Session: Creating transparent paths to career growth to retain staff and boost morale

Editor's Note

MD Anderson is hardwiring career mobility so staff can see, test, and pursue growth without leaving the division. According to this session’s panel—including Abigail Caudle, MD, MHCM, FACS, vice president of procedural and therapeutic medical operations; Robert Ghafar, MBA, RTT, vice president of procedural and therapeutic operations; and Tiffany Hughes, MBA, associate director of therapeutic operations at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center—the division built a structured, transparent model that maps ladders and lattices for every role, pairs employees with shadowing experiences, and wraps development with practical tools.

“Mobility is not an event or a one-time initiative. It’s a culture,” they said. The why is clear. MD Anderson operates at massive scale with 26,272 employees, 22,000 surgical procedures annually, and 16.5 million square feet of facilities across Houston and regional sites, with further expansion on the way. Leaders must grow specialized talent to match rising case complexity and geographic spread. Younger workers are also more mobile. The panelists cited millennials and Gen Z as more than 59% of the US knowledge workforce and noted millennial turnover at $30.5 billion annually, showing an urgency to create internal pathways that keep talent engaged.

The model starts with transparency. A Career Mobility Dashboard makes titles, pay ranges, qualifications, and advancement options visible in one place. Staff can filter by job and see both vertical ladders and cross-functional lattices. “When people can see where they’re going, they actually believe they can get there,” the panelists said.

Next comes evaluation. The Walk-A-Mile shadowing program lets employees “try the job on first,” observe day-to-day work, and make informed moves, which the panelists framed as essential to avoiding misaligned transfers. Then action. The team packaged resume reviews, mock interviews, coaching, tuition assistance, and an “employee toolkit” so staff can translate awareness into movement. Managers are expected to hold career discussions and support lateral or upward transitions inside the division. “We don’t just want to promote. We want to upskill and retain,” they said.

Early results are encouraging and point to adoption. Year 1 produced 6,108 SharePoint visits to mobility content and 2,146 tool interactions, plus hundreds of event engagements. Three takeaways are: make transparency the default with an accessible dashboard; surround mobility with coaching and skills resources; and treat growth as a living system that evolves with workforce needs. Currently, the panelists are expanding outreach with a career mobility fair, role spotlights such as sterile processing, and high-school partnerships to seed pipelines.

For perioperative leaders, several tactics translate directly to the OR: publish role-by-role ladders and lattices for nurses and techs; standardize shadowing before transfer; shorten orientation by focusing on high-yield competencies; and celebrate lateral growth as much as promotion. The panelists emphasized designing for flexibility across subspecialties, citing multi-team cases, robotics growth, and the need for super-subspecialized staff as reasons to build broader internal movement. “You can build all the rooms you want and buy all the equipment you want, but if you don’t have specialized staff, you can’t grow,” they concluded.