To provide the very best care, leaders must reflect the communities they serve. Through education, advocacy and continued involvement with key minority-focused healthcare associations, Furst Group is addressing the disparity that ethnic minorities represent less than 2 percent of senior management positions in the healthcare industry.
Furst Group has a proven track record of successfully recruiting such diverse leaders. In the past year, 19 percent of our placements have been ethnically or racially diverse, and 46 percent were women executives.
A strategic focus for us at Furst Group is developing leadership teams to address the changing workforce that a global economy demands. We promote that through our sponsorship of the Top Diversity Leaders in Healthcare awards for Modern Healthcare and by providing educational opportunities for career advancement to current and future leaders. Our publication, What Does Leadership Look Like?, examines the issue of diversity in greater depth through interviews with these experienced executives.
We also live out our commitment to this goal through our active involvement in the National Association of Health Service Executives (NAHSE), a non-profit association of African-American healthcare executives, as well as other key minority-focused healthcare organizations that all serve to complement our scope. The networking, mentoring and counsel that our leadership team provides to executives of all backgrounds in the industry ensures that our clients have access to a deep pool of talent.
See our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
At Furst Group, we are in our 15th year of sponsoring the Top 25 Women in Healthcare and the Top Diversity Leaders in Healthcare awards for Modern Healthcare. The awards are annual celebrations. Visit our Diversity Resource Library.
Many organizations desire to develop or maintain a diverse workforce, but few fully understand that it requires a multi-faceted strategy focused on recruitment, retention, leadership development, promotional advancement, and mentoring to make it a reality.
Leaders and boards must be willing to look beyond a candidate’s ability to merely line up with a job description and also strategically assess candidates based upon professional competence and future potential. Yes, there are some innate risks in that for a leader, but taking risks is part of what leadership is all about.
Secondly, for a diversity strategy to be successful, it must have metrics that are linked to leadership’s performance incentives.
Our experience with and sensitivity to these issues help our clients make strategic and sensible hiring decisions.
