e046. Training & Development with Joi Turner

#IncludingYouPodcast Interview with Joi Turner

Full Interview Transcript

[00:00:48] Amy: Welcome back to Including You. I’m Amy C. Waninger, the Inclusion Catalyst. My guest today is Joi Turner. She is the diversity, equity, and inclusion manager of Ingenovis [00:01:00] Health. Ingenovis Health employs 5,000 people or more across the US between their corporate and clinician populations. Joi, I am so excited to have you the show.

Welcome to

[00:01:10] Joi: Thank you so much, Amy. I’m so excited to be here.

[00:01:14] Amy: So tell me a little bit about Ingenovis’s mission and how you are different from other healthcare providers in your space.

[00:01:24] Joi: Yeah, absolutely. So, our mission is to create a space where healthcare talent can truly thrive. So as an industry leading workforce solutions provider, Ingenovis constantly strives to create that inclusive ecosystem where talent can grow, thrive, and truly deliver that best patient care.

[00:01:46] Amy: That is awesome. It’s- I love that you focus on talent because my philosophy is if we take care of our talent will take care of our customers and patients. Absolutely. And why then is inclusion such an [00:02:00] important part of your work?

[00:02:01] Joi: For me, inclusion is important cause I am a black woman in a corporate space.

So I think that’s a part of my personal mission. But when we look at it from the Ingenovis perspective, we have grown so quickly over the last 24 months, and because we are still currently in our infancy, we’re looking at ways that we can continue to bring brands together.

Right now, we have seven brands that we’ve brought together over, this two year period, and a lot of that was done during Covid.

So, we’re really focusing now on what are the ways that we can continue to develop our people? What are the ways that we can continue to bring our people together, especially in this more remote environment? And because we’re so focused on inclusion, we recognize that will also lead to more innovation.

It will lead to continued growth. And we’re really just wanting to make sure that people are in this [00:03:00] environment where they do feel safe and that they really can thrive, which is what a huge part of our mission is about.

[00:03:08] Amy: I like that you brought up innovation, because I think that’s something that is missing from a lot of the conversations I have.

And it’s been proven in studies over and over that the more diverse the team, the more innovative the team. And not necessarily always just racial diversity, which is a big factor, but also the backgrounds and degrees that people have, professional backgrounds and degrees. Gender diversity is a big predictor of innovation.

Country of origin diversity is a big predictor of innovation. What do you think has- what are you seeing in terms of innovation in your work that kind of draws that correlation for you between diversity, inclusion, and innovation?

[00:03:50] Joi: Oh, I love that you brought up all of these different elements and dimensions of someone’s identity.

Cause I think that’s so important, especially as we have these [00:04:00] conversations about inclusion. I think a lot of times when people think about diversity, they do go to race and gender, and, when it really is so much more than that. And so to your point, those lived experiences, their backgrounds, their education, all of these different pieces come into play when we talk about the way someone’s mind works.

So, when we look at innovation, I think we’re seeing a lot of new processes get stood up that are driving our growth and driving what makes our employees feel special and what helps us become that employer of choice. So, we’re looking at things a lot differently than we would’ve looked at them a year and a half, two years ago, because now we have all of these different voices a part of the conversation.

So, our policies are starting to look different. The way that we handle business on a day-to-day basis is starting to look different. Cause we’re amplifying those voices as we go.

[00:04:59] Amy: [00:05:00] This is so critical because not only does it improve what you’re doing, but it helps you outcompete for talent and for market share where you’re doing business.

And I think that’s a critical piece. What do you attribute the success to? What’s maybe one or two initiatives that you’ve implemented around inclusion that you feel have really moved the needle for your organization?

[00:05:26] Joi: So, because we are still really in our infancy, I think that we’re still learning what that will look like for us.

I joined the organization in July, and so since then, one of the primary initiatives that we’ve had is simply listening. We wanna make sure that we’re listening to what people want to see. What people think is going well for us right now and really focusing on ways that we can continue to drive what’s going and ways that we can from a systems level change the things that people [00:06:00] would like to see us do better.

So that was my primary initiative, I’d say for the first few months where we were just going from site to site, spending time with folks, having focus groups, one-on-one meetings, and just hearing what they have to say. And from there , we went ahead and started developing the framework that I think will really help contribute to the success of our inclusion initiatives as we move forward.

Because now this framework is developed in such a way that it focuses specifically on the key trending areas. So employee engagement, corporate social responsibility, community connection, and training and development. So our initiatives are connection. What are we doing to drive engagement for our employees and our clinicians?

How are we showing up for them? What tools and resources are we providing them? Our clinician side [00:07:00] has what we call the ACT program, and I think that is so important in becoming that employer of choice and providing that stellar care at the bedside because it gives them the things that they need.

Advocacy, career and tools. So, we’re really pouring into the clinicians in that way. And then we’re building a lot on the corporate side to help people have something very similar. Where we’re standing up career centers, we are making sure that we’re putting in pathing and development for not just our people leaders, but all of our talent so that they can get to where they wanna be.

On the community side of themes, we’re focusing on corporate social responsibility, making sure that we are partnering with vendors that are small business owners, minority business owners, women-owned enterprises, and pouring back into the community in those smaller businesses that need that additional push.

But outside of that, we also wanna make sure [00:08:00] that we’re actively in the community helping out in whatever way that we can. So, I’m looking forward to some of the partnerships that we’re gonna stand up as a part of these initiatives as well. And finally, the training and development piece of the initiatives I think is going to be critical, especially as we really start to kick things off this first year.

Because when we focus on training and development, we’re not looking at it from a role perspective in most cases. There are some instances with recruiting where we talk specifically about, eliminating unconscious bias during the interview process and things like that. But in general, we’re trying to build these cultural competencies and really teach people how to be thoughtful, inclusive leaders. What it looks like to be an ally.

Understanding what diversity, equity and inclusion even means, and then giving them the tools they need to continue to have those conversations throughout the year, either via a modular learning path [00:09:00] in the LMS or more group based sessions so that we are focusing on changing those behaviors even if we’re not changing beliefs.

[00:09:09] Amy: I love something you said. You- it was almost a throwaway line in what you said, and it was not just our leaders, but all of our employees. That you’re training in these skills and thank you for that because so many times I see organizations and they’re training their leaders after they’ve been promoted.

But the gap between when a leader takes their role and when they’re trained for their tole can be catastrophic for them and their teams if they don’t know what’s expected of them with those new responsibilities. And so training everyone to lead inclusively across the board, I think is super important because now they’ve got those skills when they get into their leadership role and they have actual responsibility and accountability around the management side of their job, the people leadership side of their job.

They already know what’s expected. And they can actually [00:10:00] start out on the right foot with their teams. Absolutely. That’s huge.

[00:10:03] Joi: I agree. And thank you for pointing that out because it is so important to us that these conversations around inclusion start day one. So, another thing that I think is going well with our initiatives is the collaboration that we’re seeing across all of the different functions of the organization.

I’m working with our talent acquisition teams, not just on what does the diversity recruiting strategy look like, but what are we doing to make sure that we don’t just attract, but also retain that talent once they’re here. Working with our training and development team to integrate value and belonging, which is what we’re calling our DEI into day one.

So, from that very first day that someone joins our organization in walks through our virtual doors, if you will, they are hearing conversations around what it means to be inclusive and what that looks like for us. So, starting from tha beginning point, [00:11:00] I think not only helps us from a retention perspective, but to your point, once they do move into that leadership role, this isn’t gonna be a new conversation for them or a new concept because they’ve been hearing it constantly along the way.

[00:11:14] Amy: Onboarding is so key to retaining employees, and so for so many new employees in a lot of companies, onboarding looks like, hang tight, your laptop’s coming. And that’s their day one experience and to have built into your onboarding, the diversity and inclusion, the value and belonging concepts, some of these allyship concepts, and just making people feel welcome by acknowledging that they’re new is such a simple thing but it’s so profound and it’s so powerful.

And it really sets the stage for how they’re going to engage in their work, how they’re gonna engage with their team, excuse me. And you know how they’re gonna feel about the company and whether they’re gonna tell people, yes, you wanna come work here because my first week was [00:12:00] amazing and it just didn’t stop. As opposed to, “I sat here for a few days, I think I have a job. I’m not sure what’s going on. “

[00:12:06] Joi: Yeah, because I think we’ve all been there. We’ve all had that onboarding experience that was less than ideal. And we recognize that we have opportunities again cause we’re so new.

And so, having these very thoughtful conversations around what can we do differently? What can we do to stand out as a great place to work? What can we do to stand out as that employer of choice and then intentionally moving through the process as though we are one of those candidates coming in? What does our candidate experience look like from a recruiting perspective?

What does that now look like? Is there onboarding? What does that look like at their 30, 60, 90-day benchmark? And how are we making sure that we’re impacting them, not just in a way that is directly related to their role, but also when it comes to feeling like they belong somewhere, feeling [00:13:00] like they have this sense of community and safety within our walls.

[00:13:03] Amy: What you’re really talking about, it sounds is an employee experience approach, an employee journey approach to, how you work with your teams. And I know that’s a big trend right now in in organizations. But beyond the buzzwords, it’s just smart business. It’s just a smart way to welcome people and treat people and ensure that your employees wanna be there.

Not because you tell them they wanna be there, but because they tell you what would make them wanna stay.

[00:13:35] Joi: Yeah, absolutely. And it’s the right thing to do. You spend so much time working throughout your week and when things were more brick and mortar, we spent more time at work than we did sometimes with our families.

So, making sure that experience while you’re there, even if it is a remote experience now is one that is meaningful to you. It’s one that is helping to [00:14:00] enrich you holistically, not just in one area and is one that helps you grow to whatever you know your next step is.

[00:14:08] Amy: Joi, you keep saying, “We are so new, we are so new,” but you are doing things that very mature companies have not figured out yet. So please don’t discount the work that you’ve done or the things that you’ve implemented just because it’s new. I’m really just blown away by the progress that you’ve made in such a short time, and I think it’s wonderful for your employees, but also, for the people that you serve as an organization.

It’s fantastic.

[00:14:34] Joi: I appreciate that Amy, and I certainly don’t wanna discount the progress that we’ve made because it has been extremely impressive. Even since I’ve joined the organization, I’m impressed daily by the strides that I see the organization continue to make. And I think that as we continue to grow, we will continue to reiterate what good looks like for us and what success looks like, and I think that will be [00:15:00] largely based off of how our employees are feeling and what feedback we’re receiving from them.

[00:15:07] Amy: That’s wonderful. What’s next for Ingenovis?

[00:15:11] Joi: Oh wow. What’s next? Growth. I’d say growth for sure. We’re going to continue to grow.

We’re going to continue to support our employees. We’re going to continue to really focus on ways that we’re creating this. Safe space for them. We’re training and helping to pour into all of our talent in a way that is meaningful, in a way that will help them get to their next level. And I think that we will be seen as that employer of choice because we are putting so much intentionality into the things that we’re doing.

[00:15:52] Amy: Joi, I wish you every success. I can’t wait to hear from you again about how things are going and what else you’ve managed to accomplish there. It’s [00:16:00] incredible.

[00:16:00] Joi: Thank you so much, Amy. I appreciate your time. I appreciate you giving opportunity to talk about what we’re doing at Ingenovis. I am very excited and looking forward to talking to you again soon.

[00:16:12] Amy:  Thank you so much for being on the show.

[00:16:13] Joi: My pleasure. Thank you for having me.

[00:17:00] [00:17:03] Amy: That’s it for this week’s edition of Including You. Join me next week when my guest will be my friend Dana Beckton at Sentara Healthcare.