When Sutter Health’s chief inclusion and belonging officer, Dana Beckton, first joined the Sacramento, Calif.-based health system in January 2024, she quickly saw that many leaders did not recognize themselves in the organization’s approach to this work.
“People did not have what I call conceptual clarity about what the work really involved,” Ms. Beckton said during a fireside chat April 13 at Becker’s 16th Annual Meeting. “People did not recognize themselves in the work. So regardless of who you were, you might have felt ‘othered’ by it.”
Since then, Ms. Beckton said, Sutter has evolved its approach — shifting its emphasis toward inclusion and belonging to bring more employees into the conversation and ensure they feel connected to the work.
At the core of that shift is a focus on employee experience.
“How do we listen to our people? How do we make sure we are attending to their needs so they are not worrying about, ‘Am I going to be able to pay my bills?'” she said. “We want them to be focused on delivering that care.”
That philosophy has resulted in a structured rounding experience. Front-line leaders are expected to spend 80 hours a month on patient rounding, while also regularly rounding with staff. Senior leaders and executives are similarly expected to stay closely connected with employees — listening to their needs, removing barriers to care delivery and fostering a sense of belonging.
“So we’re making sure that we’re getting out there on the floor, listening to what our employees have to say,” Ms. Beckton said. “One of our hospital CEOs talked [recently] about how it’s not just listening, but it’s then translating and saying, ‘OK, so how can we fix this? How can we make it more frictionless for you to deliver that care?'”
Scaling work while combining systems
As Sutter looks to scale that approach, the system is also applying it to broader growth efforts, including its proposed combination with Minneapolis-based Allina Health. Sutter and Allina signed a letter of intent in March for Allina to join the system, which would create a combined 39-hospital nonprofit with 88,000 employees across Northern and Central California and across Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Ms. Beckton said the focus is on understanding what each organization brings to the table — rather than making assumptions — and ensuring employees feel heard throughout the process.
“Because, as you can imagine, when news comes that you’re [combining] with another organization, the first thing people think about is hierarchy: ‘What’s going to happen to me?’ So there is a natural tension that exists there,” she said.
“But through transparency and communication — lots of communication — we make sure that everyone understands each step of the process and what that means for them.”
Beyond leadership engagement, the system has also expanded its employee resource groups.
When Ms. Beckton joined Sutter, the system had five groups. She added five more based on employee feedback and introduced more structure, including pillars focused on career and growth, culture, health and wellness, and community service.
Measuring success
Input from those groups has led to tangible changes. In one example, employee feedback prompted the system to rethink standard patient toiletry offerings.
“Our employee resource groups met with the team that actually provides those toiletries, and now we are in the process of transitioning so that we will have toiletry items that meet the needs of our individual patients, based on cultural and personal needs,” Ms. Beckton said.
“They got that through listening to the voices of our employee resource groups, who talked about needing different types of combs depending on cultural needs from a hair perspective, different types of lotion depending on skin condition, etc.,” she said.
“That was a conversation that wasn’t done in a room by some folks who might not know. It was a conversation that took place with our employees, who had a vast level of experience to be able to speak to that.”
Ms. Beckton said engagement scores are also higher among employees in resource groups compared to those who are not. Additionally, she noted that nursing turnover is close to 8% amid Sutter Health’s people-first healthcare approach.
She said the system is also measuring progress through employee engagement data, including a set of questions tied specifically to belonging.
“We use Press Ganey for our experience of work, our employee engagement survey,” she said. “Out of that survey, there are eight questions that we’ve identified as our belonging-dimension questions, and those questions are what we measure from an employee experience perspective.
“From a belonging perspective, by 2030 we want to be in the 80th percentile across the nation.”
Ms. Beckton said the approach also extends to workforce strategy and technology adoption.
“When we talk about technology, people think, ‘Is this going to take my job?'” she said. “Our commitment is not that we’re using technology and AI to replace. We’re using AI and technology to enhance.”
She said the system is focused on helping employees operate at the top of their license and identifying opportunities to upskill staff while recognizing generational differences in how workers adopt new technology.
In healthcare, she said, building a sense of belonging is no longer optional.
“Inclusion and belonging is table stakes. It is not a nice-to-have,” Ms. Beckton said. “The generations that are coming into the workforce — this is important. This is what they look at when they’re considering coming to your organization.”
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