Healthcare Design - November 2017 - 108

The

Center

LEADERSHIP CHANGE
As an industry, we need to be focused on
developing young professionals today so they're
poised to lead us tomorrow
By Debra Levin

AM STILL A long way from my twilight years, but I've noticed
that I'm starting to look at our industry and The Center for
Heath Design with a new perspective as I enter the next chapter of my career. I likely have fewer years of working in front
of me than I can see in the rearview mirror, and that has me
thinking about our industry's future leaders.
Many of us are where we are today because of people who
provided a guiding hand or opened new doors for us to explore. I can trace the genesis of my career to a single moment my sophomore
year in college when a professor asked a simple question, "Who would like
to help plan a student career day?" By the time I graduated a few years later,
I had taken the lead in turning a one-day local student career day into an annual four-day regional student conference that continued to run for years
after I graduated. The skills I picked up planning and executing the conference, combined with the people I met along the way, sent me directly on a
path to what I do today. It's a path I never would have discovered if I'd relied
only on the traditional education I received at my alma mater.
The young professionals who will become the future leaders of our
firms, institutions, and healthcare organizations are likely all under
40 years old today and have different work habits or career expectations than those in leaderTHE GOOD NEWS
ship now. Understanding these differences and
what keeps them satisfied and engaged in their
IS THAT MANY ARE
work is critical so we don't lose great talent to
ALREADY FINDING
other fields.
The good news is that many are already findSATISFACTION WORKING
ing satisfaction working in healthcare design. A
IN HEALTHCARE DESIGN.
2016 study from the Institute for Health + Wellness Design at the University of Kansas School
of Architecture & Design surveyed 173 healthcare design firm employees,
all under the age of 40, to gather insight into what keeps them satisfied in
the work environment and where things are lacking. Overall, a majority of
respondents said they're satisfied with both their work environments and
their opportunities for creativity in their work, and plan to continue to
work in healthcare design. Fifty-six percent felt their creative capabilities

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were being used appropriately, while 42 percent
didn't feel this way, showing there's still a need
to better engage this group's creative skills. Not
surprisingly, the largest dissatisfiers were tied to
compensation and benefits and the level of communication and interaction with firm leaders.
Another interesting finding was learning that
young staff members list camaraderie with their
coworkers as a top priority when ranking satisfaction with their work environment. This means
there's a great opportunity in every organization
to engage peer groups and connect them with
the current leadership in a more informal way,
which will help grow these relationships and provide opportunities to share job knowledge and
strengthen communication.
When it comes to benefits, there are many creative ways to provide value to employees, even
if finances don't allow for large salary increases.
At The Center, we moved to an unlimited paid
time-off policy that allows employees to take the
time they need to make their lives work, as opposed to being restricted by a standard two-week
vacation allotment. We are over a year into the
policy change, and it's working well for everyone.
In addition, we have a masseuse who comes to
the office once a month for chair massages, and
birthdays are considered personal holidays that
should be taken off to do something that brings
you joy. These things add very little cost to the
budget but help people deal with the stress that
can come with managing multiple priorities.
It's clear this industry has a dedicated group
of professionals who care about the future of
healthcare design and want to stay engaged. We
need to continue to find ways to break down barriers between young professionals and senior
leadership not only to improve job satisfaction
but to help transfer the wealth of knowledge from
one generation to the next. Investing in our collective future will, in the long run, pay back significant dividends in the decades to come. 
Debra Levin is president and CEO of The Center for
Health Design. She can be reached at D L E V I N @
H E A LT H D E S I G N . O R G .

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Healthcare Design - November 2017

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