In this episode of Elevate Care, host Keri Perez engages in an insightful conversation with Tomya Watt, Chief People Officer at AMN Healthcare, about the evolving role of Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs). Together, they explore how CHROs have transitioned from transactional roles to becoming strategic, solution-driven partners in the C-suite. The discussion highlights the power of data in driving workforce transformation, the importance of aligning talent strategies with business goals, and how holistic workforce solutions and technology integration can elevate patient care and organizational success.
In this episode of Elevate Care, host Keri Perez engages in an insightful conversation with Tomya Watt, Chief People Officer at AMN Healthcare, about the evolving role of Chief Human Resource Officers (CHROs). Together, they explore how CHROs have transitioned from transactional roles to becoming strategic, solution-driven partners in the C-suite. The discussion highlights the power of data in driving workforce transformation, the importance of aligning talent strategies with business goals, and how holistic workforce solutions and technology integration can elevate patient care and organizational success.
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About Tomya Watt:
Tomya Watt is the Chief People Officer at AMN Healthcare, where she oversees human resources and fosters a culture of respect, inclusion, and empowerment. With extensive experience as a human resources leader in the healthcare industry, Tomya has a proven ability to build high-performing, inclusive organizations.
Previously, she held senior leadership roles at Kelly Services, Comerica Bank, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she served as interim Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Diversity Officer. During her 15 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering, she led initiatives to boost employee engagement and streamline talent acquisition, enhancing both the workplace and patient care.
Tomya earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from Spelman College and an MBA from Howard University. She continues to drive innovation and inclusivity in her work, creating environments where collaboration and excellence thrive.
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AMN Healthcare Podcasts (00:00.126)
Welcome to Elevate Care. I'm your host, Kerry Perez, and on today's episode, we are going to be talking about how CHROs are a pivotal part in leading workforce transformation. We're going to cover evolving roles of CHROs, CHROs role and influence in the C-suite, and then wrap it up by talking about holistic workforce solutions and driving workforce transformation. So I'm thrilled to bring our guest in today. We have Tomya Watt, who is our Chief People Officer at AMN Healthcare.
In previous roles, Tomya held senior leadership roles at Kelly Services, Comerica Bank, and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she served as interim chief human resources officer and chief diversity officer. During 15 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering, she led initiatives to boost employee engagement and streamline talent acquisition, enhancing both the workplace and patient care. So no better of a guest to have today. Welcome, Tomya.
Thanks, Carrie, excited to be here.
Great, let's jump right in to our first topic about the evolving roles of the CHRO. So tell me a little bit about how the role has shifted in the past two years.
Yeah, I think what I've seen is that the CHRO role has moved from being much more transactional and sort of people focused in terms of the activity and much more focused on the future in terms of talent, where the gaps are, what the organization needs in order to fulfill its business strategy, and really connecting the two.
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So with that, how have the responsibilities changed?
I think the responsibilities have really shifted to CHROs needing to be much more business minded. And while I don't want to say that we aren't paying attention to hearts and minds of the employee base, it's really important that CHROs of today and for the future are connecting both what the business needs are, where the talent is going for the future, and how they have to look at it using data.
as a lens towards filling those gaps or building for those gaps.
So with that little bit of a shift, do you have to do anything to influence your peers in the C-suite to understand the different role that you may play now?
I think it's really important that CHROs are coming to the table armed with data that talk about how the vacancy rates in the organization impact revenue, how engagement, especially in healthcare where we know that a strong level of engagement and belonging drives higher patient outcomes, how do you really connect those because patient outcomes really are what all healthcare is focused on.
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How does that drive towards revenue? How does it drive towards patient engagement? And CHROs have that data. It's really how do you tell the story and connect those pieces.
Excellent. So do you have any examples of how you have applied maybe some of that data in the past to make a case?
Sure. So at one point at Memorial Sloan Kettering, we were looking at how we were going to plan for growth and using our headcount projections, we're able to show where we were going to have a gap in lab technologists as an example. And I think every healthcare organization sort of suffering from that. So we built a program to support that and we were able to fund it because we were showing the data that supported
the fact that without the lab technologies, what that would do to our revenue. Also, where I think there's an opportunity to show data is where you're looking at how do you staff for short-term needs. So flu season. If you live in an area where flu season is rampant and you don't want to hire for that but not having the right staffing levels, particularly a nurse, it's going to impact your ability to deliver patient care. So showing where your vacancies have been for absenteeism as it relates to flu.
which is a very seasonal thing that you can plan for, how do you then build float pools or temporary pools in order to cover sort of a short-term need with a short-term solution that helps you maintain a consistent staffing level in order to maintain revenue.
AMN Healthcare Podcasts (04:19.854)
So it sounds like very concrete data-driven sort of business terms that you're using to make these points. As we were talking about the initial question of how roles have changed, what might that have looked at prior to maybe orienting around data and business?
I've always been a bit of a data person, so I think for me I've always come to any of the conversations driving with data. But for my peers and colleagues who are less data driven, I think it's been much more around the sentiment of employees. so earlier conversations are probably very much about how employees feel. And I think in this time where healthcare systems are really compressed in a margin compressed environment, it becomes very difficult.
just to talk about the hearts and minds of employees. And so as a result, it's really important for CHRs to make that shift to connect not only the sentiment, but also with the data.
And then, know, tugging on that string again of just like the influence. Did you notice a material shift or I guess from any of the peers that you know in the same space of when they have made that reframe with their peers? What does that sort of feel like when that goes well?
I think the ones that I see that are most successful, so the peers that I have that I see in Becker's who are consistently being recognized, those are the peers who lean in towards what the CHRO of the future really ought to be. And so there are number of examples throughout sort of the Becker's top CHROs that would be on that list of people who've made that shift, who have come to the table with that lens, and I think many more of them.
AMN Healthcare Podcasts (06:00.396)
that are being hired or being placed. That's the thing that is drawing CEOs and boards to them is really those that are able to connect those dots.
That makes a lot of sense. So you've already touched on it a little bit, but talking now about holistic workforce solutions, what does that holistic workforce solution actually look like?
So one, think you have to understand what your business strategy is. What is the organization trying to achieve? And then it's having a very strong person, whether it's on your team or in the organization, that can look at your existing workforce and understand what the retirement looks like, what that ledge would look like, what your actual experience is in that regard. How do you do some projections around where the skills are going to be for the future?
for your organization and then looking at how many people do you have, in what skill set, and is it going to be better for you to build that skill set, borrow that skill set. I think in a time of generative AI coming in, how do you partner with both technology and people? Because healthcare is always going to be a human sport, if you will. But how do you connect both technology and people?
for the future and so I think holistic solutions for healthcare for the future as it relates to talent will really not only just look at the skill gap, but how do you marry both technology and human touch in order to make the patient experience the best experience.
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This a little bit off script, but I know even at AMN we just recently are going through an exercise at looking at different roles and how it might change as technology advances. Are there any tips or frameworks that you have that your peers might look into utilizing?
I, well one of the exercises that Mark Hagan and I, our Chief Information Officer and I are going through is really looking at what work doesn't add value to that particular job experience. Where is the most human touch important? And are there activities that if something else or someone else or it could be automated, where would that add value to that particular role?
So it's really looking at each role individually and separating out the things that are repetitive, the things that aren't going to add value to whether it's a candidate or to a patient that you need a human interaction for, but someone would like to always give up. asking people directly, what part of the job don't you like? What part of the job doesn't bring value? And then really looking at how do you break those pieces apart and bring in both technology and then add
skill for those individuals so that they're able to do a higher level role with the support of technology.
That makes sense and also it sounds like it also assuages some fears people might have about their role as technology comes into play. It's more to be additive and take away the rote responsibility so they can do what humans do best in those moments that matter. Exactly. Yes, excellent. All right, so talking about aligning strategies across different talent pipelines, how can a CHRO be an important factor there?
AMN Healthcare Podcasts (09:23.544)
Well, I think it goes back to the previous question around just data. You have to have data to understand the business and where the organization is going. And so doing an assessment on whether it's a single point of failure. So does one particular person hold all of that information and how do you plan for it? Or is this a skill set that you need to develop for for the future and really having those processes in place that help you do that analysis to understand sort of the inventory of talent in your organization?
Great. And last question as we're wrapping up, what advice would you give to see HROs looking to drive workforce transformation?
I think it's really driving partnership with their colleagues across the business and understanding what problems they're trying to solve and really positioning themselves as being a solution-driven, data-driven partner for them. think when the business is trying to revenue or operational issues, it's often around people, but they need a thought partner to really think about it in a what could be as opposed to
why we can't. So I would just suggest that they go in eyes open and being a great partner.
Excellent. Well, I certainly learned a lot about the role of CHROs in driving workforce transformation, and I hope our listeners did too. Tamiya, thank you so much for joining us, and we will see you next time on Elevate Care. Thank you for joining us today on Elevate Care. If you found this episode valuable, please consider sharing it with a colleague and subscribing to our show on your favorite podcast platform. You can learn more about this episode and our show on our website at amnhelfcare.com.
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