Workforce planning is more complex for healthcare chief human resources officers as the effects of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act come into focus and AI adoption accelerates.

Amid this environment, leaders are taking a calculated approach, weighing evolving employee expectations alongside compensation and benefits, while collaborating with other executives to navigate intensified financial pressures.

Denver Health Chief Human Resources Officer Amy King noted that CHROs are not new to change and have navigated unprecedented times such as the COVID-19 pandemic. But there is one aspect of today’s environment that stands out to her.

“What’s unprecedented and different now is how rapid the change continues to be — whether it’s AI or all of the different aspects coming out from the government — and we sometimes feel like a whipsaw,” she said on an Aug. 22 Becker’s podcast.

As employee expectations continue to evolve, she said her organization aims to help with people-focused, purpose-driven work, create clear mobility opportunities, and communicate changes and planning as clearly as possible.

Denver Health also aims to strengthen retention strategies, expand leadership development for emerging and seasoned leaders, and assess how data is incorporated into various workforce areas.

“Sometimes being proactive versus reactive — that discipline or that muscle — seems really easy to speak to, but it can be difficult to put into practice, particularly as you’re trying to get the HR division to shift from being transactional to transformational,” Ms. King said. “Our focus is on leadership support and development at the foundation to help us strengthen the areas we’re excited about — retention, career pathways and mobility, along with leadership support and development.”

Other CHROs expressed similar sentiments about balancing workforce planning with today’s evolving industry, while also highlighting specific approaches within their own organizations.

Columbia-based University of Missouri Health Care uses a holistic approach to workforce planning. MU Health Care CHRO Beth Alpers told Becker’s the system’s HR team partners with operational leaders and brings them together in workshops to discuss recruitment, staffing and training challenges.

“Recently we identified a need in environmental services to emphasize the ‘why.’ Why do you clean the room? Why is infection control so important? We’re partnering with our learning and development department to help beef up some of that and offer training around it,” Ms. Alpers said.

“But it’s really about HR being a partner with finance, a partner with operational leaders — bringing everybody together and asking, is this a compensation issue? Is this a staffing benchmark issue? Is this a workforce issue? Do we need to find a different way to deliver care or services?”

At Minneapolis-based Allina Health, leaders are leveraging technology — including artificial intelligence and digital automation — to reduce administrative burdens and create efficiencies for staff, according to Sarah Stumme, senior vice president and CHRO.

The health system also aims “to support our workforce through these transitions and ensure that every change aligns with our mission and values,” Ms. Stumme told Becker’s.

Ms. King also shared advice for leaders looking ahead to the rest of the year. She recommended that they focus on empathy and accountability.

Employees “want to be seen, they want to be heard, and they want to be supported — but they also expect clarity from their leader, as well as follow-up and follow-through,” she said. “Our chair of our trauma division said this about providing feedback, which I absolutely love and learned from him: Even when the feedback needs to be constructive, you’re actually being kind to the individual you’re giving it to. Because if you don’t give it, that individual doesn’t necessarily know what they might need to shift. Obviously, the delivery is important, but when you give it constructively, you’re actually being kind to your employee.”

She also encouraged leaders to “stay curious — both when listening and learning — because healthcare is evolving so quickly, and that newest learning is so essential.”

Additionally, she recommended that leaders invest in relationships to build trust amid change, balance the urgency of daily demands with the importance of long-term workforce goals, and model respectful behavior.

“Whether leaders realize it or not, eyes are always on us and our behavior. That’s what makes leadership super challenging at times — because we’re always on, and yet we are human too,” Ms. King said. “That said, leadership is an honor and a privilege. How incredible is it that we’re able to get to know our employees on a personal and professional level, hear them, and watch them in their greatest and toughest moments? Perhaps most importantly, I love that we get to see in them what they themselves maybe can’t or don’t see. As leaders, that provides us the opportunity to help coach and grow our people into more than they can imagine for themselves. That’s incredible, and I’m so, so grateful for that opportunity.”

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