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 For Returning Radiology
Techs,
The Grass Turns Out To Be Greener At Anne Arundel
In the late 1990s, the high turnover rate in Anne Arundel
Medical Center’s radiology department was a significant human
resource (HR) challenge. Today, the department has a low turnover rate of 6.5
percent, and a comfortably large applicant pool. According to Human Resources
Vice President Joyce Phillip, the explanation for the turnaround is a focused,
proactive, and personalized recruitment effort—much of it on the part of
HR generalist Priya Jagannathan.
Over the past four years, Jagannathan has partnered with
radiology department leadership to recruit and retain high-performing
technologists. “Because we like to promote from within, we look for
candidates with qualities that go beyond just a degree and a license,” she
says. The policy pays off: “One of our first new-grad radiologist hires is
now a senior CT technologist,” she notes.
Jagannathan has wooed potential radiology technicians and
other imaging specialists with a savvy combination of “soft” and
“hard” recruitment approaches—to use HR terms. That is, with
careful attention to the nuances of relationship-building, as well as to such
concrete facts as supply-and-demand-driven competitive salaries for the field.
Jagannathan often employs both soft and hard tactics in a
single outreach effort. An example is the first step she took in putting Anne
Arundel’s radiology department recruitment back on track: Making phone
calls to previous employees to see if they were interested in returning to the
department. After she described the changes the department had made, from
flexible scheduling to a closer match with marketplace salary levels, a
surprising number said “yes”—the grass in their new environment
had not been so green after all.
Jagannathan’s lack of health care experience made
recruiting difficult at first. Backed by a Master’s degree in Human
Resources, she had worked for an American manufacturing firm in India before
coming to the U.S. However, a productive collaborative recruitment effort
evolved, built on strong support from mentors—both within the radiology
department and in the hospital more broadly—and knowledge gleaned from
helpful radiology experts. In fact, Jagannathan is now “passionate”
about her work, says Phillip. Under Phillip’s supervision, Jagannathan has
launched or enhanced an array of successful recruiting and retention approaches
(which helps explain why the Medical Center’s vacancy rate is nearly 10
percentage points lower than Maryland’s average of 16.1 percent). These
approaches include:
- Sign on bonuses ($1,500), combined with competitive
salary levels and two semesters of tuition reimbursement, both for new grads
and current employees who want to enhance their skills.
- Flexible scheduling, which Jagannathn cites as the
department’s most popular benefit.
- Careful attention to the niceties of a potential
hire’s first visit that make the experience a personal one. This ranges
from accompanying the candidate to the interview location to supplying
information on local housing and how to apply for a Maryland license in the
applicant’s specialty.
- An open-door management approach, which encourages new
hires to talk with their directors about any problems in their work and to
speak with staff more generally about ways to improve patient and physician
customer service.
Jagannathan sums up why she has been successful in
recruiting scarce imaging technicians by noting that she is guided by the
long-term vision of the radiology department. This helps her be proactive in
her work. If the department’s services are expanding with the addition of
a PET scanner, she starts looking for the technicians needed to operate it.
And, it makes for a more productive relationship with recruiters. “Keeping
the department’s long-term goals in mind helps recruiters understand what
we’re looking for in applicants,” she notes.
This combination of a business-like approach and thoughtful
people skills no doubt helps explain why all of the new graduates hired since
Phillip and Jagannathan began their focused and proactive recruitment effort
are still with the Anne Arundel Medical Center.
Contact:
Priya Jagannathan
HR Generalist
Anne Arundel Medical Center
2001 Medical Parkway
Annapolis, MD
21401
Phone: 443-481-1959
e-mail:
pjagannathan@aahs.org
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