By Shelley Boyce, CEO, MedRisk
The workers’ compensation managed care industry is experiencing an unprecedented period of change as private equity enters this market at renewed and expanding levels. The impact of these previously unimagined consolidations is yet unclear. No doubt, there will be intended and unintended consequences that will affect our industry for years to come. But there is one constant that I know will not change over time and will have a direct and dramatic influence on the success, or lack thereof, of all the various players – and that is creating a culture that attracts and keeps the best people.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average worker today stays at each of his or her jobs for a little over 4 years. Compared to previous decades, where it was not unusual for someone to work for the same company for their entire career, this seems like a startling statistic. But even more unsettling is that the expected tenure of the workforce’s youngest employees is about half that. In fact, over 90% of millennial workers (born between 1977 and 1997) expect to stay in their current jobs for no more than 3 years.
This creates many challenges for all of us. Our industry is losing our long-term, experienced staff in record numbers as the baby boomer generation retires – over 9 million have left the workforce over the past 6 years and this trend will continue. And, as we lose these career adjusters, underwriters and the like, we are facing both a shortage of experienced talent and will be dealing with replacements who will not only need to be identified, recruited and trained, but will also have different expectations than their predecessors.
Recruiting and training skilled workers is no small undertaking. And in these days of increasing competition, the key to ongoing success is having the best products and services at the best price, and the path to getting there is attracting and keeping the best talent. Who we are, the culture that our companies reflect, can be even more significant than what we do.
So what does that culture need to look like? How do you groom your employees to be their best, reflect the talent and accomplishments that make them the most marketable and still keep them on your team?
The first answer is to hire the best people you can. The quality of a company is the direct result of the quality of people that comprise that company. So if you hire the best and the brightest, if you keep interviewing and looking until you find the stars, your organization and everything it does and delivers will reflect that quality. But you need to screen not just for skills; you need to look for the right cultural fit. If you have a collaborative culture, you need to find the people that like to be part of a team. If you have a competitive culture, you need to identify the candidates who will thrive in that type of environment. While the right skills and the right fit is the best answer, the wrong skills and the wrong fit will never work. However, you may be able to teach the right skills if you have the right fit.
The second thing you must do after you find the right people is to train, groom and grow them. Invest in your people — personally and corporately. Take an interest in who they are and what matters to them. Make sure that they are given the training to understand what you do, what you expect, and where and how they fit into the success of the entire organization. Reward their successes. Recognize their achievements. And remember what motivates a millennial or Gen Xer is not the same as what motivates the folks who have been in the industry for a quarter-century. Money is always good, but so is feedback, acknowledgment, variety. Recognize and support what is important to them – whether it’s family and work/life balance, community support and involvement, or just plain fun. If you expect your people to work hard, it’s best to provide outlets to play hard too.
And, as we deal with both the loss of experienced employees and the expectations of the younger employee pool for more movement within our organizations and the industry at large, we need to also look at software tools and solutions that codify key knowledge and automate as much as possible of our key processes and workload.
At the end of the day, perhaps the most important thing you can do is treat your people with respect — everyone. From the entry level employee to your C-suiters, everyone deserves the same level of consideration and honor for who they are. Create a culture and an environment that allows everyone to grow to be the very best that they can be, so that when other opportunities arise, they cannot imagine being anywhere else.
About Shelley L. Boyce
Shelley Boyce is founder and chief executive officer of MedRisk, Inc. – a leader in physical rehabilitation and diagnostic imaging solutions for the workers’ compensation industry.
Along with overseeing all aspects of MedRisk’s strategic growth and business development initiatives, Ms. Boyce serves on the board of directors of the Workers Compensation Research Institute (WCRI) and is a member and former chair of WCRI’s Core Funders Group.
Ms. Boyce is also involved in a number of initiatives that support business and educational development. She remains active with her alma maters: The University of Virginia School of Nursing and the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She also serves as chair of the Wharton Entrepreneurship Board and board of directors member of the Children’s Scholarship Fund Philadelphia. Ms. Boyce also plays an instrumental role in supporting future healthcare professionals as chair of the University of Virginia School of Nursing Board.
Ms. Boyce holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from the University of Virginia and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.
About MedRisk
MedRisk is a leader in physical rehabilitation and diagnostic imaging solutions for the workers’ compensation industry. Founded in 1994 and based in King of Prussia, Pa., MedRisk has been ranked as one of the fastest-growing companies on several lists, including Modern Healthcare’s Fast 40, the Inc. 500|5,000, Deloitte’s “Technology Fast 50,” and Philadelphia SmartCEO magazine’s Future 50. MedRisk is fully accredited under URAC and has successfully completed a SSAE 16 Type II examination. MedRisk’s programs deliver savings and operational efficiencies that are significantly greater than traditional programs. Customers include insurance carriers, self-insured employers, third-party administrators, state funds, general managed care companies, case management companies, claims adjusters and physical medicine providers. To make a referral or obtain more information, visit www.medrisknet.com or call 800-225-9675.