By Michael Waterbury, Entrepreneur
Record-breaking “quit rates” defined the labor market in 2021, and about a quarter of the workforce is looking to change jobs in 2022. Despite this trend, my company has been able to retain top talent while making some extremely coveted hires. Across the board, our new hires indicated that our Goodroot mission of increasing affordability and access in healthcare resonated with them.
But that’s only the first piece of the puzzle. Here’s my three-step guide for companies to beat the Great Resignation.
Have a mission with measurable outcomes
In an industry like healthcare, people with experience can always find good jobs. As they work in those jobs, they can’t help but notice the system is broken. The total cost of healthcare in the US now exceeds the revenue of the Federal Government at over $3.8 trillion, and medical debt remains the leading cause of bankruptcy.
So, opportunities to make a living in healthcare abound. But the chance to leave a mark — to leave the industry better than you found it — is rare. That’s what we offer. And our team has the ability to track how we’re doing.
With a mission to lower healthcare costs, our team can see their work taking millions and millions of dollars of wasted healthcare spending out of the equation. They’re not just generating revenue or hitting targets to help our company grow. They are also moving the needle backward on healthcare costs. Our team is working toward a legacy of providing equitable, affordable healthcare for their families, friends and every patient. That makes each day matter.
Create new roles for talented individuals
As a leader, my primary responsibility is to free and amplify talent. The healthcare industry is so big and complex that it often hinders the innovative potential of the people who work in it. It also drives out some very creative people who become frustrated with the entrenched issues.
This type of situation exists in all industries and at all levels. Talented, motivated people are restricted and muffled every single day, sometimes for no better reason than “that’s the way we’ve always done it.”
Healthcare is a very profitable business, so it’s easy for leaders to embrace the status quo. To each their own, but when that approach stifles the employees with aspirations and ambition, it hurts everyone. You don’t lock a houseplant in a closet and expect it to grow. You put it by the window and water it daily.
I believe the way forward for the healthcare industry is to empower and incentivize people who already know how to solve the chronic problems we face to put their ideas into action. This connection between untapped potential and our mission drives our hiring process.
Do we hire for specific roles? Sometimes. But our best hires are often brilliant people we’ve known through relationships in previous roles who see what we’re doing and collaborate with us to create a new position just for them.
You’ve heard the saying about fitting a square peg into a round hole. Just focus on finding the best peg, then you can carve out the shape of the hole together.
Clarify culture
Someone can be on board with the mission and be ready to create a new position that uniquely capitalizes on their talents and ideas, but if they don’t fit the culture, it isn’t going to work.
When you’re disrupting one of the largest and most troubled industries in the country, you have to move at a fast pace. We have to work harder and smarter than the legacy players we are looking to shift. We can’t just go through the motions. We’re trying to set new standards in motion.
You can try to describe your culture to applicants, but it’s better if you can demonstrate it. At the core of our culture is entrepreneurship. We have built systems to draw out and reward innovation. Sharing stories of how these systems work during the hiring process helps both sides gauge the fit.
In addition to rewarding innovation and performance, we create a culture book each year with submissions from every employee. Language and the words we use matter. That’s why inviting each team member to put their thoughts and experiences with our culture in writing makes it part of the company record, and reading the experiences of others helps us see the common threads as we all work on behalf of our mission.
Fortunately, even amid the Great Resignation, the supply of people who want to be a part of something like this still seems to outpace demand. If you can set your business up to attract people who are trapped in roles that don’t serve a compelling mission, utilize their talents or mesh with their values, your company is going to do very well during this tumultuous period.
