Having a Meaningful Conversation with Employees is Key to Success

What would you say are some of the challenges you are facing today? Can you elaborate on the challenges there?

One of the biggest issues is how to locate new talent when there is turnover. There is intense competition to attract and retain the best talent in the market. Now that remote work has become so popular, there is a lot more competition around, as well as an economic challenge. Companies go a long way to lure talented resources from their competitors. The availability of such lucrative offers makes it difficult to retain good resources for a long.

In light of your experience, what are the trends and challenges you’ve witnessed happening across every industry?

I believe there is a lot of automation taking place in the sector, which is wonderful from the perspective of resource management, as there is potential to uncover some advantages and benefits. But at the same time, it’s important to have a conversation with employees about what makes their day meaningful and what we are leaving with them to achieve the best results. If technology and automation can help us save money and become more efficient, that's terrific. But if we're taking away the work that people find meaningful, our efforts to keep talent may backfire. Therefore, I believe there needs to be a discussion about how the landscape for our talent will change as automation and technology advance.

Are there any recent projects that you have been working on lately to make that project successful?

We have many excellent procedures, structures, and governance in place, which is fantastic and puts us ahead of many other businesses. But as we start to consider the landscape as a whole, I believe the conversations will be more focused on how to include our talent's perspective or how to include that into the governance structure. We are still starting in 2023, so I don't think we have the answers yet. However, the capacity to recruit and retain employees is still the biggest risk for the sector going forward. It consists of the current state of the economy and the expected rises in labor costs. So, we are actively seeking to review our governance structure and make some changes or modifications to incorporate that component so that we can address that risk landscape a little more comprehensively. 

Where do you envision yourself as a firm in the next two to three years?

I believe it will be important for executives across the organization to keep working together on concepts and ideas. Today, Banner Health is in a very good position. We have strong foundations, processes, and governance systems in place at Banner Health. So, if we are considering some of the problems with talent retention when we examine business opportunities that require partnerships. I would be looking for partners and sponsors for the next two to three years to combine some of those efforts and look at things more broadly from a talent and financial viewpoint. Because there is a lot of overlap, our talent, team, and colleagues serve as the hub of it all. I believe that this advantage will enable firms to focus on creating meaningful workdays. And the best approach to finding out what a meaningful workday looks like for your team member is to collaborate with them, partner with them, and include them in the conversation. I believe that for some organizations, culture shifts will be necessary. However, I believe that Banner is in a really strong position, given the culture they have established here, which is highly team-centric.

What would be the single piece of advice that you could impart to a fellow or aspiring professional in your field?

I would advise sticking with the strategy of emphasizing our team members' quality of life, meaningful workdays, and culture. However, there are other areas of competence, such as in technology and automation, which can be used to help with the problem of keeping talent. I believe a lot of people are already considering it from perspectives other than just productivity.