Kaiser Permanente has announced the promotion of Greg Holmes to Senior Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer. Effective 1st October 2023, he will report directly to Greg Adams, Kaiser Permanente’s Chair and CEO. In this new position, Holmes will be in charge of compensation and benefits, employee and labor relations, learning and development recruiting and promoting equity, diversity, and inclusion, among other duties.
He will be responsible for the welfare of more than 300,000 employees across 39 hospitals in eight states. The company has three collaborative entities, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and the regional Permanente Medical Groups. Holmes joined Kaiser Permanente in 2017 as Vice President, Total Rewards and was promoted to Senior Vice President Total Rewards & Performance in 2019. He also worked at the company as Director, Executive Compensation between 1998 and 2000.
Greg’s remarkable talent and deep commitment to Kaiser Permanente’s mission made him the clear choice to be CHRO. Importantly, this change in leadership does not mean a change in focus for our human resources organization. As CHRO, Greg will advance the important work already underway to support clinical talent acquisition; organizational capability expansion; equity, diversity, and inclusion initiatives; labor relations; and career development to ensure Kaiser Permanente remains a best place to work in health care.
Greg Adams, CEO and Chair Kaiser Permanente
A BA in Psychology graduate from the University of California and a Master of Science in Industrial and Organizational Psychology graduate from San Francisco State University, Holmes has more than three decades of experience in human resources. He began his career as a Labor Relations Manager at Pacific Gas and Electric Company rising to Senior HR Generalist, Division HR Leader, and Senior Consultant.
Holmes went on to work at Levi Strauss & Co. for 12 years in a variety of senior leadership positions, eventually serving as Interim Chief Human Resources Officer. Before Kaiser Permanente, he served as Vice President, Global Total Rewards, Performance, Engagement & Services and Vice President, Total Rewards, HR Business Leader, Human Resources Strategy at Gap Inc.
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The largest nonprofit health maintenance organization in the US, Kaiser Permanente has battled a series of labor disputes with unions. At the moment, the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions with over 75,000 workers, has threatened to strike in early October if an agreement to resolve a staffing crisis is not reached. Greg Holmes is taking over Kaiser Permanente’s human resources department at a time of turmoil.