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Leadership recruitment and retention with Carson F. Dye, FACHE
Carson F. Dye, FACHE, is a healthcare management and executive search consultant
with Witt/Kieffer, Ford, Hadelman, Lloyd. He conducts chief executive
officer, senior executive, and physician executive searches for various
healthcare organizations. His consulting experience includes strategic
planning, organizational design, and physician leadership. He assists
boards in executive and physician compensation, conducts board retreats,
and provides counsel in chief executive officers' employment contracts
and evaluation matters for a variety of client organizations. Mr. Dye
is also the author of the Health Administration Press books Leadership
in Healthcare: Values at the Top and Executive
Excellence: Protocols for Healthcare Leaders, and a co-presenter
of the ACHE seminar "Renewing
the Healthcare Organization: Management Strategies for Healthcare Leaders."
Click on a link below or scroll down to read the questions posted for Mr. Dye as
well as his responses:
Tyler - 01:21pm Aug 19, 2001
Hi, Carson. So is there really a shortage of leadership for systems
or the search guys not working hard enough?
-
Dye's response - 09:15am Aug 20, 2001
It is interesting that so much time has gone by for responses
on this particular subject. It must either be the August holidays
or perhaps a real leaders shortage. The first posting perhaps
questions the existence of a real leadership shortage.
-
The July/August 2001 issue of Trustee Magazine has an article entitled,
"Your CEO: Are You Short-Staffed or Short-Sighted" that provides
a spirited discussion of the leadership shortage. Readers are
advised to read this article and consider the issues.
- Real or not,
there are fewer students going into graduate programs and the
feeder systems are not what they once were. Earlier this year
a summit meeting co-sponsored by the accrediting body of the graduate
programs in health administration and the ACHE was held with representatives
across the industry. There seemed to be a consensus that there
are concerns about leadership shortages.
-
McKinsey & Company, in their December 1998 publication, "The War For Talent,"
identified leader shortages in many industries and indicated that
among the Fortune 500, most have indicated that leadership recruitment
and retention was among their top strategic priorities.
- What about other viewers of this board? What are are you experiencing?
keeler - 12:55pm Aug 21, 2001
My response is from a graduate student's point of view. It seems
to me that there is a shortage of opportunities for students to
gain leadership experiences in health care organizations. I know
several colleagues who have recently graduated with a MHA and or
a MBA that are having a real hard time finding employment. Does
anybody have any recommendations for new graduates with very little
experience? How can they get their foot in the door?
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Dye's response - 09:59am Aug 23, 2001 (#1 of 1)
I agree with your viewpoint. Some of the problem rests with our
senior leadership at the top of the industry. While many leaders
like Gary Mecklenberg and Gail Warden and David Benfer are highly
committed to providing entry level experience for recent graduates,
there just are not as many opportunities as there once were. Some
of this is tied to the pressure to cut costs in response to funding
cuts and managed care changes while some seems to be tied to the
very fast-paced hectic nature of the field.
-
I know that a number of ACHE and other leaders have called for a return to
the days when we typically provided more mentoring and early career
opportunities. I am hopeful that many will respond.
-
In the meantime, new grads can do several things. First contact their local ACHE
Regents. Regents are often helpful in suggesting networking ideas.
Secondly, use the graduate program chairs. They have ample contacts
who can often open doors. Finally, consider some non-traditional
type positions. Although they may not seem glamorous, there are
often supervisory jobs in hospitals that new grads could fill
for a year or two and would provide very valuable "ground-up"
experience. These are critical jobs in our health care delivery
system that can give great early career experience in dealing
with people, learning service and customer concepts, and seeing
the organization at the grass roots level.
-
I would enjoy hearing from other seasoned health care leaders on this issue.
koller - 10:56am Aug 27, 2001
Mr. Dye: A search firm conducted a phone interview and stated an
in-person interview would be scheduled. After several calls and
messages left to inquire as to when this next step interview would
be scheduled, they responded that 4 people they met with had been
presented. They were under a time crunch and though the position
was a 100% match, there was no time to extend the promised in-person
interview. I see their side but also mine..... I'm unemployed and
the position was a perfect fit even to extraneous skills not typical
in the field of their search. Are professional search firms so busy
to overlook their role of `professional placement' rather than job
filling. The search firm consultant was new and fresh out of MA
school handling an Executive level search. A person's career is
in the hands of someone hardly qualifying for a manager-level job.
Response and recommendations are appreciated.
-
Dye's response - 04:06 pm August 31, 2001 (#1 of 1)
Good question and a legitimate expression of concern. First, let's
address the issue of obligations of a retained search firm. The
retained firms are paid on the front end by the employer and ethically
and legally, their obligations are to the employer/client. They
are not actually paid to represent any particular candidate(I)
but instead have the obligation to represent the employer and
to find candidates that best match the employer's needs.
-
This however, is no excuse to be indifferent to candidates. While every search
person (or human resources person as well) has had times when
they are not as responsive as they should be to candidates, there
are two aspects to this. First, in this type of profession, there
exists an unwritten ethical and moral code of conduct that pushes
most search consultants to work hard at responsiveness to candidates.
Secondly, today's candidate may be tomorrow's client. The key
is that you need to do what is right, both for the client and
the candidate. Search consultants are in essence, representing
the client and need to be mindful of that.
-
Will times occur when candidates will "fall through the cracks?" Yes, and
I would be the first to admit that I have had this happen before.
You simply try to make up for it and avoid it the next time.
- How can you try to manage around this? Several suggestions I would make are:
-
Ensure that you can be as responsive as possible when a call is made
to you as a potential candidate. There are times when you are
reached at the last minute and your ability to respond quickly
is critical. Believe it or not, this is often a reason that it
is difficult to present some candidates toward the end of a search.
-
Always be prepared with a resume in hand. Have it current
and ready to send via a standard e-mail format. Most search
firms deal almost exclusively with email attachments for
their resume bank and it is important that you are able
to respond that way. You may want to set up a Hotmail or
other free e-mail account so that you can always be ready
to send it on short notice.
-
If working with mid level consultants, see if there are
ways you can talk (or e-mail) with the principal consultant
handling the search. Keep in mind that e-mail might be the
best approach since the person may be on the road or in
meetings with clients or candidates and not be able to handle
phone calls as easily.
-
Maintain on-going contact with search consultants from all firms. Many
have worked in the industry and you can gain insights by networking
with them. Then if you have a need later, you are not dealing
with people you do not know.
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