Baptist St. Anthony's hires the right people and then supports them
Teamwork, support and open lines of communication from the CFO through the frontline staff are among the touchstones of the finance department at Baptist St. Anthony's Health System.
Brian Walton, vice president and CFO, said his approach to management is "all about people" – getting the right people and supporting them and their ideas. James Taylor, director of financial planning and reporting and the day-to-day department manager, believes in mentoring and delegating. Together, the two have worked to create a finance department that's: 1. committed to teamwork; and 2. a great place to learn. An example of that teamwork occurs each month when financial statements must be closed within seven working days.
"To accomplish that, everyone has to pull together because everyone has a piece of the work to complete," Taylor said. "If we have someone out on vacation or on maternity leave, someone else pitches in and takes up the slack to do their part."
To do that, the staff is cross-trained.
"It oftentimes is a lot of work for that person, so it is not unusual for others to pitch in and volunteer any way they can," Taylor said.
The staff meetings that Taylor routinely holds foster an environment where people feel comfortable talking about challenges and bringing up new ideas about how to make tasks more efficient, Walton said.
"I have routine meetings with James, and communications moves quickly," he said.
When team members brought ideas to Taylor for add-on software to better manage accounting projects, he and Walton figured out how to procure it.
"The team knows they will be held accountable to harvest the efficiencies that they said they were going to bring by putting those things in place," Walton noted.
Walton also goes the extra mile to recognize employees. Occasionally, for example, he'll write a note and send it to an employee's home address. That way it can be shared with the entire family.
"We've gone through a lot in the last few years with changing all of our processes, implementing new accounting modules and going through a sale," Walton said. "When our employees get overwhelmed, we always make sure they know they are appreciated, telling them face-to-face that we really appreciate their work."
To retain employees, it comes back to "hiring people that want to grow in their career and be part of a team and a successful department," Walton said.
Taylor added that it's important that managers maintain a positive attitude and support for their staff.
"Each day when we walk in, we may think we have a schedule for that day, but we have to be prepared for it to be disrupted," he said. "I don't think (staff) would be willing to do that unless we maintained positive attitudes and support for the staff."
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