You don’t need to tell Richard H.Satcher about the importance of hiringthe right people. With a background inhuman resources, Satcher has experienced the time it takes to find the rightperson for a job, and he has fought theurge to take the first decent candidatethat comes along.
“Probably the first critical point inrecruiting talent is to not get caught upin what in human resource areas werefer to as the ‘warm body syndrome,’ orjust having somebody in the position isbetter than the position being open,”says Satcher, president and CEO ofLargo Medical Center. “A lot of timesthat comes back to bite you more than itdoes to help you.”
Satcher avoids getting caught up in thepanic of the position being open andfocuses a lot of time and energy on theinterviewing process, which includesmultiple interviews with candidates.
He wants to make sure he finds theright people for each position at his1,400-employee organization. When youhire someone that isn’t a good fit, theperson typically leaves to find a betterposition. Satcher wants to prevent thatfrom happening by doing his best in thehiring process to make sure the peoplehe chooses stay with the 456-bed facility.
“There’s an old human resource adagethat says selection is everything,” hesays. “Get that right, and everything iseasy. Get that wrong, and everything elseis correction.”
Since Satcher came on board as president and CEO in January 2006, revenuewent from more than $675 million thatyear to more than $750 million in 2007.
No doubt, having a thorough hiringprocess played a role in the organization’s growth.
“If you select the right person and youget the right person the first time around,it saves the organization a lot of pain andsuffering and time to come,” he says.
“Secondly, recruiting people is notinexpensive. It’s an expensive processthat you go through to get candidatesidentified, to get them on-site and getthem interviewed. So, you want to be agood steward of the resources of yourfacility.”
