Greg Keilin on Staffing Shortages and Investing in Human Capital

Are we undervaluing human capital in the behavioral health field? That's the question we'll be exploring as we take a hard look at the current staffing crisis. With razor-thin margins imposed by payer models and the lack of professional mentorship, small businesses in the field are grappling with significant challenges. We'll unravel the implications of these pain points and more, including the potential impact of regulation on telehealth services.

Chapters

• 0:00 Underinvestment in Behavioral Health Care Staff
• 7:00 Learning From Others in Business

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to Hatching Creativity. This isn't just another behavioral health podcast. This is the place where thought leaders converge to talk about real life challenges, breakthroughs and pivotal aha moments.

Speaker 2: 0:17

We've heard 18 million conversations about the staffing shortage in this field, and it's a staffing shortage. By the way, I will just say, we hear a lot of discussion, or at least I hear a lot of discussion about the clinical staffing shortage, which is absolutely true and a critical barrier, but it really is true across the field. I mean, we experience it sometimes more, sometimes less, as the markets are at the same level.

Speaker 1: 0:41

Well, you see it a lot. You see a lot because if you're not properly credentialed, they're taking their money back. So you're seeing that all the time, I'm sure.

Speaker 2: 0:51

Right, exactly, I think. But I think, to go back to the example that you gave a few minutes ago of like you know, you'll give somebody a training and then six months later you'll come back and they were tech, you know, as training is a tech. And then six months later you'll come back and they'll be the head of HR it's you know. I think that part of the reason why so many organizations have staff shortages and staffing issues is because we're under investing in human capital, human capital management, recruiting, training and development, employee engagement, all of that stuff. And that's not a behavioral health care problem, that's a small business problem. Like most small businesses under invest in human capital management, but also like it's an unfortunate coincidence that most behavioral health businesses are small businesses and so you can't afford necessarily a dedicated HR expert, you can't afford dedicated recruiter. You know it's just not feasible in the business model of a you know, freestanding, single site behavioral health care facility, you can't do it.

Speaker 2: 1:57

But the result of that is that you don't have well established recruiting. You know criteria, interview process, new employee onboarding and training, long term employee engagement and feedback. Those processes are complicated, they're difficult, they're time consuming to maintain and you need to be. You know, like like anything else, you need to have a person who is knowledgeable and focused on that specific expertise. I've heard a lot of conversations about the staffing shortage. I've not heard a lot of conversations about the reason. One contributing factor to the staffing shortage is an under investment in the like staffing and HR function in these organizations. And again, I understand why that happens, but it does have this as an inevitable consequence that it's harder to hire and retain and develop good staff.

Speaker 1: 2:49

You just opened a whole can of worms. So this industry is really unique in a lot of ways. I think there's several reasons why you're seeing that lower investment in the human capital. You know, I'm just going to rattle off a couple that come to mind off the top of my head. First, this is a really unique industry where you can have a successful treatment episode and some money in your pocket and open up your own clinic.

Speaker 1: 3:19

You don't see that in brain surgery, right, you don't see that in a lot of other businesses and because of that low barrier to entry, you have a lot of and I'm not saying this in a pejorative way at all there are a lot of amateur business owners in this field who are looking to do the right thing but are on the shoestring right. They're bootstrapping it. The other thing is the tight margins, you know, and those tight margins come from the payer model, the things that people have to do in order to survive when they're getting paid at the reimbursements that they're currently getting paid, though you know, those couple conversations make a big difference.

Speaker 1: 4:04

The other thing too is, you know, as the public health emergency goes away and telehealth is going to become more regulated and more of an issue, that's gonna create more barriers. They're also talking about license reciprocity and being able to, you know, carry credentials from state to state. That's something that could be a solution there, but there's a lot of contributing factors there that lead to that lack of spend on your human capital. But you also have to be aware of where's your waste and everybody is so bogged down that, looking at data on what are we doing, how can we improve, how can we be more efficient, it gets lost.

Speaker 1: 4:55

So you know funny story, you know hatch we offer automation and effective compliance programs that through our software. I'll talk to a CEO and I'll say our software will save you between one and a half and three FTEs full-time employees at your current size and they'll say well, why would I spend money on software that will save me one to three full-time employees? I already have them on payroll. They feel that they're already paying them Right, so just have them do the compliance on paper. But what they miss is you don't pay them to do compliance documentation.

Speaker 1: 5:39

You pay people to be helping your clients and, as anything that they're doing that's a distraction from that is against your best interest as a business owner. So there's so many different pieces that unravel there, but you're right and there are ways to solve it. But there definitely should be more business mentorship in this field. I think could be really helpful. Maybe professionalize it a little bit more.

Speaker 2: 6:09

Yeah and look, I think that there's. I mean, it's funny. I have a very strong view about MBAs not the people who have those letters after their name, but the programs where you go to get those letters after your name. I don't have an MBA. My sort of work experience is my business education and I'm a very strong believer in that as a path.

Speaker 2: 6:33

But the flip side of that is I have holes in my business education because I didn't go through a structured academic program where I learned about marketing and accounting and you name it right Like all of the different aspects legal and compliance and all these different aspects that are necessary to run a business. So I've had to sort of pick those up as I've gone along and I think that a lot of the folks who work in this field are the same, and so I think you're absolutely right. There are a lot of people CEOs or owners running these businesses and they have a ton of great and super valuable experience that's helped them accomplish great things, but there are also holes in their background and education and knowledge that, if they were filled, would make them even better.

Speaker 1: 7:19

It comes down to the sum of all parts is greater than the hole is greater than the sum of the parts. There you go. It's true. If you took our team, for example, I couldn't begin to think that I would ever in my lifetime built the amount of compliance knowledge that Rene has, the amount of technology that Chris has and what you Is it possible for one person?

Speaker 2: 7:44

to do all of those things.

Speaker 1: 7:45

No. So you align yourself with good people, but you have to also put your ego at the door and go. There's a lot I don't know and you have to be willing to listen to other people, similar to what happened with your story with the client speaking to the staff. You gotta be able to and this comes down to hiring as well. In your employees, you have to recognize who is the expert in that, and then, if you ask that advice of the expert, you can challenge it a little bit.

Speaker 1: 8:18

Hey, clarify this. What does this mean? Why do you come up with this or where do you come up with this? But at the end of the day, if you're asking somebody for advice and you're not doing it, or you're going to just challenge them, then you may as well just do it on your own Right. Or you're gonna be standing in the same spot on the treadmill and not going anywhere, right? And then a lot of people do that. In fact, there's an expression about that and it says an ass coal is somebody who asks you for advice and then does whatever they wanna do anyway.

Speaker 2: 8:54

Love it. That's hilarious.

Speaker 1: 8:56

I like that one too.