Teresa Chapman, Chief People Officer with Santa Clara Family Health Plan: Helping Employees Adjust to AI Disruption

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Hello, I’m Van Ton-Quinlivan, CEO of Futuro Health, welcoming you to WorkforceRx, where I interview leaders and innovators for insights into creating a future-ready workforce.

Even though use of artificial intelligence in the workplace has nearly doubled for US employees in the past two years, a recent Gallup poll found that only 22% of companies have a clear, communicated strategy for integrating AI.

On today’s episode, we are going to explore how organizations can help their employees adjust to AI disruptions and we will do that with Teresa Chapman, Chief People Officer with Santa Clara Family Health Plan, which serves over 300,000 members across Santa Clara County here in California. Earlier in her career, Teresa worked in the public and private sectors as an HR leader for several organizations, including Kaiser Permanente.

Thanks very much for joining us today, Teresa.

Teresa Chapman

Thanks for having me.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Well, before we get into details about AI integration, I thought we’d start by getting a sense of your overall approach as a Chief People Officer to managing people and what role you see HR playing in organizations because from what I understand, the role of HR has shifted quite a bit over the last decade.

Teresa Chapman

Absolutely. You know, my simple speech about my role that helps people really understand the value that HR can bring is that as the Chief People Officer, it’s my responsibility to point the mission, the vision, and the values inward so that it’s effective and impactful when it’s pointed outward. When we take care of our employees, they are not only engaged, but they take an ownership perspective in understanding how their contributions are connected to the overall mission and vision of the organization. So that is absolutely, I think, not only tied to my passion that drives me to this work, but it’s also touching on the evolution of HR.

Back in 2022, as we were at the center of the pandemic and observing all the phenomena that was really thrusting HR at the forefront of human capital strategy and organizational strategy with response to the pandemic, it was really clear that we had to think about how we were going to evolve. And so being people centered was what really stood out for me as I thought about the future of my leadership.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Tell us a little bit about how the role of a Chief People Officer has evolved in this time of telework.

Teresa Chapman

Well, I would say from a standpoint of telework, if we expand it to think about what that truly looks like in practice, we have distributed teams. We have teams that are not only in different locations, but environmentally there might be very drastic differences in where we are located and how we’re experiencing the moment or the day. So when you think about coming together, even something as simple as your environmental conditions has an impact on how you’re able to collaborate, and that’s why also well-being has become a focus of leadership when you think about how are you managing this telework environment.

I could be in a place where it’s raining; you could be outside walking your dog and we’re on a call. How to have that sensitivity and those are things that I think really call on a Chief People Officer to have a strategy for being able to respond to that aspect of how it is changing the culture of an organization. And so that’s one of the responsibilities that we have, to invest in our own self to have the skills to adapt and serve our organizations respectively.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

So Theresa, in your world of health plans, which is different from a health care provider of services, you have members. Can you just explain to our listeners who may be less familiar with this what’s the difference in organizational structure?

Teresa Chapman

Yeah, no problem. So the difference, if you’re trying to understand how we fit into the health safety net, is that we are the insurer. So when you think about a person who is an individual that has needs for care and well-being to their provider, they might be a patient. And to us, the insurer and the health plan, they’re a member. So it’s not just about thinking of where we fit into the system, but it’s also understanding that we have a responsibility as the insurer of the member to also be a bridge to the safety net. So we have a bit of a holistic relationship and need to think about the member as a person. So in the same way that I think about our employees as people, in the frame of all things happening, we are all people serving functionally and operationally in different capacities, hopefully looking for the same outcome, which is well-being.

So I think I touched on the question a little bit about where we fit into the fold. But if you want me to get more specific about health plan, I would want to add that we are organized out of legislation and we are one of many local health plans in California. California has a structure for public health access, if you will, that requires there to be a public health option in every county in California. And we happen to be the public health option in Santa Clara County as the Santa Clara County Health Authority, which we are at a very interesting point in time because there are some shifts and our organization is actually working to integrate into the county. So there’s going to be a lot of shifts in what we might define as a local health plan in Santa Clara County in the very not too distant future.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

So your explanation about members gives us context because you have a sizable fraction of your staff that are member-facing and you’ve just recently talked to me about how important it is for them to be compassionate themselves. So tell us about that and how it ties to the stars rating that you have referenced.

Teresa Chapman

Actually, if it’s okay with you, I’d like to pivot and put a greater emphasis on AI. And so when we think about the world that we’re in now and the rapidly evolving technology in front of us that is demanding our involvement, you can’t escape it, right? So there’s some organizations that may not be ready for AI, and some are just exploring. We are at the point where we are exploring, but we’re putting a heavy focus on trying to understand what will that do with regard to disruption of our workforce and their understanding of their role.

And so to the point that you made with your course, Human Touch Healthcare…that is so timely. I can’t applaud you enough for having not just that framework, but even that title, because that’s what we’re going to be focused on is what does it mean to have a person in a role and being able to equip them as the human agent in the delivery of services and in a member facing way? And what can we do with equipping them with the tools of AI to eliminate some of the mundane work and some of the repetitive task work that kind of sometimes can get annoying or make things longer than they have to be in the handling of getting to that member’s need. We are looking at how we can have a co-architecture, if you will, with the employee helping us inform what are some of those pain points and what are some of the things that are in the way of you giving your best to our members?

And so when we think about how we want them to process how to think of that question, it’s all about emotional intelligence. It’s about empathy. It’s about truly being able to have a sense of purpose and connection to the essence of what we’re doing. And so that takes away maybe some of that data entry or even some of the analysis of the particular condition of that patient history, that member history with the reason why they’re calling. They might have called and it’s their 17th call. And to imagine how effective it would be to have an AI supported effort with that employee and that member facing moment to then have a script to engage them in a very human way by name and recognizing that this is a person who’s had a lot of visits or a lot of calls and then lean in with that compassion. “I’m really glad I was able to help you again today. I remember when we last talked on…” and then name the date, maybe even pull some of the context of the conversation to really, really humanize that interaction. That’s how we’re envisioning AI will be able to do some of that.

And then also, removing barriers for the member so that they can get guided to the right person. Because one of the drawbacks that we’re experiencing sometimes with AI is that it’s difficult to get to a human. So how about if we have a system that allows you to get to the right human, right away and then they’re equipped to serve you specifically and personally. So those are the ways that we’re looking at integrating it into our workflow and operations.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Ooh, I like your vision. by the way, thank you for the call out on Futuro Health’s Human Touch Healthcare. We’ll have to talk about that because you have a special standing with us since you were involved very early in informing and helping us shape that important coursework.

But before we dive into that topic, I so appreciate that you’re bringing up this issue of how do we have humans be more human when AI can do so many other functions and it makes me wonder about that person calling in multiple times. For example, what the energy industry had uncovered was even though they had the option of mailing in their bills or submitting their bills digitally, there’s some people who want to stand in line.  We have a whole crisis of loneliness which is something that it may be very difficult for a bot to pick up on, but the human might be able to detect if they have high emotional intelligence.

Teresa Chapman

Yes, absolutely.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Is that too aspirational in terms of use of us humans?

Teresa Chapman

I don’t think so. Also part of my role as a Chief People Officer in shaping culture is how we develop our people and what are some strategies for doing that. We’re currently taking a strength-based approach by rolling out CliftonStrengths. Every single employee within our organization has taken an assessment and we are right now rolling out our team sessions to have those discovery conversations and introduction to CliftonStrengths as a language so that we could be working with our leaders to take a strength-based approach to leading people and doing performance coaching and development.

In that way, we’re focused on building on what’s right and instead of looking for things that are lacking, or also, if there’s something lacking in oneself that we appreciate that we have a colleague that balances our strength and our talents. So we’re looking at it from our talent management perspective where we look at, yes, we can truly look for someone to have high emotional intelligence and amplify what a human can do at work because we’re looking at them uniquely. And that’s not something that AI could ever replace. It cannot replace the emotions. It cannot replace a human’s ability to connect with another person and also to understand one’s own strengths, to build upon those and to purposefully work together as a team and collaborate. And so that’s another element that we, to your point, focus on the human potential and building those human capabilities.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Well, talking about human capability, let’s for a moment do a slight promo for Human Touch Healthcare. You were in the early days when we were just prototyping Human Touch Healthcare, and it was intended to develop the six essential skills so important to healthcare roles, like empathy and compassion, cultural competence, teamwork, collaboration. And we just met with you recently regarding our version 3.0 release which by the way, the coursework has been taken by over 12,000 learners in our past three years with an excellent net promoter score of 79%. And you had given us the feedback that we needed in order to create such a good training experience.

Tell us more about how you think about building compassion in your workforce and using this coursework.

Teresa Chapman

Well, I gotta tell you, I am so proud of Futuro Health. Just to be in this moment in time where I’ve had the privilege of watching the program evolve to its current state. I got involved in 2021 when it was an idea taking shape and being offered in pilot phase internally for your own purposes. And then I got engaged with you all and got excited about the chance of bringing it to our organization. We couldn’t get it to a point where it was plug and play, so to speak, or that it fit into our programming. I was able to give feedback, though. I was able to be a part of your journey and kind of stopped having conversations about that in 2022. And then you good folks went into the lab and came out with a gem.

So now we cannot wait to pick back up and pilot it with a large percentage of our member-facing workforce. So I almost forgot the question because I got so excited because you reminded me of all the time, all the meetings, all the whiteboarding, and to see it where it is today is, it’s exciting.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Well, Teresa, we want to thank you for the co-development and thank you for investing your time so early on so that we could have this kind of impact. And the learners love it!

So, Teresa, you were especially enthusiastic about using Human Touch Healthcare to build the qualities of compassion within the workforce. Tell us more about how you think about Human Touch Healthcare and the development of your people.

Teresa Chapman

So now I’m ready to talk about our stars rating which is how we get feedback from our members about their experience. And there are a short series of questions that they are asked that get at the core of how they’re feeling. Did I feel respected? I get what I felt like I was deserved as a member of a health plan who is caring for my health and well-being. Was the person who I spoke with knowledgeable in the area that I was calling to receive service for? It’s really our customer service feedback, so to speak, where at the core of it, it’s really asking about how human was it? Was there compassion? Did I feel valued? Do I believe they care about me?

It is so important. And when you think about a member-facing role in a healthcare organization whose vision is health for all with a desire to make sure that we are able to not only engage our members to be well, but to also empower them to be on the journey leading their wellness. So to do that, you’ve got to care about people.

The stars rating really gets at how well we’re at doing with showing that we care about people. So the human touch healthcare was the vehicle that I had thought about early on as an opportunity to truly build empathy, to build upon those six pillars that you have as your promise. And all of it aligns because it talks about just the teamwork, the integrity, the…I mean, you’ll have to just really look at the whole PSA for the video, but it just, it seemed like the best opportunity to do something that was very real and relatable. And I could meet people not only where they are in their journey about emotional intelligence and empathy, development, and then take them on that journey together and have it show up and be able to be measured in the stars rating. So when we do this next pilot with a great many of our member facing staff, I’m looking to see how it does impact our next stars ratings.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Well, we’re excited to be on that journey with you. I have a question, Teresa. How important is it for your members to be communicating with someone who is speaking their language? How much does that affect the ability to convey the compassion and understanding that you talked about, the human part?

Teresa Chapman

Wow, that is paramount because that’s our emotion center, our language that is often called our mother tongue, right? Our first language, our preferred language, our primary language, however you want to encapsulate it. If we’re going to have culturally responsive care, we have to be intentional to understand how to truly reach our member and not just reach them to have a contact that we measure. Yes, we contacted the member. No, engagement and to be able to inspire them to do the things that they need to do to be well, whether that’s checking in to see if they got their wellness checks or following up from someone who was recently discharged from a hospital stay or had a procedure. We have to not just reach them and be engaging.

We have to make sure they understand the content of our outreach so beyond that language matters so much because what something means to one person in a language, like say English, might mean something very different in Spanish. It’s not going to be a direct translation where you can go to Google Translate. We have a requirement also to be able to meet people in their language of choice. That goes without saying, how that’s both helping the individual by making sure that they understand, but also respecting and honoring their culture because what you tend to get is someone who appreciates not just through language, but through the understanding of the culture, how to reach and meet that member where they truly can receive the care and support that we need to deliver.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

One follow-up question on that, So you mentioned Google Translate and we talked about AI.  As I understand it, the AirPods for the new iPhone apparently have simultaneous translation that goes on.

What do you think of those types of technologies as a way to augment the way your staff is working with your members? Is that a plus or is that something that is still short of the cultural competency that you would want?

Teresa Chapman

I love technology. I think that we have all these tools that are emerging quickly and it’s important to understand where they fit. And for us, because we have a requirement to not only do language testing for level of proficiency before anyone could be tasked with meeting a member in a particular language, they have to demonstrate through testing proficiency in that language.

So we would not necessarily interact and engage with our members with the use of technology to translate on our behalf. But if a member is using that, I applaud their technology savvy. And if folks are just looking to maybe — in between taking those tests — strengthen their capacity for proficiency, then I think there’s ways to integrate that that makes sense. But when it comes to what our standards are for culturally competent responsive care and interactions, folks are certified competent communicators in said languages.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

That’s helpful to know. So when it comes to new skills that your employees need, how do you facilitate their upskilling?

Teresa Chapman

You know, this is an interesting time to respond to a question like that, right? Because if we’re thinking about how the workforce is changing, a lot of what we need to know is how is it being experienced by the employee? So I feel that part of the ways that we inform the training is to make them a partner.

And one of the most important things that I envision for the future is not that people are fearful, for example, that AI will replace them, but that we make sure to equip them to be expert users of multitude of AI tools and platforms so that they have the confidence to evolve with the surrounding environment. That means making sure that we are keeping a sense of what’s commonplace and then also what’s coming so that we can have an agile approach to ensuring that we are giving our folks exposure and that we’re also giving them access and then support to be effective in the use of the tools that are going to be needed in the near future.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

And what are your suggestions for monitoring how the employers are doing with these changes and new tools? And any advice that you could pass on would be greatly appreciated.

Teresa Chapman

Yeah, I think it’s important to make sure that your workforce understands that you are doing something about what these technological opportunities are surrounding us with personally as well as in our industry and professionally. So for us being in a healthcare environment, I think it’s very, very important for employers to make sure that folks understand the privacy considerations that we must first and foremost, always consider.

We should make sure that they understand that we have to enter this space with caution and prudence because we are dealing with personal health information and that’s not something that you can just upload into any chatbot and say, “write this letter.” So making sure that you understand how it needs to be approached within your particular environment, and then having some guardrails and maybe doing some messaging where you let people know if you’re going to pilot it, not only where we’re going to pilot it, but maybe even ask them, “Hey, what are some pain points that you have so that we can collectively inform where that pilot takes place so that we can have an iterative process to be learning while doing and learning from all of these test points that we’re part of.”

So if I were to consolidate it into a couple of talking points, make sure that you are communicating to your workforce where your organization stands with embracing some of this emerging technology; make sure that you connect it back to your policies and your requirements for security for your particular environment; and then create a safe place for it to start to be utilized within your organization. And where that’s concerned, having a roadmap so that you can be transparent while being inclusive about what the journey looks like.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Now, do you remember back to the first time that you actually used an AI tool?

Teresa Chapman

Yes, I do.

Van Ton-Quinlivan
I wonder if you could share that story and then tell us more about your AI assistant and what you use that for.

Teresa Chapman

Well, I’m going to have to give a shout out to one of my colleagues. His name is John Orozco. I worked with John to put together some training while we were updating some of our training for DEI and different things like that — not that this has anything to do with DEI — but I just want to give a shout out to John because he is super out there with being in front of all this new technology that’s emerging.

So I had dinner with him, I want to say probably in 2023, and he said, “Give me your phone.” And I gave him my phone and he said, “All right, I just installed your own personal chat bot.” So for like a whole year before it was even a big, to-do, I had a personal chatbot that I was trying out, and while we were sitting over dinner, he was teaching me how to use it. Tell it what you want. “This is your pocket assistant. If you need something, tell it what to draft. Tell it what to write. Give it a sense of what voice you want it in. Tell them who you are.” I mean, it was just so easy to do this over dinner and so I left after that experience and I was like, “Okay, let’s do this, let’s do that.” And I said, “That’s great. I just saved myself a whole hour.”

And so that’s my answer to you about remembering the first time that I used it. And I’ll tell you a funny story. I remember the day I got the “Dear John” letter from my AI bot breaking up with me because the technology had been sold, but they recommended a replacement and said, why don’t you try, Poe. Why don’t you try Claude AI? And so I said, “Okay, let me see if I can find a new resource.” And so I downloaded a couple more and I’ve used a plethora of AI tools and have been steadily growing my knowledge. You know, we’re going on almost three years now.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Well, good for you for demystifying AI for yourself and experimenting with the tools.

So, there’s been a lot of conversation about how entry-level jobs are going away or it’s just harder to grab that first entry-level job. And I don’t know about you, but I certainly did a lot of analyst type of work in order to learn the ropes when getting started. What do you foresee when it comes to AI adoption and entry level roles, and how people can break into the world of work?

Teresa Chapman

Yeah, I keep hearing a lot of talk about entry level roles, and I only assume that that’s where people’s minds are because that’s where you’re doing the data entry or you’re working in the mailroom. What box are you putting in? What’s what? I don’t really think of it in that frame. When I consider how is AI going to really augment the workforce that we know today into the workforce of the future, I envision that we’re going to have smaller teams and also that we’re going to need to be really focused on employee value. And so when we look at now, it’s all about the productivity from a lens of the hours worked and tasks completed. But I think that the future of work is going to really be more around problem solving and creativity and, you know, that emotional intelligence and relationship building, because it’s going to be about understanding where the human fits in.

I’m trying to start to use language about the human agent versus the AI agent because there’s got to be a partnership between the human and the AI agent similar to the story I told you about my little pocket assistant. But in healthcare specifically, it’s going to be about empathy, things that we’ve already talked about such as cultural competence and responsiveness.

I would say similarly, what I talked about with respect to what we’re doing with CliftonStrengths, it’s going to be about bringing value through understanding the strengths that people bring to the work collectively and how people work together in that combination of talents and across the business. So my focus is not on entry level because oftentimes when we think about entry level, we’re more focused also on time in either industry or market or the workforce and we think of things like age or maturity. But right now we’re operating in a multi-generational environment like never before.

I have five generations in the workplace. Like we’ve come a long way from the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker, right? Which was just the worker or the line worker to then we had the knowledge worker, and we’ve talked a lot about knowledge workers, and AI’s gonna help us move up the hierarchy of knowledge, because the hierarchy of knowledge deals with data that becomes information, that becomes knowledge, that in application becomes wisdom. We’re gonna grow upward in a rapid pace to where we don’t need to be focused on entry level.

We have to be more focused on developing human-ness, to understand the purpose and placement of human capabilities and to be able to truly get at the core of how do we have a more humane society?  So, getting back to my first statement, which was employee value and looking at work differently than hours worked and productivity, I feel like we’re going to be looking more at being in a place where we can create two main lightweight operating systems that value people who are involved in the process of work.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

I really appreciate your framing, especially thinking about the value of a human agent versus the AI agent. What is the real value in humans and how to really kind of double down on that.

So with that in mind, how does AI reshape the organization of HR itself? You talked about smaller teams, what else will change, do you think?

Teresa Chapman
So, I talked about smaller teams, but these smaller teams are going to be having to work more across the business than we’ve seen before.  I’m really being a futurist when I say this, but we spend a lot of time talking about silos. I think that that term’s going to get less used because we’re going to be more focused on necessary operations with these smaller teams working across the business.

And so I think from the standpoint of how HR supports that and thinking about the design of organizations, we hear terms like flattening organizations. How can HR support helping inform how we should be structuring our organizations so that we have effectiveness and that we have not just the ability to make decisions — and I don’t want to say fast, right – but sometimes the speed indecision making has more to do with access to information. So flattening organizations means that information is being shared more fluidly throughout levels of an organization which is differently than kind of historically, the information resides at the top. The decisions are sometimes made here. They’re not touching down here. You’re just getting like a directive.

But when we think about the future of work and the structure of organizations — whether it’s flattening or not, or how we get more impact in how we organize the workers within an organization —  I think that HR is gonna have to play a role. We don’t need to do the paperwork anymore. AI is our friend. It’s not even like really AI, it’s integrated systems. We’ve had that for a long time. When I worked at Kaiser Permanente, I was a part of a team focused on a multi-year technology transformation that was going to remove barriers, give folks direct access and automate things that could be automated and then elevating the human touch. So I think we’re going to get away from just thinking about HR as that transactional steward, if you will, and we’re going to truly be that business partner around talent in the organization, and then understanding how to adapt to the changes that an organization must go through in order to continue to be relevant.

And you’re going to have parts of what causes you to change that might require staffing changes, change in staffing models, changes in the way that you do business and the skills and knowledge that folks have to have in order to adjust to this organization evolving. So HR is going to probably, for the first time ever, be more focused on the human in its title and the equipping of the organization around that human capital strategy that has to do with talent management.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

Well, Theresa, we have learned a lot and I want to give you a chance to answer this closing question. What makes you most optimistic about the future of integrating AI into the future of work?

Teresa Chapman

Wow, what makes me most optimistic is that the growth mindset will be a more common element of how we think about people growing in their work. And what I mean by that is that you kind of have to be a lifetime learner. AI is requiring us to be constantly learning. And what I mean by that is even if I think about the way that I use AI, it helps with being more concise, being more clear, having an opportunity to think about the work that you’re putting out, so to speak.

So, if you reflect on how you task AI to create a particular messaging and then it gives you back that end product, you’re learning right there in that moment. That flow is clear. Even if you’re having a brief iteration of it by updating the tone or call this out a little bit more, or I forgot this element, or maybe you upload a strategic plan that it then has to coalesce and connect to, and then it starts to really make your mind expand about the possibilities of this message that you just needed drafted as you see it and you experience it being created in AI.

So I tie that back to the growth mindset because you have an opportunity to grow your perspective on the work artifact that you’re creating in that moment to then open up possibilities beyond what you started out with initially. So, I gave you a huge answer because you asked me, what am I most excited about? And it’s a multi-prong thing that comes with hopefully how people endeavor to use AI, not just to eliminate tasks that are rote and redundant, but how can AI also grow you in your ability to have that presence, being confident, being concise, and having the clarity that helps people understand the purpose of your communication.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

I can’t help myself, but I need to ask for a tip for our listeners here. So what is the best reference tool that you would recommend to the listeners if they’re interested in a growth mindset?

Teresa Chapman

Gosh, you know, there’s so much information available and now, with AI, if you get into any browser and you just type, tell me more about growth mindset, it’ll give you a plethora of resources. And so, I think of it more not as a single tool, but if you go ahead and you pull that up through your search, it will give you so many things that you can then go investigate.

You can look at books, you can look at free assessments that are on the internet. You could go through and go on your own journey because that’s the power of AI that we have at our fingertips. It isn’t anymore that you have to Google something and then piecemeal a piece of an article that came up or an image that came up. You can literally use AI to say, hey, I want to increase my ability to be resilient and agile in this season of my life and I want to lead with curiosity and in the framework of a growth mindset. What are some things that I should do? And then I think that you could start your AI journey chatting with your assistant and learning about that goal of growing your growth mindset.

Van Ton-Quinlivan
There you go, folks. You have the tips from the expert right here. Thank you very much, Teresa, for joining us today. We learned a lot.

Teresa Chapman

Thank you, it was my pleasure.

Van Ton-Quinlivan

I’m Van Ton-Quinlivan with Futuro Health. Thanks for checking out this episode of WorkforceRx. I hope you will join us again as we continue to explore how to create a future-focused workforce in America.