“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.” – Hebrews 10:24-25
I, like so many of you, have been immersed in reading resumes and conducting interviews in an attempt to fill critical positions over the past few months. As several of you noted on Friday’s Staying Connected call, it has been extremely challenging to find people to fill positions in our Y. As of last week, we had 151 vacancies across our association, which is not an issue unique to the Y. Last week, I read that over 11 million people have quit their jobs across our country since April 2021. As we have done throughout the past 19 months, we are looking to better understand how we can adapt and find a path forward. The primary reason people have given for why they are leaving their current position is that they want to do something more meaningful in their lives. Living through a pandemic has disrupted our lives, and people no longer want just a job; they are looking for greater purpose in what they do. When our Y staff are asked what they love most about working in our Y, the response is almost always that they love doing something meaningful in their work. When I walk through any of our centers or program sites, I can clearly see the deep level of commitment and devotion all of you have for the work of the Y. You are playing a vital role in helping our community get back on its feet, and because of you, people are finding something positive in their lives, believing there are brighter days ahead.
Working through the hiring process has taught me a lot. For one, I have a greater appreciation for the work of our Human Resources team. Over the last week, Shiori, Carla, Stephanie, Christina, Dorita, Ganetta, and Bethany helped make it possible for me to facilitate the hiring of three new staff. (And, as she often does, Kris Jensen played a very important role as well, working with HR and the candidates to successfully fulfill the necessary steps to complete the process.) An important life lesson I seem to need to relearn is that you never know what a person endures until you walk in their shoes – or at least get close enough to them to fully understand all they are doing. Walking through the hiring process has given me a greater appreciation for the numerous details the HR team has to process to successfully onboard just one new employee. For the past two weeks, the HR team and Kris leaned in hard so we could successfully hire a new Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Scott Smith, a new Director of Learning and Development, Curt Archambault, and a new Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, Michelle Rose. Thank you all for your tremendous effort to help bring on three highly qualified people, who I am confident will play an important role in moving our organization forward.
In an effort to promote our brand as an employer of choice a few years ago, the human resources and marketing departments created a video in partnership to highlight the quality of the staff experience in our Y. It was a nice piece, and an important message for us to foster as a critical part to our success. During his interview, Scott emphasized the importance of making the staff experience an essential part of our brand image.
Not only was it critical to fill all three of these positions from a leadership perspective, it was absolutely essential that we seized this opportunity to focus our energies on pouring into nurturing and developing our most precious resource – YOU! In each of their interviews, it was evident from Scott’s, Curt’s, and Michelle’s answers that they were interviewing us as well – they were looking for a meaningful experience in their work life. Clearly, they were seeking us out and all three expressed wanting to use their skills to elevate our Y by emphasizing the importance of the staff experience. In Scott’s first meeting last week, he and Brian Flattum talked about cultivating a culture that more strongly encourages employees to use their paid time off. It was exciting to see Scott jump in and look to make an immediate contribution to positively impact our culture.
Even with Brian’s request to not highlight the need for staff as the challenge area our team faces, it was difficult for many of those reporting on Friday’s Staying Connected call to not mention it; however, it was also clear from those reporting how deeply committed our team is to adapt and move forward. During his interview, Curt (whose first day was yesterday) emphasized the importance of investing in our loyal team, both full- and part-time staff. He highlighted the importance of making a strong commitment to horizontal growth, and acknowledging employee contributions as they develop. Another area Curt emphasized was to honor additional responsibilities employees take on and how that gets rewarded. As is the case with Scott, Curt brings many years of experience to contribute to our Y. It is great to have you both on our team.
Over 100 candidates applied for the Chief Human Resources Officer position. In addition, we utilized a recruiter to assist in our search, and after three months, we found Michelle. It was her strong desire to work for the Y and her deep commitment to creating a rich culture of serving our employees that made her stand out. Michelle knows the importance of processes, but recognizes that in certain circumstances it may be necessary to adapt to the need, particularly now. HR is often seen in a negative light because they are adhering to processes we – as an organization – devised, but as Michelle shared, it is critical for HR to be seen as a partner and to find solutions as well, something the HR team did in helping me get Scott, Curt, and Michelle on board successfully.
I am excited to welcome Scott, Curt, and Michelle to our team. They bring new ideas, expertise, and a desire to join all of us in our effort to advance our Y and make a lasting contribution to our communities. Each of them wanted to join us, which is not something any of us takes for granted. They each had other options, but they wanted to be part of our Y team; that is a tribute to all of you. Thank you for making our Y great and a place where others want to be.
#OneY #StayStrong #StayWithUs