How to Get Hired Be Successful At Memorial Sloan Kettering

How to Get Hired Be Successful At Memorial Sloan KetteringHow to Get Hired Be Successful At Memorial Sloan Kettering In a competitive labor market, one of the biggest challenges that any company faces is recruiting talent to choose their organization over all others. But thats one problem that Memorial Sloan Kettering is lucky enough bedrngnis to face, admits theirSenior Vice President and Chief philanthropisch Resources OfficerKerry Bessey. People really want to work here its a pretty easy sell, she says, laughing. Perhaps its not much of a surprise. After all, when your long-term goal is to eliminate cancer, who wouldnt be on board with that?But the truth is, a clear and compelling mission is only half of the story of MSKs success as an organization. The other half is about rallying the team around that mission, and then providing them with all of the tools they need to be successful - something that MSKs CEO Dr. Craig Thompson has done well enough to earn a sp ot on Glassdoors Highest Rated CEOs list for 2017. And of course, he wouldnt have been able to do it without an incredible HR leader right by his side.MSKs Kerry Bessey spoke with Glassdoors Emily Moore recently to discuss how she works with Thompson to make their organization a great place to work, how to hold difficult conversations, and how to ensure that your HR department receives the budget and resources necessary to do a great job - here are a few highlights from their conversation.Kerry Bessey Youre right - Craig deeply cares, so its not an issue here I think company culture translates to what makes people want to work some place. If your CEO doesnt care about your culture it may be that culture hasnt been framed around metrics, metrics such as turnover and engagement . At the end of the day, the stimmt genau culture gets batted around a lot. I prefer to think about the elements that make employees want to work someplace and stay some place. Engaging leadership in th at discussion is a lot easier than talking about something that sounds amorphous.Kerry Bessey I think were very fortunate and stand somewhat apart from many organizations because people believe so deeply in our mission . When you have that kind of common foundation, people work for mora than money. I think they find that they like working with people who share that sense of mission with them. Its in our DNA and makes employees value being here and makes them want to stay. Having said that, there are, of course, in any organization leaders who either arent focused on the employee experience or dont know how to work with their employees. We focus on giving them both information and tools. Additionally, we try to tie everything that we do to both the mission and our strategy, and how it will support the institution and the work we are trying to do.Kerry Bessey I think people are going to give you feedback one way or the other, through a variety of mechanisms, whether its absenteei sm, leaving, or worse than that - resigning on the job and not being engaged. Employees are constantly giving you feedback. If you pay attention to it, you can learn something and do something about it while theyre still here and still engaged. Its worthwhile to get even bad feedback or negative reviews, if it helps you understand what your employees are feeling and what theyre saying to other people about your company. Kerry Bessey The good news for us is we havent had to have too many difficult conversations with our workforce. However, when we have, we err on the side of transparency and give as much information as we can, because people, if they dont have information, will imagine something or make something up to fill in the gaps, which can be far more negative than the actual facts. Even if you have a negative message, the fact that you are being straightforward and transparent with your employees will be respected.Kerry Bessey Its all about making a business case and using metrics in whatever business youre in. Ive been in tech, and Ive been in publishing, and Ive been in healthcare - the fact is that all businesses run on metrics associated with people and the acquisition and use of people in the organization. I think its about understanding what metrics really resonate with your leadership team, what metrics drive the business, and understanding how the delivery of quality hires and retention of really good people matters. Kerry Bessey Our secret weapon is our own people who refer people to us constantly. We also incent employees to refer people for hard to hire jobs, and of course we do all the things that every other sophisticated business does. But people really want to work here its a pretty easy sell. I have an easy job. Im sorry. LaughsKerry Bessey There is a very special kind of camaraderie and culture here. One of the things that we do to make sure that that doesnt change is we listen to employees . We focus on the data we get from e mployees, both about patient care and about the workplace. And whether its informal in terms of focus groups or skip-levels or more formalized through surveys, we really pay attention to the feedback that we get and I think that makes a big difference. We listen to what is working for them and what isnt working for them. We try and get some concrete wins on the things that arent working for people. We do that on an ongoing basis.Kerry Bessey Its an intangible. Its hard to describe, but people are so focused we have the advantage of having a long-term strategic goal of curing cancer. That is a pretty lofty goal, but we also have the day-to-day opportunity to see patients and families in our environment, and I think everyone is focused on making sure that they are getting the best care and the best support that they can. unlike the strategic mission of curing cancer, patient care is more tangible and immediate, taking place every day. That combination of an important long-term goal a nd the short-term reality of caring for patients and their welfare really unites people.Kerry Bessey I was meeting the people on the leadership team. I met a lot of them, including members of the board. I asked them as many questions as they asked me, and one thing that really impressed me was the shared geistesbild they had about where they were going, how they wanted to get there, and what was important. When you are able to see that a leadership team has that much unity of vision, that was very compelling for me.Kerry Bessey Actually, I think its pretty simple. I think leadership is the ability to inspire and enable the people that are working in the organization to come together to realize the organizations mission. It really is creating an environment and support for people doing their best work.