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Ray brings 24 years of
in-the-trenches people management experience from his
role as Vice-President of Human Resources for the St.
Joseph Health System, a regional five-hospital system.
He's also former president of the Texas Hospital
Human Resources Administrators Association and an
adjunct faculty member in the College of Business at Texas
A&M University. He has an MBA and is a certified
human resources professional (PHR).
Ray's a board member at Keep Brazos Beautiful, part
of the Keep America Beautiful campaign, working to keep
one of Texas' most picturesque regions as charming as it
is today. And he's also a board member for
Scotty's House, a local child advocacy center.
Ray, what's your teaching style?
I
like to blend concepts, humor and war stories to get you
quickly engaged in learning tools and skills that you
can easily use every day.
Tell us about your proudest accomplishments.
As the HR leader for an organization that started with
500 employees and ended up with over 2500 employees, my
team came up with some really innovative ways to attract
and retain
health professionals to our staff.
It
was challenging, because we were located in an area with
a relatively small population, so we had to get pretty
creative.
Any
tips for employers with tight salary budgets?
Well, you always want to keep compassionate, competent
and customer-friendly people in your organization.
I actually developed a workshop called "Motivation Myths
& Realities" that includes this issue. I was really proud of the employee recognition
programs we rolled out at St. Joseph's. It can be tough to keep
great people in this industry, and we saw staff
retention noticeably improve with these programs.
We
came up with those programs in response to employee
surveys, and I think it's very important to really
listen to what your staff wants from you, especially if
salary budgets are tight.
One
of the things you can also do is engage employees in the
business and keep them involved in the decisions,
solving challenges, abreast of the issues that're
affecting the business. Don't keep their heads in
the sand.
The
other important thing to remember is that it's better to
pay a little more and keep good people for several
years. Customers like it better and the employees
are usually much more effective. Owners and managers
need to know that it costs 10 times more to locate,
select and train a new employee versus keeping an
existing one.
Retention of your top employees is
critical for your organizations' success as well as
minimizing future costs. The
rule of thumb is that it costs 10X more to hire new
employees than it does to retain your current staff.
Additionally
a long-tenured staff goes a long way to better meet and
anticipate the needs of your customers.
The ingredients necessary to retain your full-time staff
include involving them in operational decisions,
effective two-way
communications, paying competitive wages and offering a
competitive benefits package. Benefits have four
"flavors": insurance products, retirement, paid time off
and other.
It's under that last category that you
can differentiate
your package inexpensively and maximize the perception
of the benefits provided. An example would be to include
a
health club membership and/or provide or subsidize child
care for your full-time staff.
How important are legal issues for
employers?
The legal aspects of employment can be
tricky, everything from worker's comp to wage and hour
laws and equal opportunity requirements. And
unionization can be a challenge in some organizations,
especially hospitals and long-term care.
This is an area where businesses need to stay
up-to-date. I've developed and
delivered training programs on topics like the "Ins
and Outs of Sexual Harassment", "Pesky Employment
Laws That Trip Up Employers", and "A Union
Prevention Model" to help managers stay current and
protect themselves and their companies.
Anything else we should know about
you?
In addition to raising two great kids
in central Texas, one of whom will graduate from
Texas A&M next spring, I'm really committed to
keeping my body and mind in good shape, so I work
out three times a week. I began my healthcare career
in the Army serving as a medic and later
radiological technologist in southeast Asia. More
recently, I was well on the way to becoming a
racquetball ace until bad knees cut my budding
career short!
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