I have many friends who own and operate small businesses, and it seems that all of them are struggling to keep them alive in the current recession. Some have already gone under and my best friend may be losing his business after 10 years of working 12 hour days to establish himself in a competitive industry. But for some reason, they all think healthcare is the place to be when the economy turns soft. They ask me about my business and seem surprised when I tell them that hospitals are struggling too. I guess it's just ignorance.

I work with dozens of hospitals across the country and most of them are singing the same tune. Postponed equipment upgrades, delayed projects, layoffs and a whole list of internal problems related to the current economy. My job is to work with healthcare leaders to identify and develop top talent for their organizations. Do you think my business is affected? Well sure. While people (actually the right people) are a companies number one asset, budgets for training, leadership development and recruitment planning seem to be the first to be cut. At least that's what many HR leaders tell me. Advertising budgets are reduced, training is postponed and positions are eliminated.

While I tend to agree with many of these cuts (sorry HR), I believe that budgets for organizational development (OD) should be spared at all cost. Studies show that a well-structured OD plan helps with patient satisfaction and employee engagement during tough times.

The bottom line is, you cannot make a sick patient who lost his employer paid insurance during a layoff come to your hospital. But you can work to create a positive, engaged workforce through regular training and direct interaction. Leaders, please do not separate yourself during these tough times. Get out on the floor and work with your teams at the staff level. Show them you care, ask for their ideas and listen.

Dale Hannegan
www.radsciences.com
www.mymedport.com

I've been reading up on Social Media Marketing and the planning surrounding this "monster". I've discovered that this plan will involve more than just surfing the web and adding friends on Facebook. It's a true science. Keywords, SEO, Blogging, and Tweeting are all a part of it, but so is having someone who knows how to do it consistently and regularly to make it all work. You need rules, guidelines, policies and a written plan. Holy Cow! I'll have to hire someone to do all this stuff, and study nights and weekends to stay on top of it all. I guess that's what it takes to stay competitive in today's market.

I also recently found out that one of our clients in Dallas has two full-time healthcare recruiters dedicated to Social Media recruiting. They will be exploring our new site (www.mymedport.com) later this week to see how it might fit in to their recruitment initiatives.

Man, I was faxing stuff just a couple of years ago. Do we still have fax machines??

Dale

With the wave of popularity in social media websites like myspace, twitter and facebook over the past 3-4 years, we at RadSciences Group wondered how this newly emerging technology could be wielded to serve the Healthcare industry. Like most organizations right now, hospitals are also faced with reduced recruitment and communication budgets and are turning to social media to keep their workforces engaged.

According to a the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) "Engagement Survey,” of the 1,500 participants, about 79% of the respondents reported they use social media frequently to engage employees and foster productivity, outranking even e-mail (75%). Company blogs are the most popular social media tools (47%), with discussion boards ranking the highest for future planned use.

We are please that www.mymedport.com is helping the healthcare sector with workforce engagement and offering free job postings for non-profit hospitals. The beta test is almost complete and we are looking forward to launching the first healthcare social network.

MyMedPort Team