Looking to stay current in the fast-changing world of health care? You’re not alone.

Kaiser Permanente leaders, labor representatives and industry experts offered insights at November’s Workforce of the Future Conference in Berkeley, California.

“We’ve made a lot of progress over the last few years,” said Monica Morris, director of National Workforce Planning and Development, who welcomed the audience of 200 labor and management representatives tasked with advancing the Labor Management Partnership’s Workforce of the Future initiative. “Now it’s time to do even more.”

Here are six strategies you can follow to prepare for the workforce of the future.

Learn new ways to work. During the Industrial Revolution, cobblers and weavers had to adapt or get left behind. This process continues today—only now, it’s happening faster, said keynote speaker Art Bilger, founder and CEO of WorkingNation, a nonprofit group seeking solutions for economic change.

“The solutions are local,” he said. “Communication of these issues and solutions is critical.”

Become lifelong learners. Skills used to last a lifetime and career paths were clear. Now there’s a new development every 18 months. Get on the cutting edge and imagine the opportunities technology provides.

“Be deeply curious. We’re all newbies,” said keynote speaker John Seely Brown, an author, scholar and former director of the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, who gives high marks to the innovative learning approach of the new Kaiser Permanente School of Medicine.

Keep developing your career. Age is not a barrier to lifelong learning, said keynote speaker Sandi Vito, executive director of 1199SEIU Training and Employment Funds, which partners with Montefiore Health System in New York.

“People tend to think that employees in their 50s can’t aspire to career advancement,” Vito said. “It just requires different approaches. Adults learn more by doing.”

Indeed, the average age of participants in the two LMP-supported educational trusts (Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust and SEIU UHW-West & Joint Employer Education Fund) is 44.

Use available resources. Kaiser Permanente employees have many resources to advance their careers, including targeted training programs for workers represented by the Coalition of KP Unions.

To start, learn four critical skills that will be essential to the future of health care. A digital fluency program launched in October, to be followed by programs in consumer focus, collaboration and process improvement.

“We don’t know what the jobs of the future will be,” said conference facilitator Tony Borba, Northern California regional director for The Permanente Medical Group. “We need to use our resources so we are ready for changes in the workforce.”

Tap the power of partnership. As Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of KP Unions have successfully partnered, Montefiore and 1199SEIU have developed collaborative training programs, such as community health worker apprenticeships that benefit employees, the organization and the community, said keynote speaker Lynn Richmond, Montefiore’s chief strategy officer.

Get involved. The conference produced actionable ideas such as developing a communications strategy to show the value of continuous learning and generate more on-the-job training. Other ideas included apprenticeships and reverse mentoring.

“How do we leverage the power of preceptors, mentors and the educational trusts?” said conference speaker Jessica Butz, the union coalition’s national program coordinator for Workforce Planning and Development. “This is your chance to help shape what we do at Kaiser Permanente.”

Beep! Beep! Beep! The electronic sound of Cary Brown’s alarm clock wakes him at 5 a.m.

The Kaiser Permanente member rises to shower and make breakfast, careful not to disturb his sleeping wife, Elissa, who is recovering at home after surgery on a broken leg at the Woodland Hills Medical Center in Southern California.

On top of completing household chores, the retired Hollywood TV director spends his day making sure Elissa is comfortable and pain-free.

The experience has taken a toll on him.

“The hours of staying awake and the repetitive nature of it—and not having any life at all outside of home—is very difficult,” says Brown, who worked on the hit TV series Doogie Howser, M.D.

Now he’s part of an ambitious effort by the Southern California region to enhance support for caregivers, who play a vital role helping to heal and comfort patients outside the hospital. By reducing caregivers’ social isolation, integrating them into the hospital care team and addressing their health needs, regional leaders hope to improve patient safety and quality in the home.

‘Human-centered design’

Under the initiative, frontline workers, physicians and managers are partnering with KP members and their families to design the ideal in-home care experience for patients and caregivers. Participants are using a creative approach to problem solving known as human-centered design, which starts with the people you’re designing for and ends with solutions that are customized to their needs.

“It’s a way to engage the folks who are most affected from day one,” said Dr. Nirav Shah, senior vice president and chief operating officer for Clinical Operations in Southern California. “No program that I could ever design will be as good as one that had the people who are most affected design it with us. It’s about empathy and understanding.”

Human-centered design is also an ideal tool for unit-based teams to use on performance improvement projects. It delivers on the fundamental concept of the Value Compass—to put the member and patient at the center of decision making—and both frontline workers and Labor Management Partnership leaders, from management and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, have been supporting the caregiver project.

Reducing the overwhelm factor

At a meeting in Pasadena, the participants—patients and caregivers, KP employees and physicians—gathered in small groups to share personal tales and draw storyboards to help identify barriers, come up with potential solutions and provide insights to regional Home Health leaders.

Shawna Wallace, a senior physical therapist for Home Health and member of UNAC/UHCP, said the experience was eye-opening.

“I’ve gone into homes where caregivers really care about their loved ones, and they are extremely overwhelmed,” she said. “This is a great opportunity for us to see where we can make better programs for our caregivers and members in these scenarios.”

Brown is hopeful that the approach will give caregivers—and their loved ones—the emotional and physical support they need to thrive.

“If you take care of the family as a unit,” Brown says, “you make it possible for each individual in the family to be better.”

Kaiser Permanente medical assistant Abelene Cerezo-Kirtley used to fear computers, but not anymore.

Inspired by her 84-year-old father, she took a pilot digital fluency course that made her more comfortable with technology, empowering her to provide better care for her patients—and her family.

As her father’s health advocate, she used her training to create a spreadsheet to track his insulin injections, consolidated his medical records on an iPad, and presented it to his physician.

“He asked me, ‘Are you a doctor?’” Cerezo-Kirtley says. “I said, ‘No, I’m a medical assistant.’ It made me feel 10 feet tall, and I’m only 4-foot-10.”

The new online program is free to all members of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions through the Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust, the SEIU UHW-West & Joint Employer Education Fund, and National Workforce Planning and Development. Visit kpcareerplanning.org, the Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust or the SEIU UHW-West & Joint Employer Education Fund websites to sign up.

A workforce development strategy

The digital fluency program, which takes four to six hours to complete, helps employees understand the role of technology in health care and know where to find additional learning resources. It’s part of a larger workforce strategy to encourage employees to upgrade their skills, advance their careers and meet future health care challenges.

“Digital fluency is one of four critical skills we’ve identified that Kaiser Permanente employees need to meet the changing demands of health care,” says Monica Morris, National Workforce Planning and Development director. “Whether you work in a medical center, clinic or office, we encourage employees to take the digital fluency program.”

Gaining skills builds confidence

Cerezo-Kirtley, now studying American Sign Language to better serve patients who are deaf or hard of hearing, has constantly upgraded her skills during her 19 years as a medical assistant at Kaiser Permanente’s Sacramento Medical Center. Her father, a retired airline mechanic who earned a master’s degree, modeled lifelong learning, and KP has enabled it through negotiated benefits such as tuition reimbursement. Cerezo-Kirtley, a member of SEIU-UHW, jumped at the chance to improve her digital fluency.

“The digital fluency program gave me the confidence to keep wanting to learn more,” says Cerezo-Kirtley. “It helped me care better for my family and my patients.”

Her manager, Jennifer Henson, RN, agrees. “It’s important to support our staff to advance themselves, which in turn promotes better health within the company,” says Henson, who has used tuition reimbursement herself to earn her nursing degree and is now working toward a master’s degree.

Silbia Espinoza, RN, strives to climb any mountain. Literally.

“I’m not what you would call a ‘normal’ person,” Espinoza says with a laugh. “I work a 12-hour shift and go straight to the gym. I can’t work out for less than an hour and 10 minutes!”

Espinoza, a UNAC/UHHP member who works in Southern California at the Baldwin Park Medical Center Intensive Care Unit, has been her department’s health and safety champion for two years.

Making wellness routine

“My manager, Celso Silla, volunteered me to be the champ,” she says. “Now people are always asking me when we can go out on walks and hikes.”

For example, one Saturday morning early last year, she and 14 co-workers, outfitted with sunscreen, water, protein bars and hats, took a steep, six-mile hike to and from the Hollywood sign. “It was fun!” she says.

They also work wellness into their daily routine. “Even when we attended a nursing conference, we decided to power walk instead of taking Uber,” she says. “People said afterward they had never lost weight by being at a conference.”

Remedy for stress

Espinoza’s drive to workout comes in part from the demands of her job. “Working in the ICU is very stressful. I have all this energy after work,” she says. “After working out I go home calmer and can think clearly.”

One change Espinoza has seen in her two years as a champ is healthier snacks at meetings and in the break room. Fresh fruits and veggies have replaced cookies and doughnuts.

“I like that I can be a role model,” Espinoza says. “I like the results I see in myself, and I feel great that my co-workers tell me how much weight they’ve lost or how many steps they’ve completed. All any of us needs is someone to encourage and guide us.”

Amazon. Facebook. Uber. Count the ways that technology has changed the way people shop, share information, get around—and the way work is done in those industries. Now add health care to that list.

That was the message of the 2016 Work of the Future Conference in November, where 200 Kaiser Permanente managers and workers looked at how health care is changing, and how management and labor can collaboratively shape those changes at KP.

Industry and union leaders shared emerging workforce trends and practices. They also praised KP and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions’ approach to performance improvement, problem solving and workforce development.

“Kaiser and the union coalition have nailed it when it comes to workforce training, workforce planning and making sure we're preparing for the future,” said Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO. “The collaborative approach really shines when we talk about training, workforce development and finding ways to help workers ladder up in their careers.”

Shared wisdom

With the help of unit-based teams, health care innovation has brought patients better and faster treatment at KP, said Nirav Shah, MD, senior vice president of clinical operations for the Southern California region. For instance, KP hip replacement patients often walk off the operating table, go home without spending a night in the hospital and get nursing care and physical therapy at home. “Radical transparency, shared data and the wisdom of unit-based teams” are essential to making such changes work, he said.

Skills for success

KP and union workforce planners shared how workers can prepare for more changes coming to health care by mastering four critical skills:

• consumer focus
• digital fluency
• collaboration
• process improvement

These skills are among the new training programs, previewed at the conference, to be offered to coalition union-represented workers in 2017 (learn more). Digital fluency, for instance, covers mobile devices, applications and their impact on health care. Kaiser Permanente and the coalition unions, working in partnership, have given KP workers a head start in at least two of the other critical skills—collaboration and process improvement.

Learning from others

Conference participants also learned from the experience of other organizations. DTE Energy, a Detroit-based public utility, worked with its unions to avoid layoffs even during the Great Recession, said Diane Antishin, DTE Energy’s vice president of HR Operations.

Michael Langford, president of Utility Workers Union of America, described his union’s training and apprenticeship programs, which have helped his members nationally adapt to changes in their industry.

As with our work in the Labor Management Partnership, interest-based bargaining helped both parties achieve their goals.

“If you come in with positional arguments you’ll never get it done,” said Langford. “But if you can get to what the underlying problem is, you can solve it.”