Latest / The Inspired Stories Podcast / From Early Morning FedEx to Healthcare CHRO: Kelly Oliver's Journey | Healthcare Series

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From Early Morning FedEx to Healthcare CHRO: Kelly Oliver's Journey | Healthcare Series · The Inspired Stories Podcast

0:04
Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories, where leaders
0:07
share their experiences so we can learn from their successes,
0:10
how they've overcome adversity, and explore current challenges
0:13
they're facing. Welcome to another edition of
0:19
the Inspired Stories podcast, where leaders share their
0:21
experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired
0:25
by how they've overcome adversity.
0:27
My name is Anthony Kotaspodi, and today's guest is Kelly
0:30
Oliver, chief human Resources Officer at Nevada Health
0:34
Centers, which was founded in 1977 and is the largest provider
0:38
of primary care for underserved populations in Nevada.
0:43
As a nonprofit, they operate 20 health centers and five mobile
0:48
health programs across the state, offering services like
0:51
dental care, family medicine, Pediatrics, Women's Health and
0:56
behavioral health. They make quality healthcare
0:59
accessible and affordable through a sliding fee scale.
1:03
With initiatives like the Mammovan and Ronald McDonald
1:06
Care Mobile, they bring care directly to those in need in
1:10
urban, rural and frontier communities.
1:13
Kelly joined Nevada Health Centers in February 2023 and has
1:17
been instrumental in fostering a positive workplace culture and
1:21
enhancing employee engagement. He holds an MBA in international
1:25
management from Thunderbird School of Global Management and
1:29
dual bachelor's degrees in management and finance from the
1:32
University of Utah. With expense extensive
1:36
experience in human resources leadership, Kelly has served in
1:39
roles at HCA, Mountain Division and Regional W health services.
1:44
He also holds certifications including senior professional in
1:47
human resources, SPHR and certified scrum master.
1:52
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2:22
Now back to our guest today, the Chief Human Resource Officer at
2:26
Nevada Health Centers, Kelly Oliver.
2:28
I appreciate you making the time to Share your story today.
2:31
Thank you so much for having me, Anthony.
2:32
I appreciate it. So, Kelly, as I look at your
2:35
work history, before you got into HR, you were doing
2:39
something radically different, Risk management information
2:43
systems. Tell us how that leap took
2:46
place. Sure, sure.
2:48
And when I was in college, I, when I was deciding my major,
2:53
doing management thing like that, management was, was kind
2:57
of fun and I enjoyed it, but I wanted to push myself.
3:00
And so I was, I was, I was working for American Express at
3:03
the time and I, and I was doing banking and, you know, credit
3:06
and that sort of thing. And I, I really loved the credit
3:11
side of things and I really love working for American Express,
3:14
but I, I kind of had dabbled in employee engagement a little bit
3:17
in College in where I was working in and that sort of
3:20
thing. But, but I really loved risk
3:22
management and, and that sort of thing.
3:24
And I just challenged myself to get a double major.
3:28
I thought I might as well double major, you know, and it's just,
3:31
you know, a little bit more work, but I really enjoyed being
3:35
in the kind of activity of risk management and, and doing credit
3:40
and banking and things. But but yeah, it's probably not
3:43
a traditional HR background, you know, for sure.
3:47
You know, half my career was kind of in in banking and risk
3:51
and then then here I am in management.
3:53
And So what led to that transition?
3:55
Why did you decide I'm going to shift gears from risk into HR?
3:59
Yeah. So back in 2000, about 2008 was
4:02
when I made the jump over in, in, in HR.
4:06
What led to that was the fall of the market, the housing market,
4:10
the bubble bursting. So the people here say the
4:12
bubble burst in 2008. Well, when I was at the bank, I
4:17
was doing risk management for a subprime mortgage portfolio of
4:21
about four and a half billion dollars.
4:23
OK, Yeah. Yeah, I see where this is going.
4:27
And So what was what? What I kind of realized in about
4:31
midway through 2007, I was at a credit conference and one of
4:36
the, the instructors at this credit conference said, Hey,
4:39
how's your, you know, what's your mortgage ratios looking
4:42
like? And I was like, they're not
4:44
looking so good, you know, and he was like, he's like, let's,
4:47
let's look at this. And so I started realizing that
4:50
we had kind of like the market was kind of hitting an iceberg,
4:53
you know, like the Titanic almost, you know, maybe a major
4:56
iceberg. But I, you know, I could really,
4:58
I really knew what we were doing internally, but I could, I had a
5:02
hunch that the, the market was probably going to go soft, you
5:05
know, sooner or later. And so that was it was a rough
5:08
time. So you had a front row seat to
5:11
everything that was going on and actually knew much sooner than
5:15
almost anybody else that this was about it.
5:19
Were there the bankruptcies, the, the repossessions, the
5:22
foreclosures, you know, seeing people not being able to pay
5:26
their mortgages and things, or there was a lot of back then,
5:30
there was a lot of adjustable rate mortgages in the
5:33
marketplace. And there was also really weird
5:36
things happening in mortgages like drive by appraisals and
5:40
stated income loans, which is like they didn't verify your,
5:43
your income and things. And so people were kind of
5:46
betting on their future that they were going to get raises
5:48
and things and being a better financial spot when their
5:51
adjustable rate mortgage set, you know, and but yeah, the
5:56
indicators were there. And so I was kind of, you know,
6:00
management was like, you know, thinking that, you know,
6:04
nothing's going to happen, you know, don't worry about it, you
6:06
know, and, and just keep working, you know, and I'm like,
6:09
hey, the numbers were getting worse every month.
6:11
And so I knew I had to get to a better place.
6:14
And so I, I decided I was going to, you know, see if I could use
6:17
my management degree and maybe do some human resources type
6:21
stuff and, and, and get out of there.
6:24
OK. So you saw the writing on the
6:26
wall, you got out before the bottom really dropped in that
6:30
industry. And did you find your way to HR
6:34
right away or was there sort of a bridge between?
6:36
Them yeah, so I was able to to to get a job as a project
6:39
manager and at A at a healthcare company a very a very large
6:44
healthcare company. I was driving to work one day, I
6:46
saw this big sign they're opening up a hospital says, Hey,
6:49
we're hiring, you know, and here I was depressed about the
6:52
mortgage market. And so I applied for a job and
6:57
they offered me a job as a project manager, but they also
6:59
knew I had this like employee engagement background from, from
7:04
my previous work. And so my boss was like, Hey,
7:07
I'd really like you to help lead employee engagement in our
7:10
department. And so I, you know, jumped in
7:13
doing, doing my project management stuff, but the
7:17
employee engagement kind of on the side and I started getting,
7:20
getting noticed by corporate on things we were initiatives we
7:24
were doing for employee engagement.
7:26
And, and, and so one of the vice presidents reached out to me
7:30
after a couple years of being a project manager and said, I
7:33
really want you on my, my HR team.
7:36
And so so I joined the corporate HR team of this healthcare
7:41
organization had about 36,000 employees.
7:44
So what did it look like? The employee engagement work
7:48
that you were doing? Why was this?
7:50
Why was this getting you so much attention?
7:52
Yeah, so our, I don't know if it was the leader I was working
7:56
for, the Division I was in, but they had really poor scores on
8:00
their employee engagement survey, just their annual
8:02
employee engagement score. And, and I was like, well, we
8:07
can improve this, you know, like we, we can have a little
8:10
committee on the team, you know, and, and you know, I had, I had,
8:14
I had done a Six Sigma Greenbelt project for employee engagement
8:21
years earlier on working through, you know, issues with
8:25
employee engagement and stuff. And so when that came out that I
8:28
had, you know, kind of, I guess you'd say maybe mastered or, you
8:33
know, improved employee engagement through a Six Sigma
8:37
Greenbelt project, you know, people were kind of perked up a
8:40
little bit. And so that's, that's, you know,
8:43
where I was able to, you know, implement some changes.
8:45
And so we went to the kind of went to the top of the, to the
8:49
top of the company, you know, with our scores the next time we
8:51
took the survey. And so people were like, have
8:54
that department from the go from the bottom to the top in one
8:57
year, you know? And so like what were some of
8:59
the practical things you mentioned like forming a
9:01
committee? Give us some other examples.
9:04
Yeah, you know, having the the leader be a little bit more open
9:08
to, you know, meeting with employees, you know, showing a
9:11
personal side, you know, recognition was was big, you
9:16
know, to to recognize employees, you know, on for daily things
9:20
and then for, you know, projects completed and, you know, making,
9:24
you know, having some meaningful, meaningful messages
9:27
to employees, you know, like sending a personal, you know,
9:30
card, you know, to them, you know, writing, you know,
9:32
thanking them and stuff like that.
9:34
And so, you know, that meant a lot to employees and, you know,
9:38
it, it changed the atmosphere, changed the environment.
9:41
Yeah, so. What?
9:43
How did the opportunity for Nevada health centers open up?
9:46
What led you there? Yeah.
9:48
So I was, I was in Nebraska working for Regional Health,
9:53
regional W health services there a couple of years ago and it
10:00
was. The.
10:01
The organization kind of went through a rough spot
10:05
financially, but also the culture was really poor.
10:09
And I've learned some, some things about the, some of the
10:14
executives and things that were not in line with my values of,
10:18
you know, you know, honesty and being trustworthy as an
10:22
executive. And, and so I started to, to
10:25
look for a job and one of my friends who was actually the
10:30
head of human resources here was taking a job in another state
10:35
and called me and said, Hey, you ever thought about Las Vegas?
10:37
And I and I really hadn't. And he said, I think you'd be
10:40
incredible to come work for our organization, you know, and, and
10:45
I'm, you know, he was leaving and, and so he, you know,
10:48
introduced me to the executive team and it was just a really
10:53
amazing relationship that was quickly formed through meeting
10:58
with them a couple of times. And the CEO is, is a phenomenal
11:02
guy and a, and a leader that walks the talk and, and that,
11:06
and it was just really refreshing to see it.
11:08
He's very visionary too. And, and you know, he offered me
11:12
a job on the spot and said, he said, Hey, Kelly, I want you to
11:15
come. You know, what would it take for
11:17
you to come join us in Nevada? And so it was, it was easy for
11:22
me to to say, hey, I'm, I'm on board, you know, but I really
11:26
love the healthcare space. What is it that sort of bonded
11:30
you and the CEO so well? I mean, you mentioned he walks
11:33
the talk, but what does that mean in this environment?
11:38
You know, so he's been with the organization for over 10 years
11:42
now and he, he came into the organization when, when they
11:45
weren't very financial financially viable.
11:49
And he's taken and expanded this, this company from, you
11:54
know, maybe, you know, 10 or 12 clinics to now, you know, 20
11:58
clinics and to having mobile units and being able to serve
12:02
the homeless and low income people across the state of
12:05
Nevada. But he has similar values to me,
12:08
you know, you know, accountability and mutual
12:11
respect and trust. And, you know, he he likes, you
12:16
know, ideas of, you know, let's go improve our culture.
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Let's go do employee engagement. Let's meet with our employees.
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And so he and I, every year we, we go meet with every employee,
12:29
we drive to every clinic in the state of Nevada and meet with
12:32
our employees and just listen to them and just talk to them for a
12:36
couple hours. But it's, it's important to us.
12:38
We call it the CEO. Let's talk.
12:40
And so we just go and, and listen.
12:43
But it's, it's he, you know, it's, it's a guy I want to
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follow. So tell us a little bit more
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about Nevada Health Centers and what it does.
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There's now 20 locations. It's primary care.
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You're serving the homeless who? Who else kind of paint us a.
12:58
Picture Yeah, yeah, I kind of give a little rundown sometimes
13:01
when I'm, you know, when I'm interviewing other people and
13:04
kind of laying the laying the company background out for
13:08
people. But yeah, Nevada Health Center
13:09
has been around for 40 years. We have 20 clinics, 20.
13:14
So that's 20 medical, medical and dental clinics around the
13:17
state of Nevada. So from, from the far northeast
13:20
side of kind of Elko, NV, if anybody knows the geography over
13:23
to Reno, Carson in the western side and then all the way down
13:27
here in the South in Las Vegas. And so we, we do have medical
13:33
and dental clinics, also behavioral health services and
13:36
social services. And one clinic that we have here
13:39
in Las Vegas is in our homeless corridor.
13:42
So we work with the city of Las Vegas and some of the, some of
13:46
the county programs in the homeless corridor to provide
13:50
medical care and social services to the homeless people.
13:54
And it's, it's really cool to see that.
13:56
And one of the, one of the programs that we have is called
13:58
St. Medicine.
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And so we have EMTs who go up and down the streets and see
14:05
homeless people and see if they need just aspirin or if they
14:08
need help medical care at a clinic or, you know, emergent,
14:13
you know, to get them an ambulance.
14:14
And those people are just kind of like the mother Teresa's, if
14:18
you will, of healthcare that they're just like kind of in a
14:22
dangerous spot, you know, because you don't know what
14:24
you're getting with some homeless people.
14:26
And, and, but they, they see what kind of care they need and
14:30
assess it. And then they either get them to
14:33
our clinic or to a hospital and and that sort of thing.
14:37
But it's just, it's really rewarding work.
14:39
And then our our 5 mobile units that we've expanded to that was
14:43
a vision of our CEO as well. So we have two mobile medical
14:47
units and two mobile dental units.
14:49
And then we have a mammogram mobile that does breast cancer
14:53
screenings. And so they'll show up in a very
14:56
small town in Nevada for a day and do breast cancer screenings.
14:59
And so last year we did over 3000 breast cancer screenings
15:04
and we helped 16 women with early detection of breast cancer
15:08
and they were able to get care quickly.
15:11
And, you know, haven't had any, you know, problems since then.
15:15
And, and so those are the, the really cool stories that that I,
15:19
I love to share with people is like, Hey, we helped 16 women,
15:22
you know, you know, get care very quickly and, and, you know,
15:26
possibly save their lives. And you know, the homeless story
15:30
is great with the street medicine and then, you know,
15:33
just being here in our clinics as I visit the state with
15:37
medical and dental and vision and another cool program that
15:41
probably isn't well known as street school, school based
15:44
medicine. So if, if your parents don't
15:47
have insurance, but you are a registered student between the
15:52
ages of four and 18, you can get medical and dental care and, and
15:57
then the, the, the city or the county reimburses us.
16:01
So, so kids don't go without medical care.
16:04
So wow. And, and then, then another
16:07
side, I always have to put a plug in for these guys, but we
16:09
do the women infant children program in Las Vegas area.
16:13
So we're the largest administrator of the, they call
16:15
it the WIC program in a lot of states.
16:18
And so we do about 23,000 encounters a month for women and
16:22
children, you know, helping them with, you know, breast cancer,
16:26
sorry, breastfeeding and, and you know, and baby formula and
16:29
nutrition for the mom and the baby.
16:31
And so that's, you know, another part of our business that a lot
16:35
of people don't know that we do, but we're the largest in the
16:37
state because Las Vegas is, you know, the biggest population.
16:40
But we we have 23,000 encounters a month on that program as well.
16:45
Wow that's really impressive the the school based care that
16:48
you're talking about it. The care isn't actually
16:51
delivered in a school setting am I right?
16:53
Like they would still come to your facility?
16:56
So both we do go to the school, we do have a couple of school
17:00
clinics we go to and, and do. And so our providers will go
17:04
there and, and you know, our, our like a nurse practitioner or
17:07
doctor will go there for a day and, and one day a week.
17:11
And do, you know, medical care at the school.
17:14
But but they also come come to our medical clinics as well for
17:18
for more than maybe immunizations and things like
17:20
that. And how does somebody qualify
17:23
for that kind of care? Yeah.
17:25
And so for like school base, it's you just have to be a
17:27
registered student in one of the the school districts.
17:31
There's no kind of minimum income requirement or or maximum
17:34
income requirement. I just, I don't think so on that
17:37
one. I'm, I'm, you know, I'm human
17:38
resources, I don't know all the billing, but but our, our front
17:41
office, our front office associates, when you know,
17:45
anybody walks into our clinic and needs care, they have an
17:48
assessment that they do. And so we have that like sliding
17:52
scale. So, you know, basically it's on
17:55
your income and things, you know, have the fees there.
17:58
And then if you, you don't have any insurance or any income, you
18:02
know, we also have some programs there that we help you, you
18:05
know, get Medicare or Medicaid and, and work through those
18:10
programs. There's a, as we talked about in
18:12
the intro, there's a sliding fee scale there, yeah.
18:15
Yeah, so it's really cool. So whether you know, if you
18:18
can't pay it all or you can pay some and you know, and, and
18:21
yeah, we, we provide, we don't turn anybody away.
18:24
So. The the folks that you're
18:29
overseeing that are helping the homeless, you call it like
18:34
Mother Teresa right there in a little bit of a dangerous spot
18:36
from, you know, an HR perspective.
18:39
I don't know. How do you think about
18:41
positioning those folks so that they can be where they need to,
18:45
helping the people that need the help, but also ensuring their
18:48
own safety? Yeah.
18:50
And so, you know, we provide them with, you know, cell phone
18:53
and, and different things like that for, for protection.
18:57
I we, we, we brought on this street medicine program about a
19:02
year ago and because we just had the homeless program, but, but
19:06
it really dovetailed nicely having the street medicine
19:08
because they were, there was an existing program and the
19:11
organization that had it was, was, you know, ending there, you
19:14
know, wanting to run it. So, so we took it over.
19:17
But I went from, you know, just having medical clinics and
19:21
mobile trucks to, OK, I need to provide a coat, you know, and a,
19:25
and a beanie or something, you know, because the weather gets a
19:28
little cold down here in Vegas, believe it or not, but, but so,
19:31
you know, providing some, some gloves and, you know, coats and,
19:35
and things like that so that our employees, you know, are warm
19:38
and that sort of thing. That's kind of new for me, you
19:41
know, in, in this space. But yeah, just we have some, you
19:46
know, some protocols that we follow, you know, they go in
19:49
pairs and, and that sort of thing.
19:51
And, you know, there's, there's ways to inform, you know, if, if
19:55
they get into a risky situation or anything.
19:57
But but yeah, you know, our, our homeless clinic does have like
20:02
bulletproof glass in it in the front and things like that.
20:05
There's, yeah, things we have to do to protect our employees a
20:09
little bit. Yeah.
20:12
So you guys have grown to 20 locations and I get that this
20:16
may not be your exact area of purview, you know, having, you
20:19
know, be the the the head of HR there.
20:21
But I'm kind of curious if, you know, has that growth happened
20:24
by acquiring existing centers or just going into new locations
20:29
and sort of starting from scratch?
20:33
It's been a little both. And so we've, we've opened up a
20:36
couple of clinics since I've been here and, and most of those
20:39
have been where maybe a community, you know, as a city
20:42
or a town will reach out to us and say, you know, we need some
20:48
medical, you know, care in our town.
20:50
And so then we assess it and maybe meet with their City
20:53
Council or their town council and, and discuss that and work
20:57
through some things like that. And so we've, we've opened up
21:01
some clinics in some smaller towns that way.
21:04
And then earlier this year, there was an organization that
21:08
was here that decided to get out of the kind of they called the
21:13
federally Qualified Health Center space.
21:16
And so they were shutting down a couple of their clinics.
21:19
And so we decided we we take on one of their clinics.
21:23
And so we basically acquired their space.
21:26
But but yeah, it is a lot of involvement with communities and
21:31
city councils and also the government to, you know, see if
21:35
we can we look at the kind of the population and the need for
21:40
the healthcare. And you know, if there's, if
21:42
there's not any healthcare there and you know, can we, can we go
21:45
into that space? You guys have future growth.
21:49
Plans in the works yeah. We're always always looking at
21:53
it. You know, there's, there's,
21:55
there's a lot of places in Nevada that we're not yet, you
21:58
know, and then some small towns. And so it's, it's always on the
22:02
table to, to look at it and see what makes sense and, you know,
22:05
see what we can do from a funding perspective.
22:07
So we, we receive a lot of funding from federal and state
22:11
grants and, and things. And so, yeah, we're always,
22:14
always looking to do that if it makes sense with our, our
22:18
company and our, you know, vision and values as well.
22:21
And. When you go into a new location
22:23
like that, from an HR perspective, how do you prepare
22:26
the company to kind of hit the ground running, have the the
22:29
best? Yeah, sometimes we get a short
22:32
run. Sometimes we get a short runway
22:33
like, Hey, we're going to open up a clinic in three weeks and
22:36
be like, whoa, you know, so let's just hurry and, and you
22:40
know, post jobs all over the place.
22:42
We've been lucky. We, we recently opened up a, a
22:45
clinic in the, the town of Pahrump, NV and we, the, the
22:50
lady that's our, our clinic manager there actually is pretty
22:54
well connected. And so she had a lot of friends
22:56
from a previous clinic that she was worked at.
22:58
So it's leveraging those relationships.
23:00
But, but yes, sometimes you would really like a little bit
23:04
longer runway to be able to, you know, post jobs and, and, but
23:09
yet we, we do have to look at, you know, being competitive pay.
23:13
So we're kind of look around and see what, what other companies
23:16
or organizations are paying for similar positions in the area
23:19
and stuff. So we kind of get it right the
23:21
first time or, or as close as we can and then that make
23:24
adjustments. But yeah, it's advertising and,
23:27
you know, working with, you know, people who know people
23:29
that might be looking for a job and that sort of thing.
23:31
So we're also working with, you know, trade schools and, you
23:36
know, places that are maybe, you know, training medical
23:39
assistants, you know, and getting them certified and, you
23:42
know, needing, you know, someone wanting a job after they're done
23:45
with their schooling and stuff. So.
23:47
Mostly direct hire. Do you do some contract or
23:50
temporaries? Mostly all direct hire, yeah, we
23:54
we just have some contracts on the provider side, like on the
23:57
doctor side, but on regular employees, non providers, it's
24:01
all pretty much direct hire. What's typically the hardest
24:05
position for you to fill? So a lot of the turnover is in
24:09
medical assisting and front office.
24:12
It just turns over. It's the front front line
24:15
employees, you know, entry level there providers is is hard to
24:21
recruit for to come out and work in Nevada.
24:24
Some sometimes in these small towns, but providers is a little
24:28
bit tough. I work with the provider
24:32
relations vice president and so they she has a tough job of
24:35
finding providers who want to come and work in a small town in
24:38
in Nevada, but. When you say providers you mean
24:41
doctors? Doctors.
24:43
Nurse practitioners, Yeah. Physician assistants, yeah.
24:47
Yeah. So when you find somebody,
24:49
you've got them in house, what are some things that you found
24:52
to be successful to retain them hold on to?
24:55
Them really good question. That's another thing I love
24:58
about our organization. We have what's called Nevada
25:00
Health Centers University. And so for all employees in
25:04
their first year of employment, they're given online courses and
25:11
web courses with one of our organizational effectiveness
25:15
directors and they have a number of courses that they they take
25:20
over that first year and then we have a first year celebration
25:23
for them. If you're a leader in the
25:26
organization, like a new manager, new director, we have a
25:30
manager cohort, like new leader cohort that's about 10 months
25:35
long and you'll, you'll do some courses there.
25:39
We're really big on crucial conversations course through
25:42
Vital Smarts. So we, we encourage every
25:45
employee to go through Vital Smarts crucial conversations
25:48
course. And then for physicians, we have
25:52
a physician physician steering committee, but we also have a
25:58
physician leader program that we're working to provide
26:02
mentoring for our new graduates of that are providers, you know,
26:06
maybe just out of school be mentored by some of our existing
26:10
providers. So we we do.
26:13
And then this also our university has a couple thousand
26:17
different courses that you can take for like self improvement
26:20
and stuff that you want to do or like if you want to learn excel
26:22
or you know, learn to be a better communicator, things like
26:25
that. You can go do that at any time
26:27
on the on that. Platform and this platform, it's
26:31
free for all your employees to access.
26:33
Yeah. And it's not like it's not like
26:37
they're earning a certification that might like increase their
26:39
pay. They're just doing it for their
26:41
own edification, their own self improvement.
26:43
There there's both out there actually.
26:45
I mean, they, they can, they're mostly it's self improvement
26:49
stuff, but they're and but you can earn a certificate.
26:53
And we also are like our one year program.
26:55
You get a certificate and then our physician leader training
26:58
stuff and our manager thing. We we provide a little
27:00
graduation and a little, you know, excitement around
27:03
celebration. But yeah, all of our employees
27:06
can do that anytime they want. But yeah, we recognize them when
27:10
they do go through it like a certificate.
27:12
Some some courses do provide you like a certificate and stuff.
27:15
So, OK, so. That's a pretty cool program.
27:20
Are there other examples of some unique initiatives that you've
27:24
LED to kind of foster a more motivated and commitment
27:28
workforce there at Nevada health centers?
27:30
Yeah, we, we do twice. So we contract with a group
27:35
called Huron Consulting. It's if you're in the healthcare
27:38
space, you might have heard of Quint Studer.
27:40
He, he was kind of calling the godfather of healthcare, like
27:45
management or whatnot. But Huron, you know, acquired
27:50
his knowledge of, of healthcare and that sort of thing.
27:53
And so we do what's called a leadership development institute
27:57
twice a year. So usually in the spring and the
27:59
fall, where we bring all seventy of our leaders together for
28:04
usually 2 days of training on something's operational,
28:08
something's leadership and management.
28:10
And we just did one in October and we, you know, we talk about
28:16
different topics and things that Wellness came up this time
28:19
compensation. We sometimes pepper in like A5
28:23
dysfunctions of a team learning or you know, the four agreements
28:27
type book, things like that and and some guest speakers and
28:30
things. So we do that every every twice
28:34
a year, about six months in between.
28:36
So it's, it's been really good to keep our leaders, you know,
28:42
knowing what's going on in the organization and help them with
28:45
their skills and, you know, being sharp.
28:48
So you yourself, you double majored, you've got at least a
28:53
couple of Six Sigma belts. So degrees, certifications, some
28:59
of the education opportunities that you're providing to your
29:02
employees there also, some of them come with certifications.
29:06
How important do you think those degrees and certifications are,
29:10
either for yourself or for your workforce in general?
29:14
Yeah, I'm a believer of, I don't know by a quote that says we
29:18
should all plant trees we'll never sit under.
29:21
I like to help people and sometimes that's helping people
29:25
that you don't even know or, or just, you know, giving to
29:28
people. But whether you're an HR
29:31
coordinator or you're an HR director in, in my organization,
29:35
I want everybody to be the best. I, I did a little bit of time in
29:39
the Marines right out of high school.
29:41
And when I was in the Marines, I always said you're only as
29:43
strong as your weakest link. And I, I really believe that.
29:47
And So what, like I said, if you're my HR coordinator or HR
29:51
secretary type position, I want to get you indoctrinated into HR
29:56
and, and provide you an opportunity to get like an HR
29:59
certificate that whether you stay with us long term or or
30:03
not, you can always have that on your resume that you, you know,
30:07
you have an HR certificate and things.
30:09
And so I, I firmly believe in training and, you know, leaving
30:12
the world at a better place. And so our positions, we try to
30:17
help, you know, help our medical assistants be certified in, in
30:21
different areas of the company and their positions.
30:23
We, we try to help people, you know, be the best at their
30:27
position. And, you know, I want people to
30:30
be able to, like I said, if, if they, you know, decide to leave
30:33
the organization, they'll be able to say they had a, you
30:36
know, HR certificate or a medical assistant certificate on
30:40
their, on their resume. And, you know, and, and help
30:42
people with not just, you know, while they're here with us, but
30:45
for the rest of their life. Because you believe those
30:48
certifications are going to help them get noticed in a crowded
30:51
job space. Yeah, yeah.
30:53
You never know what's going to happen with, you know, the world
30:56
or organizations, you know, and, and you know, for myself, I
31:00
always, you know, I was the first person to graduate from
31:03
College in my family, But I, I felt like if you have a degree,
31:08
you know, nobody can take that away from you.
31:11
You, you can have a lot of work experience and that might be
31:14
good and all, but I think you, you know, having a degree can,
31:19
you know, you can fall back on it if you need to, you know,
31:22
it's not ever going to. And like a certificate, you
31:24
know, even a trade certificate, you know, from a trade school,
31:28
you know, people can't, you can't take that away from a
31:30
person. So.
31:33
Kelly launching new programs like the clinical trials
31:37
partnership with Jafara that shows growth, shows innovation,
31:42
which you know we've already seen examples of in here in our
31:44
conversation. I'm curious from an HR
31:47
perspective, how do you prepare and support your staff for that
31:52
kind of expansion and integration of new services?
31:56
Yeah, I'm smiling a little bit because I remember when we, we
31:59
were talking about clinical studies and, and research about
32:03
a year and a half ago or so. And it was, you know, working
32:08
with an outside organization to come into our organization and
32:11
partner with us. And we were like, oh, we're
32:14
allowing this other organization.
32:15
And, you know, from an HR perspective, it was like, OK, we
32:18
got to, you know, make sure that everybody meets the same
32:20
immunization and background check and drug screen, all that
32:23
stuff, you know, but I'm looking at the, the future and also the
32:28
potential that it provided us to, to help more people.
32:33
I was told that there was one of our research studies, the
32:37
medicine and stuff that's in that program.
32:40
If you know, for people that can't afford it, it was like a
32:43
$30,000 treatment. And because they were able to
32:47
sign up through our, our research, you know, clinical
32:51
study, they got that medicine for free.
32:54
And, you know, that's really cool that, you know, a low
32:57
income person, you know, could come, come to us and we say,
33:01
hey, we have these studies going on and, you know, be able to
33:04
give them some medicines and stuff that they might not be
33:07
able to afford otherwise. And but, but from an HR
33:11
perspective, it was like, OK, it was, it's another kind of maybe
33:15
stream of revenue, if you will, into the organization, but also
33:19
it expands our services and what we can offer people.
33:21
Like I said with the $30,000 example, you know, really cool,
33:26
cool things there to help help people get care and then also
33:30
maybe be on the cutting edge of treatments as well.
33:36
Obviously in HR, you know, a couple of the key roles that
33:39
sort of fall under your umbrella are hiring and firing.
33:44
Let's talk about the hiring piece first.
33:46
I'm curious, you know, from all the obviously an innovative guy
33:51
like to be kind of on the cutting edge of things.
33:53
What are some things that you found have been really helpful
33:57
to kind of weed through applicants and get a sense
34:03
beforehand as much as possible, Nothing's 100%, but as much as
34:06
possible to be able to weed out people that are not going to be
34:09
a good fit from a cultural standpoint.
34:12
Yeah, I, I think sometimes it starts with also like your job
34:16
description or your job posting, like, you know, being as
34:19
transparent as you can and what you're looking for with, with
34:23
the, with the position so that, you know, when people send you a
34:27
resume or, you know, send you the application, apply online,
34:32
you can see if they have that experience.
34:34
And pre screening is very important, you know, because if
34:38
you start having an interview with 10 or so people, you know,
34:42
involved, you know, that that adds up in, in money, you know,
34:45
or is, you know, time away from the, the work and stuff.
34:47
But one thing, you know, we, we do panel interviews is
34:53
important. There have been, when I first
34:56
got here, there was some leaders that were just doing, you know,
35:00
their own inner like one-on-one interviewing and stuff.
35:02
And these people were turning over these positions were, you
35:06
know, turning over pretty quickly or the people weren't a
35:08
right fit. And so we did have to, you know,
35:11
let them go, you know, terminate them early.
35:14
And so I've said, hey, we need to do panel interviewing because
35:18
if we can get more people involved, even HR, if we, we can
35:22
be a part of the interview, we can, you know, lend a, you know,
35:26
a lens that, you know, maybe the operations team doesn't see, you
35:30
know, and so it is like that culture, you know, like we can
35:32
ask some cultural questions from HR and, and, you know, some
35:36
background questions and things. And so having a good panel
35:40
interview and, and maybe I tell people like you, you do it at
35:44
phone screen, right? Maybe 30 minutes, you do an
35:46
interview for an hour and then you make a job offer.
35:49
Maybe that's not enough time. Maybe you should have a phone
35:52
screen and then maybe maybe two rounds of interviews, you know,
35:55
for, you know, getting to know someone for a couple of hours.
35:58
But you know, asking those questions.
36:00
Also, believe it or not, we, we do, we do reference checks on,
36:05
on some of our positions and that's actually been very
36:07
informative to us and, and can give us some information.
36:13
It's, you know, some people are like, oh, those are, you know,
36:16
way old. You know, people don't do
36:17
reference checks anymore, but we do some reference checks and
36:21
it's been telling sometimes. Now I'm kind of curious from a
36:26
legal perspective as an employer of somebody who has, you know,
36:30
left and gone on to other opportunities.
36:31
Somebody calls me and asks for, you know, a reference.
36:36
What is it that I'm allowed to say?
36:37
Is everything like on the table? Well, so like if, if employer
36:45
wise, you know, most, most organizations, it's just if you
36:48
were to call up their former employer, it would just be like
36:51
their dates of employment, what position they held.
36:54
There's really not much information there.
36:57
But if you give me, you know, a character reference of yours,
37:01
like a former boss or you know, somebody that worked for you,
37:05
things like that, you know, and provide a character reference.
37:08
Sometimes people have reference letters and things that they'll
37:12
provide us, you know, and sometimes people's willingness
37:16
or not willingness to talk about a person can also be telling.
37:20
But but yeah, you are there is restrictions on you know what
37:23
you can and can ask. Some companies have it in their
37:25
policy on what they will share or not share with a with another
37:30
organization. So.
37:31
So are there different like state and federal laws
37:34
surrounding that or is it just like a policy that each
37:36
individual company would set up typically?
37:40
I'm familiar with a lot of the like company policies, you know,
37:43
of, of because we'll, we'll say this is if, if you're terminated
37:47
when we let somebody go or say, you know, if somebody calls for
37:50
a reference, this is all we'll share is there, you know, your,
37:53
your workforce from the dates and your position, that sort of
37:57
thing. I'm sure there's probably some
38:00
laws there out there. All right.
38:03
Yeah, I've been called for references before, and most of
38:06
the folks have worked with me in the past are great.
38:09
So I'm happy to go above and beyond and give a glowing
38:12
recommendation. But I remember one time in
38:15
particular, I got a call about somebody who was, you know, not
38:18
somebody that I could give a a good reference to.
38:21
And I didn't know what I was allowed to say.
38:23
So all I kept saying was I can confirm their dates of
38:26
employment. Yeah, yeah.
38:28
I mean, because like we'll ask the candidate, hey, can you
38:31
provide us with two or three, you know, reference people so
38:34
they, they kind of know they're going to get a phone call and
38:37
it's a little, you know, that that way it's a lot easier, you
38:39
know, but yeah, we wouldn't just call, you know, some
38:42
applications would ask, you know, write down your your
38:46
previous leader and their phone number on that job application.
38:49
We don't. We don't usually go that route.
38:51
Gotcha. You guys ever use?
38:53
Sorry, go ahead. Oh no, go ahead, do.
38:56
You guys ever use personality assessments for any of the
38:59
positions that you hire? Is that there's been.
39:00
Talk about it. I've worked for organizations
39:02
that do have personality but we we currently don't here.
39:06
Do you have an opinion on them? Well, some of the assessments
39:12
can be really long, you know, and, and, and take a lot of time
39:16
to fill out, but I've seen some good things come from it in
39:19
terms of situational interviewing based on how a
39:23
person filled out that assessment.
39:26
The one assessment tool we used would provide us questions that
39:29
we should maybe ask, you know, or areas that we should, you
39:33
know, look for or try to bring out in that candidate.
39:37
So those are those are pretty cool, so.
39:41
What looking ahead, Kelly, what kind of future plans do you have
39:44
for the HR department there? Are there other programs or
39:48
innovations that you've got in mind that you want to roll out?
39:50
Yeah. You know, and I think it's not
39:53
like anything grand. I would say I, we haven't had a
39:57
Wellness program here that got off the ground.
40:00
They've talked about it for several years.
40:02
I've heard about it. We're we're just getting off the
40:05
ground with a Wellness program for our employees.
40:09
Just just started this month and you know, running into the, you
40:12
know, 2025 here, we're excited about that.
40:16
Recognition is another thing that I want to improve on our
40:20
anniversaries, you know, 5/10/15 year, recognizing that, making
40:26
that a little bit more special for employees.
40:28
Communication is an area that that I think that we can improve
40:31
on in terms of, you know, letting our employees.
40:35
I, I say, does the water get to the end of the row, You know,
40:37
that the all employees, you know, get the message, you know,
40:41
and, and so working on some communication initiatives for,
40:44
for next year. I just believe that, you know,
40:46
employees can have a connection with their organization if they
40:49
get a little bit more communication.
40:52
And what that looks like is, you know, we have like a, a
40:55
newsletter that's put together for our board of directors
40:58
meetings and things. And I'm like, well, why don't we
41:01
just add a couple of things to that, like recognize some
41:04
anniversaries and some good call outs.
41:06
And let's, let's send it out to all of our employees, not just
41:09
the board of directors and executives, but let's, let's get
41:12
it to all the employees, you know.
41:13
And so there's, yeah, those initiatives are right there in
41:18
front of us in the next couple of months with recognition and
41:22
communication and. You mentioned that one of your
41:26
previous positions, you know, really being able to increase
41:30
employee engagement scores. Is that still something that you
41:34
measure there with Nevada Health Centers?
41:37
And if So, what does that measurement process look like?
41:40
Yeah, we are. We're switching over right now
41:43
from 1 vendor. We have press Gainey.
41:46
He's kind of the healthcare space for patient experience and
41:49
employee engagement. Switching over to Qualtrics here
41:53
in the in, right, actually this month for patient experience and
41:55
then our next employee engagement survey.
41:58
We currently do one annual employee engagement survey and
42:01
then one mid year survey. I've thought about doing a
42:06
quarterly pulse survey. I've been in some organizations
42:09
where you just send out, you know, 8 to 10 questions, you
42:13
know, once a quarter to employees.
42:15
So you can kind of have a little bit more feedback, you know,
42:17
some data points throughout the year.
42:19
But yeah, employee engagement's really important to me.
42:22
I, I'm the type of HR leader that I don't know if you want to
42:27
hear this, but I, I'm a guy who dresses up as Santa Claus or the
42:31
Easter Bunny and goes out and visits all of our employees in
42:34
the clinics and visits our patients.
42:37
And it's, it's kind of fun. I, I want HR to be a, a place
42:42
where people want to come to. It's not just a punitive place,
42:46
you know, or, or you know, they're afraid to talk to HR,
42:48
you know, So earlier this summer when it was 115° here in Vegas,
42:54
I bought a snow cone machine, a commercial snow snow cone
42:57
machine. And we would, we had this little
43:01
collapsible wagon we'd pull up to a clinic, put in our snow
43:04
cone machine, dry it, roll it into the clinic.
43:06
We'd make snow cones for all the employees, you know, and I'd
43:09
just say, hey, you know, I want you to, you know, cool down on a
43:12
hot summer day, you know, and so we had, you know, different snow
43:14
cone syrups and things. And, and, you know, I just try
43:18
to try to engage with our employees, you know, and let
43:21
them know we appreciate them. And sometimes it's the small
43:23
things that that go far. Yeah, I, I, I come in as Santa
43:29
Claus and, you know, do different things, but it's, you
43:33
know, it's fun. Like last Saturday we had a, a
43:36
Saturday clinic. We're not usually open on
43:38
Saturdays, but we've been doing medical clinics at a couple of
43:41
our locations on Saturdays. And so these, you know, 15 or so
43:44
employees are working hard on a Saturday.
43:46
So I just, you know, put on my Santa Claus costume and popped
43:49
in and, you know, took some pictures with the patients and
43:52
the employees and stuff. And but, you know, that's,
43:56
that's important to me to engage with our employees as, as you
44:00
know, a people leader. Yeah, that's fun stuff.
44:04
Shifting to not fun stuff, firing, letting folks go.
44:08
That obviously falls under your umbrella too.
44:12
For those folks out there listening, maybe they don't have
44:14
a ton of experience with it, but they're in a a leadership
44:17
position where that's something that they need to do.
44:20
Do you have some advice on how to approach that?
44:23
Yeah, so a few years back, I, I think her name is, is Angela
44:29
Duckworth. She wrote a book or No, Is it
44:31
Angela Duckworth? So hers was grit.
44:33
Sorry. There's a book called Radical
44:35
Candor, and it's a book that that I really like.
44:39
And it talks about being able to have conversations with people
44:43
about things that are, you know, maybe going off the rails as
44:47
they come up. And so organizations that can
44:51
have radical candor can, you know, say things, Hey, hey,
44:56
Anthony, this isn't going so well right now.
44:58
You know, we need you to improve, you know, or, you know,
45:00
kind of what's going on in your life, but just being open with
45:03
your employees. But when it comes to, you know,
45:07
problems and issues, you know what we, what we allow, we
45:11
enable, you know, and so as a, as a leader in HRI, always try
45:16
to be factual. I, I tell my, my employees in HR
45:21
that are my business partners, you know, what are the facts?
45:25
You know, what are we, what are we dealing with here?
45:27
Because I can't affect someone's employment without the facts.
45:31
I need, you know, I need, you know, hard information.
45:34
So I kind of use a couple of models.
45:36
One is called FOSA. It's the facts, objectives,
45:40
solutions and actions or, or consequences.
45:44
And, and I kind of try to frame my conversations with people
45:49
that way. You know, what are the facts
45:50
that happened? You know, you've missed work,
45:53
you know, a couple days or whatever.
45:55
My objective in talking to you is to improve your attendance.
45:59
Our our solution is, you know, or you know, kind of like.
46:03
For you to show. Up yeah, the solution to show up
46:06
right and then your actions or consequences is, you know,
46:09
you'll be probably written up or even terminate.
46:12
And so I try to help people, you know, that's a very simple way
46:15
to to talk to people, you know, and, and it and, but, but First
46:20
off, let's talk with people. Let's find out something's going
46:22
on in their life. You know, that's kind of what
46:24
I'm talking about. Radical candor, you know, like
46:26
why why have you been late the last, you know, few days or
46:28
something? You know, is something going on
46:30
in your life or is it road construction?
46:32
Whatever it is, you know, you hear different things and and
46:35
then if it gets to, you know, I believe in like coaching and
46:38
counseling kind of in that level, you know, being human
46:40
with people. And then if I have to ramp it up
46:44
to, you know, the formal documentation, but you know, I
46:49
would tell people address those issues because the good
46:52
performers are going to see you as a leader.
46:55
That doesn't address the poor performers or, you know, it's
46:58
someone that's continually, you know, making a ruckus with the
47:02
team and those good performers are going to leave.
47:04
They're not going to want to work for an organization or a
47:07
team that is just enabling bad behaviour and stuff.
47:11
So it can it can be AI don't mean a bad, you know, I mean it
47:15
respectfully when I say it can be a cancer if you don't address
47:19
it, you know, and it can can eat up your team and stuff.
47:22
But, but addressing those behaviours being, you know,
47:25
being real with the employees, like, Hey, what's going on?
47:28
You know, and then like, hey, if because I, I talked to a
47:30
provider, a doctor a, a couple weeks ago and, and there was
47:34
some, you know, what was brought to me was the, the doctor's
47:37
doing all this stuff. It's crazy and all this stuff.
47:40
And I hadn't had any converse prior conversations with them.
47:43
And so I said, well, I'm going to go over there and meet with
47:45
them in person and just talk to them and just kind of find out
47:48
what's going on. And by going there, talking to
47:52
them, finding out what's going on, I said, hey, this is kind of
47:55
what I'm hearing, what's, you know, what's, what's going on?
47:58
And we talked it out and I learned about why things were
48:01
happening the way they were and stuff.
48:03
And the, the provider sent me a letter, an e-mail a few hours
48:10
later and said, thank you so much for just listening to me
48:12
and hearing my concerns and things.
48:14
And I'm like, sure, no problem. You know, because I said before
48:17
I ever want to impact anybody's employment, you know, with a
48:20
written warning or final written warning, things like that, I
48:23
want to, you know, hear, hear what's going on and, and see
48:27
what the facts are. Is that difficult for you to do
48:31
with so many employees and so many different physical
48:34
locations? We are situated pretty well here
48:37
in our organization because I've got 3 regional or HR offices.
48:41
We've got Las Vegas, I've got one in Carson and one in Elko.
48:44
And I have HR people in those three locations.
48:48
And so if something's going on at a nearby clinic, they can,
48:51
they can drive over there. And, and so my, my HR business
48:54
partners are able to geographically take care of the
48:58
state of Nevada that we have there.
49:00
And then often, sometimes they'll, they'll bounce ideas
49:03
off me or tell me about a situation and ask for a
49:06
recommendation. So.
49:08
You ever have to deal with somebody getting aggressive or
49:10
violent during a termination? Yeah, so I'm laughing.
49:15
I shouldn't laugh at that. Hey, what else can?
49:17
You do, you know, I take security or, or, you know, you
49:22
know, people's, you know, I guess security, you know, very
49:26
seriously. And so I, I sometimes plan for
49:30
the worst because you never know in this day and age if someone's
49:34
going to have a gun or, or physical violence and things
49:37
like that. I've, I've had people over the
49:40
years, you know, come across the table and try to go after their
49:42
leader, like try to strangle him or, or things like that.
49:46
I kind of assess the situation. I sometimes, you know, think
49:51
about having a couple of people on standby, you know, in case,
49:55
you know, outside the room or things like that.
49:58
But you know, I do, I do think security is important and, and I
50:02
do try to, to plan for it in, in our, in our terminations and you
50:07
know, making sure there's backup, if you will.
50:12
That book that you referenced, Radical Candor, the author is
50:15
Kim Scott. Kim Scott, I heard her speak at
50:18
a conference and and I got this book and I just, I just, it's
50:22
great, You know, it just tells us like because some leaders are
50:25
afraid to have a conversation with people and then, you know,
50:28
that let things snowball out of control.
50:30
And by the time they talk to a person, it's like a big dumpster
50:33
fire, you know. And So what kind of what she's
50:35
saying there is like, we should be able to just sit down with
50:38
you and say, Hey, here's what's going on today, you know, and,
50:41
and that's sort of thing before it has to be formal.
50:44
And I think employees respect you for sitting down with them.
50:47
And like they had that provider example.
50:49
They, they respect you for just sitting down and talking to them
50:52
about things before you just come walking in with a formal
50:55
document. And, and there are times, you
50:58
know, when people clearly break the policy or, you know, or, you
51:02
know, detrimental to the company where you just you, you know,
51:04
sexual harassment or something like that, You know, you got to.
51:07
You got to start with the. Document.
51:08
Yeah, yeah, you got to start there.
51:10
But but you know, if you can, you know in those other
51:13
situations, be human about it. Yeah.
51:17
Kelly, what's a serious challenge you've had to
51:20
overcome, either business or personal, and what are some
51:24
lessons that you learned going through that?
51:26
Oh wow, I probably both sides of the things.
51:33
I'm a, I'm a like values run deep with me, like, like having
51:39
honesty and integrity are very important to me.
51:43
And when I see people that are maybe bucking the system or, or,
51:48
you know, and sometimes at my level, you'll see some, you
51:52
know, some peers, some other executives and not at this
51:55
organization, luckily, but but when you see people acting
52:01
unethically, that disturbs me. And I don't, I don't want to be
52:04
there. I've actually, you know, posted
52:08
out of a job before because I didn't want to work with that
52:12
director and vice president because they were just
52:15
unethical. And you know, that that
52:19
sometimes conflicts me a little bit.
52:20
You know, I know one time, well, I don't know if I should get
52:26
into this, but there was an HR experience where I had, I had
52:30
been, you know, some information and brought to me about a, an
52:35
employee that was doing pornography on the, you know,
52:39
all over their company computer and things.
52:42
And I mean, we're talking over 1500 images on their computer
52:47
during work time and on their company computer.
52:50
And this, this employee was a, a high performer and the
52:55
organization. And so I took it to my
52:57
leadership and I said this, this person needs to be let go.
53:01
And my, my senior leader said, we're not going to let that
53:05
person go. They're a high performer.
53:07
You know, they bring in a lot of money for the organization.
53:10
And I was like, if this was any other employee, they'd be fired
53:13
immediately. And, you know, so sometimes my,
53:17
my personal values, you know, and you know, the leaders like
53:20
you need to just stand down on this.
53:22
And I was just like, I was like, I can't man, you know, but I
53:25
did, you know, but it, but it sometimes your personal values
53:29
can sometimes conflict you a little bit, but you want to be
53:33
with organizations that that match your values, you know,
53:37
and, and that sort of thing. So that's, you know, sometimes
53:39
it's a challenge there to, you know, have your personal values
53:45
and, and you know, you know, boundaries, if you will a little
53:48
bit, you know, challenges for me, you know, personally.
53:54
Oh, wow. You know, so back in my early
54:03
days of my career, I was going, I was, I was, I was in, I was
54:07
like 22 years old. I was, I was working at a
54:11
grocery store. I was a manager.
54:12
I haven't heard of Albertsons grocery stores.
54:14
Maybe you have. I was wanting to be a store
54:17
director. I was on my way and we used to
54:23
apprehend shoplifters in the store from time to time.
54:27
And I was assistant manager. Employees can't didn't tell you
54:31
that guy's walking out the door with all these groceries, you
54:33
know. So as assistant manager, you go,
54:36
you know, go after this guy. Well, this guy as I was waiting,
54:41
you know, I, I, I got this guy, but he decided to as we, he
54:47
heard some sirens that weren't even, you know, cops don't turn
54:50
their sirens to come from shop with theirs.
54:52
But anyway, this guy was triggered by some sirens.
54:55
And as you know, we were waiting for the police to come.
54:58
He kicked me in my back as hard as he could twice.
55:01
And I used to say. You know.
55:03
Let them hit you first, you know, because then it's kind of
55:06
self-defense or whatever. But but he got two good kicks
55:08
off in my back. But anyway, I ended up having
55:10
back surgery. I spent 9, 90 days off of work.
55:15
I mean, this guy pushed out five of my discs in my back.
55:18
And but it was a life changing experience for me because I was,
55:24
I was, you know, having back surgery at age 22 and back, you
55:28
know, 5 discs that were bad. In the grocery business, you
55:31
lift a lot and things and, and you move around a lot.
55:34
And it was a time of my life where I decided, what am I going
55:38
to do with my life? I can't like to be a store
55:41
director. You're going to have to continue
55:42
to lift and do all these different things, you know,
55:45
lifting groceries and, you know, stocking shelves, things like
55:48
that. And I decided to apply for a
55:51
college scholarship. I was laying in, I was laying in
55:54
the hospital bed and I was just like, what am I going to do with
55:57
myself? And you know, someone said,
55:59
well, maybe you could do some vocational rehab or whatever.
56:02
But so I went and applied for a, a college scholarship and I was
56:06
given a, a scholarship to go to, to college and it changed my
56:11
life. I had to learn how to walk again
56:13
during those 90 days. It was the most saddening thing
56:16
I ever had to deal with because when you have back surgery they
56:19
take all the muscles and tendons out of the way to get down to
56:22
the discs and they have to. Recovery there they have to
56:25
reattach. Themselves and so for like 3
56:27
weeks, like I had to have my wife roll me over, you know what
56:30
I mean? Because there's, there's just
56:31
no, it's not attached yet. But like, I was depressed and,
56:35
but when I found out about, you know, maybe going to college and
56:38
stuff, you know, I was going through rehab, learning how to
56:41
walk again and I was just like, OK, well, OK, maybe God's
56:45
telling me I need to do something different with my
56:47
life. And so I went to college.
56:50
I made the most out of it. And you know, first start out of
56:55
the Community College, I, I got an associate's degree in
56:57
business administration. And then, OK, my next goal was
57:01
get my bachelor's degree. And I, while I was there, I
57:03
thought, Hey, it's not that much more to get a double.
57:06
And so I got a, a, a double finance and management degree.
57:09
And then I took a year off and, and I was like, I should get my
57:14
masters, you know, and, and, you know, just keep, keep rolling up
57:18
here, you know, keep, keep setting the bar for yourself.
57:20
But but that was a personal, you know, challenge for me was, you
57:24
know, physically to do that also change kind of, you know, I, I
57:29
was in, in, in high school in the grocery business.
57:32
It was just kind of running my blood and I loved it.
57:34
But but God, you know, kind of wanted, you know, saying there's
57:37
something else you needed to do. And so, so I went to college
57:40
and, and, you know, and just, it's I've kind of set goals for
57:44
myself, you know, since then, you know, in early age, you
57:47
know, and accomplishing, you know, career things and to, to
57:51
keep, I always think it's not a, I'm not at a destination right
57:55
now. Yeah, I'm the chief human
57:56
resource officer, but I think it's still a journey.
57:59
It's continuing to learn, It's continuing to see what's out
58:02
there in the marketplace of HR and, you know, laws and things
58:07
that are changing and stuff. And so I'm on a journey still.
58:10
And I would probably be on a journey till the day I retire,
58:14
you know, but I, but I think it's, it's good to keep
58:16
learning, keep setting goals for yourself.
58:18
You know, I'm probably not going to do any more education in
58:21
terms of a degree, but certificates, you know, or, or
58:25
things like that are important to me to kind of keep
58:28
challenging myself to keep continuing.
58:30
To grow, always be open to growth and and learning new
58:34
things. Yeah, I had a guest on very
58:37
recently that reference to a book by Ryan Holiday called the
58:42
The Obstacle is the Way. And I'm not sure if you're
58:44
familiar with that one, but basically it's like the hard
58:48
thing that you're going through now is actually what is kind of
58:53
paraphrases what's going to open up the next opportunity for you.
58:56
And so for you, yeah, you were all in on the, you know,
59:00
Albertson's that was going to that was in your blood.
59:02
That's right. And then you had this, you know,
59:06
horrible back injury and this this back surgery that like took
59:10
you out of that. And if it hadn't been for that
59:14
traumatic event, these other doors, you know, probably
59:17
couldn't have opened or you wouldn't have seen them.
59:19
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you know, I think having
59:24
some resiliency, you know, there's been challenges in my
59:26
career. You know, there was probably, I
59:30
don't know, eight years or so ago a new vice president came in
59:33
and said, I don't want half of you, your HR team anymore and,
59:37
and reorganized us out of the company.
59:40
And it was a set back for me, you know, in my career because I
59:44
was an HR manager and, you know, was, you know, thought
59:48
everything was, was well, you know, in my life and, and to
59:53
I've never been terminated or laid off before.
59:55
But that was the first time I was laid off, you know, and
59:58
said, you know, reorganizing you and half your team out of the
1:00:01
the organization and. You know, you couldn't find you
1:00:05
apply, you know, all the stuff you do in HR, applying for jobs
1:00:09
and interviewing. And I don't, I, I probably
1:00:12
applied for, I know over 100 jobs, you know, and, and you get
1:00:15
some interviews and you get excited and then it doesn't work
1:00:18
out, you know, and, and you know, I ended up working two
1:00:22
jobs for a short time. I was, I'm not afraid to say it,
1:00:25
but I in 2000, in 2018, I, I worked at FedEx at 2:00 in the
1:00:31
morning till 8:00. And then I went to this HR job
1:00:34
that I got that was, you know, didn't pay as much as my other
1:00:39
HR job yet, but I, you know, I had a wife and kids and
1:00:41
responsibilities and I didn't want them to suffer.
1:00:44
So I, I worked, you know, 90 hours a week for, for, you know,
1:00:49
almost a year, just, you know, it and, and it, it brings you to
1:00:54
your knees to just, you know, get on your knees and pray, you
1:00:57
know, but, but you know, I just kept going.
1:01:00
I'm like, hey, things will work out, you know, and, you know,
1:01:04
and it did I, it was, you know, almost a year.
1:01:06
And I got a call from HCA Healthcare and said, you know, I
1:01:11
applied for a vice president job and, you know, they called me
1:01:14
and, and said we'd like you to be our vice president, you know,
1:01:17
over the mountain division and, you know, and to not have to
1:01:21
work 80 to 90 hours a week was just amazing, you know, and,
1:01:27
and, but I'm very grateful for the experiences I've had.
1:01:32
I'm grateful for the, you know, the kind of the determination I
1:01:36
have and, and to not be, you know, deterred or depressed, you
1:01:41
know, for very long sometimes that, you know, you get to, you
1:01:44
know, don't life's peaks and valleys, you know, don't stay in
1:01:47
the valley very long. Stay on the peak as long as you
1:01:49
can, you know, and, and, but, you know, I, I've had to work
1:01:53
hard, you know, had some setbacks, but, you know, now,
1:01:57
you know, being chief human resource officer, it's, it's
1:02:00
really cool. And I'd love to help give back.
1:02:03
Like I said, you know, make sure training is happening for our
1:02:05
employees at all levels of the organization.
1:02:08
And, you know, we're only as strong as our weakest link.
1:02:11
And that's that's how I want our organization to be.
1:02:14
Kelly, I've just got one more question for you, but before I
1:02:16
ask it, I want to do 2 things. Everybody listening today, I
1:02:19
know you love today's content. Please hit the like Share
1:02:21
subscribe button on your favorite podcast app.
1:02:24
Kelly, I also want to let people know the best way to get in
1:02:26
touch with you. What would that be?
1:02:29
Yeah, I mean, Linkedin's an easy way if you just wanna Kelly
1:02:32
Oliver on LinkedIn, you know, Nevada health centers on there.
1:02:34
My, you know, you can message me out there.
1:02:37
It's my e-mail address here at work is
1:02:41
k.oliver@nevadaenvyhealthcenters.org. But yeah, that'd be an easy way
1:02:47
to reach out to me if you want. And personally, I give you my
1:02:50
personal e-mail too, if you want.
1:02:52
It's oliver.kelly01@yahoo.com. But yeah, I send a daily quote
1:02:58
to 100 of my friends around the world every morning so I could
1:03:02
add you to the quote. List if you what was today's?
1:03:06
Today here, let me look real fast.
1:03:08
It was it was really let's see here go to my sent real fast.
1:03:13
Today's daily quote is if you're it's by Greg Anderson.
1:03:18
It says if you're going to doubt something, doubt your limits.
1:03:22
So, so I, I make, I make a quote up, I, I get quotes and I, I
1:03:27
send them out to my friends around the world every morning.
1:03:30
So. All right.
1:03:31
That's fun stuff. Last question for you, Kelly.
1:03:34
What do you see the big changes are that are coming to your
1:03:38
space in the next couple of years?
1:03:42
I think AI. Is is big.
1:03:44
I mean, everybody's talking about AI, you know, people using
1:03:48
it for interviews or using it to write their resumes.
1:03:53
Yeah, I see some good things from it where it can help write
1:03:57
policies or help us, you know, establish policies.
1:03:59
I don't know if, you know, we'd edit them a little bit, but I
1:04:02
think that it can help. It can help and hurt us.
1:04:05
Maybe it's kind of like the Internet when the Internet came
1:04:07
out. You know, there's good parts of
1:04:09
the Internet and bad parts of the Internet.
1:04:10
But, but I think AI is going to be big.
1:04:15
There seems to be lots of people lying to work from home still
1:04:18
from COVID, you know, and, and so there's.
1:04:22
These. You know, a lot of people
1:04:24
wanting to work from home. I see a lot more work balance
1:04:28
that work life balance where people are going to, you know,
1:04:33
not necessarily maybe want to be leaders in an organization
1:04:36
because they want to, they want to do things, you know, So I'm,
1:04:40
I'm seeing that now with things. So people are asking to work
1:04:44
less hours, maybe 32 hours a week so they can have eight more
1:04:48
hours, you know, of life, you know, and stuff.
1:04:50
But behavioral health is, is a big thing that I'm hearing and
1:04:54
seeing a lot from employees. And, you know, working through
1:04:59
behavioral health issues is, is getting a lot of attention.
1:05:06
If you could wave a magic wand in the AI world, what would you
1:05:10
like a tool to do for you? Answer all my emails.
1:05:16
What would I like it to do? You know, I just wanted to be
1:05:24
truthful, you know, I wanted to be on, you know, like if
1:05:27
someone's using it to write their resume, I I hope that
1:05:29
they'd be honest, you know, but I think just just have some
1:05:33
integrity, just AIB have integrity in what it's doing.
1:05:38
Well, Kelly Oliver, I want to be the first one to thank you for
1:05:40
sharing both your time and your story with us today.
1:05:42
I really appreciate it. Sure, it was good to talk to you
1:05:46
and think about some things of my past and stuff and share that
1:05:49
with people. Hopefully it's inspiring and
1:05:52
yeah, if anybody ever wants to chat, I'd be happy to check them
1:05:56
out. Or if they want to come down to
1:05:57
Las Vegas and catch a meal or something, come on down all.
1:06:00
Right there you go, folks. Open invitation for dinner.
1:06:03
Yeah, that's a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories
1:06:06
podcast. Thanks for learning with us
1:06:08
today.