CEO LEADERSHIP
Special Feature :: Kaiser Permanente
we are trying to create. I am looking forward to continuing this new conversation with employees. We also, of course, periodically conduct a massive, systemwide survey of employee attitudes and concerns. I also hold regular town hall meetings and an open Q&A forum following my annual keynote address at our National Diversity Conference which draws more than a thousand participants and hundreds more through national video simulcast from across the organization. Have you encountered those who perceive inclusion programs for underrepresented groups as being exclusionary for others? George Halvorson at The Kaiser Permanente International Dragon Boat Festival.
ciations, undergraduate internship programs, high school summer employment programs and programs like the Hippocrates Circle. This program pairs our physicians with elementary school students in underserved neighborhoods to provide first-hand exposure to medical professions and encourage their consideration as viable and attainable career goals. EMPLOYEE INCLUSIVENESS Sometimes diversity is referred to as a numbers game. How does your company know its culture is not just tied up in numbers? We have a very diverse set of senior leaders and we make that
diversity very visible so people at all levels can recognize that diversity for us is a practice, not an aspiration. We also utilize the diverse cultural and language skills of our workforce in very tangible ways to provide quality care and services to our members. Therefore, it is understood that workforce diversity is not about numbers, but about the diverse talent and skillsets needed to provide quality, culturally informed care and services to diverse populations. Would you say that employees are more engaged in the company than they were two years ago? Yes. We are currently insti-
tuting unit-based teams to do more collaborative work at our various worksites. These teams are at the front line of the organization and they are designed to increase participation in making improvements in the delivery of care and in other organizational processes. Company sponsored activities, such as the Martin Luther King Day of Volunteerism and a Week of Caring, allow employees to make meaningful contributions in service to the communities most in need of volunteer efforts and support. These include working in homeless shelters and food banks, painting neighborhood schools and distributing warm winter clothing to those most in need. As a community benefit organization, these activities involve our employees directly in core functions of the organization. How are employees’ opinions solicited? Do you have an employee ‘suggestion box’ or similar system and how is it monitored and responded to? Our unit-based teams solicit
input from all team members. In addition, I encourage employees to talk to their managers and leaders and to talk directly to me via e-mail to help us improve. Open communications are vital if we are to be a learning organization. I read all the e-mail I receive from employees and respond when appropriate. In September 2007, I started a weekly dialogue with employees via e-mail to further encourage their feedback and to share my thoughts on the culture
This has not been a big issue for us to deal with. When inclusion is the obvious value, it doesn’t feel like exclusion for anyone. In other settings, where exclusion is the cultural approach, these kinds of challenges can occur. Can you describe your method for orienting new hires into your culture? For enriching employees’ awareness or introducing new issues? We have several orientation programs
for new hires. We are currently examining them to provide more consistency; however, we want to continue to respect the differences across our company. Another important resource in the orientation of new employees into our culture is enlisting the assistance and services of our many multicultural staff associations. They provide invaluable support for new employees and accelerate the orientation and learning curve by providing practical information, an affinity group network and support throughout the onboarding process. For enriching employee awareness, we conduct periodic town hall meetings, and over the past couple of years, we have introduced executive forums, which give employees additional opportunity to hear from and ask questions of senior management. Can you name specific ways KP supports upward development toward management positions? We support upward development
of all employees—with inclusion and diversity as key goals—through our formal succession planning process. This is a bottom-up process in which we review career and promotion opportunities. We also provide tuition reimbursement along with formal and informal leadership development programs. Besides those programs, we are preparing to launch an executive mentoring program that involves the most senior executives in the organization. They will act as mentors to high potential employees with a particular emphasis on executive workforce diversity. What about bringing women and minority employees into the fabric of the organization? What programs are in place or on the drawing board to advance women and minorities? Our
strategy for attracting the best and most diverse workers is to reinforce our standing as a “best place to work,” nurture an inclusive, welcoming workplace environment, and encourage internal movement that yields more women and minority executives. Our employees know that 74 percent of our workforce are women and 45 percent of our executives are women and choose us because of it. We have won multiple awards and recognitions for our status as a diversity-friendly employer. We tend to celebrate these awards with all employees, to set a tone of values and inclusion. P ro f i l e s i n D i v e r s i t y J o u r n a l
January/February 2008
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