Redefining Leadership and Culture: Rick's Journey from Rodeo to HR Innovation

[0:00]  I think it's been an entire cultural shift uh where we are starting to see mental health as what it really is which it is a huge problem and it is something that almost everybody faces in some form or fashion and it's okay to talk about it how the heck are you keeping these people so long this is this person's idea we're following through on it they're also helping us make sure that we're doing it the right way so now the next person has an idea is going to step forward because they want that as well unfortunately being expected to pour into other people's cups with an empty cup um the way I did grow up yeah you you did not talk about anything you just showed up and you did the job and you went home and you know if you got hurt rub some dirt in it keep on moving um mentally if something was wrong oh you never said a word about

[0:58]  that all right guys welcome back to another special episode of the HR Heroes series I'm incredibly excited because I have a brand new guest with us today Rick thank you so much for hopping on the show man I really appreciate it of course thanks for inviting me absolutely I have a quote to start off today's conversation because I think it's going to open up some other avenues to conversation about your past courage is being scared to death and saddling up anyone anyway John Wayne now what people might not know about Rick is that you have a history in Rodeo why don't you give us a little bit of an explanation and kind of your history and Rodeo and some of the things that you've done in the past yeah it was uh grew up in Wyoming and um was in FFA but also in Rodeo

[1:49]  saddle Bron riding um out on ranches in the summer been on a couple cattle drives as well so it is a little bit different but that's actually part of how I help for college was a scholarship and through it so it was a lot of fun um paying for it now but it was a lot of fun at the time I mean you mentioned that in your last in our last call together that you had actually suffered an injury from that so my question for you was what is your favorite memory from rodeo and what is your least favorite memory from Rodeo I'd say my favorite memory is when I won my very first jackpot so that's when I actually you know got the full amount wasn't that much but still it was a win uh least favorite was my last ride

[2:38]  um because as soon as I got on I knew I wasn't going to be able to do this again it was you know it just hurt too much and I couldn't compete the way I needed to be able to compete and when I hit the back and was laying there for a second it's like nope this is it and that was it was a big part of my life at the time so I had to figure out okay how do I what do I take from this and how do I make this into something better yeah man I've always been so interested in the rodeo specifically ever since I moved to Vegas in 2012 we have a huge Regional Rodeo that happens at the South Point here and so once a year trailers come down we've got Bulls we've got Cowboys walking around with hats and everything like that I'm like dude these guys are some of the toughest people guys and girls are some of the toughest people that I think I've ever come across and so when I heard that you had a history in Rodeo I kind of wanted to dive a

[3:25]  little bit deeper into that well oh it's it's a blast and in Vegas yeah you've also got far out there too so that is absolutely huge and that's the the goal of everybody is to get into there but it's just it's AR it's the people that do that are tough um you have to be You Do It For the Love of it because you don't make a lot of doing it but you do it because it's fun you compete and the ones who do multiple events or the guys who Bulldog that's impressive horses at least when you get bucked off they don't want to kick you they don't want to stomp you they just want to get away from you I mean it's definitely a dangerous lifestyle for sure but you know my heart goes out to you because I know getting hurt in any type of scenario is not easy and when especially when it means ending loving something that you do that's got to be extra hard as well um oh yeah so my next question

[4:12]  for you is once we left Rodeo you start getting into some different sectors and stuff like that let's talk about some of your early HR experience in your professional career and some of the great organizations you worked for uh well actually starting off with wakashaw State Bank um and getting into the financial sector but it was also they were a small Bank privately owned only had a couple branches so they didn't have a real strong HR presence so it was kind of developing that HR presence and I got to work with some great people that have been doing HR for a long long time and kind of introduced me to what it was and it was not what I went to school for um I went to school for egg education and egg business had no intention of going into HR whatsoever but was able to through that one kind of

[4:59]  got me going into it a little bit um from there went to work with Magano which was bought out again um so it was working the branch manager who was also our HR rep for the local place um and then she kind of transferred those responsibilities over to me so I got my first taste of being an HR actual person as well um and then it was going down to Florida and U working with a company down there that was Buckhead beef that's when I really got to see HR and having to do HR for a diverse group of people was very different for me uh they put me into a cut room where there was a large group of people from Puerto Rico and from Dominican Republic and they weren't real happy with each other they all had knives and they said okay Rick go find out what's going on with them and figure

[5:46]  out what we can do to make it better so the room was 34 degrees and I just walked in I'm going okay this I'm either going to come out of here it's going to be a good thing or I'm going to be carried out on the stretcher one of the two is going to happen man I know I've had a lot of experience when my dad was growing up one of his first jobs was actually in a slaughtering plant in Eastern Washington and so he talks about the days of you know running around with the knife and stuff like that and absolutely touching his wrist and having it split open so when you talk about those guys hanging out in that room with those knives those are some real knives that we're dealing with as well oh it is and they were real upset with each other man that's wild well so it's kind of a trial by fire yeah absolutely well I know that you also kind of spent a little bit of time from our previous discussion with Disney as well and when I think of organizational culture I

[6:33]  think about doing all the right things correctly every single day I think of Disney what was that experience like Disney was amazing um what they offer and some of the training that they offer and it is Disney is an entire culture I mean to this day I Still Point with two fingers because that's what they teach you um it has changed a little bit but it still is all about Guest satisfaction and when you do the HR side of things with them or when you do the management side of things it is satisfaction of your employees because if your employees weren't satisfied they can't satisfy the guest and that is everything that Disney is focused on so it was absolutely amazing to see what lengths they would go to and what they expected you to do um how they expected you to listen you know it was if someone has a problem everything else stops that is now your

[7:21]  100% Focus you can't split your focus you can't you know give the answer of well check in with me and I'll um I'll get back to you later or we get an interview interview it's no okay right now let's let's talk about it what is it wow I mean I've always always thought that some of our best leaders come from those organizations that show us how to demonstrate culture to take care of each other but more importantly create that customer experience that I think is so necessary for today and I think that that customer experience hits in so many different areas because and I was talking on somebody else in a previous episode about kind of the consumer culture that we're in today right everybody wants what they want when they want it and nor normally that means now and I think that a lot of our employees today when they go into an organization and work for a team expect a lot of that consumer culture Centric I would say

[8:09]  ideals to be pushed forward as well being able to enable team members with certain things being respectful giving them the best experience possible is not just outward facing but it's also inward facing as well oh I agree uh completely and they do expect it um because we're expecting them to treat whatever industry you're in whether it's Healthcare like I'm in now or when it was in sales they expect you to treat the customer um immediately and take care of them well as a leader your customer is your employees your customer isn't the actual customers of the company it's the employees themselves and so how you expect them to react is how you should react as well absolutely I mean there's been a trend that seems to be happening in business across all different sectors over the last couple years and that's been turnover specifically you know when it comes to

[8:56]  large layoffs uh Financial metrics maybe aren't met or maybe they are but there's still a dwindling of Staff by you know saying that these certain people aren't necessary for us to meet our goals anymore yada yada now I provided some information ahead of the conversation from teambuilding.com there was 14 reasons that turnover is happening in 20124 or the reasons it will happen and a couple of these are very interesting on this list number one is a lack of growth and progression number four which I think is really pertinent to a lot of people today is inadequate compensation and I want to take a deeper dive into to that but also we've got diversity um deficiencies life events organizational restructuring which I know a lot of organizations are going through including some of yours that you've worked for in the past poor workpl culture which I want to talk on as well

[9:43]  and then a lack of recognition and appreciation which I think is huge and I feel like the Disney organization was really good from the outside looking in at that recognition and appreciation is that true they were um they were very good at it they had uh things like Camp Mini Mickey they had things for all the employees uh you got passes in you got a lot of recognition they have cut a lot of that they went through a lot of these things the reorg the they had someone come in that just sliced everything to the Bone um way too deep and now you're starting to see that you're you're hearing reports out of Disney that the parks aren't as nice um the employees you know the the vacation isn't as magical as it once was um and a lot of that is because they took away all that stuff that made you proud to be a Disney

[10:31]  Employee that made it you know you really enjoyed it even though maybe you weren't paid the greatest and they weren't but it was still everything else that came with it made it worthwhile to do that job and made you love your job and they've taken a lot of that away where people don't love the job anymore and now you're seeing the results of that I mean taking pay away from the employees is something that I kind of want to dive a little bit deeper into this is number four from our list but this is inadequate compensation so including or um according to a recent study from bamboo HR a whopping 73% of employees said that they are considering leaving their current job for a higher paycheck and 48% have thought about doing so in the last 6 months but what's really interesting is the amount of a pay bump that they're willing to leave for in 2024 they said it's on average of

[11:19]  13.3% compared to 16.1% in 2023 so why are people willing to leave their jobs for Less these days uh they're unsatisfied with the job in the first of all and then they're looking at the pay and saying okay well I'm expected to do more and more and I'm not getting any pay increases in fact they may be frozen or they're seeing new people come in and because they're trying to hire new people you raise up your range you raise your rate you're bringing them in where they're a lot closer and that compression is completely off the equity is completely off so I've been here for 5 years I'm making $30 an hour you you bring somebody new in and they're at $27 an hour well they don't have my experience why are why are they making almost as

[12:06]  much as I am and if they're going to get you know they get retention bonuses they get all kinds of things why don't I get any of that whereas my compensation the only way to get that is for me to go somewhere else even if it isn't for as much as I used to be able to jump ship for it's still enough to where I feel that um I'm being compensated or at least I'm being recognized for my ability I feel like it's things oh sorry I was going to say especially in healthcare right I mean ever since the pandemic one of my former roommates and one of my really good friends uh is a travel nurse and the amount of money that she was getting paid to travel from state to state from these organizations and agencies was mindblowing to me and in our previous conversation you talked about that friction if you will between those contract resources and those homegrown resources who are in your

[12:54]  organization so why don't you kind of spill the beans on that for us a little bit a lot of it is yeah it's true you're right the The Travelers especially in uh during covid Travelers would come in and you know our regular employee would be getting $42 an hour a traveler would come in at 100 $120 $160 an hour some of that money was going to an agency that they were paying for it but a lot of it was going to that person's pocket and they were coming in for six weeks 8 weeks 12 weeks and then maybe we'd reup them maybe we wouldn't but they were also usually getting a stipend as well for a living um that a lot of them found ways around so they get to pocket a lot of that too and you would then talk to our regular employees about giving a little more maybe picking up an extra shift or you know why are they calling out why weren't they um willing to do more and they would turn and look right

[13:43]  at the traveler and say well why don't you ask that person but that person had a rock solid contract we could only do so much so we couldn't really talk to him that much we couldn't ask him to do more and it really really killed us because why are the why are the employees going to go above and beyond when when they're not making near what this person's making and that person has a much easier job so why don't I become that person why don't I go travel because there's always you know we were all the healthcare industries were sniping from each other you know it was okay well that person's going down but I got all their employees so I'm good for a month or two until all those employees now want to jump to the next place now you it was not uncommon to see employees with three months on their resume multiple times yeah I mean because they just going okay someone else is willing

[14:30]  to pay me more and I feel like there's almost become a culture if you will of I don't want to call it like job hopping because I don't think that's the appropriate terminology in this situation but I mean there was so much incentive out there for people to say I'm going to come work for your organization I'm going to take all the resources I possibly can and then I'm on to the next one because it comes with an additional bonus a stip and all that different type of stuff oh definitely um and I wouldn't say it's job hopping um it's more of compensation seeking uh and it was it was people okay well I'm going to try to get as much as I I can and a lot of it is that feeling of well for years I've given up everything to this company and they've taken as much as they can for me here's my opportunity to start taking back and regardless if I've worked for you before or not I still lump you in the same way they don't they didn't look at it as um a company that you had any loyalty to you had any

[15:19]  feelings for it was just how do I get as much as I can as quickly as I can before I go to the next place to do the same thing again and they a lot of people felt it was very deserved and it's not wrong to think that necessarily um what is on the company then is to figure out well how do I attract that person and then how do I get them to stay I mean that retention effort really is kind of like the I would say the promised land from an HR perspective and I know we're going to take a little bit of a deeper dive into that and some of the stuff that you've done and the tactics that you've been able to Institute but the one thing that I kind of think about today especially in the world of our current state of the economy it seems like a lot of these elements of being upset that I'm not getting paid enough all these different types of things things kind of play into an overall picture of financial wellness and one of the things that I found in preparation for today's um conversation was the Bank

[16:07]  of America annual workplace benefits report surveyed over 1300 employees and8 and 800 Employers in the first half of 2023 and it found that Financial Wellness from the employee perspective was at an all-time low since 2010 at 42% why do you think Financial Wellness has taken such a heavy dip over the last couple years uh I've have seen it in the uh last few years with some of the tools that we've rolled out as companies different I work for where we allow people to access to their paychecks whenever they want they can take advances on their paychecks and then when it comes time for their payday there's no money and they don't understand that people don't have the same idea about money as they used to um also it has been well if I just jump over here I can get more money but

[16:55]  they're not doing anything with that money we're not educating people when they come in about retirement vehicles and stuff like we used to be you it's something you mention but you really don't people don't really do it that much uh you're more focused on the immediate gain and so whatever I can put in front of right now that's what I want to do but then I'm also going to turn around and spend all that money you're not saving a lot of things um you can look at it in the terms of benefits hsas the health savings accounts almost no one takes those options anymore uh I have hired in the last I'd say six years years I have hired well over 5,000 people into different Industries and um maybe 10% of those people have actually taken an HSA everyone's gone for the other benefits even though the HSA really could save

[17:43]  you money but it's because it is taking money saving it and I can't touch it they don't want that it's instant gratification is what they're looking for which also leads to a lot of the reason why I'm willing to jump ship so much because I'm instantly gratified and I'm instantly recognized dude I mean that was a perfect seg way into my next kind of sub question beneath that is like is this a macroeconomic issue or they're like social drivers behind what we're experiencing as a culture in general because I feel like more so we're treating the symptoms of financial unwellness rather than the cause of what it is and I can't help but say first of all it comes down to education because when I was coming through school right I went to college prepatory school all this type of stuff we never learned about how to manage money we never learned about how to balance a check book never learned about what a loan is

[18:30]  what interest is credit cards what's good what's bad but more importantly I feel like today we're caught up in the societal Norm of that instant gratification which you referenced which is I Get Money I want to spend it on something and I actually saw a Tik Tok the other day of this guy who was a millennial and he was speaking for everybody and he's like I think why the economy is still going is because us Millennials and everybody else wants their little treats life is so tough these days that as soon as we get our paycheck we want to run somewhere and buy ourselves a treat for basically surviving and that's how the economy continues to run we're not saving money we can't afford homes we can't do this stuff so we're continuing to take micro purchases to fill almost our ego or that empty hole inside of us which is so interesting I completely agree and I see it every day when people come in to see me um talk about their different issues

[19:19]  their problems why they're looking to get more money why they think they deserve more money or why they're jumping chips somewhere else is because well I have these bills I have to these spendings and I've actually sat down with some of them said okay let's let's go over it let's see if we can help you in any way um especially when I was more on the financial side of it and a lot of it is they have no idea like you said there they have never done any kind of training on that no one's ever walked them through what a budget is they don't really you don't look Beyond this day you don't look 30 days 60 days a year down the road you're only looking at what you can do today and even if that means that okay I go out and buy this today I'm not going to be able to pay the bills do tomorrow well I'll worry about that tomorrow and that is where we've got into such a huge crisis in our economy people are making money but they owe so

[20:08]  much money um and it's so easy to get credit card debt and get people to float you money that by the time you turn around you can't afford that anymore but then you still have influencers you still have someone who tells you that you need to go buy these things so you do because you want your treat you want that um instant gratification you want that feeling of oh I got this I'm doing really well even though I look around I realize that you know my my place isn't great or um I don't have a whole lot of food or you know I may not be a make a rent next month but I've got this and so I'm happy and I can I can put it out there I can take a picture of it and I can show everybody what I have yeah I mean there's just like so many societal pressures you know what I mean it's like Flex in for the Graham as people say on Instagram is a real thing oh yeah and it comes in so many different forms it's not even so much a Gucci belt but it's

[20:54]  like people running around and just spending money on trips and doing stuff like you said when I can't pay rent back home but I need to put out the image right or that put out that mask play my own PR manager of my life is great and I'm not sure what you guys are doing but it seems like so many people are struggling so much more and it turns into the problem of turnover and an organization right I mean if you got your individual pressures and my employer can't meet those needs then I'm going to go look for the next job like we kind of talked about I'm hopefully I'm going to find a job that's going to pay more um I've also got my my social group is is very social they go out quite a bit and I got to keep up with them so I have to make sure that my job lets me do that and if my job doesn't and the only way I can afford all these things if I work a lot more hours well there's got to be a place I can go and do more and I'll get

[21:42]  a little bit more money so I can make it work but then they run to the same issue because it's still never saving that money it's still never um cutting back and then when a company wants to cut back they don't understand it at all yeah I mean it's like I understand why I'm doing it because I need more cash but you guys better be able to come up with more cash to pay me for these reasons and it just like creates that interesting dichotomy you know what I mean it it does uh completely and then then companies do they like I said you know at the beginning when they do cut out a whole Workforce because oh we can make this work with just these um it doesn't because people don't buckle down and just okay fine I'll get it done it's no I'm not doing that anymore and so companies aren't understanding that either because they're in the same boat they they want to have more and more they want to increase that profit not realizing that okay that's profit that is money you've made after you paid all

[22:30]  your bills yeah it's really tough I mean I hope that we're going to be able to navigate the next couple years as we kind of navigate through this but unfortunately you know there's no better teacher than failure or no better teacher than pain and so sometimes you have to go through these life experiences unfortunately to experience them on your own and realize man maybe I was focusing on the wrong stuff which is a terrible experience but I think we all have to go through it you know what I mean oh I agree and I think you're going to see coming out of the medical field is kind of is going to be a leader to how the other industry should go we've gone through that pain already um you know Co taught us hit us hard but now we're starting to come through where we're looking at pay Equity we're looking at compression we're trying to what can we do to get people to stay and for us you know it's a licensed individual so it's a very unique job and you can easily go anywhere and get

[23:17]  another job because everybody's looking so we are already finding out how do we get around that how do we change that so your other Industries your um you know supply chain those ones they're going to follow what we're doing now and they're going to learn from us I think a good section for us to go into next is kind of the difference of turnover verse retention specifically long-term retention what are those differences because I know that's super important for us to be able to communicate to people especially those of us who are listening from the healthcare space turnover has been a consistent in our organizational space for a long time but now like organizations like you are trying to make that shift towards long-term retention and retention in general so what is the difference between turnover and retention turnover is really um you know you've got your quick quits um then

[24:05]  you've got your uh retention you're really looking at is within that first 90 days six months a year that is where your turnover rate is really hurting you your turnover rate at past year is always a lot less someone sticks out for a year with you they're probably going to stay for two probably for three um unless there isn't any um way that can move up or any progression but it's that first year that is where your turnover hits so when you're talking retention you're talking how do I get somebody to stay past a year what can I do to get them to stay here because once they do people be kind of be UNC comfortable okay I'm not going to change my job but in that first 90 days you can make all the difference in the world in your first week you can make the difference it's your training uh everything else but that's where you know it's they have they have expectations where we'll bring

[24:52]  on 10 people into an orientation and the first things I'll get at the end of the week is okay well how many people quit kit quit so meaning they showed up for a day or two and then just pooped um and it's how do you turn that around how do you make sure that that's not going to happen that's how you affect your turnover then your retention is okay I've got past that first year now what do I do for my employees to grow my employees so then they want to stay and when they have that and they they're showing those new people coming in how great it is here after a year that you know look with all the things I can do um that's going to get then get that long-term retention growing as well so you've got to work on both sides of it You' got to work with the brand new people and get them to buy in as quickly as they can and then you got to make

[25:39]  sure your longer term people are still buying into the idea and are feeling that they have something to do it can be very little it can be just the the tiniest little title change it can be a tiny step and pay it doesn't have to be these huge Grand things but it's just so they're always growing and if you don't offer that you are not going to have retention so let me ask the question how is Rick implementing I would say these tactics on a daily basis that has other people asking how the heck are you keeping these people so long what is kind of your perspective on that uh one of the things is I take uh a notebook and when I have a new a new person come in first thing I do is I write down three things I ask them three things like hey what do you like to do what are your interests um you know tell me about things that excite you and I'll write

[26:26]  down three of those things and then every time time they come in to have a meeting that's the P that's what you bring up first you don't talk about business right away you say okay you um I know I'm going to meet with Mark later and Mark really likes golf he has a kid and uh he has a car he loves okay when he sits down I'm going to ask him about something about that did he play golf this weekend what did he do relax the conversation a little bit show some interest in them ideally you won't need that after a little while but depends on how many employees you have how often you see somebody but then you go into the conversation but it changes the whole tone of the conversation uh then it is following up on things communication uh I will when I talk to an employee and they ask for something I say okay I'm going to send this to you but I'm also going to send you the email so you can see the chain of what we've decided to do or what's

[27:13]  going on you can see that yes I did send in this form I did make this request so you are part of this conversation now uh it's not something that you know I'm not going to have them cc into the chain itself but I will take that chain and and forward that on to them so I show them what we're doing doing as long as it's information that I can share with them um that alone makes them super happy at least they see something's happening and then it is following up if I in telling what I can go on the floor giving recognition um or at least I had an employee today that she came to me uh about a month ago and was talking about how that was doing two different jobs but would like to see about getting a possible raise so I looked into it and found out yep sure enough it was actually signed on for a unit secretary but now is also doing teletech that was

[28:01]  supposed to come with the race it had never been done it had just Fallen by the wayside and no one ever really looked at it so then I went ahead and and analyzed everybody that's in that position and fixed um about 75% of the employees that weren't correct wow and so went up to the floor today met with everybody and called them all together for a meeting and said by the way you the ones over here you were never correct you were not making where you're supposed to over here you have been making what you're supposed to but this is also where I'm looking at what we can do and I would like you to tell me why it is that um you feel you should have more money because I want to make sure it's equable across the field and iy couldn't increase your pay because you already had it for the job you're doing do you feel that what you're doing is worth it and why would you need more

[28:48]  compensation they of course they had good reasons um they wanted more compensation but they also were able to start giving me some reasons what I was looking for so now I'm going to roll that into the EXP expectations for the position and say okay well you're meeting these yes we can look at maybe a little more pay bump but I also said everyone should know that this employee right here is the reason why we're here she came to me asked about these things and you should all thank her because this should have been done yes but it wasn't something that was a top of mind for me I was focused on other areas now I'm focused on this now I'm going to go ahead and do this for the rest of the employees as well was because she brought an issue to me and spoke up I mean at the end of the day that's all about from my perspective The Human Experience of Human Resources right being able to show up ask questions be a

[29:35]  little bit curious and ask if hey am I supposed to get a raise with this but also I think about how surprised those other employees must have been that you were being proactive about the process of coming forward and being like hey guys I did some analysis and you're not being paid enough so we're going to make an adjustment how did they kind of respond to that because I feel like often going and asking for a raise is such a scary experience because you feel like you're asking for something that maybe you don't deserve yeah and that was that's the reason why I asked the way I did was okay the ones I couldn't bump something up give me some reasons why you should but it was most of them were flat out surprised um they actually were a little almost hostile first like why what are you expecting us to do what else are you adding oh wow it was they thought there was a catch somewhere so I walked him through exactly why and said no there's

[30:21]  not a catch this is also something that should have been done it should have been Fair it was missed so I owe you an apology for this but now it has been fixed it's been rectified but now we want to look at going forward what's the next step how else are we going to do this and that's what I need your help with is give me some solutions give me some ideas of how we can build some sort of ladder that you guys can keep moving up um and it is it's going to happen again because I'm going to be doing with each department looking at it I know there's going to be some people that were missed so it's fixing those ones and then talking to them um but it has already resulted in I've had two employees that came into resignations and they are now staying yeah let me take that back they didn't they didn't qu yeah and even though they one of them was actually going looking at a job that was paying more than we're

[31:08]  paying and I couldn't match it but she loved the environment here it was just felt like she wasn't being heard and she wasn't being recognized so I was able to bring her compensation up a little bit but I was also able to give her an official title to have it so that her efforts are being recognized and now is going to stay with us um and turn turned down a job that most people would jump on pretty quickly because of the benefits and things it was going to the VA versus a private Hospital like us man I mean one of my favorite sayings is it's not always about what you have to give but how you give it you know what I mean and like that has a huge I would say ability to be leveraged appropriately especially when we're talking about retaining employees long term and at the end of the day when it comes back to the to topic of like appreciation like we had mentioned a little bit earlier in the episode people

[31:54]  want to be appreciated they want to be recognized they want to be seen and that's a commonality that you hear all the time in this podcast is employees just want to be treated like actual people rather than just butts in a seat or a number on an org chart which is totally understandable completely and and it's extremely true and that was my employee today said you know thank you for hearing me and yes I was able to do a lot of action but I've also had it where I couldn't do anything and I will tell them you know I I've looked into this this is what I I can't do more for you at this moment but here's why here's what it is going on and here is what I need you to do that will help me so it can you know I do need you to go above me I need you to make that complaint and you know yes it's not going to hurt me and say that I couldn't do anymore but I need you to keep pursuing this and I will help you pursue it and I will put

[32:40]  in my own notice as well of this but it is just getting that employee is part of it and letting them be part of it the other big part of it too is when they do make decisions making sure you get all your employees um a feeling about it talk to them about what we're deciding to do why we're deciding to do it and unless it's something that we're being required to do by a regulation it's okay we're thinking about making a change what does everyone think about this get that feedback before you do it and then that way you can say okay well based upon everyone's feedback here's what we decided to do here's the why now if they want to complain about it it's a lot harder because they help make that decision I mean we're involving everybody right and I feel like especially when we talk about the topic of pay equity which is going to be next there are so many other things out

[33:27]  outside of direct compensation that we can use as an ability to retain people and make them feel a part of the team so according to the um AR Bridger Institute there are five work workplace Trends to prepare for in 2024 so I'm going to rip through these really quick number one is redefining the employee experience number two is Bridging the Divide between leaders and employees number three is turning performance reviews on their head number four is catalyzing communication to improve collaboration like we just kind of talked about and number five is prioritizing training and development to boost performance let's go to the top of the list here and let's talk about redefining employee experience now one of the things that we've seen over the last couple years especially is employees are expecting more and more when it comes to an organization stepping up and going to

[34:14]  bat for them around things like their mental wellness and overall well-being why do you think that these big shifts have started coming into the workspace now where people are like I need to be taken care of as a whole person rather than just somebody who's executing tasks in the organization I think it's been an entire cultural shift uh where we are starting to see mental health as what it really is which it is a huge problem and it is something that almost everybody faces in some form or fashion and it's okay to talk about it for the longest time especially in the workplace you didn't talk about anything like that if you know if you were sick that was even if you were physically ill that was even something you really didn't talk about um you didn't report an injury you didn't do this because you might get

[35:00]  fired you might get let go so if you came in and said that you were battling depression chances are pretty good that you were going to get termed um and that kind of just held over for the longest time now we're finally getting to that point uh the new the generation's coming up the way people are talking we're finally making it where it's okay to talk about that and it's been okay that's not a bad thing and now it's well how do we help you just like we have Chang ched it where if you are injured on the job you cannot be let go because of that just because you report it just because it's a workman's comp case no that's not going to get you terminated um and in fact if a company does that it's going to cost them quite a bit we're now starting to see that behavior coming through and the company's to going so I understand now that you do

[35:46]  need some help that the fact that you do have you're battling depression um you have a diagnosis of any kind you need help with that no different than the PTO I provide you for sick leave no different than the benefits I provide you to make sure that if uh you know your child is sick that they're taking care of well you need this too so we need to come up with make sure we have that mental health it's still really new it's not something that we have done a wonderful job with yet but we're starting to see more and more of it and more and more acceptance of it especially in the medical field again it's kind of leading the way because we have nurses that are burning out we have um staff members that are completely burning out and a large part of that is they weren't being taken care of for their mental health they were just

[36:32]  expected to come in fill that void take care of someone else now we're finally looking at how do we take care of them what we need to do for them um providing counselors providing that you know mental health days but also providing things within the building itself okay here's a quiet room here's a place where you can go that uh you can sit and just enjoy some white noise uh we're also just something as simple as hey we're going to turn down a lot of these beeps there's a lot of stuff that is not necessary let's turn those down so you don't have that constant in the background which is driving you absolutely crazy now if it's a if it's a medically necessary one like the call light sure that's going to still go off but these other machines over here they don't need to make the noise they're making let's turn them down and that little change has made a huge change for

[37:20]  the way that the staff feels on the floor because like okay you're doing something to try to help me you're trying to make things better for me and you're actually listening to me um Open Door policies where you can go in and you can walk into my CEO's office right now and just vent to them and he will listen to you may not be able to help him with everything but he'll listen and that has been a huge part because we're just hearing people and sometimes you just need that you just need to go in and yell at somebody you just need to get it off your chest and then maybe there is no solution of that exact moment but they don't they not want a solution they just want to be able to tell somebody what going on that actually understands and they can listen to them and they're tired of telling just their family members they're tired of telling their dog they're tired of telling their friends when they go out

[38:08]  it's they want someone at their workplace just to listen sometimes all that that's all we really need is just somebody to hold space with us you know when I first got started in the mental health space back in 14 um I started seeing a lot of burnouts a lot of resiliency issues a lot of compassion fatigue with the nursing team and everybody else who we'd work with but then especially because of the pandemic it seems like it got accelerated tenfold and so a lot of the work that we do here at France is with my company is supporting that Workforce of nurses of Administrators of people who are getting literally run through the system every single day showing up being their best self and unfortunately being expected to pour into other people's cups with an empty cup and it's like sometimes we just need the time to be able to kind of hold space on our own so I love the example of the quiet room because

[38:56]  imagine how peaceful that quiet room is when you're hearing the alarms going off from the respirator machines and everything else that's going on all day that piece is I'm sure incredibly important but I couldn't agree more with you mental Wellness in itself at the end of the day has become less and less stigmatized and as you were talking in the beginning of you know your answer there I was thinking about kind of like the male perspective right you being from a history in Wyoming and Rodeo you guys are tough people often you're not the type of person who's going to vent about the things that's going on in life you're kind of going to be somebody who's going to show up do the work every single day and you got a job to do and I went through a lot of that as an athlete as well I mean I almost feel like because a lot of our masculine culture went into business over the last couple decades that's kind of how we bled into this world of you don't talk about

[39:43]  mental health you don't need to talk about those things it's a sign of weakness and I feel like we're finally getting out of that which is so important oh completely and I I agree it's it's a lot of it is um the way I did grow up yeah you you did not talk about anything you just showed up and you did the job and you went home and you know if you got hurt rub some dirt in it keep on moving um mentally if something was wrong oh you never said a word about that so I do like the fact that it is changing so much that um you're seeing especially like U my son is he he's worried about everybody but he pays attention to it uh and he makes sure that people are okay with things he will call out somebody immediately if if they say something that could be hurtful or could be in some way racist bigoted

[40:32]  anything like that um he'll come on immediately he has no fear of doing that something I never would have done when I was a child there's no way you know you do not call it an adult he does and I think it's amazing it's it's what we need to have because we're we're eliminating those things out of this in the job culture we're finally starting to eliminate them a lot faster you we're we've always said you're protected you come into a place we don't discriminate you have no harassment but there still was a lot of it that was allowed to happen because well as long as it you know didn't get to HR it doesn't matter um you have a boss that harasses you a little bit that's okay just let you know let it slide by because you need that job now you're not seeing that you're seeing things where you say something that's being stopped immediately and it truly is being lived up to the no we're not allowing we have

[41:20]  a zero tolerance policy and it's going to happen and we're not discriminating against someone especially for mental health if you um are suffering from anything or if you do have something that is an issue no problem we're going to work with you we're going to see what we can do to make it better not put you off to the side be uncomfortable not talk about it or make it 10 times worse because we're going to expect you just to deal with it on your own and still show up and be a certain way we're we're now making allowances like okay what do we need to do so that you can work and you can perform and then it's you know okay what where can we we compromise with everything and that compromising has been a huge change what it has been for the last 50 years absolutely I want to take a second to do a public shout out to your kid because he sounds like an

[42:08]  awesome individual you know it reminds me a lot of when I was younger I've always been a big guy so what you can't tell across the screen is I'm 6'6 240 pounds so I'm a big dude right and I've always thought it was awesome to stand up for the people who didn't have a voice for themselves and that was something that I was known for in like middle school and when I went to high school in Yad yada and so I feel like me and your son would get along very well if we were in the same age demographic and stuff like that going to school together oh I think so yeah and he does it he's he just great great about it and it's just but it's just instinctual to him and it's not he doesn't have to stop and think about it um you know I've been doing this for a very long time but I still occasionally have to some okay what should my response be his is just automatic because that's what he was raised with already so it is a huge change yeah I mean it's a direct reflection of you Rick and I'm sure you know your partner as well everything

[42:56]  that you guys have done to raise that individual through those little tiny micro interactions you now have raised somebody who's willing to stand up for people I mean here in Vegas unfortunately there was a story over the last couple months of a high school student who unfortunately was beaten to death by a group of kids at a high school here and he was jumped in the first place because he was standing up for another student who had his airpods taken away and there are so many things that have been said in the news about how Brave this young man was for standing up for somebody else and unfortunately it seems like in our our society with social media especially the bullies are more popular than the person who's actually going to stand up and do what's right and so we need more people like your son so I know we've gone a little bit of a rant here with how awesome your kid is but I think it's just really important for the Youth especially to understand how the important these things really are

[43:43]  because they can really 100% it is and but that's also you can also take that and apply it directly to the workforce as well it's just as important for your strong workers the people that are good the ones that um will stand up to do so stand up for the other people around you if you see someone who's afraid to speak up uh is being harassed is being bullied at work and they don't want to say anything speak for them um you know it's it's okay to go and say okay hey I you know I know someone's got a problem um what can we do about it yeah completely because that my job would be is then to go find out how we can do it so that person doesn't feel uncomfortable but does get the help they need absolutely you know I want to I want to use that as kind of a transition to my second point and we're going to wrap it up here because we're running a little tight on time which is Bridging the Divide between leaders and employees so one of the

[44:32]  things that you mentioned a couple minutes ago as people were listening was the open door policy that your CEO has what how what effect has that had on the culture of your organization and what other things are happening behind the scenes to kind of you know eliminate that divide oh it's huge we have an open door everyone has an open door policy uh my door unless I'm in a meeting does not shut and so I can be in here doing anything people walk by and it's just they can say hi they can just stop in it's a huge help for him as well and it can be absolutely anybody and people love that because they feel like they're actually being able to get their voice heard um another divide too is that is overcoming is we work different shifts so our Administration I will come in and I will work a night shift um my CEO will be here on a Saturday night he'll be

[45:20]  here on a Sunday morning so we're making sure we're seeing everybody we're a 24-hour operation but but it's not just Monday through Friday 8: to 5: that gets everybody no we we people will have we have every we require it that you come in at different times so you can make sure you're always there and not just a half hour of their shift and you go home no it's it's you're going to be here for hours and that way you're providing the same access that everyone else gets so you're making sure that they're being heard and you're seeing what's going on um you're following up on it another one too is making sure you Empower your people we have taken the the middle management leaders our house soups giving them the the ability to say okay here's a record of conversation when you have a conversation with somebody that's counts just as much as the director of nursing or the CEO or myself having a

[46:09]  conversation with somebody we're going to write it down you're going to sign it the person will sign with this said it and then that is enough for me to say if something else happens yeah I can follow up on a disperate action with that because of what you've done so what you say matters or I can follow up on a commendation or I can follow up for some recognition because again we are taking what you said and we're valuing you as a leader those leaders are usually overlooked they do a you know they're the ones right there working with everybody but they generally have to follow they' have to go to the director and grab somebody hope that person was going to listen now they can do it themselves and so that then is trickling down to the regular staff as well because now the staff members are thinking okay I'm seeing things being changed because the person that I go to every day can actually affect change now I mean that's a I hear a lot of

[46:55]  conversation about you know eliminating the hierarchical standards of old organizations and leaning into more of a flat type of organization and the only example that's coming to the front of my head right now is an example from Tesla which is really interesting one of their field Engineers or somebody who was working on the assembly plant figured out a way to get the model 3S to charge like an extra 50 miles per minute or something crazy he took that directly to one of his engineering directors and within I want to say 6 hours they had to change the assembly line so they could actually get better ampage and better battery charging through that and it was one of the people who was on the front line who was spending time actually doing the work who brought that you know suggestion to the table and then the organization switched incredibly quickly because of the proficiencies that it

[47:43]  created and I feel like that's that example of that flat organization oh it is 100% it's when someone comes up to you and they talk about it you act on it right away but the big part of that there and what Tesla did right as well in that instance is they also recognize that engineer they made sure that it wasn't oh I came up to it and now it's the the director or the CEO it's so oh I have this great idea and that's where the idea came from no it's this is this person's idea we're following through on it they're also helping us make sure that we're doing it the right way they're involved in that so they're elevated that to director level temporarily to make sure that that that goes through and everyone sees okay that was the person that did it that was the and so they're getting their their their proper credit for it so now the next person that has an idea is going to

[48:32]  step forward because they want that as well they may not want to be called out in front of everybody because everybody likes that but they still want that recognition they still want to know that my ideas count but I'm they're going to be my idea still and we're going to work with you not say oh thank you very much that's now my idea and you go back to doing your job it's a definition of agency right having an impact on our environment and when you feel like you have agency you're willing to stand up you're willing to talk about your ideas you're willing to contribute to the bigger vision and Mission which I think is really awesome Rick this has been an absolute pleasure being able to learn a little bit more about your Rodeo history talking about some of the cultural experiences you've had with some amazing organizations the changes that you're making in yours today especially in a challenge space like healthcare I think it's just so important for you to be

[49:20]  recognized and so I want you to use the last couple seconds here as an opportunity to tell people where they can find more about you how can they learn more about the work that you're doing where can they find you if it's on LinkedIn or something like that well I'm on LinkedIn and then um if you want to find them more it's with the Viber hospital um Viber specialty hospitals um and I'm in the Portland area but it is a long-term cute care uh and it is providing a very very necessary um service for people who are coming out of the hospital they're really injured but they're not really ready to go home yet we get them walking we get them moving we get them where they're ready to go home and so if you have any interest in that please look us up it's a great great organization amazing well I mean it's not just about the nursing capabilities there but it's also about the culture of the organization that I feel like people

[50:08]  want to be a part of as well so I definitely suggest you guys go check out Rick on LinkedIn more importantly go check out his organization as well just in case you're in the Portland area or you're in the Pacific Northwest which is near home to my heart as well I was born in um Maple Valley Washington just outside Seattle so that Portland area I know is going crazy with so many people moving to the area so I'm sure that your guys' services are absolutely needed Rick thank you so much for being on the show man I really appreciate it guys it's been a new episode of our HR Heroes and once again let's give a little bit of a round of applause for Rick and the great work that he's doing thank you so much man really appreciate it thank you very much I really appreciate it that's a wrap