Manager, Consumer Services

Hackensack Meridian Health•Iselin, NJ

About The Position

Our team members are the heart of what makes us better. At Hackensack Meridian Health we help our patients live better, healthier lives — and we help one another to succeed. With a culture rooted in connection and collaboration, our employees are team members. Here, competitive benefits are just the beginning. It’s also about how we support one another and how we show up for our community. Together, we keep getting better - advancing our mission to transform healthcare and serve as a leader of positive change. The Manager, Consumer Services leads the operational, programmatic, and people functions of the Office of Human Experience across the network. This role leads a multi-disciplinary team encompassing call center operations, experience coordination, performance improvement, volunteer services, and patient engagement, unifying these functions into a seamless, integrated service model. The Manager, Consumer Services connects clinical, operational, quality, risk, marketing, HR, and site leadership across the network to resolve complex consumer issues. Key responsibilities include overseeing Patient & Family Advisory Councils (PFACs), Volunteer Programs & Services, the High School Student Career Explorer Program, the Consumer Services Center, reputation management, administrative referrals, and complaint and grievance management. Beyond routine operations, this role leads cross-functional improvement teams and initiatives, applies creative problem solving to issues without established precedent or pathway, optimizes resource integration across network sites, and translates consumer feedback into measurable organizational improvement. The role exercises independent authority over service recovery, resource allocation, and escalation, representing the Office of Human Experience to executive leadership and external stakeholders.

Requirements

Bachelor's degree.
Five (5) or more years of progressive experience in patient experience, patient advocacy, performance/process improvement, customer service, or healthcare operations, including a minimum of two (2) years of direct people-management experience.
Demonstrated experience leading teams with varied roles, functions, or job descriptions.
Demonstrated experience leading cross-functional teams or projects involving stakeholders outside of direct reporting authority.
Working knowledge of complaint and grievance regulatory requirements (CMS Conditions of Participation, Joint Commission, applicable state regulation).
Demonstrated analytical skills, including the ability to interpret experience and service data and translate findings into action.
Excellent organizational skills and the ability to prioritize and manage multiple concurrent priorities.
Excellent verbal, written, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to communicate effectively with a diverse consumer population and with all levels of a complex organization, including executive leadership.
Sound independent judgment, problem-solving, and decision-making skills in ambiguous or high-pressure situations.
Proficient computer skills that include but are not limited to Google Suite and/or Microsoft Office platforms.

Nice To Haves

Master's Degree in healthcare administration, business, public health, or a related field.
Management competency in budget, human resource management, and performance/process improvement.
Formal training or certification in process improvement (Lean, Six Sigma, or equivalent) or patient experience (e.g., CPXP).
Experience operating in a multi-site or health system/network environment.
Experience facilitating Patient & Family Advisory Councils or similar consumer advisory bodies.
Demonstrated ability to interact with and advocate for healthcare consumers and their families resulting in an exceptional human experience and brand loyalty.
Proven writing, public speaking and presentation skills.
Volunteer services or student program management experience.
Bi-lingual.

Responsibilities

Leads, develops, and holds accountable a multi-disciplinary team composed of team members with distinct job descriptions, competencies, and performance standards; establishes role-specific goals and development plans for each discipline while maintaining a unified team culture.
Manages the full employee lifecycle for the team, including workforce planning, recruitment, onboarding, competency validation, performance evaluation, coaching, corrective action, recognition, and retention strategy.
Establishes role-specific standards of performance across differing job functions; regularly assesses work, workflow, and productivity to ensure compliance, efficiency, and equitable distribution of work across the team.
Manages daily departmental operations - staffing, scheduling, coverage, and assignments - in a cost-effective, operationally efficient, and innovative manner, including cross-training staff to flex across functions during peak demand or coverage gaps.
Ensures professional growth of team members by planning in-services, educational programs, competency development, and informational updates tailored to each role within the team.
Maintains records regarding compensation, performance, counseling, and productivity for all direct reports, in partnership with Human Resources.
Schedules and conducts team meetings and 1:1s regularly; solicits and acts on team member feedback to drive improvement, engagement, and high morale.
Develops succession and contingency plans for key functions to ensure operational continuity.
Serves as the primary Office of Human Experience operational liaison to network entities, ensuring consistent consumer service standards, escalation pathways, and service recovery practices across all sites and service lines.
Integrates resources across the network - including people, technology, data, volunteer capacity, and program assets - to eliminate duplication, close service gaps, and scale successful local practices enterprise-wide.
Builds and maintains collaborative working relationships with clinical operations, nursing, medical staff, quality and safety, risk management, legal/compliance, marketing and communications, HR, patient access, and site administration.
Represents the Office of Human Experience on network committees, workgroups, and councils; presents data, findings, and recommendations to senior and executive leadership.
Partners with network and local PFACs to ensure consumer voice is embedded in organizational decision-making; supports council recruitment, agenda development, facilitation, and the translation of council input into actionable initiatives.
Standardizes policies, procedures, communication templates, and training across network sites while allowing for appropriate local adaptation.
Charters and leads cross-functional improvement teams composed of members who do not report to this position, using influence, facilitation, and shared accountability to achieve results.
Applies structured performance improvement methodology (e.g., PDSA, Lean, root cause analysis) to recurring consumer service failures; owns improvement plans from design through implementation and sustainment.
Resolves complex, ambiguous, and precedent-setting consumer issues that span multiple departments or entities, exercising independent judgment where no established policy or pathway exists.
Designs and pilots new service models, programs, and workflows in response to emerging consumer needs, regulatory change, or gaps identified through data.
Serves as an escalation point and decision-maker for high-acuity, high-visibility, or reputationally sensitive consumer concerns, engaging executive leadership, risk, legal, and communications as appropriate.
Ensures the Consumer Services Center meets or exceeds department standards for telephone responsiveness, and that questions and concerns are addressed or facilitated timely; ensures departmental mailboxes, emails, service alerts, and social media platforms are monitored and responded to in accordance with established standards, with information routed appropriately.
Ensures timely entry of consumer data into the organization's complaint and grievance management database, with standard follow-up to verify case status and closure.
Ensures timely acknowledgment and resolution of complaints, grievances, and compliments in compliance with CMS Conditions of Participation, The Joint Commission, state regulation, and organizational policy.
Initiates appropriate service recovery methods to resolve concerns; directs inquiries and complaints to the appropriate leaders and/or Experience team members for evaluation, resolution, and follow-through, and documents accordingly.
Facilitates and oversees the Administrative Referral process in accordance with department standards.
Provides educational material related to patient rights upon request (e.g., Patient Bill of Rights, Advance Directive).
Maintains departmental manuals, policies, and educational offerings on job-specific responsibilities.
Owns the generation, analysis, and distribution of patient experience, complaint and grievance, volunteer, and program reporting for department, site, and network audiences.
Moves reporting beyond data distribution to insight: identifies trends, drivers, and outliers across the network and recommends targeted interventions to leadership.
Maintains a database of positive consumer feedback and ensures recognition is routed to the appropriate teams and leaders.
Develops and monitors departmental dashboards and key performance indicators; reports on progress against annual goals.
Provides strategic and operational oversight of Volunteer Programs & Services and the High School Student Career Explorer Program, including recruitment, placement, compliance, recognition, and program growth.
Participates in development and monitoring of the departmental budget; manages expenses, identifies cost savings, and justifies resource requests.
Ensures general office support by overseeing supply ordering, invoice processing, vendor coordination, and periodic assessment of office and equipment needs.
Other duties and/or projects as assigned.
Adheres to HMH Organizational competencies and standards of behavior.