Becker's Hospital Review

98 WOMEN'S LEADERSHIP Ochsner HR exec: Creating gender parity in leadership crucial to tackling workforce challenges By Kelly Gooch T racey Schiro, executive vice president and chief risk and human resources officer for New Orleans-based Ochsner Health since April 2021, is keyed into gender parity efforts in the healthcare C-suite and has worked with her colleagues to boost female representation at her organization and in the industry. Ms. Schiro began her Ochsner tenure 15 years ago as assistant vice president of compensation, benefits and human resources information systems. She assumed her current role aer serving as interim chief human resources officer and vice president of human resources information systems. Becker's Hospital Review caught up with Ms. Schiro to discuss barriers women oen face when advancing to senior leadership roles, what her organization is doing to close the gender gap, and why closing that gap is crucial for the future of healthcare. Trends in the C-suite Across healthcare, there are examples of shis toward gender parity in leadership. Take as an example Blacksburg, Va.-based LewisGale Hospital Montgomery. For the first time, three women are leading the hospital, which is part of Nashville, Tenn.-based HCA Healthcare. An April 8 report from McKinsey & Co. also found women make up more than two-thirds of entry-level employees in healthcare and that the industry still outperforms other sectors in female representation. However, the report acknowledges remaining challenges: While women account for more than half of all entry-level employees in the national healthcare workforce, they represent 29 percent of executive roles. Ms. Schiro said she has seen a lot of change when it comes to gender representation in the C-suite. "We [at Ochsner] now have a team of five females that are sitting at the executive table in our executive meetings weekly, and they're considered members of our executive team and executive roles," she said. "Of course, we have female physicians and female community board members. I've seen a lot of change over time in terms of representation of females, within healthcare nationally and also at Ochsner." Currently, 69 percent of Ochsner's management population is female, a majority of whom are at the manager and director levels. at percentage — as well as other figures Ms. Schiro cited during the interview — could change in the wake of Ochsner's merger with Meridian, Miss.-based Rush Health Systems; the deal took effect Aug. 1. Preparing women for leadership roles To prepare more women for vice president and higher-level roles, Ochsner established a talent review process. Image Credit: Ochsner Health

• Cover