no stupid question. They have that down. But when you talk about building culture, culture is built by examples, right? You see how your leadership, your leaders of your family. I mean, let’s just be honest. Most of us learned how to behave by watching how our elders behave.

Jared: One hundred percent.

Tracey: It’s very difficult to do that on a camera. So, the ability to have circles, communities, of learning, I think is something that we all look to and that circle community may not be happening in the workplace. Maybe it’s happening enough in a coffee shop or in a workspace. Coming from the bay area, we would go to any given coffee shop, and if you were sitting at the right table and you could learn a lot. So I think that’s what you’re going to see, is a lot more community works rather than these holistic things with a broad brush. The world’s been global for a long time so you are only a call away. So the ability to have conversations with Europe and Asia, that’s been done by technology for a very, very long time, but there’s always been that meeting for those important events that just traveling is not going to be the same.

I don’t think traveling is going to be the same. And I think with the most recent, unfortunately, spike in the age group of who’s getting  this particular pandemic, it shows that no one is immune. It really isn’t about “you are this age with this underlying condition”. It really is about if you’re not protecting yourself and you too could get something. So then traveling becomes something that you must do. Not necessarily what people want to do anymore.

 So I think all of those things put together in this generation, they’re going to have to address those and probably address it in small bites as opposed to a global policy. But if there’s any group that has a head start it’s this group, because they are very, very comfortable with technology.

Jared: Absolutely. Absolutely, you’re right. And speaking to that generation, the example that they’re learning from is let’s say their household or their parents that are modeling for them. And then of course, in their first, whether it’s 18, 21 years, most of them are in school. Before they would start working at CommonSpirit Health, for example, what role do you think that our educational system plays, Tracey, in preparing that generation? 

Tracey: Well, I think one of the things we’ve really noted is when you look at a curriculum, for most of us, who go through attending a four year college. You have these kinds of forming courses, right before you get into your major, that’s going to almost be flipped where you have a lot more specifics in learning and a lot less general. That’s why I think online education has seen such a spike because they will take into consideration how you work, your ability to attend an in class versus online. 

So I suspect, and obviously, I don’t know, but I suspect you’re going to see an increase with online education, as opposed to going to a four year school where you live in a dorm and these types of types of things, which is really sad because those were the best years of my life.

Jared: I know, I know! I’ve said that I feel so bad for them and grateful that I had a college experience. It’s just one of the many unfortunate things that are happening right now. We’ll learn from it, but it was fun for sure. What would be your message to those top 200 HR leaders across the globe in terms of their role and the impact that they can have on the future of work? What would your message be?

Tracey: Wow, that’s a, that’s a great question. You know, throughout my career, I’ve always thought of HR as an enabler rather than a policing department. And I think depending on what organization you belong to, your whole role often is the policing department. I think more now than ever HR has to move and be very much at the forefront of enabling an organization to work with this transition. 

So how do we encourage leaders to learn and adapt their skills to this virtual workforce? How do you learn about how to do team building to make sure that a new employee has a body? I mean, what are the things that you’re going to stop doing versus start doing? And HR is driving to get the right people on the proverbial bus, so to speak. I see that more than ever, when I looked at the kind of courses and the tools that we’ve offered in the last five months, it really is a lot around “how will you still lead and lead with courage in some cases. But lead with enthusiasm and motivation in all cases during this time”. Because we’re working, but we still have a lot of unanswered questions about what all this means. 

So it’s the balance between, you’ve got to care about what’s going on in the world, but maybe your best ability to contribute to that is to really do a great onboarding where somebody feels like now I can get to work quicker and faster so I can help deliver some results. That’s what comes to mind, you know, that’s the kind of question upfront, for me to really think about!

Jared: I thought that was a pretty good first run at it. Maybe I’ll round up the top 200 HR leaders for real and then we can talk to them.

Tracey: I’ve got a lot of learning to do from them.

Jared: To be honest with you, I think what you just said is also a key when we think about the future of work in what’s changing. I think making sure that no matter where we are, who we are, that we all have a lot to learn from each other. And that kind of continuous improvement mindset and lifelong learning mindset is going to, I think it would take us far for sure. 

Tracey: Right. There’s a dual message, there’s lifelong learning and there’s hope. We gotta start every day with hope  and a wicked sense of humor. Those elements will get you far. 

Jared: Well, I think those were all the questions that I had, Tracey. 

Tracey: Thank you for the opportunity.

Topics Discussed: Leadership, Education, Adaptability, Innovation, Mindset