6 minute read
PEOPLE INVESTMENT
By Joel Gallion, President, Bellevue Healthcare
Isay all of the below with a big caveat—we are by no means perfect. We’ve gone through periods where our internal model wasn’t working well, or we didn’t handle specific team situations well. But we’ve learned and grown over the years and have seen far more successes than failures in our team and people development.
Bellevue Healthcare (BHC) from day one has valued both the personal and professional growth of our team. It was woven into the framework of how we started. Our founders Peter Norman and Eric Mortensen did everything from delivering and cleaning equipment to all business and customer service operations. We’ve taken that model and, over the last 20 years, have continued to tweak and develop a system and process to invest in our people and their development. These are the keys to our process: [ We are upfront with everyone from the first day that our goal is to promote and advance from within. ]
Start with a mentality
We hire for character and fit (chemistry) and are upfront with everyone from the first day that our goal is to promote and advance from within. There are numerous examples of this throughout our organization, from our executive team to most of our store managers. We don’t shy away from having a college graduate start in a truck delivering equipment or working an entrylevel retail or customer service role. We believe this is setting a path for future advancement. Those who have the right attitude, effort, and empathy–and can buy in to the service-first culture at BHC–can take advantage of those opportunities. [ Advancing education is a key to long-term organizational success and, more importantly, long-term success for the individual. ]
Put your money where your mouth is
At BHC, we have an informal education program where we sponsor certain people who have shown great potential within our organization to get advanced schooling or education. To date, we’ve sponsored about 10 undergraduate programs, two MBA programs, and numerous education programs for RT or ATP tracks. There is obviously a cost to this, but we believe advancing education is a key to longterm organizational success and, more importantly, long-term success for the individual. Everyone that we’ve sponsored for one of these programs is still with BHC today.
Prove the model
It’s one thing to talk about personal development and advancement—it’s another to have real examples to point people to. As I mentioned above, since investing in our team’s development was built into the framework of our culture, there are very few people in a leadership role within BHC that have not advanced within the organization through some development program. Our lead RRT, for example, started with BHC out of college as an equipment cleaner. Our VP of rehab started as a delivery technician. Those stories go a long way to creating a culture that gets vital to mutually discovering if BHC is the right fit and
handed down to every person within the organization regardless of their tenure. [ Good leaders attract other leaders—you MUST invest in continuing to develop the leadership experience of your team. ]
Make leadership development a part of what you do
Good leaders attract other leaders—you MUST invest in continuing to develop the leadership experience and toolbox of your team. At BHC, we do bi-annual leadership meetings where we bring in everyone who has a leadership role and spend one to two days together focusing on nuts and bolts operational material and team/leadership development. Part of this curriculum is pulled from books, podcasts, or other
People Investment continued...
By Joel Gallion, President, Bellevue Healthcare
leadership experts that we invest in so that our team gets exposed to more and more leadership material. We also do regular smaller group leadership programs that our executive team runs on a more regular basis. These expose some of our newer managers to higher level leadership topics.
At BHC, we have always seen ourselves more as a high customer service-focused retailer than a medical supply company. Being in the Pacific Northwest, we get to follow companies like REI, Starbucks, Nordstrom, and Amazon very closely. Our goal is to continue to develop a premium culture that is unique to our industry. This can only be done through the investment in our people and their development within the organization.
There are definitely risks involved with this investment. Developing people internally is both expensive and takes a lot longer than acquisition or hiring externally. You must be patient with results and have enough runway to see your investment play out. Two years ago, we started an ATP Apprentice program where we started identifying people within BHC who had aptitude for and an interest in complex rehab. It took a while to develop and find the right people to go through the process, but we are starting to see the results.
Over the last six months, we have developed five ATPs from within the organization who were in other roles prior. While this process takes longer than trying to bring in ATPs from the outside, it also ensures we get the right people and, more importantly, people who understand our culture and level of service we strive to provide.
Don’t be afraid to fail
We have definitely messed up over the years. If you are in business long enough, this will happen. We’ve invested in people who have ultimately left the company or weren’t a good fit for the role. We’ve miscommunicated and not invested enough. And we’ve brought on the wrong people to start. It happens, but don’t let those missteps keep you from your ultimate vision and from investing in the process. Culture isn’t something you can do after the fact. It must be ingrained in everything you do, in how your team thinks and reacts, and what they tell others. Make sure everyone within your organization is a storyteller and make sure those stories reflect the values and culture you want to create. By investing in your people and truly caring about their development and success, those stories will propagate and begin to build a culture that will lay the foundation for long-term success.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joel Gallion, President, Bellevue Healthcare
Joel has been in the HME industry for almost 17 years, all of them at Bellevue Healthcare where he is currently the President, overseeing operations, expansion, and leadership development. While at BHC, he has helped oversee the expansion of 17 branch offices and has worked to develop BHC’s customer service model. Prior to BHC, he spent three years in the financial services industry. Joel lives in Issaquah, Washington, with his wife Erin; daughters Camden, Delaney, and Ellie; and son Carsen. He holds a BA in economics from Westmont College and an MBA from the University of Washington.
Bellevue Healthcare is a full service, home medical equipment, respiratory, and complex rehab company based in Bellevue, Washington. With 17 offices across three states (Washington, Oregon, and Idaho), BHC has a unique model of internal team and leadership development all with the goal of helping those within the organization reach their potential. To learn more, visit www.bellevuehealthcare.com.
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