For many workers, a job in housekeeping at a hospital is another dead-end position in an endless cycle of low pay, low skills, and limited opportunity. For a housekeeper at The Health Allliance of Greater Cincinnati, an entry-level job can be the first step in a pathway that leads to valuable credentials and a career as a health professional.
Alan Jones, Corporate Vice President of Human Resources & Public Safety for The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, is a key leader in the movement to create this new pathway to opportunity in Cincinnati. For Jones, expanding opportunities helps the hospital solve a critical workforce issue, "where do we get the nurses and radiation technicians? In the past, we solved the problem by stealing qualified employees away from each other, which only increases the cost of doing business."
Benefits the individual, benefits the hospital
Jones notes that one key resource to solve the skilled workforce problem is already in the hospital-the hundreds of people working in entry-level jobs, such as housekeeping and food service. Many of these entry-level workers are interested in careers in health, but lack the skills and credentials they need to get ahead. Jones believes that employees who are willing to work to earn these credentials should have a chance at opportunity.
Jones always believed that people don't have to accept their lot in life, that things can be different. "Sometimes people just don't know how to move up." Jones understands that the reality of day-to-day life stops most workers before they even start to dream, and that going back to school is hard for working adults. "Where do I find the cash for tuition?" "How will I get the math skills required?" "I'm already so busy with kids, work, elderly parents.... how do I find the time to break out of this dead-end job cycle?"
Jones and his colleagues in Cincinnati know that helping entry-level employees overcome these barriers and improve their lives is not just beneficial to the people who advance their careers. It also helps the hospitals recruit and retain skilled and dedicated workers. "Sometimes people just don't know how to move up. We do a great disservice with our 'churn and burn' at the entry level. We need to find better ways to engage people and show them that, with the right educational programs, they can move into professional positions."
"We need to find better ways to engage people and show them that, with the right educational programs, they can move into professional positions."
The Power of Collaboration
Jones' dedication to creating changes in his own hospital was not enough. He knew he needed to work with other hospitals in the area, with business leaders committed to the same goals. Together, they could work to modify systems that reduce turnover, help workers gain the skills and credentials they need to succeed, and assist those workers in becoming qualified for hard-to-fill jobs.
Jones and other leaders in the hospital community, working through the Health Careers Committee of the Greater Cincinnati Health Council, a healthcare collaborative that Jones chaired from 2002 until 2007, developed the idea for the Health Professions Academy. The Health Professions Academy, later re-named the Health Careers Collaborattive, is a joint venture with Cincinnati Children's Hospital, The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, Great Oaks Institute of Technology & Career Development, and Cincinnati State College, which offers education and training in health care fields, and establishing career pathways for the under-employed. This consortium of hospitals would become a driving force, its members change agents who have created a provider system focused on nurturing the students' needs.
Changing Hospital Policies
Members of the Collaborative began by agreeing that the age-old practice of competing for a limited pool of skilled employees has not been productive. Expanding this pool would require identifying which hospital policies needed to change, and developing a plan that outlines how the hospitals could work together.
Financial Barriers
To overcome the financial barriers facing entry-level workers, Jones and his colleagues amended the hospitals' tuition policies, replacing tuition reimbursement with tuition advancement. Says Jones, "Now we pay it up front -- it's that important. Unless a program offers college credit, we won't pay for it."
Schedule Challenges
Recognizing that the role of the supervisor as a partner in the success of the entry-level employee is paramount, the Collaborative instituted a program that offers more flexible scheduling for worker-students. Managers who weren't accustomed to accommodating workers' schedules are now on board, thanks to an orientation that brings the manager and the employee together.
Pathways
According to Jones, typical HR systems for advancement are geared more to the mid-level workforce. The new model includes pathways for the entry-level worker, with new policies that provide a career plan for low-end workers. Not everyone who enters the program is going to be an RN. Pathways can open the doors; people can stop out at various stages, and everybody wins when people move up. Jones looks ahead to identify areas in which they will need qualified professionals, developing pathways that will address those needs in the long-term.
Getting the Educational System on Board
Jones knew that changing the hospital policies for worker advancement would only take them so far. "By asking 'what does the worker need?' we came together as hospitals. Getting employers more closely engaged is key in changing systems; and business absolutely needs to be involved. But employers can't do it alone. We needed the educational system to work with us to develop solutions and address some fundamental capacity issues. Until we did this, everyone was just working on their part of the problem, without anyone seeing how action in one place affected another part of the system."
"By asking 'what does the worker need?' we came together as hospitals."
Jones quickly learned that working with colleges can be "one of the most frustrating experiences. Educational systems are very entrenched in doing the same thing the same way they have always done it; a lot of that policy stuff is kind of pie in the sky. In order to be change agents, we needed to look at things differently." Jones emphasizes the importance of working both sides of the system. "Leaders from the business side bring a lot of clout to the table. We had to become allies with the folks on the inside, use our voices to call for change that more effectively addressed the needs of the region."
A shortage of instructors, particularly in fields such as nursing, was top on the list.
The hospitals agreed to come together to pay for additional instructors. The schools needed their students to get clinical experience. Jones' thinking: "I don't need clinical experiences. I need employees. I'm not giving my clinical experiences unless I get what I need. For years, the schools were the 'choke point.' Now the schools are cranking up the numbers of students, and the incumbent workers in these hospitals get the priority for the clinical."
The colleges competing against each other was another major challenge facing Jones and his colleagues. "Coming together, we saw that incentives in the system rewarded colleges for 'protecting their turf.' As business leaders, we could bridge the gap by working with the community and technical colleges, not just the four-year institutions. We needed to be organized, and engaged on a personal level. The systems weren't going to move without a push."
"We needed to be organized, and engaged on a personal level. The systems weren't going to move without a push."
Although "schools are eager to have a partnership with employers," Jones and the other members of the collaborative realized that nobody wants to lose the funding streams, and it's easier to leave the old systems in place. He explains, "the educational institutions are very quick to tell the state legislators that 'we need more money,' even when the programs aren't serving the community's needs. There is still that belief that technical education is a lower standard than a four-year degree. We have people who apply every day who have degrees, but don't have the skills we need. I'm amazed at the duplication of programs. Technical proficiency is critical, for the employers and the employees."
Progress Report
Jones' efforts have led to the development of several changes being instituted by the State of Ohio, including the development of the Ohio Skills Bank. Today, as Corporate Vice President of Human Resources & Public Safety with The Health Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, Jones is working with other leaders from the business community so that their vision for opportunity becomes a reality. His approach produces two key outcomes: People in entry level jobs, such as housekeeping and food service, get an opportunity to gain credentials and skills, and advance into better paying jobs; and the hospital creates a new source of skilled and committed employees to work in hard-to-fill positions.
Recently, Great Oaks Institute had an LPN training program that they gave to Cincinnati State. The schools both agreed this was in the interest of the students. Jones praises both institutions for their enthusiasm and cooperation. "We were fortunate here with Great Oaks and Cincinnati State. They keep us engaged and want to know what we need and what we are doing. They really get it. Their partnership is key in the success to the Collaborative."
Jones' Advice for Business Leaders
- Remember to focus on 'what does the worker need?'
- Evaluate the workforce needs of your business and plan ahead for the skilled positions you'll need to fill.
- Collaborate with local and regional education. They should be turning out people to fill your jobs. Make them talk to each other. Keep in mind they need incentives to collaborate. Everybody wants some piece of the pie.
- Be patient and persistent.
- Measure your successes. If you demonstrate that your programs and policy changes will be effective, employers will invest their time and workers will reap the benefits.
Alan Jones' spirit of collaboration and commitment to integrate the corporate and public sectors in Cincinnati have created a model environment for both employers and prospective students. His unwavering vision of opportunity has helped to create changes in the community's hospitals, as well as in provider/public policy. Working together with business leadership and education, he has been instrumental in building a powerful and effective collaborative capacity for long-term and large-scale change, a system in which everybody wins.