Hard-to-fill positions made easy

A strategy to advance employees’ skills also is advancing regional goals

FRIDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2011 :: By Anjetta McQueen

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Additional Resources

More information on career planning is available at:

The LMP Workforce Development Career Planning website: http://xnet.kp.org/careerplanning

The Bed Hudnall Memorial Trust provides serves to all union locals belonging to the Coalition of KP Unions except UHW and other SEIU locals: http://benhudnallmemorialtrust.org or call 1-800-216-4517

The SEIU-UHW Education Fund provides services to members of SEIU UHW and other SEIU locals: http://seiu-uhweduc.org or  1-888-872-4606

 

Brinsly Ewang, with a new PET scan machine at Capitol Hill

Highlighted Tools

• Hard-to-Fill Positions by Region [Tool]
• Selected Hard-to-Fill Best Practices [Tool]

Kaiser Permanente faces many of the same challenges as other health care organizations trying to bring new technologies to their patients and new workforce skills to their employees. But KP’s approach to those challenges is much more collaborative—and that benefits KP members and patients, department managers and workers.

Just ask Brinsly Ewang.

A member of Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 2 and a radiology technologist, Ewang now is certified as a nuclear medicine technologist at the Capitol Hill Medical Office in the Mid-Atlantic States region.

It was a joint effort and a big step up. Ewang used a combination of the Labor Management Partnership’s Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust, which paid him for most of the hours he went to school instead of working; Kaiser Permanente’s tuition reimbursement program; his union’s educational leave to help supplement lost income; and his managers’ mentoring and support to make it all happen.

His story points to a career strategy for union coalition-represented employees wanting to move up the ladder, and to a business strategy for KP regions needing to fill positions that will be in growing demand. (See Hard-to-Fill Positions for the jobs of the future in your region, and for some approaches regions have used to address those needs.)

Partnering for advancement

“Ewang is a person that is always looking to advance himself,” says Derek Perkins, radiology senior operations manager for the District of Columbia and Baltimore service areas. “We strategically planned his nuclear medicine training together.”

In 2009, regional leaders deemed nuclear medicine technologist positions as hard to fill due to limited training programs in the area. Perkins did some investigating and found a couple of schools that offered the certification in nuclear medicine.

He spread the word that the region planned to add new services for members, including nuclear medicine. But Ewang, who had certification from Prince George’s Community College and had worked as a CT technician since 2008, needed to go back to school to get certified in nuclear medicine radiology.

Perkins says it’s rare for technicians and technologists to move up in their careers to that level in less than four or five years.

“It then occurred to me, ‘why not grow our own’?,” Perkins says. “He was interested and I needed a tech. I already knew his work ethic and eagerness to advance. For me that was a recipe for success.”

How managers can gain

Perkins says managers benefit from using the Ben Hudnall Trust, which allows them to bring in backfill while an employee attends school

Nuclear medicine has increased with the prevalence of cancer. Technologists trained in positron emission tomography (PET) scans—a unique imaging technique that produces a three-dimensional image or picture of body functions in addition to structure—are in especially short supply.

That’s true in most KP regions. Program-wide, the most pressing needs are specialty nursing, specialty imaging and clinical scientists/medical technologists, according to a recent study of hard-to-fill positions. Regions will be stepping up their efforts in 2012 to target key positions, address barriers to recruitment and assess their approaches to training, funding and mentoring.

Perkins co-leads the region-wide radiology team with Rose Meushaw, OPEIU Local 2. Together they find the funds to train KP workers in such disciplines as MRI and mammography screening.

Their efforts soon will eliminate the need for external recruiting or agency staff for backfill, says Iris Woodard, the region’s workforce planning and development coordinator. And above all else, filling these positions provides the best benefit to KP members.

“When it comes to patient services,” says Ewang, “I am in a position where I can give better care.”