Maggie McKay (Host): If you've ever thought of a career in healthcare, today, we'll find out what it's like with Paolo Santos, Talent Acquisition Supervisor at Community Memorial Healthcare, to share his experience. Welcome to Wise and Well, presented by Community Memorial Healthcare. I'm Maggie McKay. Welcome Paolo, thank you so much for making the time to be here.

Paolo Santos: Hi Maggie, thank you for having ,me.

Host: Let's dive right into it. Describe the culture at Community Memorial, what it's like to work for Ventura County's preferred healthcare provider.

Paolo Santos: All right. So, we are a non-profit, non-union healthcare system. We are a local health system compared to national organizations. And we are all focused on our mission to heal, comfort and promote health within the community and to provide that best patient care within the county. We have great work culture from staff to management. We are all very supportive of each other. We're very collaborative, transparent and, again, have a very supportive leadership that strives to help show employees how each of our jobs from EVS to nursing to HR and everyone else are important in providing that best patient care that we strive for.

Host: Paolo, can you tell me what makes Community Memorial a unique and appealing place to work?

Paolo Santos: Of course. Internally, within our health system, we care very much about our employees. We want to see them grow with us, both professionally and in their lives personally. So, what makes us unique is that, you know, we've created career pathways for them, we support them, helping them out financially with college tuition. And we encourage our team and want to see them grow into higher levels within the organization.

Host: And what do employees tell you about their experience?

Paolo Santos: They have a great experience. I've heard a lot of positive things. We have a lot of employees who do end up returning to our health system after working at other healthcare organizations. They really love our organization. They love our culture. They love our management. They love our staff. So, very great things.

Host: And as a team member yourself, what do you personally love about Community Memorial? What's the best thing about it?

Paolo Santos: I'd have to bring up our company culture. We have a very supportive leadership team who's always striving to see what we can do for our employees to continue to make us that employer of choice. We do a very great job at making sure we all see our connection to the work. And we definitely want to see our employees grow. We've seen growth from environmental services or housekeeping to CNAs, MAs. We've seen graduates become managers.

The other thing too is that we want to show that we help people, our employees, know that we do have an immediate impact of the people that we help within the community that we live in. Many times I've heard our employees, as well as myself, sharing how neighbors across the street went to CMH for patient care and they just enjoyed the care that our staff provided, so we're very proud about that as well.

Host: And so, you touched on it a little bit, but what do you think makes the culture at Community Memorial different or unique from, say, other hospitals?

Paolo Santos: I would definitely say we focus on our values of caring, integrity, excellence, accountability, and transparency. All of that meshed together provides a great working environment and a great work culture. It definitely makes us unique. We hold each other accountable. We want to provide the best patient care. And that's part of being able to commit to that excellence that we want to strive for.

Host: And can you describe the various Community Memorial locations and the entities where employment opportunities are available?

Paolo Santos: Of course, we do have our primary hospital of community memorial hospital in Ventura of about 250 beds. We have our skilled nursing facility, the continuing care center of 75 beds in Ojai and, right next to it, a critical access hospital, Community Memorial Hospital of Ojai of 25 beds. We also have over 18 clinics across the county from Ventura, Ojai to Fillmore, Camarillo, Oxnard, and even Port Hueneme.

Host: Wow. You cover a lot of ground and it's all so beautiful up there.

Paolo Santos: We sure do.

Host: Lucky. So, once somebody's hired at Community Memorial, what types of employment benefits can they look forward to as a member of the team?

Paolo Santos: Of course. So, we do offer medical, dental, and vision insurance, very affordable. One of our plans even offer a no cost to the employee only. We also offer retirement of fidelity 403(b) retirement plan, paid time off of up to three weeks in a year, term life and AD& D insurance, flexible spending accounts, employee assistance program, tuition reimbursement, student loan programs, voluntary worksite benefits like a gym, varied schedules evening, night shift differential pay, and also sign on and relocation bonuses for eligible positions.

Host: That's really generous. What are some of the key roles at Community Memorial that are crucial for its smooth operation? Because, as you said, you have a lot of locations and a lot of people to take care of.

Paolo Santos: We definitely have a wide variety from nursing RNs to respiratory therapists, medical assistants and clinic receptionists in our clinics, radiology and radiology support, laboratories like phlebotomists, clinical lab scientists, pharmacy, including staff pharmacists and pharmacy techs, CNAs, patient care assistants, case management, case managers and social workers; anything in rehab services, so physical therapy, speech language pathologists, occupational therapy.

Host: Wow.

Paolo Santos: From IT to food and nutrition, and as well as environmental services.

Host: That is amazing. So, what are some of the degrees of experience required?

Paolo Santos: Of course, licensed and clinical positions usually require an associate's or a bachelor's degree, but we also have a ton of positions where all you need is a high school diploma. Experience is always nice to have and preferred, but we may be open to training depending on the position. Positions in housekeeping or environmental services, as well as food and nutrition services, do not require a high school diploma.

Host: Paolo, how does Community Memorial typically recruit for these roles? Where do they find employees?

Paolo Santos: Typically, we do post our jobs on our website, as well as the popular job boards like Indeed, LinkedIn, Glassdoor. We also share our jobs on social media. We go out into the community and go to career fairs, local job fairs, so that we're more in the community. We also have a great employee referral program, where employees can earn a referral bonus for referring a friend for eligible positions.

Host: What does the hiring and onboarding process look like for these roles? What steps are involved?

Paolo Santos: Our hiring manager and our HR team works together to extend an offer and get you onboarded within two to three weeks, sooner, depending on how quick you can schedule appointments. You'll go through a background check and HR paperwork that we send via email. After you've cleared the background check, our occupational health team will email you to set up the physical, medical screening, drug and nicotine tests. Afterwards, our HR team and your hiring manager works together to bring you on site for your final HR appointment and your first day.

Host: What do you see as the unique career opportunities at Community Memorial? Do you see potential for employees to build a long-term career path?

Paolo Santos: We sure do. We are a big proponent of supporting career growth and building a long term career path for our employees. We've seen EVS techs and food and nutrition services, again, become CNAs, phlebotomists, pharmacy techs; and CNAs grow to become RNs, respiratory care practitioners; and phlebotomists to clinical lab scientists. So, we definitely see a road to a long-term career path.

Host: And can you tell us a little bit about your student nurse internship program and your nurse residency program?

Paolo Santos: RNs tend to start off their career through our Nurse Internship Program, as well as our Residency Program. Our Nurse Internship Program, we work with colleges throughout the county to bring them in while they're going to school in that final year. And once they graduate, we will be there for them and be able to offer them a position.

And from our Nurse Residency Program, we open up these new grad nurse residency programs at least once or twice a year so that once the nursing students graduate, we can support them and put them into departments that they'd like. And from there, after about a year or two of gaining that experience, they can climb our clinical ladder to learn more skills and earn higher pay or go into management. They can also become an educator. And if they'd like, we can also cross train them into a different area of nursing specialty.

Host: So Paolo, I know what Ventura is all about because it's so gorgeous. I used to work there. What do you find unique about living in the Ventura area?

Paolo Santos: We are a small beach community that enjoys a relaxed lifestyle. The weather's always great. The hospital is walking distance to the beach. We are cheaper, relatively, than other similar sized areas in bigger cities within California. And the best part is that we're not as densely populated, so that means less traffic and shorter commutes compared to going into the LA area.

Host: Tell me about it.

Can you share an example of successful career progression at Community Memorial, someone who, say, has left and come back?

Paolo Santos: Of course. Again, we have a lot of boomerang returning employees who go out, try someplace else, tend to feel it's not a right fit for them and miss our culture and our workplace. So, I have seen CNAs come back as RNs. I've seen RNs come back as educators on the floor, managers of departments. We've even had RNs who started on the floor, who's worked their way up to become an educator, supervisor, manager and now they're a director.

Host: Paolo, what are the most in demand roles in healthcare now? What types of roles, positions or skill sets do you see being most in demand over the next five to ten years?

Paolo Santos: You know, I would say anything in health care is really going to be in demand, both our admin and our clinical roles and even IT roles are all in high demand, and it'll continue to be that way over the next five to 10 years. I would say, though, and I would add clinical roles more so, because people will always need healthcare. People will always need RNs and CNAs to care for them, respiratory care practitioners to help them with breathing disorders, and rehab professionals to help with physical, speech or occupational issues. And the list goes on. I don't see how these jobs could be truly and fully automated like other industries outside of healthcare. And so, these will be the most in demand as generations continue to grow and age.

Host: And what does Community Memorial Healthcare do that gives employees the chance or the opportunity to do their best work? What are the resources?

Paolo Santos: Our leadership team has cultivated an environment where our ideas are welcome, our ability to listen and take action where it is needed and where we can ask for help and support and get it so that we can provide that best patient care within our community. Additionally, their desire to make us better by means of setting new goals and encouraging us and incentivizing us to meet them and go down these career paths so that we can improve in providing that top patient care that we strive for.

Host: Paolo, if somebody is looking to be hired with Community Memorial, what's your best piece of advice to someone looking to work there?

Paolo Santos: I have a couple that I'd like to share. First off, I would say apply early as it's very competitive. Feel free to network with our staff, you know, network with me and our talent team. Use your networks and your referrals to your advantage. Don't be afraid to ask them for help or list them in your application.

Study your job descriptions is another. Ask us questions and don't hesitate to reach out to us. Learn how to get where you want to be, or we will coach you on how to get there. Our email is posted on our careers page for that very reason, so ask us and ask away.

Lastly, keep applying. You're going to be a candidate today, maybe even next week, next month. But that's just the start of our relationship with our community. And one day you'll definitely become an employee. I've seen it happen time and time again, where just because you don't get that job with us today, doesn't mean you won't get it next week, or next month, or a couple months from that. So keep applying with us, and we thank those for their patience with Community Memorial Healthcare.

Host: Well, that's very encouraging. And it sounds like a great place to work. I mean, all those benefits just for starters and the culture and pretty much everything about it. So, thank you so much for sharing your employee experience and your expertise and your time.

Paolo Santos: Thank you, Maggie, for having me.

Host: That's Paolo Santos. And if you'd like to find out more, please go to mycmh.org/careers. That's www.mycmh.org/careers. If you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your socials and check out our entire library for topics of interest to you. Thanks for listening. I'm Maggie McKay. This is Wise and Well presented by Community Memorial Healthcare.