Texas Border Business
By Benny Serna
Executive Vice President
Director of Call Center Ops and Managing Partner
DHR Health
Where have all the humans gone?
High rates of attrition and no humans to hire have put hiring management teams into a scramble to hire and hire anyone! Such extreme conditions mean interviewing managers have lowered the bar and are hiring anyone with a pulse. However, the ripple effect of hiring less qualified talent will be something to deal with in the months and years to come.
Who is your trainer?
We all have someone on staff that we have entrusted with training all our new hires, whether it be one person or an actual training and development division. These individuals have the MOST important role in your new hire development process. In a perfect world, the trainer is someone tenured, patient, and organized, with updated training material, who is a phenomenal educator. On earth however, trainers are usually the person who has been there the longest and is everyone’s “go-to” person, period.
Critical Thinking Moment:
Should the person who has been there the longest be your trainer? Aren’t they usually set in their ways? When was the last time you audited their training process? Is their program enhanced annually?
The design is simple
Hire in accordance with your trainer’s capacity to produce the highest quality workforce. Here is the simple formula you should implement immediately:
- If your trainer or training program is NEW, then hire qualified to over-qualified employees who will need minimal professional development. Your trainer can focus on polices, procedures, escalation and de-escalation processes, etc.
- If your trainer or training program is ESTABLISHED, then you can afford to lower your bar just a bit and hire employees with the potential to learn and be great team members.
Critical Thinking Moment:
Managers CANNOT be trainers, Managers oversee, guide, set good examples, implement policies, procedures, set goals, steer the ship and much, much more… but they CANNOT be your trainers.
A manager’s role
The second most valuable player on the team is your hiring manager; second only to the trainer. Your hiring managers play several roles and wear many hats in the day-to-day operations of your shop.
- If this is YOUR role, apply some of the aforementioned techniques in your hiring practices; integrate them with elegance and apply them charismatically to your engagements. Share your elevated techniques with those whom you mentor. Remember there is no success without a successor. Someone must take your place in order for you to grow. Audit your training programs and demand continuous curriculum enhancements, do not forget to share those enhancements with your current staff.
- If your role is the proprietorship of accountability for your hiring manager and your trainer(s) actions; then you more than anyone know the true cost of attrition. The industry has changed and we need to make sure our “Gate Keepers” have all the tools needed to hire an optimum work force.
Sum it all up
In John Maxwell’s book “The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership,” Law #1 is the Law of the Lid: Maxwell states that essentially a person’s level of effectiveness is contingent upon their capacity to be effective.
Quite simply put, a new trainer has a lower lid and cannot be as effective as an established trainer. The employees produced by the new versus established trainers will vary. Thus, we must ensure that we hire in accordance with their capacity to connect with our new work force.
Hire right, hire fast and audit often.
Opinions expressed are those of the author and are not necessarily held by the author’s employer. Content does not purport to provide legal, accounting, or other professional advice or opinion. If such advice is needed, consult with your attorney, accountant, or other qualified adviser. Rhetoric is solely the authors opinion.
Benny Serna is a skilled C-level Executive with over 23 years of experience in both Finance and Healthcare. He is the Executive Vice President and Managing Partner for DHR Health, the largest private physician owned hospital in the United States. Benny has designed contact centers in both the finance and healthcare space and has a reputation for leadership development that spans multiple service lines.
Benny is the founder and creator of “The Serna Alliance,” a leadership development and mentorship association in Deep South Texas. Follow him on LinkedIn @ linkedin.com/in/benny-serna-76813212
