Hello, everyone, and thank you for tuning in
to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast.
My name is Brian Zimmerman. I'm thrilled to
be joined today by Kirsty Leyland, chief human
resources officer with Heartland Dental. Kirsty, thank you
so much for joining us today.
Thanks, Brian. Great to be here.
So so as we get into our conversation,
can we start off by just sharing some
initiatives that have been introduced to enhance the
employee experience at Heartland Dental? I know that's
obviously a a a cause, that that's near
and dear to you that you work on
closely. So curious if you can share some
of those details with our listeners.
Yeah. Sure, Brian. I'd be happy to.
So first and foremost,
at Heartland, we're very committed to our core
values,
and we very much see ourselves as being
here to support our doctors and our leaders
so they can lead autonomously,
clinically, and effectively,
and create really exceptional experiences for their customer
base, which is their patients.
So we don't kind of assume that. We
purposely talk about culture in many of our
meetings
from our CEO right the way through the
organization. So whenever we're thinking of
how we enhance the employee experience,
we have lots of bright minds in the
company that are thinking about, well, what do
those
supported doctors and leaders need that really makes
their work easier to complete, more efficient?
And that's how many of our programmes and
solutions are born. So just recently, we've been
focused on
additional benefits that support personal needs more in
the workplace. So for example, we've launched
on demand pay.
So our team members can access
pay that they've earned that hasn't yet been
paid out through a payday so they can
get access to that quicker. And some additional
retirement
planning support has been added this year because
we're acutely conscious that people are feeling financial
pressure in our economy right now, and we
want to lean in and help wherever we
can. So just a couple of examples for
you there.
Yeah. Those those are great examples, and it's
easy to to to put yourself in the
place of of of your of your employees
and think about how valuable those things can
be, especially as you mentioned some of the
the economic environment folks are are navigating right
now.
And you mentioned sort of how many sort
of brilliant folks you you have, how how
how smart your team is. And,
I'm curious to to hear about how you
ensure that voices of team members are heard
and then acted upon. Because it's one thing
to give people
voice,
to to let them speak up, but it's
another thing to then act upon that feedback.
Right? So can you talk a little bit
about how you you you manage both of
those things?
Yes. You're so right. And and, you know,
many organizations
have different channels to hear from their employee
base and team members,
and and that's acutely important to us as
well. But it's also really important that they
they know how we seek to take action
when we hear things. So, you know, how
do we close the loop? You know, we
go out. We listen. We have multiple ways
of doing that. And then we want to
make sure that they're familiar with how we're
going to take action on the back of
that based on what we heard and make
sure they feel really heard through that process.
So, you know, like many companies, we have
a a listening strategy. At Heartland, we call
it our voices valued strategy.
And so we've got lots of different
technology solutions, whether it be electronic surveys or
pulse points or face to face conversations that
we have
at various points in an employee life cycle.
And we we insert these different topics of
conversation
at those various kind of moments in time
in someone's
employee life cycle, whether it be a candidate
who's recently joined the company and is onboarding
and kind of trying to assimilate very quickly
and get productive in their role. We have
an opportunity to be able to pulse with
them regularly as they're
learning to onboard in the company and make
sure that things are going well. And likewise,
tenured employees get the opportunity to survey with
us regularly and tell us their perception of
how things are going in their mind, whether
that be related to their career pathing or
their leadership and development or their communication
or how they're how they're feeling they're connecting
with their team members.
So we encourage participation through these different channels,
these different mediums,
regularly at all levels in the organization,
and then we follow-up with groups with the
insights of what we learn
through various channels as well, and we encourage
leaders at every level in the organization to
action plan. So what did you hear? What
were the top 2 or 3 things that
were pertinent to you that resonated that you
can own and really, you know, be autonomous
in taking action on and really change the
environment for your team members for the better.
So we encourage action planning, or we have
tools and systems in place to be able
to facilitate that and help them do that
well
and get it ingrained in the way that
they work day to day, week to week,
month to month. So it's not a once
a year activity that they do, but it's
something that that just just naturally fits into
the regular cadence
of how we interact and communicate regularly with
employees.
This is fascinating how many amazing channels you
have to sort of gather that feedback and
then and then loop back and act on
it. Is a piece of that sort of
that that communication you talked about also transparent
about when you're maybe not gonna act on
a piece of feedback? I I transparent about
when you're maybe not gonna act on a
piece of feedback? I I I can just,
imagine that as many channels of feedback as
you're getting and as many great suggestions as
as as you're getting, some of the some
things just can't be changed right away or
some things can't be addressed immediately.
Do you do you address those concerns with
transparency as well?
I think it's really important that you also
you you do exactly that, Brian. And and
I think
team members will
you know,
our sensible individuals
respond really well to logic.
They want to be heard.
They want to make sure that you've really
considered
their suggestions and ideas. So I think our
role is to replay what we've heard and
where there are consistent themes. Speak to those.
And if there's a reason why we can't
consistent themes, speak to those. And if there's
a reason why we can't do something, explain
the why so people get it. And, there
is you
know, we we go by the philosophy that
if we
if we don't communicate
and if we're,
silent on topics that are important in people's
minds, then they tend to make things up.
They tend to fill in the blanks, and
and that's a natural human reaction.
So our job, I think, as leaders is
to make sure those blanks are filled in
accurately. And it might not be what they
want to hear,
but understanding
why
something's not going to happen,
or we're not going to take action in
a certain way in the way that they
think is the right course of action is
really important.
And as I say, you know, team members
are incredibly logical. They respond really well to
logic and data. So if you can explain
it, they can understand it, and that tends
to take some of the pressure out of
some of those areas and those topics.
Yeah. And I yeah. I imagine there's just
a a respect level that comes with that
level of transparency and clear communication. Right? Right.
Right.
Yeah.
And and Heartland Dental is growing and and
growth is and that's marvelous, of course.
But when when growth happens, there are some
challenges that that occur as well,
especially when it comes to sort of, you
know, maintaining
a supportive workplace culture and a cohesive culture.
So I I guess, can you talk about,
amid growth, what steps are are you taking
to really maintain that strong and supportive workplace
culture you've worked so hard to sort of
cultivate? How how are you trying to maintain
that and spread that out across the company?
Yeah. That's a great question. And I think
for many companies that have
grown
over,
you know, their life,
Continuing to maintain your culture as you get
larger and geographically more dispersed
and your employee base grows
can be exponentially difficult for organizations.
So,
you know, you every organization has a culture.
You know, my view is you have a
culture whether you want it or not. Now
you can actively try to create a certain
type of culture and be very intentional about
the things that you do to try and
create that environment,
or you can let it just organically happen.
But then you're not really in control of
the result.
And there are things, I think, as leaders
in an organization that you can purposefully do
to be very intentional about the culture you
want to create.
So we talk about culture,
I mentioned earlier on,
frequently in many of our meetings. In all
of our major
large meetings, we start with our mission, our
values,
and we always talk about mission and vision.
We talk about the fact that we're here
to support our doctors
and their customers, which are their patients. That
is the primary reason why Heartland Dental exists.
So we
we reconnect back to that, and we remember
that that's the purpose of why we're here
at Heartland Dental.
And we we run our business through our
value system. So like many organizations, we have
assessor values,
the way in which we operate as leaders
and individuals and how we conduct ourselves in
the workplace.
And and we try to encourage behaviors that
fit around those values by, again, having
touch points and, moments in time in the
organization
where we recognize
catching people doing things right that honor those
values,
and then we celebrate that. So we try
to kind of weave those opportunities
into a regular cadence so they become intentional.
So we're not just hoping that people live
by the values and that we uphold
our mission and our vision. We talk about
our mission, our vision at the beginning of
every meeting. We reconnect back to why we're
here. We're here support our doctors and help
them be the very best they can be
in their practices.
And then we talk about how we do
that through our values,
how we collaborate, how we communicate, how we
celebrate, and then we we recognize people when
they do things well
and call that out and celebrate
kind of that. And that's the way I
think you can help in an organization
continue to proliferate
a purposeful culture,
the one that you intend, and and you
don't end up with the one that you
get that just organically evolves. You actually purposely
create a culture.
Yeah. And I imagine those calling out those
concrete examples is just so so important. Just,
like, I yeah. On a on a couple
levels, of course, people like like to be
called out, but then people have concrete examples
that they can point to,
ideas that that, this is what it means
to embody these values. So that makes a
lot of sense, Kirsty.
It does. And, you know, our CEO is
is Pat Bauer, a phenomenal,
leader in the industry,
and he's incredibly personal.
He makes a really big effort to get
to know as many colleagues in our business
as possible.
And, you know, we have fun with this.
You know, we have pats on the back,
play on words, and these are the these
are the mechanics that we use to celebrate
people living those values day in, day out.
So,
you can have fun with recognition in your
organization. You know? It doesn't have to be
a stuffy structured program.
So we, you know, we really try hard
to kind of make it quite free, quite
easy for people to recognize others, give them
pat on the back, celebrate successes,
and, it it it works well. People love
it, and
they naturally
they naturally fall into
celebrating others when they're celebrating themselves. Themselves. So
it really proliferates more of that kind of
culture intentionally. Right. Right. Well,
I appreciate you sharing those details with us.
I wanna 0 in here on on employee
well-being and mental health,
which, of course, you know, rightly so have
become
increasingly important in the workplace.
Can can you share some of the specific
initiatives Heartland has implemented to to prioritize the
overall-being of its employees and to support folks'
mental health?
Yes. I mean, we have,
a Commit to Fit wellness programme,
so that's how we've branded it in in
our organisation. And we've got lots of resources
available in that Commit to Fit programme that
relate to
physical, mental, or financial
well-being.
And then, of course, we have an employee
assistance program. So,
we purposely go out to try and help
people
and educate on being conscious of the level
of stress and burnout and risk of that
and and direct people towards resources
that can help.
We also have kind of targeted programs to
support people in areas of impact that we
know will really resonate for our workplace. Things
like,
expert led 1 on 1 virtual exercise therapy
that we do at the front of meetings
and, to try and reverse musculoskeletal
issues,
or,
we have a certified instructor led diabetes prevention
course that we offer to people who are
at risk of that that we know through
our medical programs.
And these are these are programs we offer
that are a 100% subsidized by our company,
no charge to our participants, but really geared
towards
helping people commit to be well and fit
and, help them get back on track when
they they're under stress and under pressure in
the organization.
And and when you're feeling well and fit,
you're feeling better in general.
So
those go hand in hand. Can you talk
also a bit about how,
Heartland, you're you're working to foster a more
inclusive and equitable environment for for all employees?
This, of course, has has taken on added
importance over the years. Can you share some
some details about that?
Yes. So,
it it it very much starts with education
and training on that. You know, you have
to have those kind of,
programmes in place. We have
diversity and inclusion, equity and inclusion training. We
offer it to all of our team members,
all of our supported doctors,
and we focus very heavily on inclusion,
on belonging,
on professional conduct.
We consider all of that in our hiring
practices and the way in which we conduct
ourselves in meetings.
And we have a number of employee led
communities,
our version in Heartland of what many companies
called employee resource groups,
and they play a really pivotal role in
shaping our diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives throughout
the company. We've got lots of active employees
that participate in those particular communities,
and they're really essential in sort of fostering
personal and professional development while creating this very
inclusive culture.
So we've been really successful with those communities,
and we continue to add more as we
see opportunity arise and and employees kind of
ask for different types of,
communities to be considered. And we're, you know,
very much employee led on this
and go where our employees want us to
be.
But we celebrate diversity as a core aspect
of our culture. It's a core to our
living values, and we kind of recognize and
honor diversity through a number of events over
the year,
through communication,
through storytelling,
and we try to make diversity very much
part of our supported doctor and our our
team member kind of working life.
So we're constantly considering how we can help
promote this, how we can help employees engage,
learn more, educate themselves,
participate,
and really grow diversity of thinking and inclusion
and equity within our organization.
Kirsty is struck by throughout this conversation just
how much of what we've talked about today
really depends on that that two way, that
open communication with with team members. Right? It
just seems like there's that that is just
a part of Heartland's DNA. Am I correct
in assessing it that way?
Yeah. I think you're absolutely right. Open and
honest communication
is
no one would ever argue that's not the
right way to go.
But we really do believe that if employees
understand,
if they can appreciate the thought process that
goes into considering
these kind of programmes, initiatives,
even sharing our results, our data,
we, you know, we share transparently with our
doctors in the organisation
financial
information.
We believe this makes people better. Like, if
they understand it, if they know where they
can go for help,
if they understand how decisions are made and
and the kind of considerations that go into
that, then,
that level of understanding and appreciation and respect
tends to be much higher.
And, it works very well for Heartland.
And and, Kirsty, one final question for you
today before I let you go.
You know, being chief human resources officer, you're
obviously sitting a very important seat in terms
of supporting
employees.
What are you looking, what are you focused
on in the future? Looking ahead in terms
of thinking about how you continue to enhance
and support,
development opportunities available to Heartland Dental employees. Can
you talk about what you're focused on in
the future?
Yes. Well, such a huge part of our
industry is related to development, whether that be
personal development or professional development. So we have
an ethos at Heartland of always learning, always
leading.
We launched,
almost a year ago now, our Heartland Dental
University,
and,
it's been incredibly successful. We offer a whole
variety of educational opportunities to help people personally
and professionally develop.
And those kind of opportunities span
business, leadership, and clinical topics. And they're offered
to clinical and nonclinical team members so they
can really,
fulfil their career aspirations
at Heartland and and excel in their delivery
of care for patients.
So we've had tremendous success, but this is
just a flywheel that we want to keep
on spinning upwards. We we delivered
over 86,000
instructor led and virtual,
led training completions over the last year,
and we we achieved an impressive
employee,
net promoter score of 65.5%
on those educational programmes, which far exceeds industry
standards of how employees tend to rate their
training and development programmes.
So we're really happy with that level of
positive feedback.
We are delivering over 50,000
CE hours,
to our professionals in our business, and it's
really important to me that our employees continue
to grow and develop their skills in their
existing role. They continue to think ahead about
how they can develop and grow their careers
and that we continue to attract candidates that
know that if they choose Heartland as a
destination place to work,
they will have a really full and fulfilling
career at Heartland
through these types of development opportunities that we
so carefully put together and curate for them.
So
that's very much my top priority
and something that we're very excited about at
Heartland.
Exciting to hear about all all the work
you're doing at Heartland, Kirsty. Thank you so
much for for coming on the podcast today.
You're very welcome, Brian. It's been great to
talk to you today.
And I'd also like to thank Heartland Dental
for sponsoring today's conversation.
For our listeners, thank you for joining us,
and please be sure to check out other
Becker's podcasts. Have a wonderful rest of your
day.