Mark Thill
The Talent Pipeline
As healthcare systems incorporate more acute-care and non-acute facilities – maybe a consolidated service center, too – supply chain departments spread out. Call it sprawl.
Question: How do you keep your people motivated if they work in a facility that’s 15, 50 or 100 miles away from the corporate office? How do you know which of them have the talent and desire to grow professionally? How do you nurture their professional development? It’s a point that Dennis Mullins of IU Health, whom we feature in this month’s magazine, brings up.
A talent gap exists between facility operations and corporate operations, says Mullins. “I’m passionate about my career, and I love helping those around me who have the ambition to grow their careers. I feel strongly that if they are not able to gain experience on both sides, we run the risk of having future leaders making strategic business decisions without the perspective to maximize patient care.”
The other risk is losing good people who, had they been nurtured properly, could offer you a pool of loyal, talented and experienced prospects for future management positions.
In sports, they talk about farm systems or feeder systems. What they’re talking about is an organized way of spotting talent and developing it.
Have you developed a farm system at your health system?