Ches Jacobson serves as a prime example of Intermountain Health’s approach to developing talent from entry-level positions into leadership roles.
Mr. Jacobson began his career at the organization as a front-line employee in environmental services at a rural hospital in Utah, later becoming an LPN and then an RN. He gained experience across several nursing departments within Intermountain and participated in leadership development courses. Today, he serves as a chief nursing officer at one of the system’s rural hospitals.
Heather Brace, executive vice president and chief people officer at Intermountain, told Becker’s this was possible because Mr. Jacobson is among employees who have taken advantage of tuition reimbursement, internal support programs and coaching programs.
“We don’t put caps on the number of programs that you can participate in at Intermountain,” Ms. Brace said. “You could go through a number of programs that use our education support. You can go through a number of leadership development courses. And we’ve found that to be really helpful in individuals engaging from the beginning of their career path all the way through being a mature leader.”
While Mr. Jacobson serves as a good example of this mindset, Intermountain recognizes that developing talent from entry level into leadership roles begins with the recognition that one size doesn’t fit all.
The 33-hospital health system employs more than 68,000 caregivers across six states — a workforce that ranges in age from 16 to 87.
“So, when we think about what that looks like for providing talent and development opportunities, it really can’t be a one-size-fits-all — because what a 16-year-old is looking for in learning and developing and growing in their career is very different than someone who’s 40 or 60 or even 80,” Ms. Brace said.
“And we know through our data that meeting caregiver career goals is the No. 1 driver of caregiver engagement. It’s the No. 1 driver of inclusion, and it’s the No. 1 driver of well-being. And we know that through doing numerous surveys across the years at Intermountain — and that’s been true for the last couple of years.”
Tracking ROI through internal promotion
To measure return on investment with internal promotion vs. external recruiting, Intermountain emphasizes succession planning beyond the executive leadership team.
“Do we have bench strength in levels below us to be able to grow?” Ms. Brace said. “At the highest levels in our organization, we have an aspiration for a 90% promotion rate.
“We also recognize that bringing in fresh talent is also really important in specific areas. Maybe it’s something that we don’t have a skill set in, we’ve never done before, or maybe we need a different lens on how we’re doing it. So we’ll always bring in talent from the external when we need to do that.
“But we also really believe—because we have a very unique culture at Intermountain, we’re rooted in servant leadership—and we believe it is really important to invest in our own caregivers and help them grow, because then they understand, they can embrace not only our mission but the culture.”
Education, retention and the PEAK program
For example, Intermountain has been running a nursing cohort out of a community college in Salt Lake City for about 15 years. The health system has supported about 1,000 nurses to go through that program. Among program participants, the retention rate at Intermountain is above 90%.
“We’ve been able to support just under 1,000 leaders to go through this nursing program that we’ve paid everything for — from tuition to books,” Ms. Brace said. “And many of them are earning and learning. There are CNAs who are becoming RNs as they’re learning. We have over a 90% retention rate in that cohort of individuals who’ve gone through those programs, and many of those nurses are nurse leaders today. So I think what we’ve learned is, when we invest in our caregivers, they largely stay at Intermountain.”
Ms. Brace said the health system has also seen this in its surgical technician program. She noted that surgical tech roles are challenging to recruit from the community, so Intermountain relied on travelers to fill those positions in Utah for years.
“Over the last five years, on a regular basis, we had upward to 25 or 30 travelers at any given time — which means sometimes we’re paying double the salary to have those caregivers work in our organization,” she said.
“And we’ve partnered with technical institutes to be able to train people to become surgical techs. It’s about an 18- to 24-month program. We found that…we trained more than the technical institutes. Intermountain decided we can’t train them fast enough, and we wanted to stop using travelers. So, we used our own leaders and a curriculum that we designed, and we trained more than the technical universities in the state of Utah last year.”
This effort led to a reduction in Intermountain’s vacancy rate to a five-year low. And it’s working toward the same approach in Colorado, Nevada and Montana.
The ‘nonnegotiables’ for leaders
For leaders at other systems trying to build stronger talent pipelines, she considers some areas “nonnegotiables.”
“What is non-negotiable with our leaders is: we don’t want you hoarding talent. If people want to learn and grow, we help them do that,” Ms. Brace said.
For example, the health system has moved from traditional performance reviews to check-ins.
“And as part of the check-ins, we stress that our leaders have development as a core part of their conversation,” Ms. Brace said. “And our HR leaders, in partnership with our operational leaders—we really emphasize all the ways that our caregivers can be supported.”
“Because I think when you think about how you can support caregivers in growth, you often just think of tuition reimbursement. And that’s why we’ve gone from a one-size-fits-all approach, to having all kinds of ways that we support our caregivers.”
This includes Intermountain’s Pathway to Education, Advancement and Knowledge program, where employees receive upfront tuition reimbursement for online programs. Through the program, participants are able to achieve certifications or obtain a bachelor’s or master’s degree. Currently, about 4,300 caregivers are enrolled in the PEAK program.
“The really cool thing about the PEAK program is we allow gifting,” Ms. Brace said. “That benefit can be given to your spouse, your domestic partner or your dependent children that are 16 years old or older. That alone has been a really fun experiment, because we’re starting to now see our caregivers who …may be at a point in their career they don’t want to be growing in their career from an education standpoint—but they can give it to someone else. And we’re starting to see the ability to hire people’s kids or spouses who otherwise may not think of healthcare as a career.”
Intermountain has also partnered with various universities to offer debt-free education. And, internally, the health system offers employees leadership development programs, as well as “earn and learn,” mentoring and fellowship opportunities.
“So those are all some of the ways that we’re focusing on developing our people,” said Ms. Brace. “But it starts with the mindset of our leaders—that we’re developing talent on behalf of Intermountain.”
