Chapter 13 (Managing Human Resources)

Hiring Right at the Mayo Clinic

Featured for more than a dozen years on Fortune's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list, the Mayo Clinic is known for having an employee-friendly work environment. However, the success of the organization depends not only on treating employees well, but also on having the right employees in place. Working in the health-care industry can be stressful, creating challenges for a not-for-profit organization such as the Mayo Clinic to recruit and select new staff members. And the Mayo Clinic does a lot of hiring. With more than 44 000 employees, the organization hires about 5000 new employees a year. So how does the Mayo Clinic handle this challenge?

The Mayo Clinic's reputation as a great place to work helps them attract applicants, as evidenced by the more than 68 000 applications they receive in a year. They usually receive over 20 applicants for each open nursing position while other hospitals struggle to find qualified nurses. So what makes the organization such a great place to work? In addition to creating a caring work culture that makes everybody feel like they are part of a team doing life-changing work, they also offer employees generous benefits and other perks. They offer the basics such as health care and retirement benefits, along with a full menu of other benefits. For example, employees receive 28 paid days off each year, back-up child care, subsidized parking, tuition reimbursement, and work-life balance programs that offer flexible work options. These offerings support the recruitment process as current employees encourage others to join their team. In fact, about 20 percent of their jobs are filled by employee referrals.

In addition to employee referrals, many of their job applicants are cultivated internally. With five schools in the Mayo Clinic's educational system, the clinic essentially is training new potential employees for positions ranging from technologists to surgeons. However, the organization's stellar reputation attracts many applicants from outside the organization as well.

The "Jobs at Mayo Clinic" section of the company website is an important tool in their recruitment process. The site is dynamic and provides extensive information to potential applicants, including details on specific jobs, professional development opportunities, recognition programs, and benefits. If the organization does not have a current job opening available, they keep applicants engaged through their Talent Community, which allows the applicant to learn about relevant job opportunities as soon as they become available. The Talent Community keeps job applicants engaged through email updates about news at the clinic and other career-related information.

Once the organization has a pool of applicants for a job, they have to make a tough selection decision. The organization takes hiring seriously, identifying the applicants that not only meet the qualifications for the job but that also align with the organization's values. Their selection process rigorously screens for qualities including respect, compassion, integrity, teamwork, innovation, and stewardship. After an initial screening that includes an online application profile and often a Web-based interview, formal in-person interviews are conducted by at least one panel, sometimes more. The panels conducting the interviews include representatives from human resources, the hiring manager, future team members, and sometimes other internal customers who may interact with the future employee. Physicians and scientists may also be asked to give a presentation. Decisions are made only after a thorough screening process is completed.

Evidence suggests that the Mayo Clinic's hiring efforts are effective. Employees who are well-matched to the organizational culture and values continue to rank the clinic as a top workplace. Furthermore, those they hire tend to stay with the clinic for the long run. The organization has boasted a low 5 percent voluntary turnover rate. Within the physician workforce, the turnover rate stays as low 1 to 2 percent, which is extraordinary in the health-care industry.

Questions:-

1. Would you be interested in working at the Mayo Clinic?
2. How does the Mayo Clinic's Talent Community help to recruit new applicants?
3. Why is it important for the Mayo Clinic to assess a job applicant's values?
4. How does a panel interview process help the organization make better hiring decisions?

Chapter 14(Leadership)

How important are excellent leaders to organizations? If you were to ask the recently retired 3M CEO George Buckley, he'd say extremely important. But he'd also say that excellent leaders don't just pop up out of nowhere. A company has to cultivate leaders who have the skills and abilities to help it survive and thrive. And like a successful baseball team with strong performance statistics that has a player development plan in place, 3M has its own farm system. Except its farm system is designed to develop company leaders.

3M's leadership development program is so effective that it has been one of the "Top 20 Companies for Leadership" in six of the last seven years and ranks as one of the top 25 companies for grooming leadership talent according to Hay Consulting Group and Fortune magazine. What is 3M's leadership program all about? About 10 years ago, the company's former CEO (Jim McNerney, former Boeing CEO) and his top team spent 18 months developing a new leadership model for the company. After numerous brainstorming sessions and much heated debate, the group finally agreed on six "leadership attributes" they believed were essential for the company to become skilled at executing strategy and being accountable. Those six attributes included the ability to "chart the course; energize and inspire others; demonstrate ethics, integrity, and compliance; deliver results; raise the bar; and innovate resourcefully." And under Buckley's guidance and continued under the leadership of newly appointed CEO Inge Thulin (who then served as executive chair of the board of 3M until 2019), the company is continuing and reinforcing its pursuit of leadership excellence with these six attributes.

When asked about his views on leadership, Buckley said he believes leaders differ from managers. He believes the key to developing leaders is to focus on those things that can be developedlike strategic thinking. Buckley also believes leaders should not be promoted up and through the organization too quickly. They need time to experience failures and what it takes to rebuild.

Finally, when asked about his own leadership style, Buckley said he believed the best way for him to succeed as a leader was to surround himself with people who were better than him. But doing that takes a great deal of emotional self-confidence, an attribute that is vital to being a great leader. When you have people working for you who are excellent at what they do, you respect them. When you respect them, you build trust. That type of leadership approach worked well for Buckley.

Questions:-

1. What do you think about Buckley's statement that leaders and managers differ? Do you agree? Why or why not?
2. What leadership models/theories/issues do you see in this case? List and describe.
3. Take each of the six leadership attributes the company feels is important. Explain what you think each one involves. Then discuss how those attributes might be developed and measured.
4. What did this case teach you about leadership?