Work of the Future: Sustaining Health Care Organizations with a Shifting Workforce

December 3, 2021

12:00-1:30pm central

Virtual Panel Discussion

*Approved for 1.5 F2F ACHE Education Credits

COVID-19 has been a challenge worldwide and continues to have major impact on many aspects of our daily life; including the way people work. Health care organizations of all types are now trying to reimagine what the workplace could, or should look like to continue serving patients effectively, but also meeting the preferences and needs of employees. A 2020 survey showed almost 71% of employees worked from home during the pandemic, but many direct patient care employees didn’t have that opportunity. As health care leaders, many of us are now facing workforce shortages as frontline staff continue to experience a great deal of burnout from direct patient care and the pandemic only pushed many staff too far past their limits. Other health care organizations could effectively move their operations to a virtual environment, but now face uncertainty about what this may do to culture and effectiveness if this change is permanent. Health care organizations were often the first employers to require a COVID-19 vaccine requirement, putting their commitment to the health and safety of the people they serve to the ultimate test even if some employees reacted negatively.

As has been said about many other issues, COVID-19 only just exacerbated problems in our systems that may have already been there. For many years, the health care industry has been facing staff shortages and physician and clinical staff burnout. The impending retirement of baby boomers, increasing focus towards work-life balance, flexibility and technology were already putting pressure on employers to offer remote or hybrid work arrangements. In many ways, COVID-19 was the catalyst to these changes, not the cause. This panel brings together executive leaders from different organizations who are at the forefront of steering their workplaces into the future with sustainability and mission driving their action plan.

The focus of this panel will be on the future, and less on how organizations dealt with workforce issues during the pandemic. However, lessons will certainly be referenced!

Moderator: Jerry Nye, Partner, C-Suite Resources

Panelist: Pat Schmitt, Vice President Organizational Effectiveness & Chief Human Resources Officer, UCare

Panelist: Joe Kalkman, Chief Administrative Officer & Executive Vice President HR, CentraCare

Panelist: Patti Kneiser, Vice President of Employer Services, Froedtert Health

Panelist: Laurin Cathey, Vice President & Chief Human Resources Officer, Children’s Minnesota

Tickets:

Members – $25

Non-Members $40

Students – $10

Jerry Nye, C-Suite Resources partner, has worked in healthcare administration since graduating with a Masters Degree from the University of Minnesota Healthcare Administration Program in 1977. During the course of his career, he has served in senior management and executive roles with academic medical centers, faculty practice plans, community hospitals and hospital/physician joint ventures.

Prior to joining C-Suite, Nye spent more than 10 years with Integrated Healthcare Strategies, a Minneapolis-based consulting firm specializing in executive and physician compensation and benefits.

Over the course of his career with Integrated Healthcare Strategies, he was involved in business development and consulted in areas including executive and physician compensation and benefits; governance and leadership development and human capital development. He also served as senior vice president of the Minneapolis office reporting directly to the president of the firm and overseeing the operations of the consulting and benefits administration for five years.

Pat Schmitt brings more than 25 years of human resources and enterprise project management leadership experience to her role as Vice President of Organizational Effectiveness and CHRO at UCare. Since 2012, she has led UCare’s human resources, as well as change management and project management strategy and delivery of services. Schmitt is a member of UCare’s Leadership Team. Her passion for employee engagement is shown by UCare’s recognition as a Star Tribune Top Workplace for the 12th consecutive year in 2021. Prior to joining UCare, Schmitt held senior HR leadership roles with HealthEast and Hennepin Healthcare (formerly Hennepin County Medical Center). Schmitt has a bachelor of science degree in Business from the College of St. Catherine and master of arts in human resources & industrial relations from the University of Minnesota.

Joseph (Joe) Kalkman joined CentraCare in January of 2018. He is responsible for culture, compensation and benefits, recruiting and hiring, employee & labor relations, HR technology, processes and analytics, Employee Health Services, and volunteer programs (including the Auxiliary Board, Gorecki House, hospital gift shops, meals-on-wheels and in-home medical alert system). Prior to joining CentraCare, Mr. Kalkman spent two years as the VP of Talent Management at Anthem (Indianapolis), the second largest medical insurance company in the US. Before Anthem, he was at Best Buy (Minneapolis) for 12 years, holding several HR leadership roles including VP Global Talent Management, VP of Total Rewards, and VP of US HR Business Partners. Before being recruited by Best Buy, Mr. Kalkman spent 8 years at Northwest Airlines (Eagan). Kalkman started his professional career at Dow Chemical (Midland, MI), spending more than 4 years in HR, Training, and Organization Assessment roles.

Kalkman serves on the Workforce Development Committee of the Minnesota Hospital Association, the Board of Directors for the Central Minnesota chapter of Boy Scouts of America, and the Board of Directors for VocalEssence in Minneapolis. He is a Trustee of the Minnesota Zoo Foundation and past member of its Executive Committee and past Chair of its Education Committee. He was Secretary, Executive Committee Member and Director on the Board of Rebuild Resources, a St. Paul non-profit providing jobs and job training to those recovering from addiction and incarceration. Mr. Kalkman was appointed by the Governor to serve two terms on the Minnesota Governor’s Workforce Development Council representing Business & Industry. Mr. Kalkman is active in his parish community, helping establish a new parish and build a new K-8 school, was a charter member of its Pastoral Council, and is an active musician.

Kalkman earned a Masters Degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. He graduated magna cum laude from St. John’s University, Collegeville, with a BA in Psychology. He also earned a Certificate from the Talent Management Institute at the Fuqua School of Business, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC.

Patti Kneiser joined Froedtert Health as vice president, Employer Services, in October 2011. At the time, she was already a familiar figure at Froedtert Health through her previous position as principal consultant for Healthcare Consulting where she provided a variety of management consulting services for Froedtert Health and its members.

In her role as vice president for Employer Services, Patti has responsibility for several related initiatives including: providing strategic direction and leadership for Froedtert Health employer services through Workforce Health and aligning efforts of departments and clinics providing employer-based services; coordinating external occupational health services across the system; partnering with Froedtert Health’s human resource leaders to jointly develop and implement best practices as part of the overall Employer Health strategies; and providing leadership for Business Health Solutions, a component of Integrated Health Network of Wisconsin that provides physicians and health system partners with cost effective tools and programs that improve patient care and outcomes.

Patti holds a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from the University Of North Dakota and a Master of Hospital and Health Care Administration from the University of Minnesota. Her previous positions ranged from entry into health care as a medical technologist to serving as a research assistant at a major university, then moving through the ranks from administrative fellow to assistant administrator at a 600+ bed tertiary hospital, to director of Planning for a multi-hospital system which included both Froedtert Hospital and Froedtert Menomonee Falls Hospital, to establishing her own consulting firm.

Laurin Cathey joined Children’s Minnesota in September 2019, and is responsible for all human resource functions including HR business partners and consultants, labor relations, organizational development and learning, talent acquisition, benefits and compensation and information systems.

Mr. Cathey brings more than 20 years of experience working in labor and employee relations with considerable experience in and a passion for diversity, inclusion and change management. Prior to joining Children’s Minnesota, Mr. Cathey worked at St. Paul Public Schools where he was the executive director of human resources and ING as HR director. Within those roles, he led diversity management operations, culture and employee engagement efforts, performance management and executive coaching.

Mr. Cathey holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University.