Employees Are Satisfied With Leadership Development at St. Luke’s Health System. Here’s How They Did It.
Idaho’s largest employer built an engaged, enthusiastic learning culture in one of the toughest talent markets in healthcare history.
THE CHALLENGE
St. Luke’s Health System, Idaho’s largest employer, was on the cusp of an organizational transformation in early 2020. Executive leadership had introduced a five-year plan to transform care delivery and business models under a new vision: St. Luke’s would become a learning organization, one that is agile, innovative, and collaborative. For the first time in the organization’s history, culture had become a key strategic metric.
And then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. Demand for healthcare services skyrocketed to unprecedented levels, especially in Idaho, which saw a massive influx of new residents moving into the state. Conditions in the healthcare industry were ripe for burnout and disengagement.
St. Luke’s leaders and employees knew this only made the organization’s commitment to culture even more crucial. They doubled down on new approaches to talent and leadership development that balanced the organization’s strategic goals with the realities of the healthcare industry.
“St. Luke’s, like any health system, is very compliance- and regulatory driven,” says Amanda Broadnax, St. Luke’s Director of Talent Development. “As part of our talent and leadership development strategy, we wanted to modernize learning and create development journeys that were engaging, relevant, and met learners where they were — in the flow of work.”
“We started this journey at the peak of COVID, and I had tremendous trepidation and fear about what we might be able to do,” Broadnax says. “But I have found that this work has never been more important — for any organization, but particularly within healthcare.”
THE SOLUTION
While effective in many ways, previous leadership development programs at St. Luke’s took a more generalized approach. Broadnax and her team wanted to differentiate development programs to provide a more targeted experience to a broader range of leaders, from the front lines to the executive level. To do that, they created three new leadership development programs, each tailored to a specific category of leader.
Broadnax and her team also needed a way to extend talent development opportunities to individual contributors across the organization. And they needed to deliver development in a flexible manner.
Broadnax and her team turned to Skillsoft. St. Luke’s already had 300 licenses for Skillsoft’s leadership library, most of which were unused. Broadnax felt Skillsoft’s AI-powered learning platform aligned well with St. Luke’s new agile strategy that prioritized learning in the flow of work.
Broadnax and her team launched a pilot program to bring Skillsoft to more employees, increasing the number of available licenses to 2000 and expanding the content library to include IT and general business skills. Skillsoft collaborated closely with St. Luke’s throughout the pilot program, bringing in subject matter experts (SMEs) to answer questions, troubleshoot technical matters, and assist with integrating the platform with other systems.
“Skillsoft was a key ingredient to our talent development strategy because they appreciated the challenge,” Broadnax says. “With this pilot program, we were able to build the business case in a way that demonstrated the value and created support for this solution for our talent.”
THE RESULTS
The first new leadership development program to go live was the Catalyst Journey, designed for frontline leaders. The first 200 graduates had a 95% attendance rate and a 100% satisfaction rate. Furthermore, 100% of participants said they would recommend the program to a colleague.
St. Luke’s Skillsoft pilot program launched in July 2021. Within a year, all 2,000 licenses had been fully adopted. In the fall of 2022, St. Luke’s expanded Skillsoft to every employee in the organization.
“We had leaders reaching out to us and saying, ‘This is so fantastic. I want to develop my team. I want them to have access,’” Broadnax says.
St. Luke’s uses Skillsoft for a number of talent development initiatives, including diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training, and to replace a previously outsourced Project Management Institute (PMI) certification program with an in-house alternative. Notably, St. Luke’s used Skillsoft to support leaders for what they called “team recovery and regeneration,” during which leaders sat down with their teams to reflect on the challenges of the pandemic and planning for the future.
“Skillsoft has been such a win to support our organization’s commitment to talent development and culture,” Broadnax says.” “We are excited to mature our leadership development and career development opportunities for our amazing talent.”
How did the Program Perform
100%
Satisfaction rate among participants in St. Luke’s first Skillsoft-enabled leadership development program, the Catalyst Journey
98%
Number of participants who would recommend the Catalyst Journey to a colleague
250
Graduates of the St. Luke’s Catalyst Journey since the program began August 2021
Skillsoft has been such a win to support our organization’s commitment to talent development and culture. We are excited to mature our leadership development and career development opportunities for our amazing talent.
Amanda Broadnax
Director of Talent Development, St. Luke’s Health System