For example, several big trends happening now show no signs of abating. Among these are the move toward integration and the heightened focus on improving the patient experience. Both trends shift leadership roles and responsibilities. With consolidation, for example, CFOs will need different skillsets to flex between different challenges. Not only do they need to handle traditional merger and acquisitions activities, but they also need to be skilled at structuring unique partnerships with organizations that hospitals have not partnered with in the past( i. e., ACOs or post-acute care organizations). These new partnerships may even require organizations to create a new senior-level position that focuses exclusively on integrating new organizations as they become partners— and thus new positions would be included in succession planning.
Moreover, as organizations work to improve the patient experience, they are hiring patient experience officers. In the future, however, less obvious business challenges related to patient experience may surface. For instance, having clean and well-attended hospital rooms is important in patient satisfaction scores, yet, the highest-ranking person in housekeeping is three or four levels below a senior vice president. In the future, hospitals may need to create a senior level position in environmental services that is included in succession planning.
A 2013 Aon Consulting report went so far as to say that best-in-class succession management involves two key activities: tracking pivotal roles that are emerging as“ resource pressure points, and proactively sourcing and developing a strong talent pool of future leaders.”
What Innovative Hospitals Already Know
Despite a general lack of focus on addressing future business scenarios, some progressive hospitals are beginning to lay the groundwork to augment succession plans. They are using data analytics and other methods, such as forecasting, to identify business problems likely to surface in the near future. In fact, a 2013 Aon Consulting report went so far as to say that best-inclass succession management involves two key activities: tracking pivotal roles that are emerging as“ resource pressure points, and proactively sourcing and developing a strong talent pool of future leaders.”
At the same time, these hospitals are casting a new eye on potential leaders and developing a leadership model that moves beyond specific role readiness. This new thinking zeros in on a person’ s ability to solve specific, complex future problems. Such organizations know that while the people they have traditionally put into the pipeline are all“ high performers,” such individuals may not have“ high potential” to be future leaders in the new healthcare environment.
In the new succession planning framework, traditional methods will not go away entirely. However, hospitals will place less emphasis on filling a seat and focus more on selecting and developing individuals who will thrive on addressing future business challenges. Going forward, high-performing hospital organizations will align with the following succession planning blueprint:
• Lay the groundwork for success. They are able to identify new roles for the future and base development plans on future business challenges, not on specific role readiness. Also, they broaden the scope of succession planning to include not only executive levels, but also people who are in areas that are: critical to the continuity of the provision of patient services and a positive patient experience; hard to replace, hire or develop; and leaders of services or teams, where if left unmanaged, may pose a direct or indirect risk to quality or patient outcomes. 12