Healthcare’s Shift to a Choice Economy Drives a Need for Precise Leadership

The power of choice is shaping the world of healthcare

Employees have more choices about where and how they work, just as patients have more choices about where and how they receive care. As employees and consumers, we are finally in the driver’s seat.

Yet, as the organizations serving these consumers and as employers, we are seeing first-hand how these choices have weighty implications for us. We are now forced to learn how to lead and operate in this new “Choice Economy.”  And one thing is for sure… especially coming out of a pandemic, we will need to operate differently if we want to be successful.

Leading and Operating in a Choice Economy

The Choice Economy could be the biggest shift we will see in our lifetimes, and it will eventually become the norm as younger generations enter and dominate the healthcare workforce or take the wheel as empowered patients. Organizations that evolve in this new economy will be able to maintain “employer-of-choice” status, deliver great outcomes, and drive their bottom lines. Those who do not will see their noble missions succumb to unprecedented turnover, higher costs and eroding revenues. Today, given that supply-demand imbalances are worsening in healthcare labor markets, the call for change is loud and clear.

To be sure, the leaders in our health systems were feeling the shift of the Choice Economy well before the pandemic added extra pressure. For a while now, leaders have been held accountable for an ever-growing list of responsibilities while absorbing new systems, processes, and protocols, and have struggled to keep up.  As a result, leaders have had to make significant changes – such as flexing on schedules, work locations, and roles. The job is tough and not getting easier.

Post pandemic, the Choice Economy will further increase demands on leaders. Staff and teams want more personalization, more tailoring to their individual needs. They need more recognition, more feedback and more encouragement for a job well done.  Employees want to feel seen, known, and cheered on for doing the work.

The problem is that our leaders currently have limited capacity to do more. It is no wonder so many are at a breaking point. The one obvious solution–hiring more managers and focusing managers’ responsibilities into more achievable scope–is not a realistic relief valve for most health systems and it runs contrary to efforts to control costs. The capacity barrier feels structural.

Precise Leadership is the Breakthrough

To bust through this capacity barrier, leaders need efficient best practices and automation, but delivered inside a new way of thinking, a breakthrough in technique.  The only way to address the massive complexity introduced by The Choice Economy is a segmented, scaled, pinpointed method of leadership. “Precise Leadership” does just this – and has the simultaneous benefit of improving the life of the leader while optimizing their interactions with their teams.

Precise Leadership relies on deep, ever-refreshing knowledge of each team member, one that is assembled across systems and silos, and kept current through automation.  With this foundation, Precise Leaders can drive three important benefits:

1. Leaders can have an accurate understanding of the needs of their teams, at any given time, without having to manually assemble this across several systems. Prioritization can separate the signal from the noise, and now actual precision around management can be applied, resulting in little or no wasted energy.
2. Leaders can anticipate the future needs of their team. Risk models now can recommend certain team members for action versus others. The days of doing the same amount of work across each team member are gone – smarter ways of working now apply.
3. Leaders can use best practice workflows to make management a matter of a few clicks versus meeting with every team member for the same amount of time on the same rote topics.  This, indeed, will be a breakthrough for many leaders.

The Road Ahead

For all of us supporting leaders in this world – and for those of you in those roles on our frontlines – we all need to recognize what it takes to get through this. As a company supporting these leaders, we are working hard to up our game. One-size-fits-most, non-integrated solutions are not enough – they just add more complexity to the job. And as leaders, it is okay to ask for – and soon expect – a higher level of support to help guide you and your teams through it all.

Laudio is here for you

We founded Laudio on the belief that the right kind of innovation can change people’s lives and show a new and easier way to deliver the best possible care. And we started where we saw the most striking need – frontline leaders and their teams. Over the past few years, we’ve met some incredible leaders who astound us with their dedication and ceaseless devotion to doing right by their employees and their patients. Working by their side, we have come to notice Precise Leaders are working smarter, not harder. We see them efficiently deploy best practices that link organizational objectives to day-to-day actions and lead to better outcomes. They operate as if they have an extra set of eyes and ears, which means they know as much as they can about what and who they’re managing; they can foresee potentially disruptive challenges; and they have the ability to be proactive with real-time, authentic and meaningful interventions. They are more targeted, less general. And their teams immediately feel the difference – which is evident when engagement goes up, and churn goes down. This will become the future operating system for all healthcare organizations coming out of the pandemic, and we’re excited to be the company empowering Precise Leaders to thrive in this new economy and new world of working.