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The Future Workforce Over the next decade, many baby boomers, who are currently leading companies and managing different generations, will exit the workforce and utilize a large share of health care services as patients.After their departure, millennials will fill the majority of the labor gap, and some Gen Xers and even millennials will ascend to leadership roles.This inevitable shift in patient and workforce demographics will force hospitals and care systems to build an organizational culture that develops and nurtures willing and able employees to provide excellent patient care. To help health care organizations meet the challenges ahead, this report provides a list of workforce management strategies to manage life in the gap. Building a strong generational foundation allows leaders to understand their organization’s workforce profile and develop programs and policies to acquire and retain a generationally diverse staff. Establishing effective generational management practices helps leaders identify and leverage each generation’s strengths and prevent possible conflicts among employees from different generations. Developing generational competence increases understanding and improves communication and generational sensitivity throughout the entire workforce. These strategies are intended to jump-start intergenerational management practices in hospitals and care systems, but they may need to be augmented to be sufficient long term, particularly when the patient and workforce demographic shift occurs. New and innovative approaches and models of care will need to be implemented as values, beliefs and expectations in the workplace continue to change. Health care organizations must evolve with a changing workforce to meet and align with patient needs. Doing so may require rethinking organizational structure, rebuilding and redefining jobs and creating new ones. Restructuring the organization As Gen Xers and millennials rise to leadership roles, health care organizations may need to consider flattening their structure and removing departmental and management hierarchies. Gen Xers and millennials—future leaders and workforce—consider organizational hierarchies as barriers to creativity and innovation. Rebuilding and redefining jobs for redesigned care models Health care organizations may need to modify job requirements to cater to new and emerging roles. This includes adjusting competencies so that the workforce aligns with new population health needs. For example, some jobs will need to be redesigned as technology advances.As jobs are redefined, the workforce may transition and redeploy to different settings, roles and organizational structures. Creating new jobs Organizations can invent new roles to accommodate staff needs and meet work volume. For example, jobs that require one individual to perform today may require two individuals tomorrow, and vice versa. As more care is being delivered outside of such formal structures as acute care facilities, jobs will be performed in different settings and function differently.

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Managing an IntergenerationalWorkforce: Strategies for Health Care Transformation