Transcription:
Let's DISH about Recruitment

Host: Welcome to the Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinic's ISH Dish Podcast, practical Health Advice from Iowa Specialty Hospital experts. We want to connect the members of our communities with the latest healthcare information that's understandable, relatable, and useful to your daily life. With us today, we have our ISH recruiter, Dakota VanHauen.

Dakota VanHauen: Hello! How you doing?

Host: Good. How are you?

Dakota VanHauen: It's kind of a dreary day but, you know, I'm here and I get to talk with you, so good day.

Host: It's not that dreary.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. It's a good day.

Host: It's getting better.

Dakota VanHauen: It will be, until we get snow again.

Host: Yeah. For those of you listening, we are from Iowa and it is February, so we just have to grin and bear it, right?

Dakota VanHauen: Yes.

Host: All right. Well, today we're going to talk all things job openings, recruiting. You've been here with us for close to a year.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. It's been kind of a whirlwind, you know. I started as a recruiter, more of high school students into college. And now, this is college to professional and I've learned a ton. So, it's been a very fun kind of career change for me.

Host: So, let's segue into that. What did you do prior to coming to work for Iowa Specialty?

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. So, I think a lot of people don't really know or think that I'd be able to do this, but I used to be a cheer coach.

Host: That is so cool.

Dakota VanHauen: Yes. I used to coach at Morningside University.

Host: Go, ISH! We need some of those.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. Well, see, I was like the worst game day cheerleader you could think of. I was not peppy. I was more for like the tumbling and the stunting stuff. So, that's what I used to do. And basically, I was trying to get high school students to come and join the Morningside cheer team. Now here at Iowa Specialty, it's more of trying to get them either out of college or in a different position and come to ISH and work for us. So, it's about the same thing, but a little different.

Host: Yeah. And I'm sure it's a little bit different doing high school to more professional, different conversations, different tone of voice, all the things maybe.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. People somewhat have their lives put together by the time they're either looking for a job or looking for a new job. So, it's a little bit easier of a communication level because, you know, when you talk to high schoolers a lot of times, they don't really know what they're doing or what they want to do, I guess.

Host: Yeah, I remember that barely.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah, I'm still there.

Host: I still don't know what I to be when I grow up. Okay. So, we've had a couple events that have been, I think, fairly successful, wouldn't you say?

Dakota VanHauen: I mean, I've had a blast, I don't know, so...

Host: And so, the title of the event, and we've done a couple of them now...

Dakota VanHauen: Yep. We've done two and we're about to move on to our third at the end of February.

Host: Okay. And the title is wonderful. It's called Careers and Beers. So, take it from there and tell us what that's all about.

Dakota VanHauen: So, the first one was just a random thing that we decided to do, me, Micki, Steve. And our first one, we did it over in Clear Lake. And we did it in the small hometown brewery, and we actually had a pretty big turnout and we're like, "Gosh, we need to go to a bigger place now." So then, we decided to revamp the name and now it's Careers and Beers on Tour.

Host: Oh, nice.

Dakota VanHauen: Because, I mean, we're kind of like a rock band going all around the state of Iowa. So, we went to Mason City and we had an amazing turnout with that one. So, that was kind of like our sign of we need to continue to do these because it helps us get out in communities that we don't necessarily have a very strong hold in and just say, "This is who we are. This is what we do. Come hang out with us. Have a beer on us, have some snacks on us. And let's just talk about employment or possible career changes."

Host: Right. Great, relaxed atmosphere, in a good way just to visit without the pressure of interviewing.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. And it's nice just to get to sit down and get to know them before, like instead of getting just a flat out resume where you're like, "Well, I see you've done this. You've done this. You have this experience," Careers and Beers is more just to sit and talk with them and see where they're at personally, what they're looking for, even if they're not necessarily looking for a career change. We can work through that and see what would they expect out of a better job or a different position if they were to come onto Iowa Specialty. And the conversation, like you said, is very relaxed. It's not like they're already in an interview.

Host: Right. And I can see where it benefits both parties. Because I maybe as a potential employee am also screening you. Maybe I don't know that much about Iowa Specialty, but now I'm getting to know you a little bit better and vice versa.

Dakota VanHauen: And the big pull for us, I think, one of the main things we put on, like when we send out the flyers and stuff, is "Come have a beer with Steve Simonin, our CEO." You know, a lot of other places don't get to do that or they don't do that. A lot of the big corporations, unfortunately, the CEO doesn't walk down the hallway every day and say hi to anybody they come in contact with. And so, this is a way to show how our atmosphere is a lot different than a lot of other places that we've know of or been to.

Host: Right. So when's the next one?

Dakota VanHauen: We are going to be over in Humboldt. Unfortunately, there are quite a few assisted living and nursing homes that are closing. And our thought process when we heard that was we want to be over there to help support anybody that may be in that weird position of, "Well, my position is closing, so now I need to start looking." We want to jump over there and support them the best way we can by giving them more information on Iowa Specialty and, hopefully, offering them a job down the road before they lose out on theirs.

Host: That is wonder. I love that. All right. So then, let's talk a little bit about an internal program that we have for employees that are already established, or wanting to maybe move up the ladder a little bit.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah.

Host: Go ahead. It's called Cultivator.

Dakota VanHauen: Yes. It's called the Cultivators. Basically, what it is it's for anybody that's going either back to school for a clinical position or somebody that's in school for a clinical position. And when I say clinical, it could be anything from CNA, CMA, RN, radiology tech, lab tech, just any sort of clinical position that we could use. And so, basically, what it is, is they come and meet with me, and then we just talk exactly what the program entails, what like financial stipend we would pay out to them every semester. And then, they sign a promissory note and we just go from there. And when I say stipend, that's the fun part of this whole program, is a lot of places do where they'll just pay your college tuition, which I mean, to me, I would've taken in a heartbeat because, you know, I'm drowning in student loan debt right now, but that's a whole 'nother story. But this is a stipend, so it's paid directly out to the clinical scholar. When they're in classes full-time, they'll get up to $6,000 of a stipend paid directly out to them each semester they have left. So, some of the numbers that we've been paying out have been pretty great.

And a lot of the times, they might be on the Last-Dollar Scholarship, so they don't necessarily need this. But the way I try to portray it to them is, you know, if you want to go buy a new car, you can go buy a new car. If you need to save to buy a house one day, you know you can save and buy a house one day. I think we have one person that is just putting in a savings account because they don't necessarily need the money, but they're just leaving it there in case they do, if they want to buy a house or anything like that. So, it's a program that you can sign onto that can benefit you multiple different ways. It's just up to you how you want to spend the money.

Host: That is really cool. Yeah. And is it unique to Iowa Specialty or is this kind of a trend that we've jumped on?

Dakota VanHauen: I think not necessarily a trend, but a lot of hospitals do things like this. But like I said, it's more tuition-based. They only pay the tuition. And then, they have to sign on to promissory notes, which we do as well, but they could be up to four or five years where they have to commit to working at a specific place. Ours is only two years.

Host: That's amazing because I was just going to say that same thing. I know I did that once and you have to make sure that you're going to work there a number of years in order to be eligible.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. And the hard part is when you're talking to young college students, two years seems like a lot. Once they get into the real world and working a job, like I've only been here a year and, like I said, it was a whirlwind. I blinked my eyes and I was already here for a year. So, two years is really not much. When you start get up into four or five years, that kind of starts to seem strenuous, and that's where I would put some hesitation myself.

Host: Sure. And so, we've had a lot of success with it.

Dakota VanHauen: We have. We've had a lot of talks. We've been really promoting it to our clinical partners that come through, like our nursing students that come through on clinical rotations. And the nice thing is that's a lot of people in our area. So, it's really supporting our communities that we already support with clinics per se, where we're offering to keep them, especially the ones that want to stay in their hometowns or stay close to family, whatever it is. They're almost the first grab for these ones that want to sign on to clinic, the Cultivators.

Host: So, a question that comes to my mind, does somebody have to work here a minimum amount of time in order to qualify for the Cultivators, or can they just come right in and...?

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. A lot of our cultivators now, a lot of them don't necessarily work here. Once they look at Cultivators or they do like one clinical rotation here, they kind of see how we are with our students with our employees and everything, and then they want to sign on to Cultivators, but then they also want to sign on to a PRN job, whether it be CNA, LPN, whatever it is. They can work here, they don't necessarily have to, but that's also the nice thing of if you're going to sign on to Cultivators, let's get you on a PRN position and then you can start learning how we do things. And then, the transition from CNA, LPN to RN is going to be a lot easier for you.

Host: Right. That sounds like a great idea.

Dakota VanHauen: I know. I wish it happened when I was here.

Host: Right. And let's talk about the atmosphere and the culture of Iowa Specialty, because that's something fun that we all like to talk about. And I know we did a recruitment video a couple years ago now, or a year ago. And we had a lot of employees on the video talking about the atmosphere and the culture, and there's definitely a common theme amongst most of the staff here because they feel it. And it's one thing to say, "I love the culture where I work." Well, what does that look like? "Well, I don't know. It just is." And I feel like a lot of our staff can actually put words around it. Family always comes up. You know that, because you've done these videos with different staff.

Jokingly years ago, I have to say this, we used to be called a cult and I used to laugh about that and I would ask people, "Well, why do you think that?" And they would say it's because everybody says the same thing, does the same thing. And I said, "That is true. We've all been trained a certain way." However, when you do it enough, you become it.

Dakota VanHauen: Right.

Host: You know, if you smile enough, you become happy, those types of things. So, play off of that a little bit and tell me your version of what you think.

Dakota VanHauen: So, definitely, family is like the biggest one. Anytime I'd ask somebody like, "What is something about Iowa Specialty?" It's always kind of like the first one that comes to mind. And at first, they used to cringe, I was like, "No, that's going to make us sound like a cult." But the more I sit and think about it, I think it's the best way to explain it. Because even if people want to call us a cult, I guess, it's a good thing. It's why people want to work here. They want to be involved in that family feeling.

Host: They want to be part of something.

Dakota VanHauen: Right. And Iowa Specialty really helps you do that, where we have that 5-10 rule, we have standards of behavior. It helps you transition into how the company culture is a lot easier and faster than just trying to find out on your own. So, I think cult family is probably the best way to say it, you know.

Host: It's perfect. I love that.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. It sounds weird. But, you know, it's probably the best thing to say.

Host: Yeah. It's a cult without the negative connotation of the word.

Dakota VanHauen: Yes.

Host: It's a cult, meaning we are one, united in common goals, common threads, all of the things.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. And I've worked a couple different non-profits and stuff. There never was this culture or atmosphere feeling, whereas like I got up, I went to work, I went home. That was about it. Here, I get up, I come to work, I get to hang out with some pretty awesome people. I get to do these fun things like a podcast. My own TV show, like Oprah.

Host: You're not getting a car today, by the way.

Dakota VanHauen: No, unfortunately not. I mean, it's just nice. It was almost a culture shock to me because I've never been involved in a workplace that really cares about those kind of things. Like sitting through orientation a year ago, the biggest thing was Steve came in, told a story. None of my CEOs before this would ever do that. And then, we go over standards of behavior. But then, he also explains how he wants that to affect your position. He doesn't want you just to do these things because you have to them. It kind of helps you enjoy your position or helps you make new friends. You can tell they really care about these standards. But it's also just simple, easy little things that everybody should do in their normal lives, which is nice to know.

Host: Right. We talked about that just this morning at a meeting that we had. And the standards of behavior, if anybody's not familiar, is just basically a list of "I promise to do these things." And they're just common sense. Be nice, check your email every day, be a good communicator. All the things that you should just know as an adult, I guess. But then, we sign them when we're hired and then we sign them again at our annual eval, the leaders do anyway, I know for sure, just to reinstate that. And it's funny because I find myself telling people about our standards of behavior and the different ways that we do things here, and I hear myself and I think, "Well, that's just not happening. That's weird. There's no place that does this." And I feel like when I'm talking to people, they are in their mind going, "Not happening. There's no culture that exists like that." And it is not perfect.

Dakota VanHauen: No, they adjust them all the time.

Host: Yeah. And the culture isn't perfect. I mean, the people who work here aren't always perfect. I think it's important important to stress that, that the more we work together, one of the things I was going to mention is that I feel like we hold each other accountable to our standards of behavior, probably more than the leaders and the senior leaders do to the staff. I think we know what we should do and we hold each other accountable to do those things.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. And the whole 5/10 rule, so it's within 10 feet, acknowledge somebody; within five feet, say, "Hi, good morning. How's your weekend?" Whatever it is. I was so not for it. I was like, "I don't do that in general." Again, I was a cheerleader. I wasn't a great game day cheerleader. So, I'm not peppy, I don't say hi to everybody I see in the hallway. And I was like, "I'm just not. There's now way that was going to happen." And now, here I am saying hi to people in the grocery store that I don't even know." It's just weird to me. Because then some people, it's almost like you just screamed at them or something. They just get so taken back by saying "Hello" or "How are you?"

Host: Right. "I don't know you."

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. And that was me before I got here. I was like, "Don't talk to me. What are you doing?" Or just like stare at the ground, let me grab my groceries and then get out. But now, I'm just like casually walking around Hy-Vee, you know, saying, "Hey, how are you?"

Host: And you think the whole rest of the world is as grumpy.

Dakota VanHauen: Right. Yeah. I used to be one of those grumpy people.

Host: Yeah. And this is not an easy thing to do.

Dakota VanHauen: No, no. It took me a while.

Host: Yeah. I have worked at a couple other facilities and had told them, you know, I took a little break from my job here and then came back. And while I was away, I worked at a couple other facilities and told them about the way that we do things here. And they were like, "Never going to fly. It won't happen." I said, "Well, you're right. Not with that attitude, it won't happen." So, it is a constant, everyday thing, but it just becomes natural.

Dakota VanHauen: Right. Yeah. I think especially when they first start, you have to work at it. If you don't do these things in your normal life, then they are going to seem challenging. But you're going to find, maybe say, give it a month, and you're going to be doing almost every single thing on that paper that you never thought you would do. And I think that's exactly what makes this culture the way it is. That's why we have students from different community colleges coming in and saying, "Well, I've done rotations at other hospitals and I've just never felt like this." So, we love hearing those things because then it means our standards of behavior and our culture atmosphere is working. That's what we want people to feel. We want them to feel included and like family.

Host: Yeah. Just like that.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. Just like family.

Host: I also think one of the big selling points of working here is the amount of transparency. The communication definitely trickles down from the down to the staff level. Everybody knows pretty much everything going on and the reasons why we do the things we do. There are a lot of facilities out there, different companies, different industries where the C-suite is a guarded secret, they're untouchable, and that so doesn't happen here. I mean, obviously, there are things that they don't share, which makes makes sense. But for the most part, we all get and understand why we're doing what we're doing.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah. And it may just be the position that I get to do as a recruiter, but like I get to work with Regan, Holly, Steve constantly, like I get to see Steve almost every single day I'm in the office. Like you said, a lot of those other places, that would never happen. They just come down and you just get told what they said. They're in our offices telling us, "Well, I think this is..." or "We could do this," or, "Hey, let's pivot and let's look into this area. You know? It just definitely is very transparent though.

Host: Yeah. So, we've talked about the culture. We've talked about some programs. We've talked about Beers and Careers. Careers and Beers? Careers and beers. I guess careers comes first. The beer doesn't come first.

Dakota VanHauen: No. I would definitely have to go back to my computer and look because you got me questioning.

Host: So, we've talked about all those things. Now, if anybody is listening and they're thinking, "That sounds like a good fit for for me," what kind of job openings do we have right now that they could jump on?

Dakota VanHauen: So, a lot of our clinical positions are open right now. We are really working hard to not have traveler staff. We really want to get a lot of permanent staff when we are trying really hard to get fully staffed where we have travelers. So, a lot of the times we have travelers, obviously med-surg nursing. We're not alone in this whole battle between the traveler and the permanent staff because everywhere in the nation has a nursing shortage. We're using a ton of travelers and it's just a very uphill battle. And so, that's what we're trying to do, is we're trying to get rid of these travelers in med-surg, radiology, lab has a couple, respiratory therapy, just a lot of those. We're really pushing hard for those.

And the nice thing is once we get permanent staff, I'm not saying that the travelers don't really click into the culture. Our permanent staff, they live in the communities. They feel everything that we feel. And that's really what we want to push for, is try to get those permanent people involved in our community, involved in our hospitals. So, that's what we're really trying to replace right now, is those travelers in those areas.

Host: Okay. So to wrap things up, if someone is interested in applying for a position here, what's the first thing they should do?

Dakota VanHauen: Well, they can just give me a call on my phone and I would love to sit and talk with them like we just did.

Host: Want to give out your phone number, your direct line?

Dakota VanHauen: I think it's 515-532-9280.

Host: That's what I have written down here.

Dakota VanHauen: That was my phone call voice. So, that's what you'll get when you call in to ask about jobs, is my professional phone call voice.

Host: Nice. Very good.

Dakota VanHauen: Or they can go on our website. There's a careers page that you can look through all of our open positions. We do have an employment Facebook page that I get to run. I've not been great at posting on it, but I'll get better, I promise.

Host: What is the name? Is that ISH Employment, I think, isn't it?

Dakota VanHauen: Yep. You can type in ISH employment or you can type in the really, really long one. That's Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics Employment, if you really love to type. But you can go on there, we post a lot of stuff that can get you in contact with me if you send them a Facebook message as well. We kind of watch those or just, I mean, honestly, come to campus and ask for HR and we'll give you the full tour and everything.

Host: Sure. All right. So many ways.

Dakota VanHauen: So many things to do.

Host: And I don't know, we might meet up again at a fair or a trade show, I don't know.

Dakota VanHauen: I've been waiting for those emails to come across my desk of, "Hey, what do you think of a certain fair? And I said, "Well, remember last year we said we weren't doing it." So, I'm waiting.

Host: I think we shook on it.

Dakota VanHauen: I think we like a hundred percent agreed not doing it.

Host: Not Say never.

Dakota VanHauen: But you know, I'm sure it's going to happen again. It was fun. I enjoyed myself. A little too long for my liking, but it was fun.

Host: I agree.

Dakota VanHauen: Yeah.

Host: Well, thanks for being a guest today. We appreciate it.

Dakota VanHauen: Had a blast. It was fun to talk to you and just tell everybody what ISH is and how it makes you feel.

Host: Absolutely. Thank you for listening to Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinic's ISH Dish Podcast. For more information on the topics we discussed today, visit us on the web at iowaspecialtyhospital.com. There, you can read a transcript of today's episode or previously aired episodes, as well as get the latest news from Iowa Specialty Hospitals and Clinics, and explore all of the services that we offer. For the ISH Dish Podcast, I'm Gina. Thanks for tuning in.