What Every Leader Needs To Know About Employee Recognition

In this episode of the HR Leaders podcast, Joe Gage, CHRO at Bon Secours Mercy Health, explores how they've revamped their people strategy to enhance recognition and engagement among healthcare workers. Joe provides insights into implementing new platforms and strategies to better connect with and support their team.

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In today’s HR Leaders Podcast episode, we are thrilled to host Joe Gage, CHRO at Bon Secours Mercy Health.

Joe shares How Bon Secours Mercy Health has transformed their people strategy and reimagined how they recognise, reward, celebrate, listen and connect with their people who are transforming healthcare delivery.

🎓 In this episode, Joe discusses:

1. How Bon Secours Mercy Health has updated their people strategy to enhance how they recognize, reward, and celebrate their staff.

2. Practical insights into implementing a comprehensive platform to improve employee engagement and interaction.

3. Strategies to better connect with employees who are on the front lines of transforming healthcare.

Discover what emotional salary means – and how you can motivate employees beyond pay.

Great recognition is more than just a thank you program. By leveraging frequent and meaningful recognition, Achievers drives business results that matter to organizations like retention, productivity, and engagement. Our platform makes it easy for employees to recognize each other anywhere, whether in-office, remote, or on-the-go.

The Achievers Workforce Institute reveals that two-thirds of employees have one foot out the door in 2024. The top reason for job hunting? Better compensation. But money isn’t the whole story. Employees are seeking not only monetary salary, but emotional salary too.

Joe Gage 0:00

how you roll it out doesn't matter that the culture makes a difference. We were trying to solve the problem of getting ourselves over the discomfort recognition isn't bragging, it's not anti humility, know what problem you're trying to solve with it intentionally marry your communication plan with it when we think about what inclusion looks like, and we think about what diversity looks like that's the best of what it has to offer right there is helping those who are doing great things, find and get their opportunity when it may not have otherwise been easy to even even find them or identify those individuals.

Chris Rainey 0:37

Everyone, welcome back to the HR leaders podcast. On today's episode, I'm joined by Joe gauge, who's the chief HR officer at Bon Secours Mercy Health. During the episode, Joe says how Bonsecours Mercy Health has transformed their people strategy and reimagined how they recognise reward, celebrating, celebrate, listen and connect with their people who are transforming healthcare delivery. So also shares practical examples, experience and advice on how to implement an all in one employee experience platform, along with the challenges and the opportunities. This is truly an episode not to be missed. So as always, make sure you hit the subscribe button, turn on notification bell, and follow us on your favourite podcast platform. That being said, let's jump in. Joe, welcome to the show. How are you? Nice to see you again.

Joe Gage 1:27

I'm very good. Yeah. Good to see you. Chris.

Chris Rainey 1:29

Where are you tuning in from?

Joe Gage 1:31

tuning in from Orlando today?

Chris Rainey 1:33

Nice. Where you live, or you're travelling at the moment. Now

Joe Gage 1:37

I live here. And so and the travel, I mean, quite a bit for work. So glad to be here. Glad to be here to enjoy a little bit of what's left of spring before it gets hot.

Chris Rainey 1:48

Yeah, but so how is Orlando right now? Is it is it as miserable and rainy as the UK? Or are you just going to show off now and tell me it's really nice and sunny?

Joe Gage 1:55

I'm gonna show. Yeah, we've had quite a bit of cloud and wind. But, but for the last couple of weeks, it's been low humidity, mid 70s, the water temperatures mid 70s. And so we're, we're loving life right now hoping this lasts as long as possible. But we'll be in 90s by the end of the week. So I don't know, maybe fleeting.

Chris Rainey 2:18

Before we jump into that one, like, quickly, a little bit about your background and the journey to the role that you're in now. Yeah, for sure.

Joe Gage 2:28

A tease that I'm a recovering lawyer, I business undergrad and then law school and started in house counsel with Burlington Northern Santa Fe railway. Went through the merger actually those two organisations there. And then from there on to Delta Airlines. So was it delta through September 11. And then from there to Levi Strauss, helped them launch jeans and Walmart at the time, which was pretty big production launch, and then on to tenant health care. And it was a tenant, I don't know, nearly a decade. And then since 2011, I've been the CHR o here at a Bosco mercyhealth. And through major merger and COVID. So that's kind of a thumbnail sketch of my career history. A little

Chris Rainey 3:15

bit more about the current organisation, perhaps maybe over in Europe, they may not be as familiar with the organisation. Sure,

Joe Gage 3:22

so. So bonsucro mercyhealth is 200. And plus year old organisation, we're about 12 billion in revenues. We're the fifth largest nonprofit in the US. We're the first or the largest in Ireland, where we're known as the bonds. And we're probably 1200 sites, 47 hospitals, about 60,000 people founded. Yeah. So founded by sisters who came to us from France, and Ireland to care for the poor in the US that nobody was interested in taking care of. And so that's what we're still doing today.

Chris Rainey 4:05

Wow. So the two sisters founded the company. Wow. Yeah. Wow. That's make

Joe Gage 4:13

sense. Yeah. Yeah. Chris has an incredible story. So we had there was a set of sisters in Ireland and a set of sisters in in France. And they sent they sent ladies in pairs. So picture you know, I have an 18 year old daughter I picture her because probably someone about that age, ladies and habits bought one way tickets on ships from their home countries to here came with nothing but the habits that they wore on their backs and landed in a community and started caring for people and built what is now about 20% of about 20% of the US and is a A Catholic health care which came from the sisters who came over to care for yeah care for them. They, oh, well, the same, the same, it's a different story. But the same sets of sisters also sent these these pairs of young ladies to found you to found education systems. And so a lot of our major high school and even college, if you think of Loyola and Notre Dame, and all of those were sent with similar missions. So some of our most prestigious institutions were born out of a desire to educate the poor, uneducated, and just like our healthcare was born out of the desire to take care of those that really needed care. They were underserved.

Chris Rainey 5:51

Wow, how does that impact on live on through your culture and values and mission now in this day and age?

Joe Gage 5:58

Yeah, we would, the people that are here would tell you from top to bottom, that's why they're here. You know, our executive team has had pedigrees like me that have been through lots of Fortune five companies. Our CEO, even grew up a lot of his career here, went to Fortune five, and then came back because of the mission. So from, from top to bottom, you know, from the CEO, to our frontline, caregiver, people are here because they want to care for people. And that's really what differentiates us. And so the mission is this unbelievable. I like to tease them that I'd like them to believe this because they have a world class HR department. But the truth is, the mission is this unbelievably powerful galvanising force that carries us through things like the epidemic, you know, like, like the pandemic, and that now Beto is helping us face a lot of the challenges of modern healthcare in the US and, and in Ireland.

Chris Rainey 7:04

When we last spoke, you said that you're on this journey to celebrate and recognise people, is that part of that?

Joe Gage 7:13

Yes, in fact, I think one of the, you know, every culture also has its challenges. And I think one of our challenges was, if you, if you celebrated something, it could kind of seem like you were bragging a bit. So we were always very understated about who we were and what we did. And because of that, internally, we didn't really have a very, very good culture of celebrating and recognising and rewarding people. So now we have with some new practices, fun, small things like on Friday feels on Friday, we publish, just stories of amazingly heroic things that people have done in service of patients in their communities, that would otherwise pretty much go unnoticed. In the news, today always seems to focus on the negative. But we implemented the recognition platform, you know, the achievers recognition platform, and it's branded in our organisation called the shine. But, and the call to shine platform is just gone. It just went viral. And it has completely been an unbelievably powerful changing for us and helping us recognise it and reinforce, hey, we're doing pretty incredible things for people. And, and we value that, that that's, that's at the core of who we've been since our founding. And now we're able to celebrate it recognise each other, and even reward through through a tremendously powerful platform. So it's, you know, it's the one time I can honestly tell you, Chris, that I believe social media, or at least a social platform, has really done what it was supposed to do. It's brought people together and engage them in a powerfully positive thing. So who

Chris Rainey 9:13

drove just because it sounds like you're a little bit skinny, might have been a little bit sceptical going in. This is gonna work. Yes.

Joe Gage 9:21

Well, I mean, I think so much of social media just creates, you know, in, in popular culture creates, you know, the opportunity to division to avoid division, right. I don't want to talk to someone that's different than I am, you know, you talk at people rather than to them. But But I think this does the opposite it, it takes people who watch each other, do something outstanding, and then it brings and then it allows them to bring it to the top so that others can see it and celebrate it with them. And so it's, it's it's reinforced We're seeing our social network and our values, and our and our mission in a, in a tremendously powerful way that pulls people together around those and, and, and stands in stark contrast to everything else they're hearing, they're like, wait a minute, while all these other people maybe can't get along, and all these other different things like we, in our mission, this is where we meet. And we agree, even if we don't have a lot else in common as people together. Because we have a lot of different people in the organisation that are serving patients, but in the mission, we align on that and we celebrate it together.

Chris Rainey 10:37

It makes it real, right, because sometimes you can have the mission statement, the purpose statement, the values, but it's in those Friday fields, for example, where it really truly comes to life for a story for a moment in time. What's one of those Friday films that have really hit you in the field? And what's an example of one that you've seen this really stuck with you? This made an impact?

Joe Gage 10:59

Yeah, we have. We had an example recently, where a, a an employee on their way out realise that the patient really didn't have a way to get to where they needed to go. This, this happens a lot, you know, you have you have homeless people or you have people that lack transit, transportation, you know, the employee not only took them home, made sure that they had what they need, help them stop stock essential food, and then connected them with partner organisations, you know, that are not related to us, but who serve populations like that, so that they can get the care and the attention that they needed. When they come into hospitals these days. Don't have underlying social determinants, you know, the things that may enable for health to be there, we call those the social determinants of health, right? food scarcity, employment, you know, there a lot of stabilising factors that need to be there in order to support someone's health and health outcomes. So, but, but she took it upon herself, she was like, this is this is my job, even though it was apparent. Oh, yeah. And that's that we talk a lot about just human dignity, you know. And our we're, we think health care is, is fundamental to being human. But we also think that employment, affordable health care, the ability to retire, the ability to feel valued in your workplace, like those are also core traits that are fundamental to our value of human dignity. Yeah.

Chris Rainey 12:52

Are you so using this for like, partners that you work with suppliers, maybe to community? Does it go beyond just the employees, because I've seen other companies bring in a wider range of their partners that they serve, or they work with into platforms like this, just that curiosity?

Joe Gage 13:12

Right, that's what so that's the next step. For us we've been healthcare is in tremendous, a tremendous time of change. Right now, probably one out of three people that touches our patient is really not employed by our ministry, even though they're engaged in the mission. They might be employed by provider, they might be an independent physician or someone like that. So we call those groups ministry partners. So our next human capital evolution is doing just that. It's starting to build an alignment and mission, common platforms for communication, as well as extending call to shine. The call is Shawn platform into further into use across the across a multi employer platform to create that single unified experience of care that right now, I think, is one of the biggest challenges in the US we were a point solution rather than an integrated delivery system in so many parts of our healthcare system in the US. And I think the goal is not to try to get one company to own it all. I think we're past that. I think the goal is for health delivery systems like us to be a unifying platform, and then for our people, and the people of the employers that work with us to be that unifying platform that can deliver that. That healing and compassion that we're looking to deliver for, for those that come to us for care. So we're not there yet, Chris, but that's definitely the journey that we're on over the next few years.

Chris Rainey 14:56

Yeah, I'm sure like many of them will be super excited. They probably got the same frustration as you? are now? Oh, yeah.

Joe Gage 15:04

And we and we know that we're a part of this. We're part of the same ecosystem, as we've had employees that are transitioning to work and to work for a different employer or to join our ecosystem in a different way. That's one of the major questions they ask is, well, will we still have access to the same? Same recognition platform? Yeah, will we be able to use call to shine still? And so that's what helped us to realise we're like this, this really has become a differentiator for us in our culture.

Chris Rainey 15:36

Yeah. What some other examples you can share? You mentioned Friday fields, what are some other ways that you're using, using this in your organisation to celebrate and recognise moments? Yeah,

Joe Gage 15:48

I think the, the platform enables people to pull, you know, like someone who's just proudly observed, in a, like, an experience with a patient, right, somebody's going the extra mile we're doing or they're doing, you know, delivering kind of excellent care, excellent service, to, to recognise them in, in our system, and then others can pile on, you know, in, in support of that. And so, like, even if it's used quite a bit, even within our own HR function, I'll see, you know, someone, you know, give a shine recognition to someone that then is duplicated in, you know, like repeated, and you'll see three or four other people that hadn't yet recognise this person, but now that they heard it, now in and all of a sudden, that person is being celebrated in in this platform for outstanding service that they've delivered in a number of different areas, right? Whether it's a frontline caregiver, or whether it's kind of one of the, you know, one of us that's caring for the people that care for others, in in a back office shared service function. Yeah,

Chris Rainey 16:59

it's, I like the fact that it creates a ripple effect, like you just said, other people can start to identify and recognise and it kind of creates almost like a virality, of social media in that way. And also, you're probably being recognised by people, like you said, that don't even, you may not even necessarily have direct contact with, that you wouldn't work with before, this inability to do that. So also, you know, I remember my last company, I always tried to, and as a sales director at No 2020 members of my team, and it was really tough for me to recognise everyone in the same light, you know, in person, because a lot of work to constantly be recognised in every single person. But having technology allows you to scale that, and also track it, right? Because it can give me a nudge, and be like, alright, so and so's anniversary, right or so and so's birthday, I'm gonna remember all those things. No leader is going to remember all of those moments. Right? Well, so that's, that's super. So do you have how much have you rolled this out? You said, Did you say how many employees you say you have now?

Joe Gage 18:05

60,000? So yeah,

Chris Rainey 18:07

it's how far have you rolled it out?

Joe Gage 18:09

No, no, it's it's fully deployed everywhere. So we, yeah, we've got it, we've got it out and out deeply. And I'm in everything we've ever rolled out, like the least amount of training we've ever done. You know, we pointed people to it. We haven't had, we haven't had to do prompting. It's not the kind of things that you've had to chain managers to, to make them do. Right. So like, like completely, like compliance efforts?

Chris Rainey 18:37

How, like, people get points, and then they get a prize, like, like, Oh, what is it? How's it work? You mentioned, obviously, there are some financial gain and stuff like that, and like, what does that look like? How does that work? Yeah,

Joe Gage 18:50

they can get points for the awards, and the points and then spend the points within a, you know, to purchase different different gear, whether it's logo gear, or other things that other things that they're trying to go for. So, yeah, I mean, it actually does, eventually, you know, they're able to amass points and, and, you know, converted into swag or something. So there, you know, your people even have goals for what they're going for, I think in there, sometimes. So, it's, you know, there is there's money behind it, I think that's important. We also run even our spot award programmes through it. So sometimes people another way is they'll get a direct spot award through it. So there's, there's just the immediate we, we talk about rewarding results that matter to the mission. And that's just one way that we do that because they've they've contributed in a way that we're like, no, that's that like that's, that's a clear result that is going to help them help the organisation be more successful. We got to, we got to make sure that they're rewarded for that directly as well. But I think you know, so those are a couple of different ways that monetarily, the engine is the engine, that is like, we're putting our money where our mouth is, as an employer saying, This isn't just social recognition, it's also it's also something that we actually we actually think it's worth, it's worth investing in and making sure that that, that they're seeing and experiencing the value in it, although I do think the biggest benefit of it has just been the positive reinforcement of we see you doing something outstanding for our, for our patients, like it's, it's hard to is that I mean, that is what I mean,

Chris Rainey 20:54

the DNA and culture and sold the business, right being, right, being recognised, right. And remember the

Joe Gage 21:02

old blood that the Invisible Man, and he thought it was going to be that the greatest thing to be the Invisible Man. And then we became invisible as the worst thing ever, because you couldn't actually be seen. And I think the worst thing in culture is being invisible. Everybody wants to be seen and to be valued for what it is that they do. And I think this, I think that's the main benefit of a call. Platform is it gives us the ability to say I see you like, and it's not I see you being non compliant. It's incredible. Yeah,

Chris Rainey 21:35

because normally, we only pull people up when something's wrong. When they're doing great things. We just, we just, we don't say anything, right? We like because they Oh, you're doing a great job. So we don't have to. Whereas anytime we pull people to one side, just slap them on the wrist and say, you didn't do this really random question. But like, do you look at this data? When you think about like, performance reviews or, or promotions? And anything in that way? Is that something you and the team look at? Like if someone's constantly being rewarded? In a particular area? Yeah. Is that something you'd look at as you use that dataset? Yes.

Joe Gage 22:12

And, and I think it just has a, it has an effect of pulling individuals that a leader might otherwise not see onto their radar screen, even if even informally, you know, in my own organisation, so hrs, probably, probably a little over 400 people, but in my own organisations, you know, there are individuals that I'm like, okay, that's, that's like, there, that's like, the third time I've seen that from that individual. And so in our next round of talent, talent dialogues, I'm like, Alright, hey, so so and so what we like, what, what kind of plan do we have our own, you know, from here, I'm able to ask about, and I might not have otherwise known that she was delivering that kind of service, if I hadn't seen seen it, you know, passed by the platform. So it has both, both a direct planning benefit, but it also has, I think, an indirect benefit of kind of getting the right people to the, you know, people that others are recognising value and to, to higher visibility in the conversation, because so many, so many heroes are quiet, they just they they quietly do it, and never call attention to themselves. And so this is a nice way of also getting those people out there without them having to be self promoter Sure. influencers.

Chris Rainey 23:39

Because everyone wants to do that, right. I've learned I've learned that the hard way over the years, where different people express themselves. It's not always the loudest person in the room, you know, because unfortunately, is the Pete like, I'm seeing companies now make decisions around promoting people based on who's the most in the office, who's most vocal, who they're spending the most time with. And you have those other people like you said, those unsung heroes that are doing all this great, amazing, powerful work that who are not necessarily going to start shouting about it. Yeah, right and data ones that you're doing incredible work do you want to really invest in as well right. But sometimes we kind of go to the default person who's in front of us the easy choice as opposed to the best choice right for those roles. So I love the fact that then that's now bringing is surfacing those voices in a different medium almost for you right for you see.

Joe Gage 24:37

In Chris's it's so especially true in healthcare because people go into health care because they want to give their lives like serving other people like helping them be the well and be better. So they're not necessarily those people. They didn't go into healthcare because they wanted to, you know, lead a lead an initiative or or, you know, lead from the front. They're not it's almost As the opposite of, of, you know what it takes to go into politics or public service, right? It's that it's that quiet, serving, you know, one person after another all day long that that helps them feel like they've done something good for others, you know, in society. And so those people aren't seat aren't attention seekers, they say you have to go find, and dig them out and dig out the good things that they're doing to celebrate it.

Chris Rainey 25:26

Yeah. And we have to realise that not everyone also wants to be recognised publicly in that way. So I've made that mistake before, assuming everyone wants to be standing on a stage and everyone clapping for them. Whereas some people, some people, that's their idea of a nightmare. They're like, Oh, no, don't do that to me. I don't want that. All right. So it's another way we can recognise people in a way that isn't, you know, the traditional standing on a stage clapping and getting a medal.

Joe Gage 25:55

Yeah, this is where the platform is, like such a good friend, because that you can give that quiet Thank you. Right to that person. How

Chris Rainey 26:05

does that work? Just?

Joe Gage 26:08

Yeah, it's just the it's just the recognition that right, and so it's in that way, they don't feel all the all the public pressure of a of a stage or a platform or, or any of that, but they still, they still know they're valued. And, and I think sharing that, you know, everyone wants to hear that, even if they don't necessarily want to be, you know, recognised at the podium. Yeah,

Chris Rainey 26:33

I was always a proponent to like being it meant more to me that I was recognised one to one in a private environment, than in front of the whole company. Right? Because for me, it was my it was my managers relationship. And the recognition that I'm doing a great job for them was more what meant the most for me than the rest of the entire company? Yes, it was nice. But I mean, knowing that I'm, like, being taken out for lunch by my manager, and him saying, I just want to go for lunch together to recognise all the great work, you're doing this other little celebration, that means more to me than getting a metal certificate and standing on stage somewhere, if that makes sense. Right? Yeah, I think it's becoming even more important now, as we as we become a distributed workforce, distributed workforce, right, with remote work, etc, becomes even more challenging. I have to constantly remind myself to recognise some of our remote employees, because I don't see them every day so much for the people I see in the studio, it's easy for me to say, hey, great job, because I'm visually, you know, I see them around. But what about those people that are working at home, I don't have those triggers, that I traditionally would. And that's kind of where software can help, like I said, give you nudges or reminders and help you help managers and leaders, they've already got managers and leaders have already got enough to deal with. There's a lot, there's a lot on their plate, right. So having a tool like this to help them as well is, is so powerful, and

Joe Gage 28:04

works in both environments. So we've got, we've got about 45,000 of our associates that are full time on site, they were on site all the way through COVID. Because that's what they do, they do caregiving, and so it's right there. And then we've got about 15,000 that are either in a, in a back office support role in it, don't think, well think supply chain, or HR or something like that, but also are in finance, but also think telemedicine and, you know, radiology, so clinical operations that are that are behind the scenes as well. And the platform works across both environments, it works in with both, you know, like it's a it's a nice, it's a nice supportive both the, the workforce, it's still face to face, as well as the remote workforce. That is, you know, that there are 15,000 that are that are distributed in those distributed environments. So it draws both communities together in different ways.

Chris Rainey 29:02

Yeah. What advice would you give to a typical listener to the show or HR executive like yourself leading global brands? You know, what, what are the considerations they should be thinking about? If they're thinking about implementing a reward or recognition tool like this? And having gone through that implementation process? What are some lessons that you learned along the way that you can share with them as well?

Joe Gage 29:29

I think how you roll it out, doesn't matter. Like the end the role that it's going to play in, in so fit to fit the culture makes a difference, right? We were trying to solve the problem of getting ourselves over the discomfort of No, really, it's like recognition isn't bragging. It's not it's not anti humility. And so, know what problem you're trying to solve with it and and intentionally, intentionally marry or communicate shouldn't plan with it. And then I think, you know, these programmes do take care and feeding, they don't just while the viral while the barrel as that goes, you, you need to use it. You need to use it. And so I think the right prompts to getting the right people involved. So, and sometimes those are small things and informal things, and sometimes it's programmatic as well. So do it on both levels. on a small level, I'll have I'll have a bit of one of my VPS will prompt me, then I'll get a text that says, Hey, did you see the did you see the call to sondland. So and so mean, a lot, if you'd weigh in on that, like it hadn't crossed my, my radar screen yet. And so I can take a couple of minutes to get that done. You know, it means a lot to that person, or programmatically juicing it by it prompts and dark spaces, and also watching, like, who's getting recognised how they're getting recognised? And then what happens to them afterward? Right? Are they just, are those people just getting lost? Are they are they getting promoted? Are things happening to them? Like they should be in the system. So managing all the reinforcing pieces that go with it, so that in the end, celebration and recognition becomes a realisation? Whoa, that, like, all of those things happened, and that that employment experience it as well, I got recognised a few times. And then I then I got a call from talent acquisition asking me if I wanted to look at other roles within the organisation, right there. My that might be their, their journey or their experiences, but it's those are small ways that it's pretty easy to kind of juice the experience and make it to make it real, more than more than just thank you words, even, it becomes Wait a minute, I'm like, and even if that person says no, I'm, I'm really happy where I am. They go home and tell their spouse that night, I got a call from you know, from some recruiters inside our organisation who were asking me if I wanted to do some other things, like we've seen you we know you do great work, you know, and they just it it that again, lifts their their perception that I'm valuable. This isn't, you know, I'm just I'm not just another cog in the wheel. I'm actually I'm actually valued here, uniquely valued.

Chris Rainey 32:24

Yeah. No, I love that. Like it makes him like he just said like, they truly valued and they belong, and definitely going to help with retention. As well, how long you had in place now.

Joe Gage 32:39

I think we're right on round two years.

Chris Rainey 32:43

How's it changed how you and your team have conversations around recognition, now you have this in place versus what you had before? So

Joe Gage 32:53

it I mean, it starts it starts in our experience surveys, right? So watching watching those trends to see, okay, what's happening in our experience surveys. And then as well as who's being recognised why they're being recognised. And now the dialogues about all the programmatic follow ons, not not with the platform itself, but like I just mentioned a minute ago with talent acquisition, grabbing some of those valued contributors, and working them into internal talent, mobility and some of those others. So it it's just changing the, the nature of the way that we're executing our programmes. There's also a real dei component in this that helps you find, you know, people that I think could otherwise be easily overlooked, you know, those those silent contributors or, or individuals that are just from, you know, when the sisters came, we landed in a lot of communities that that are, we're struggling, because that's where our, that's where our mission was, you know, and so a lot of our employees come from those communities. And so, serving, serving them and watching them continue to grow and, and mature in our organisation, so you're able to, you're able to tune your programmes, to pay attention to people in those in, you know, who've come from areas that are underserved and underrepresented and who need who need just a little help getting getting the same opportunities that may be more readily available to others. And so these This provides a really cool way to do that without Well, in a way that that, that that recognise them, you know, that is dignifying you right, recognises the value that they're delivering, and then opens doors for them. From there, right? Right. And so that's, I mean, that's the best of what I think, you know, when we think about what inclusion looks like, and we think about what diversity looks like, that's the best, that's the best of what it has to offer, right there is is helping those who, who are doing great things, find and get their opportunity, when it may not have otherwise been easily to easy to even even find them or identify those individuals.

Chris Rainey 35:31

Yeah, it creates a level playing field gives an equal opportunity, right to shine, as well, when it's no longer. You're just picking people that look like you sound like you. And like you said, the diversity in many ways, you know, even down to neuro diversity, the diversity of thought diversity perspective, not just skin colour, or gender, or ethnicity is incredible to be able to see through that lens. Back to like your hrs, or your ATS in some way or just that curiosity. You mentioned, obviously, using it as a pipeline for talent. Is that something that's integrated? Just accurate? I know, it's a random question.

Joe Gage 36:12

Yes, it is. It is integrated and, and the data goes into our advanced analytics team, so So are our insights group mindset alongside of the other sentiment data for and that's where that's where the programmatic changes come from, fundamentally, is our insights that they develop, help us realise where it is we need to the opportunities we need to leverage so, you know, it's it's constantly flipped the way we do strategy. Because now, now strategy gets built in part on, on the input of what we're seeing for how people are using the platform and what, what and, and maybe a little bit of imaginative thinking on how it is that we can support or leverage or juice it, if you will.

Chris Rainey 37:07

Yeah, when you think back over the last two years, what what are you most proud of,

Joe Gage 37:11

in this space? Or more globally?

Chris Rainey 37:13

It's both, you know, I just, you know, you've been on a really, you know, it's not the end of the journey. It's always ongoing. Right. But I mean, you've, you've gone through a lot along the journey. And we spoke about a lot from a recognition point of view, I'm just wondering,

Joe Gage 37:29

right, so. So this area, so this area, so the recognition area has grown tremendously in this space. While while we've been going through a pretty radical in a, so the healthcare workforce fully deployed in COVID, exhausted, and then a lot of people got us through there, but then they, they took a step back for whatever reason, tired, exhausted, I had long timers who were just exhausted. And so we've got a shortage. So skyrocketing. Wages, and, and, and then you, you pile on top of that inflation. So it's been a pretty challenging environment. And meanwhile, all of our insurance contracts are relatively fixed, right? Medicare, commercial providers, so we're seeing same revenues, but we're seeing increased costs. So we've had to do a whole lot of things to kind of restabilized our workforce, hiring, turnover, reduction in contract and use of agency or contract labour use. So we've been able to pull in all of a lot of those cost components back into control, while still keeping people at market while still keeping our culture of recognition up while still keeping an end while even advancing things like we've completely closed the gap in, in employee sentiment surveys between our minority populations and our overall population, right, like so. So literally, closing the gaps on disparities, you know, on the perception of disparities in our workforce, and how people experience our environment. So that's, that's been a pretty hard needle to thread, I think, you know, to, to gain workforce efficiencies, but at the same time to to grow in recognition to grow in commitment to mission to grow in all populations feeling like they can survive, they can not only survive, but they can thrive and are included and have opportunity. And so I think we've done a pretty good job of balancing those those. balancing those those over the last couple of years. Then

Chris Rainey 40:00

Unit unit team should be proud of you and your team should be proud. It's tough, like, you know, health care, it's hard to really rise to the occasion over the last couple of years. And nobody knows, I'm sure no one listening is surprised to hear about the exhaustion, the burnout, etc. But we probably don't understand what you've just described a knock on the effect of that on organisations, like yours. So you're having to kind of you're being pulled in two different directions, and you're having to deliver, you know, and it's literally your operate literally your year in the life and death situations in your in the organisation as well. So credit to you in the team, you know, you and organisations like yours rose to the occasion when we need to do most. And no surprise why people were so proud to be part of the business and the organisation as well. And it's great that you, even during this time, have said now is the time even more that we need to double down on recognising. I know it's a hard time. But now even more, we need to invest in recognising our people, making sure they're valued, and they truly feel like they belong. So credit to credit to you and the team for doing that. Because you could quite easily have pulled back, like many companies in that space. But so that goes back to your values and the story from the beginning of this conversation about how about how you got started. This man, I can talk to you forever. But before I let you go, parting piece of advice that you'd give for companies that perhaps are going on this journey? And then where can people connect with you if they want to reach out and say hi to you? Yeah, well,

Joe Gage 41:36

probably LinkedIn, for me is the easiest way to connect with me just for just for advice and input. And we are very open to that. We love talking with others that are on similar journeys that are working through this. We don't think we've got all the answers, but but we'd love to compare notes and see if there are better answers. And we're very open to doing that bilaterally. We think we think healthcare is team sport. And it's you know, it takes an entire ecosystem of partners and others to care for our community. We don't we don't think we can do it alone. We don't even want to go out. And party advice. You know, I think, continuous. For us, this is continuous learning and continuous improvement. I look back to kind of where we started. And now Now, it's just an amazing time in healthcare. And I think I think Aaron, in HR, it's a disruptive time in healthcare, but I think it is a crazy, fantastically productive time and human resources, I think we have the ability to do more than we've ever done. And to add value in so many ways. And so, you know, I'll just encourage my colleagues in this space that to stay at it. I think it's pretty, it's pretty cool to see what some of my peers are doing and other organisations. It's, it's outstanding. And and I honestly think we're all just getting started. So I think our time is, is not only not only maturing, but I think it's yet ahead for what for what people are going to see, you know, HR leaders do in the coming years. It's It's tremendous, the tools are, the tools are there now. And the sciences behind it. And the technology behind is so mature that, that I think the impact that we that we're going to be able to have on on our in our organisations is just is just limitless even, you know, even with limited resources or our struggles.

Chris Rainey 43:37

Yeah. No, it's the future work is now the was it the best is yet to come. I think that's a good thing.

Joe Gage 43:48

Yeah, yeah. And that's from a guy who's been through Yeah, non endemic and yeah, merger. So yeah,

Chris Rainey 43:55

no worries. Honestly, man, it's been great speaking to you, I'm so happy that you're living your purpose. I feel like your purpose is so connected to the organisation even though we've only spoke a couple of times. And I can see and probably people listening can hear the energy and the passion that you have. And that's always cool to see. And nice to see as well. But I wish you all the best. So we next week.

Joe Gage 44:16

Yeah, you too, Chris. Yeah, good talking to you.

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