Charting the Course for Healthcare Talent with Cultural Leadership

In the Tech-driven healthcare industry, the HR management’s value is often overshadowed by the spotlight of innovation. Coco Chen, HR VP of Columbia China Healthcare, with her 20 years professional of diversified experience to seamlessly integrate culture with business growth. She has built the unique “HR framework and practice tailored for healthcare”—combining public hospitals’ rigor and private healthcare’s service DNA, global vision and pioneering spirit—steering Group’s progress toward the future.

(Coco Chen, HR VP of Columbia China Healthcare)

 

” Every individual shapes and shares our culture “

At Shanghai Kaiyuan Orthopedic Hospital, the “Service Warmth” initiative, designed by frontline clinic team, is gaining momentum—nurses capture daily “micro-moments of care” on camera, from tucking in elderly patients to patiently explaining medication instructions. To Coco, these real-life scenes are not just glimpsing of Columbia China’s Culture Enhancement but living proof of its cultural roots.

 

“A surgery’s success depends on skill, but a hospital’s success depends on culture.”

Coco knows that quality and service are the lifelines of private hospitals—positive patient experience foster loyalty, and those experiences hinge on staff behavior. “KPIs standardize actions, but core values can awaken the soul. That’s why culture must empower business and operations.”

How can abstract cultural principles translate into employees’ conduct? Coco found the answer in stories. She distilled corporate culture into a “Do’s & Don’ts” behavioral checklist and collected real workplace anecdotes through posters, speeches, videos and essays—bringing “patient-first” values to life.

 

“Our culture handbook doesn’t preach ‘shoulds’—it tells stories.”

Coco believes “real stories help newcomers navigate complex scenarios by making values-driven decisions.”In her vision, every individual shapes and shares our culture. This philosophy permeates recruitment—Coco positions HR team’s every interview as the employer branding opportunity: “Even if we don’t hire someone, we want to make the candidate as an ally.” This move has quietly cultivated the Columbia Kaiyi Healthcare’s employer brand in the competitive medical talent market.

This mindset is now delivering returns:

• At Wuxi Kaiyi Hospital, doctors are utilizing AI to streamline clinical workflows.
• Doctors at Jiaxing Kaiyi are dedicating more time to patient condition explanations
• Hospital facilities team are initiating wayfinding assistance.…

These everyday moments, shared through staff-generated content, collectively shape Columbia Kaiyi Healthcare’s unique brand.” Our culture permeates like oxygen – unseen but essential to every employee and patient experience.”

 

 

Our ‘Long-Term Talent Ecology’ strategy

As HR VP, Coco understands that talent is the cornerstone of growth. Leading her team, she adopts a dual approach—enhancing internal talent development while building an external talent pipeline to deliver robust workforce support for Columbia China’s business expansion.

When veteran public hospital experts’ transition to private healthcare, cultural clashes arise:

• “Some asked, ‘Why does the offer include a probation period?’”
• “Others e.g. Departments’ Head were unfamiliar with pay structure.”

Coco transforms into a “professional interpreter,” translating commercial contract terms into culture value propositions that doctors can understand. With patience and expertise, she bridges cognitive gaps, using “gentle yet firm” communication to help numerous top-tier hospital experts successfully transition and embark on their new chapter.

 

“Aligning talent competencies with hospital development stages is equally crucial. We take responsibility not only for the hospitals, but also for every physician, ensuring their professional life cycle flourishes to its fullest potential.”

 

Coco prioritizes committed to maximizing talent’s self-actualization throughout the recruitment process. The healthcare industry’s workforce is diverse, with professionals across different roles and hierarchy levels demonstrating greater complexity in cultural backgrounds, competency models, needs and key priorities. Thus Coco focuses on identify the individual’s “5% essence” (their unique strengths), and tailors development plans, programs and schemes.

 

she proactively fosters team integration, guiding employees from diverse backgrounds to seek common and shared standards—laying a solid foundation for Columbia China’s international-grade professional services.”

 

In the sensitive realm of performance management, Coco demonstrates surgical precision in her approach. Confronting healthcare’s “overtreatment” risks, Coco and her team restructured the performance incentives—delinking doctor pay from drug and medical consumables revenue, while directly tying to purely clinical service value.

This “performance cube” model ensures doctors should earn what they deserve and without over-treatment and exploiting patients, and can also adapts dynamically to departmental needs.

• Pediatrics (as customer acquisition department): Evaluates patient experience & family satisfaction as key reputation drivers.
• High-complexity surgery departments: Prioritizes breakthrough techniques and intricate case resolution.

 

“Like an orchestra, harmony comes when every musician finds their perfect role.”

 

Today, culture and innovation drive Columbia China’s growth. Coco’s diversified experiences stretched over finance, high-tech and healthcare, she transplants the precision of financial services and the process-oriented mindset of tech giants into healthcare operations and fuels her “PPT” talent model:

• Professional
• Passion
• Target-driven

Complemented by the overarching criterion of ‘Learning Agility,’ this approach has become the Group’s definitive talent profile.”

HR is not the rule-keeper, but the culture ‘transformer,’ converting policies into behaviors, behaviors into human warmth, and transforming warmth into competitiveness. This creates a virtuous cycle where employee engagement and patient satisfaction nourish each other, driving sustainable and profitable growth through organizational capability.”

 

A potted plant in Coco’s office stretches toward the sunlight—much like the culture she cultivates with care. Unassuming yet resilient, it breaks through the soil with quiet strength, continually nourishing the thriving ecosystem of Columbia China’s healthcare landscape.