Shannon Heard is a healthcare executive who currently serves as the Regional Vice President of Operations for Aramark Healthcare+. Shannon has over 20 plus years of experience in the hospitality industry. As a member of the Aramark Healthcare+ senior executive leadership team, Shannon leads the largest healthcare systems in Texas that is also among the top 10 largest non-profit healthcare systems in North America.

In partnership with Baylor Scott and White Health, Shannon has successfully led a workforce of over 3500 team members throughout the state of Texas, through the integration of hospitality services. During the merger of Baylor and Scott and White, Shannon was instrumental in bringing all related services under one umbrella of leadership, while implementing strategies to result in multi-million-dollar cost reductions and improving upon key performance metrics. Driving a culture of true integration between Hospitality and Clinical Services, Shannon has created a culture of collaboration between all, with the mindset that we are all caregivers and influence clinical outcomes.

The last two years, through the Pandemic, Shannon was successful in responding to the multitude of challenges presented. In response to emergent needs, under his leadership, a recruiting model was built to support the hiring and training of 350 plus screeners in less than 30 days. In addition to staffing innovation, his team delivered several technology solutions that lowered cost, while enhancing caregiver experience and increasing consumer confidence. This included implementing completely cashless models in retail, implementing app-based technology and autonomous check out options allowing hospital guest and caregivers a frictionless experience consistent with what they are experiencing outside of the hospital space. In addition, his Environmental Services team recently added motion sensor technology in the emergency department waiting rooms and high-volume restrooms to ensure the environmental staff is allocated in the most efficient manner, while introducing hand-held technology for housekeeping staff, allowing leadership the opportunity to monitor progress and shift resources more effectively to the greatest needs.

Despite all the changes in the labor market, he continues to innovate the everyday in the recruiting space ensuring that all services are delivered at pre-pandemic levels. He shares that the journey of recruiting and retaining staff is no longer business as usual; therefore, he focuses on adapting tools that allows the business to listen to the industry and current staff and react accordingly. This includes new approaches such as same day pay, employee managed shift sharing app, strategic retention bonus, community partnerships, free college tuition, all supported under a marketing campaign “join our team and help save lives”.

Recognizing healthcare, as well as the patient and consumer expectations have changed, his team continues to provide innovative solutions to create efficiencies and reduce costs through the implementation of patient-centric mobile app technology, a centralized call center and a central food commissary. Added need for training and reinforcement of the culture of service and cleanliness, his team recently opened a Patient Experience Training center focused on proactively hiring and training hospitality staff members. Shannon believes constructing a positive onboarding experience creates a platform to prepare team members for work and empower them to create positive patient and caregiver experiences. While the national trends of cleanliness have declined, the results for the Baylor Scott and White Health have showed favorable trends.

Shannon has a passion for supporting the broader community. When a correlation of readmission rates from an identified zip code and a proposal to build a Diabetes Health and Wellness in that community was presented, he advocated for funding assistance from Aramark Healthcare +. The partnership has resulted in an annual fundraising event in the form of a Chef Cook-off, which has raised over $600,000 to date. He advocates the participation of his team in many Aramark Building Community Days, as well the support of a food ministry at Cornerstone near Downtown Dallas. Additionally, Shannon serves the broader community through various acts of philanthropy.