"The Ronan Report" provides insight about the activities at the Western Maryland Health System in Cumberland, Maryland, and about the changes taking place in healthcare today from a CEO's perspective.

Monday, May 2, 2011

New Hires

At a recent conference, I heard the statistic that close to 50% of all new hires fail within the first 18 months.  It seems hard to believe, but when I think back to some recent hires in my own organization, that rate may not be that far off.  What is more surprising is that these new hires fail because of their attitude--not because they don't have the skill set to do the job.  We are working with some of our new hires right now to make them successful.  Should these people fail, the cost to the organization is significant so it falls to the leadership to create a development plan.  Our key focus now is on making sure that the new hire is the right fit for our health system.  I can't tell you the number of physician candidates that we have rejected over the years because of a series of "red flags" that pop up during the interview process.  It wasn't until recently that we borrowed from our physician recruitment process and changed our approach to selecting and on boarding new staff.  The selection team has to determine if the potential new hire will fit in our culture. 


We are currently searching for a Chief Medical Officer after the June 2010 retirement of Dr. Jim Raver.  Dr. Raver served WMHS so very well for 11 years and has continued to serve WMHS as a part-time physician in our hospital medicine program.  Rather than begin the search immediately, we used the first 6 months of the fiscal year to assess what skills would be needed by a CMO as we change our approach to the delivery of care based on payment reform in Maryland and health care reform on a national level.  We engaged the services of Witt Kieffer, an executive search firm, and they are preparing to present candidates.  In order to ensure that we have the right candidate, the interview team will be tasked with the responsibility to dig a lot deeper into the candidate's past behavior and attitude to ensure that our future CMO is the right fit for WMHS.  It's never easy, but can be so rewarding when we get it right.

1 comment:

  1. The hiring process is so challenging -- but also very exciting! Even with perfect skills, the right decision is all about the fit to the culture, as you say. I am very impressed at the work you are doing to assess the organization's needs in the CMO role, a critical step that is often short-changed. I hope you will keep us posted on how things progress. I wish you all well as you move forward.

    ReplyDelete