Martin Health System has a very proud tradition of growing talent from within wherever possible. As the health system expands, we are constantly reviewing our workforce needs to ensure that our mission, “to provide exceptional health care, hope and compassion to every person every time,” is in the DNA of all our associates.

 

This requires great recruitment, consistent training and development, and strong leadership.

For our clinical associates, we offer a number of programs in-house through our clinical education team, along with partnerships we have with Indian River State College.

 

Growth and development for our leadership needs are led by our leadership and organizational development team. This team works with leaders through a succession planning process to identify and meet our leadership needs. This involves a lot of detailed work, along with pivotal conversations about each of our leader’s strengths and abilities. The end result is a personal development plan for each leader.

 

The leadership and organizational development team also offers a number of programs across the health system. One of these is our emerging leaders program.

Our emerging leaders program has been in place for the past five years. Building on the successes we have achieved over the last five years, we develop individuals who have been identified by their supervisors as having leadership potential.

 

A key goal of growing our leadership talent is to maintain a pool of individuals who are ready to move into a variety of positions, based on our projection of future leadership needs.

 

Acceptance to the emerging leaders program requires a leadership sponsor and an interview before being accepted. A key benefit of the program is that it is open to associates across all disciplines, creating a multidisciplinary learning environment of enhanced learning.

 

In 2014, we launched a revised program based on feedback from our alumni of emerging leaders, key stakeholders and research of current best practice in leadership development. Over a nine-month period, participants engage in a range of learning which includes group and individual activities, workshops, experiential/on the job, action learning, mentoring and an improvement project.

 

Each participant is supported throughout and beyond the program in their personal and professional development. We continue to support our emerging leader graduates through alumni events within our “Leadership Community of Practice.”

 

Examples of their ongoing development include placements in development positions for a defined period of time to increase depth of knowledge and understanding. This includes an 18-month transfer to our performance excellence team to learn about lean leadership practices and a two-year move to our information system team to gain in-depth understanding of our clinical information systems.

 

We have had great success with the program; a high percentage of past emerging leaders have been promoted to a leadership position. We believe in learning through experience and provide the support to help each and every emerging leader grow. It is important to us and demonstrates opportunities to build a long-time career at Martin Health, as opposed to simply securing a job.