For Anne Harvey, it was all about the people
For Anne Harvey, it was all about the people.
“When I came to VCH 12 years ago, I came for the job,” she said. “But, like our recruitment motto, I truly stayed for the team.”
People-focused leadership
As the Vice President of Employee Engagement, Harvey has been instrumental in turning Vancouver Coastal Health into a renowned team of health professionals across all sectors and all roles. And her hands-on, people focused leadership is soon to end. She is set to retire at the end of December.
“Anne is, without question, one of the most experienced, forward thinking, and effective human resource leaders in British Columbia,” President & CEO Mary Ackenhusen said. “While sad that we will lose her knowledge, leadership and wisdom, I am delighted for Anne as she embarks on this next phase of her life.”
From BC Nurses Union to VCH
Harvey joined VCH in 2012 from the BC Nurses Union where she was Chief Operating Officer and Chief Negotiator. Despite the traditional belief that unions and employers rarely see eye-to-eye, Harvey was actually asked to apply for the VCH role by former-CEO Ida Goodreau.
“Ida was looking for a more innovative approach to Human Resources than had been traditional in health care in the past,” she said. “There were long standing issues like high sick leave and injury rates that needed a new solution. There was also a huge skill shortage gap for nurses that no one had been able to solve in a meaningful way.”
“In the 2004 Collective Agreement negotiations, we used a mutual interest bargaining model which emphasized a more alternate dispute resolution rather than positional bargaining. We had a number of innovative ideas that were agreed upon and implemented, reaching an agreement on some new approaches through collaboration across the health authorities, the Health Employers Association and the union.”
Innovative solutions and projects
It was this commitment to new ideas and innovative approaches that made Harvey the ideal person to lead the employee engagement function in the then still-evolving VCH. She immediately went to work developing strategies to ensure regular staffing levels across many areas; introduced vacation relief positions; implemented electronic scheduling and created the “relief not found” metric to record unfilled shifts.
Staying close to her People First roots, she also redesigned workability programs to return sick and injured employees to work faster. VCH, under her leadership, became the first employer in Canada to openly tackle the issue of workplace bullying with a 1-800 No Bully line that brought the matter into the open and enabled improvements to be made across many units.
A champion for front line staff
“Anne has been a true champion for our front line staff across our organization,” said Wayne Balshin, Executive Director of Employee Relations at VCH, who was on the team when Harvey joined. “Anne has built a culture where staff can work in an environment where ‘respect’ is – or should be – part of the norm.
“Anne’s leadership has been focused on doing the right things for both patients and staff and will be sadly missed by all of us who worked directly with her and everyone across VCH”.
It is an opinion shared by Deb Blaney, VCH Executive Director of Recruitment. “Anne has relentlessly considered what’s best for patient care and employees, backed by HR analytics and data, through her proactive human resources leadership here at VCH,” she said.
Mary Ackenhusen said a search for a new leader for Employee Engagement is expected to begin in the next few weeks.