Benefits of Diversity in Healthcare Leadership
The world is made up of many different types of people. With such a diverse population, it should come as no surprise that setting goals to make your leadership team culturally robust and diverse has many advantages and benefits for hospitals, clinical practices and healthcare organizations. If your organization is looking to achieve diversity, it is essential to address leadership and C-suite positions. Leadership diversity has many benefits and yet, there are very few healthcare organizations that actually have leadership that represents their patient population. According to a survey by the American Hospital Association’s Institute for Diversity in Healthcare Management, almost ⅓ of patients in hospitals are made up of a minority population. This should come as no surprise. What is shocking is that the study found that only 14% of board members, 11% of executive leaders, and 19% of management reflected the patient population. These findings leave us with a very clear call-to-action: healthcare leadership diversity must be improved.
Healthcare Leadership Diversity Benefits
Current State of Healthcare Leadership Diversity
The numbers are even more staggering when we break things down by gender. Women make up the majority of the workforce in healthcare at 80%. However, only 25% of CEO positions in the field are held by women. When you dive deeper into the numbers to look at women of color, the numbers are even worse as not even 10% are represented in this type of position.
Why Focus on Diversity in Healthcare Leadership
Building a diverse C-suite workforce is an effective way to engage the patient community and to build confidence in the services rendered by your organization. Achieving a culturally diverse workforce and leadership team allows your organization to provide care that is better designed for the population and focused on local aspects that affect health. This will result in improved quality of care, more efficient care, and higher patient satisfaction.
A higher degree of trust will be achieved by having a diverse workforce and leadership team. It is important for patients to see people who look like them, people who understand their life experience. This opens them up for conversation and engagement, and to become a part of the health organization’s community instead of feeling like outsiders that just come in when needed. Achieving diversity in healthcare leadership can significantly reduce the distrust that is so often associated with healthcare systems.
Having a diverse leadership team can also result in a competitive advantage. Patients have a choice in healthcare providers. When your organization and its leadership reflects that of the community, it puts you at an advantage since this makes your team and its services more attractive than others that do not.
The final advantage that comes with diversity in healthcare leadership is in hiring. Just like with your patient population, attracting and retaining top talent at all levels of the organization can be positively affected by having diverse leadership.
It is important to remember that diversity means more than just gender, race, and religion. Generational diversity will be an incredibly important factor as the population ages. This is something your leadership team needs to keep in mind as Boomers retire and Millennials enter the healthcare work environment.
Healthcare Executive Search Firm with A Focus on Diversity
If you are looking to address diversity in healthcare leadership, contact us. The executive search team at Summit Talent Group is made up of professionals with a long history in healthcare. We understand the hurdles and challenges that hospitals and healthcare organizations are facing today and will be facing tomorrow and work with each client on a one-on-one basis to get to know their organization and its particular challenges and needs.
Our team is fully committed to helping our clients achieve diversity in healthcare hiring. We are associated with organizations that support the advancement of professionals in healthcare who are ethnically and racially diverse, as well as those who focus on developing women in the field such as the National Forum for Latino Healthcare Executives, The National Association for African Americans in Human Resources,
Because we are a boutique healthcare executive search firm and not a regular healthcare recruiter, we work to build long-lasting relationships with our clients and the talent we place. We look forward to speaking with you and your team.
Business Manager, Summit Talent Group