Cleaning out the draw of random healthcare facility management thoughts and observations on a Friday in March:
1) Talking to a candidate regarding the ideal length of stay at jobs, he wanted to know what we see these days. Back in the old days, say 10 years ago, 5 years was a stay minimum. In some cases, it was even too short, with ten+ years common.
No longer. While there are people who plant roots, more and more we receive resumes from candidates looking to leave after only 3 – 5 years. In addition to the general uncertainty of today’s climate, a potential cause may be that as candidates perceive less loyalty toward them from the organization, they reciprocate that same sentiment. It’s not necessarily a good trend.
2) Zoom fatigue is real among facility management professionals. Most are itching to resume in-person meetings, tired of remote connections and cancellations.
3) There are many pieces of advice to provide candidates when they interview. I always like to stress silence. Answer questions in full, then stop talking. Be comfortable with silence. Skilled interviewers will try to get you to speak, so practice 10 seconds of silence. It’s long!
4) One of the best lines I have heard to describe hospital culture was said by the president of a major Midwest academic medical center we were working with, who said, “if you have seen one hospital, then you have seen one hospital.” We thought about that, and he was correct. There are more than 6,000 hospitals in the US, and each is unique.
5) This leads to a thought about what not to say during an interview. The candidate told hospital leadership that their hospital was not unique, that he had worked in many organizations and had seen everything there was to see. The wrong answer, nobody wants to be told they are not unique!
6) We held our free lunch and learn webinar recently, The Facility Director’s Toolbox. It examines the state of FM today, post-Covid, and offers resume and interviewing tips and tricks; it’s an informative, fun session. The next one is March 25; stay tuned for future offerings.
7) We review resumes often, and there are two issues we see with regularity: Lack of specificity relative to career accomplishments and lack of attention to detail. You don’t need to spend money to have a good resume, pretty colors and fancy formatting alone won’t get you a job, but specificity and detail will help you get that resume.
8) The line between arrogance and confidence is a thin one. One way to avoid being seen as arrogant during an interview is to use We more than Me.
9) And along those lines, we often counsel people that they need to be their own best advocate during an interview. If you can’t sell yourself and your specific accomplishments, you probably won’t get hired. Tout your successes in interviews; there is room for Me. Selling yourself can mean moving beyond your comfort zone, which can be difficult for many of us.
10) Have you checked out the floor coverings and rugs in your facility lately? If you haven’t, you should. We just released an interesting podcast about the law and healthcare facility management; your rugs can be a liability. Check out our High Reliability podcast* for more information.
Thanks for reading, our drawer is messy, so Part II follows next week.