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Thought Leadership: HR & Total Rewards

Practical Insights and Perspectives for HR and Total Rewards leaders on culture, leadership, compensation and benefits, and AI in the workplace. These articles, interviews, reports, and case studies are drawn from Peer-to-Peer Connex Member contributions and conversations.

Exclusive Member Insights

Access exclusive insights, expert perspectives, and valuable resources created specifically for Connex Partners members. Explore ideas, strategies, and real-world perspectives designed to help you stay ahead in human capital and healthcare.

 

Proving the ROI of People Investments

How the organizations are turning culture, engagement, and leadership into real business drivers.

In this conversation, leaders from Connex Partners, ADP, and Wellmark Blue Cross Blue Shield challenge that framing. They show how organizations can move beyond abstract “culture talk” to connect people strategy with tangible business outcomes by proving the ROI of onboarding, leadership development, engagement, and employee experience as measurable drivers of productivity, cost, and performance. 

 

Benefit Plan Harmonization Across Multiple Sites

Benefit Plan Harmonization Across Multiple Sites

Compare employee effects and sequence the transition
Healthcare Enterprise Governance

Healthcare Enterprise Governance

Define authority and capacity across functions
Manager Capacity and Adoption in HR Rollouts

Manager Capacity and Adoption in HR Rollouts

Test capacity and routines, then measure the decisions
Treating AI Consumption as an Operating Cost

Treating AI Consumption as an Operating Cost

Assign ownership and review AI spending
Keeping People in Charge of HR Decisions

Keeping People in Charge of HR Decisions

Define human authority in policy and check the tools already in use
Peer Benchmarking for Patient Outcome Improvement

Peer Benchmarking for Patient Outcome Improvement

From comparison to a tested change
Vendor Rationalization in Employee Benefits

Vendor Rationalization in Employee Benefits

Evaluate capability, service, and transition risk
Front-end Optimization in Hospital Patient Access

Front-end Optimization in Hospital Patient Access

Removing defects before a claim is submitted
Middle Manager Resistance to HR Transformation

Middle Manager Resistance to HR Transformation

Understanding capacity, incentives, and decision rights
Enterprise Transformation in Health Systems

Enterprise Transformation in Health Systems

Operating practices that sustain results.
Ethical Rightsizing: Preserving Dignity and Trust in an Automated Era

Ethical Rightsizing: Preserving Dignity and Trust in an Automated Era

When organizations must reduce headcount, how they do it matters just as much as the decision itself. Four HR leaders share what it truly takes to navigate layoffs with h...
Shadow AI at Work: What HR Leaders Learned from the Roundtable

Shadow AI at Work: What HR Leaders Learned from the Roundtable

When the first speaker in a Senior HR Connex Think Tank asked half-jokingly whether using generative AI amounted to “cheating,” they hit on the confluence of anxieties th...
The Wisdom Imperative: Fixing the System

The Wisdom Imperative: Fixing the System

Administrative bloat, payer fragmentation, and volume-based incentives all dissuaded patient-centric community care – and paradoxically, made moral courage a better finan...
Skills-Based Frameworks are Here to Stay

Skills-Based Frameworks are Here to Stay

Skills-based frameworks are replacing traditional roles to improve hiring accuracy, agility, and workforce development. Success depends on strong skill taxonomies, ethica...
Inside the RCM Innovators Board: Peer-Driven Solutions for Revenue Cycle Success

Inside the RCM Innovators Board: Peer-Driven Solutions for Revenue Cycle Success

If you’ve been engaged in the Connex Healthcare Community for some time, there’s a good chance you’re familiar with our RCM Innovators Board. If not, we wanted to take a ...
From Perks to Purpose: Rethinking Wellbeing

From Perks to Purpose: Rethinking Wellbeing

In today’s rapidly evolving workplace, “wellbeing” has transcended its traditional confines of gym memberships and biometric screenings. Senior HR leaders are now tasked ...
Support Caregivers, Support the Business

Support Caregivers, Support the Business

In August 2024, the Surgeon General issued a warning around the state of working parents in the US,” explained Sarah Olin. “Their research found that 41% of parents and c...
HR Leadership: From Selfless to Self-Care

HR Leadership: From Selfless to Self-Care

Countless stories shared at Connex industry events demonstrate just how compassionate HR leaders can be, their deep empathy pushing them to go above and beyond in the ser...
Leading Better by Leading Less

Leading Better by Leading Less

“In healthcare, there has always been this vertical hierarchy. One of the things we’re working on is shifting that to truly horizontal hierarchy; that allows all of us to...
Rethinking Physical Therapy: Growing Brand Presence & Profits

Rethinking Physical Therapy: Growing Brand Presence & Profits

“[As providers,] we desire consistency of care and outcomes. If you’re not partnered, associated with, or closely tied to a rehabilitation or therapy group, the variabili...
Ignite! The Dangers of Disconnecting

Ignite! The Dangers of Disconnecting

This article was originally published on theFirefly Inclusion Solutions website.
Five Minutes With...Kimberly Rudowski.

Five Minutes With...Kimberly Rudowski.

Exalt Health is a rising leader in post acute rehabilitation services. Their secret to success? A proven playbook for flexible standardization, community partnership, and...
Five Minutes With…Stacie Baird

Five Minutes With…Stacie Baird

Briefly explore the career, leadership strategies, and life lessons of a fellow HR innovator. Nearly half of employees worry that GenAI could negatively impact the nature...
Collaborative Innovation: Inside UHS's Success

Collaborative Innovation: Inside UHS's Success

Innovating is hard – but it doesn’t have to be. Join us in a conversation with Chief Revenue Officer Ken Hogue as he explains how UHS uses collaboration to catalyze patie...
Embracing AI: HR's Next Big Leap

Embracing AI: HR's Next Big Leap

From streamlining recruitment to transforming leaders’ conversations, AI is helping Connex Community thought leaders reshape what it means to be a successful, efficient, ...
Second chances and key connections: How Connex helped Wixcorp achieve their biggest partnership to date

Second chances and key connections: How Connex helped Wixcorp achieve their biggest partnership to date

Securing a foothold with large hospital systems is daunting, especially for a start-up. That was the challenge facing Wixcorp, an emerging mobile patient payment provider...
Healthcare Innovation: Structural Change and the AI Revolution

Healthcare Innovation: Structural Change and the AI Revolution

Rethinking Innovation in Healthcare
Redefining Workplace Wellbeing: A Holistic Approach to Mental Health

Redefining Workplace Wellbeing: A Holistic Approach to Mental Health

2024’s Top Employee Wellbeing Trends
Prioritizing Inclusivity for a More Diverse, Equitable Culture

Prioritizing Inclusivity for a More Diverse, Equitable Culture

Enhancing Inclusivity Through Intersectionality
Succession and the Talent Bench

Succession and the Talent Bench

Is Your Talent Pipeline Prepared?
Culture: The Bedrock of Performance

Culture: The Bedrock of Performance

Performance management is typically defined as the process of evaluating employee activity as a function of efficiently and effectively meeting organizational needs, but ...
New Revenue Opportunities in 2024

New Revenue Opportunities in 2024

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) issued the finalized calendar year (CY) 2024 Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) policy changes, and while there are numer...
Inside PwC: A Tech-Enabled Talent Strategy

Inside PwC: A Tech-Enabled Talent Strategy

The immediate impact of the pandemic may be behind us, but we’re not getting the R&R we expected – instead the news is filled with talk of resignations and recessions...
DEIA the “Right” Way

DEIA the “Right” Way

Some organizations are losing steam on their DEIA initiatives, negatively impacting both business performance and the employee experience. The same can’t be said for the ...
Becoming an Employer of Choice

Becoming an Employer of Choice

A decade’s long streak of growth finally came to an end, with the annual average engagement rate dropping 2% in both 2021 and 2022 according to Gallup.
Connexions: A Year in Review

Connexions: A Year in Review

Whether it was face-to-face or virtually, 2023’s Connexion events gave healthcare executives multiple opportunities to brainstorm solutions to the industry’s most pressin...
Think Tank Insights: Overcoming Payer Tactics

Think Tank Insights: Overcoming Payer Tactics

Navigating the complexities of healthcare RCM is difficult on the best of days, but that reality is compounded by constant pressure from payers.
Five minutes with Rod Lacey

Five minutes with Rod Lacey

With Gartner forecasting a steady increase in turnover for the foreseeable future, we consulted Chief People Officer Rod Lacey to learn how SimPro made attrition practica...
Inside Connexion 2023

Inside Connexion 2023

Expressed early in the first panel discussion, that statement helped kick off Connexion 2023 and fittingly set the tone for the sessions to come. These in-person discussi...
Industry Insights: Elevating Compensation with AI

Industry Insights: Elevating Compensation with AI

A recent Connex Partners panel explored compensation planning and its use as a lever for employee retention, satisfaction, and productivity. Panelists discussed how succe...
Navigating the Evolving Talent Management Landscape

Navigating the Evolving Talent Management Landscape

As we approach the end of Q1 2024, it’s become clear that labor will continue to be a hot button issue for the foreseeable future. This puts additional pressure on HR tea...
Embracing Generative AI: The Future of HR in 2024

Embracing Generative AI: The Future of HR in 2024

2023 saw generative AI tools like ChatGPT come to the forefront of public discourse, and many HR teams and human capital technology providers spent the better part of the...
Tech-Enabled Staffing: The Catalyst for Changing Employment Models

Tech-Enabled Staffing: The Catalyst for Changing Employment Models

Gig-style employment feels completely incongruous with the realities of healthcare staffing to most hospital executives, but with the right technology tools, it’s more th...
Inside The Innovation At Intermountain

Inside The Innovation At Intermountain

Few health systems receive as much recognition as industry innovators than Intermountain Healthcare. Chief Revenue Officer (CRO) and Connex Member, Kerry Gillespie, gave ...
Five Minutes With...Rachael Kelly

Five Minutes With...Rachael Kelly

Every performance management strategy hinges on having a psychologically safe environment where employer and employee alike are receptive to feedback, so how do you creat...
Think Tank Insights: Optimizing Change Management in Healthcare

Think Tank Insights: Optimizing Change Management in Healthcare

Change had always been a constant in healthcare, but that reality was greatly exacerbated by COVID. Digital care delivery, remote admin and support teams, growing labor s...
Using Intentionality to Transform the Management of Remote Teams

Using Intentionality to Transform the Management of Remote Teams

After Patrick Felder became Vice President of Employee Success at Salesforce in October 2020, he did not meet any of the business leaders that he works with, nor any othe...
Think Tank Insights: Telehealth, Remote Care, And Delivering The Hospital At-Home Experience

Think Tank Insights: Telehealth, Remote Care, And Delivering The Hospital At-Home Experience

The benefits of telehealth and RPM have been known for years – particularly as they pertain to vulnerable populations – but it took the unprecedented disruption of COVID-...
Optimizing Labor: Accounting For The Whole Picture

Optimizing Labor: Accounting For The Whole Picture

Labor shortages require a reevaluation of what people are available, why they work, and how they can be better deployed – paradoxically, the path to savings is paved with...
Think Tank Insights: Maximizing Revenue Cycle Performance

Think Tank Insights: Maximizing Revenue Cycle Performance

With uncertainty and revenue shortfalls still a prevailing reality, revenue cycle leaders are faced with three core mandates: preserve financial viability; implement upda...
A System Without Limits

A System Without Limits

Clinical and financial leaders from Houston Methodist share how digital care advancements are improving patient care, decreasing staff burdens, and maximizing margins in ...
Five Minutes With...Alice Yoo LeClair

Five Minutes With...Alice Yoo LeClair

In this article, we caught up with Alice Yoo LeClair, Divisional CHRO at Euromoney Institutional Investor PLC. From digital mentors to sapien evolution, Alice provides pl...
Leadership: It's What Happens in Vegas!

Leadership: It's What Happens in Vegas!

MGM Resorts International’s Corporate VPs of Human Resources and Talent Management share insight into the company’s evolution as a leader-led, employee centric organizati...
No One Is Just A Number

No One Is Just A Number

The idea of taking a critical lens to ranked performance management styles is nothing new. In fact, a quick Google search shows a wave of articles from 2015 discussing th...
The Perfect Storm: Fixing the Recruitment Crisis

The Perfect Storm: Fixing the Recruitment Crisis

Ken Blanchard on 40 Years of HR

Ken Blanchard on 40 Years of HR

Ken Blanchard was born in New Jersey and raised in New York. In 1982 he and his coauthor, Spencer Johnson, published the seminal management text The One Minute Manager, r...
Think Tank Insights: Recalibrating The Response To Clinical Labor Shortages

Think Tank Insights: Recalibrating The Response To Clinical Labor Shortages

Labor shortages have reached all-time highs, with Connex Community Members reporting vacancy rates ranging anywhere between 15% in less affected communities, to more than...
Five Minutes With...Kate Kinslow

Five Minutes With...Kate Kinslow

We sat down with Dr. Kate Kinslow, the former East Coast Regional President for Prospect Medical Holdings. Between AI-driven labor optimization, and a refreshingly unpret...
Automation: Plugging Healthcare’s Labor Gaps

Automation: Plugging Healthcare’s Labor Gaps

“We’re in the most interesting and dynamic period of healthcare, especially with regards to automation and artificial intelligence” says Hugh King, Chief Financial Office...
Leading With Intentionality

Leading With Intentionality

The following is a companion article to the most recent episode of Connex’s ongoing Executive Insights Series, which is produced in partnership with the “Innovating Leade...
Sustainable QI: The People Behind the Change

Sustainable QI: The People Behind the Change

Healthcare providers face a unique set of pressures as we charge full steam ahead into 2023. Staff shortages are at an all-time high, prompting everything from nursing sc...
Inside PwC’s Tech-Enabled L&D

Inside PwC’s Tech-Enabled L&D

“We’re a professional services firm looking to solve the world’s most challenging problems. If we were going to really drive this community of problem solvers, we needed ...
Joy at Work!

Joy at Work!

The following is a companion article to the most recent episode of Connex’s ongoing Executive Insights Series, which is produced in partnership with the “Innovating Leade...
To Get More Done, Work Less!

To Get More Done, Work Less!

The following is a companion article to the most recent episode of Connex’s ongoing Executive Insights Series, which is produced in partnership with the “Innovating Leade...
The Power of Trauma-Informed Leadership

The Power of Trauma-Informed Leadership

The following is a companion article to the most recent episode of Connex’s ongoing Executive Insights Series, which is produced in partnership with the “Innovating Leade...
Flexing for an Employee-Led Culture

Flexing for an Employee-Led Culture

To one degree or another, emerging from the height of the pandemic has been a test of cultural resilience and management flexibility for all businesses. Despite operation...
ICYMI: Connexion 2022

ICYMI: Connexion 2022

In case you missed it, we were excited and honored to put on our first in-person event since the initial lockdowns at Connexion 2022 down in sunny San Diego, CA. Running ...
Bringing Your Full Self to Work

Bringing Your Full Self to Work

It’s staggering to think about just how much time an average adult devotes to work, especially in recent years. Between labor shortages, business model changes, and the e...
Insight into HR’s Chance to Redefine Work with Fara Palumbo

Insight into HR’s Chance to Redefine Work with Fara Palumbo

The country has sped right past the two-year anniversary of COVID’s initial declaration as a National Emergency: a testament to how well we’ve managed to adapt to our cir...
The Great Reengagement

The Great Reengagement

Connex Member Michelle Sanchez-Bickley sat down with Maureen Metcalf from Innovative Leadership to discuss these challenges, and in the process, shed light on a refreshin...
Building competitive advantages with Alice Yoo Le Clair

Building competitive advantages with Alice Yoo Le Clair

What responsibility, if any, do HR leaders have for community building within their organization; and if so, how has the move to remote and hybrid work complicated the pr...
6 ways to achieve total confidence in total rewards in 2022

6 ways to achieve total confidence in total rewards in 2022

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic began it was widely acknowledged that employees were looking for more than just a paycheck. Now, nearly two years after the pandemic sta...
6 key insights for improving resilience, stress reduction and mental health support for healthcare staff

6 key insights for improving resilience, stress reduction and mental health support for healthcare staff

The momentum achieved early in the pandemic by positioning care professionals as “heroes” has since worn off, leaving a trail of stress, mental and emotional strain, and ...
Recalibrating Talent Management for the Remote Workplace

Recalibrating Talent Management for the Remote Workplace

HR leaders tackled a wide range of talent management topics in our recent Connex Think Tank session. In a rich discussion centered on the push towards hybrid work and fie...
The Biggest Thing To Happen in Human Capital Reporting That No One Knows About!

The Biggest Thing To Happen in Human Capital Reporting That No One Knows About!

2020 has brought with it an overwhelming number of items competing for the collective attention of HR practitioners. Amidst the swirl of commotion, a major decision impac...
Building a Practical and Sustainable Performance Competency Model

Building a Practical and Sustainable Performance Competency Model

We were delighted to host a recent session on the subject of building a performance competency model. The session was led by Tony Callander, Chief Human Resources Officer...
The cost of contentment: 5 key insights on how to strike the balance in benefits management in 2022

The cost of contentment: 5 key insights on how to strike the balance in benefits management in 2022

On November 4, Connex HR members met for an insightful discussion on the topic of benefits programs and packages, and how to keep employee value propositions attractive i...
Outside the box: Innovative Perspectives on Digital Transformation

Outside the box: Innovative Perspectives on Digital Transformation

On October 19, Connex Healthcare members met for a fascinating Think Tank discussion on the topic of digital transformation. Covid has put significant pressure on provide...
COVID-19 and Managing the Revenue Cycle: What's Changed, What Hasn't, and What Do We Do Now?

COVID-19 and Managing the Revenue Cycle: What's Changed, What Hasn't, and What Do We Do Now?

OVERVIEW
Save Time and Money with Big Data Solutions for Medical Equipment Planning

Save Time and Money with Big Data Solutions for Medical Equipment Planning

Medical equipment capital planning is a challenging area lately with reduced capital and intense prioritization. Many hospital systems are currently struggling to track e...
How Leadership Has The Power To Unite And Inspire

How Leadership Has The Power To Unite And Inspire

As leaders, we have the opportunity and responsibility to help our employees and organizations transcend personal differences and better align with our organization's pur...
Three Key Takeaways from Green Circle Life’s Webinar: “Promoting Emotional Wellbeing During COVID and Beyond”

Three Key Takeaways from Green Circle Life’s Webinar: “Promoting Emotional Wellbeing During COVID and Beyond”

On April 14th, Green Circle Life presented a webinar about the importance of supporting employees’ wellbeing in the workplace featuring John Daniel, speaker, author and f...
Harnessing Patient Data for Innovation and Monetization: Segmed, Inc.

Harnessing Patient Data for Innovation and Monetization: Segmed, Inc.

Healthcare data is an area of huge talk but relatively little action when it comes to actually increasing quality of care for patients. With more data being generated tha...
The Time is Now: The Accelerated Importance of Just, Equitable Healthcare

The Time is Now: The Accelerated Importance of Just, Equitable Healthcare

With an end in sight to the trauma of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals and health systems must begin determining how to recover from both financial losses and the trauma ...
Preparing for the Known Unknown: HCM Leaders and the Return-to-Work Conundrum

Preparing for the Known Unknown: HCM Leaders and the Return-to-Work Conundrum

With the new promise of widespread vaccine rollout, HCM leadership must consider the complex implications of a return to work while continuing to optimize the work from h...
Playing to Win: Best Practices in Team Construction and Development

Playing to Win: Best Practices in Team Construction and Development

Introduction Team development has long represented an outsize challenge for leadership due to a range of factors, beginning with the fact that it is fundamentally difficu...
Head in the Cloud: Shifting to Cloud-Based Data Storage Optimizes Healthcare Environments

Head in the Cloud: Shifting to Cloud-Based Data Storage Optimizes Healthcare Environments

Introduction The importance of intelligent storage and big data analytics in a healthcare environment cannot be understated. Renowned for vast stores of data that go chro...
A Crystal Ball for the 21st Century: The Critical Importance of Automation, Innovation, and Predictive Capabilities in Workforce Planning

A Crystal Ball for the 21st Century: The Critical Importance of Automation, Innovation, and Predictive Capabilities in Workforce Planning

The Core Challenge Workforce planning is among the top challenges facing healthcare providers. This was true before the pandemic, with widespread shortfalls of clinical t...
Automation, Advanced Analytics, and the Transformation of HCM Administration

Automation, Advanced Analytics, and the Transformation of HCM Administration

AI-driven automation is the wave of the future for global business, driven by the accelerating need to do more with less in order to remain competitive and economically v...
Unleashing the Power of Intelligence in Revenue Cycle Management

Unleashing the Power of Intelligence in Revenue Cycle Management

Healthcare accounts for 30% of all data generated globally. Despite an explosion of research, transformation undertaking and regulatory efforts, best in class outcomes ha...
Webcast: Outlook for the Healthcare Industry – Post COVID-19

Webcast: Outlook for the Healthcare Industry – Post COVID-19

Connex Partner, KPN Advisors' recent webcast includes a panel of leading healthcare advisors and restructuring professionals that focus on the current healthcare industry...
Key Considerations for Workforce Optimization in 2021 and Beyond

Key Considerations for Workforce Optimization in 2021 and Beyond

2020 brought significant change, especially for the US workforce. Telecommuting or remote working had slowly been on the rise prior to this past year, however, with the C...
5 key insights on how to create the conditions for a successful return to work

5 key insights on how to create the conditions for a successful return to work

On December 1, Connex HR members met to discuss the return of the workforce to offices and on-site premises in the midst of the continued challenge of Covid-19. From the ...
Total Rewards and the Employee Value Proposition in the Age of COVID

Total Rewards and the Employee Value Proposition in the Age of COVID

While many organizations are so focused on surviving the pandemic that they have placed the employee value proposition on the backburners, others have come to recognize a...