In this episode, I sat down with April Hansen, EVP of Workforce Solutions and Clinical Services of Aya Healthcare. We talked about building a culture that’s agile in the face of chaos, finding your passion, and keeping it simple.
Delohery: Hi, and welcome to The Staffing Show, I’m here today with April Hansen, of Aya Healthcare. Thank you so much for joining me today, April.
Hansen: Thanks for having me, I appreciate it.
Delohery: From your perspective as a leader of a healthcare staffing firm, I really wanted to jump right in and talk about the current state that we’re in. I’m wondering how things have changed for you guys on the ground, and the way that you do business in light of the pandemic?
Hansen: Yeah, I’d have to say a lot has changed, maybe mostly around just the speed at which we work. And so we very, very quickly morphed into being nearly a 24 by seven operation, and for many weeks and months we were. Things have ever changed a little bit, where we’ve gotten back to some degree of normalcy, but I would say the speed at which we’re conducting business has changed very rapidly.
I would also comment and say that we have taken advantage of this shake up in the industry, and in the business if you will, to really look at each of our different business units, really take a critical look at some of our operating processes, and decide is that the most efficient or effective way to get the job done?
We’ve peeled back each component of the business, done a critical appraisal, and either reassembled or modified or added on and grown, and scaled that component of the business.
Hansen: We’ve made a lot of investment during these last few months to really make sure that we are set up to scale, and I think it’s really paying off for us. We’ve scaled a lot, we’ve grown an incredible amount, and that doesn’t get done by accident, right? You really have to be critically paying attention to your business.
Delohery: I’ve heard this a few times from people about how crucial it is to remain agile in a situation like this. I mean, really in general, but this in 2020 more than ever. What were some of the things that were driving those changes? If you could speak a little to that.
Hansen: Yeah, for sure. I think everything right now for us in particular, and this is probably different for other businesses, but with the rapid growth of our business, everything is about scaling, so gaining productivity, having the infrastructure and the foundation in place to scale.
A lot of times as businesses age, they lose that ability to handle and digest hockey stick like growth. What you would see in maybe a startup company, or an early funded company. That’s different when your business is 20 plus years old. And so when you see companies that are at that stage, they’re usually not set up from an infrastructure perspective, that can bear that degree of growth and scale without losing something, without losing traction or without another part of the business folding.
I think what has been really unique for us, is that our infrastructure was both under a microscope and in a spotlight at the same time. And so we were able to look at what was the foundation that we had laid? And was it stable and ready for scale? Did we have to reassemble some things? Did we have to change some things in order to enable that scalability?
We did that very, very quickly in any of the areas that we needed to. And some of the other areas, they were set up exactly as they needed to be, they just needed to grow. We needed to add talent, we needed to add some technology, different things like that in order to handle the additional productivity and the scalability.
Delohery: And in terms of maybe tools you’ve adopted or strategy changes, can you share for our listeners anything you’d be comfortable with in terms of, what has been the most powerful change for you guys in terms of enabling this kind of growth?
Hansen: Absolutely. I would say that our marketplace where clinicians, and clients are almost able to interact directly is a game changer. Aya has been very disruptive in the way that we allow information, and we funnel information to get to clinicians, about the jobs that are available.
Our infrastructure is very unique. Our whole business runs on one platform. Where many businesses have to move information and data from say, an internal ATS to an external VMS, and integrate multiple third party systems together, Aya’s business doesn’t function like that.
And so right from the core of our business being set up to handle this type of change, we’re in a really good position. Weekly, we have over 26,000 clinicians that are searching jobs right now on our web portal, conducting nearly 150,000 job views. They can create their own pay packages, they can self select.
Recruiters are directing clinicians into jobs and recommending jobs for clinicians. The technology is really smart, and so it helps match clinicians into those best match jobs, remember their search preferences, surface things that they might be interested in, and it’s added an incredible amount of recruiter productivity.
It’s also taken out some of the inefficiencies that recruiters used to have to spend a lot of time on, haggling back and forth on pay package elements, and all of those things. It’s now fully transparent.
Clinicians can choose their pay package, they can design it the way that it fits best for their life, and their experience, and choose their own adventure. I would say that degree of tech enablement, and procedural enablement has been game changing for Aya as a business.
Delohery: And with that sort of transparency, which I know especially health care candidates are looking for, I’m sure that’s a big game changer. I’m wondering if you could speak a little bit more, to how this different way of operating manifests on the ground for your candidates?
Hansen: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, we have a ton of candidates that come to us through referrals, right? So having clinicians that are using the platform, referring other good clinicians, I think that’s really important. So we’re growing astronomically that user base inside our marketplace.
And at the same time, it’s almost real time feedback for clients to know what levers that they pull with their jobs, really engages the end consumer, that clinician. So if you’re a client and you’re struggling with low fulfillment or low traction on a job, it’s really easy to pull a lever of a $5 rate change, and see if it attracts candidates or not.
Now with the visibility and the technology, that’s really unique to Aya, so I would say how it impacts the users on both sides. We always have to consider our clients and our clinicians. When you’re operating a marketplace, really both come into play.
We’ve been able to get micro level feedback in real time, that just has never been available, at least in my knowledge in this industry before, and it completely influences the way we operate our business.
We don’t sit back at the end of a quarter and try to see, “Oh, this was the trend, and this is what we should have done.” We are operating our business in the moment with real time feedback, which is completely different.
Delohery: With this model, have you seen any changes this year or in response to the pandemic? What have you learned?
Hansen: Any what kind of changes? I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.
Delohery: Oh, just changes on the clinician side, or any changes related to the pandemic, since you’re on the pulse of what your candidates want? How has the pandemic changed that?
Hansen: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I think as most healthcare staffing companies would observe right now, clinicians who used to be really more regional focused, or maybe they were more motivated by things within the region in which they lived, that’s really morphed.
I think most of our clinician base and especially in some really harder to fill specialties right now, they’re a national supply base. And so clinicians are less sensitive to location right now, they’re more sensitive to the type of contracts that they want.
If they want a more rapid response style, quick fill, higher dollar, potentially shorter term contract, more hours, those sorts of things, they’re more motivated by those pieces. I also think that many, many clinicians have entered the travel workforce for the first time during the pandemic.
They entered in a time of great uncertainty. The contracts were changing by the minute, the demands of the patients were different, and unlike we had ever seen before especially in some of our hotspots. And the motivation to come into the business for many clinicians during that timeframe was somewhat driven by just their overall ability, competency, and willingness to run into the war and help.
That motivated people from a different place, and I think with that, we’re seeing a lot of clinicians that have continued to extend, they’ve taken new assignments, they’ve fallen in love with the new way, and they’re staying there and enjoying a different life.
But many of them found travel nursing really from a call to duty, and because of that, they now have explored a new career path that they’re really sticking with. We have excellent retention, we’re seeing a very high percent of rebook, and legacy clinicians coming into their next assignment. That has introduced a whole new element of supply, who really got into this work for may be a different reason, but a very compelling reason.
Delohery: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That’s so interesting. I hadn’t heard that before, about this new generation of travel nurses brought in by the pandemic. This is maybe hard to say still, but what impact do you think that will have on the travel nursing profession post-pandemic or moving forward?
Hansen: I think it’s going to have impacts for travel nursing. I think it’s going to have impacts on core staffing. And by impacts, I don’t necessarily need to be negative. I think there’s some very positive impacts here.
We did a large scale survey of our clinician base, that served during the first pandemic in a couple of hotspots in New York and New Jersey, and when we started really peeling back the data that we’d learned from our clinicians on these exit surveys, we learned some interesting points.
We learned that first time travelers in this, were actually more likely to recommend their assignment than an experienced traveler. And so that shared information with us to say, “You know what? This was highly motivating for these clinicians.” They felt a higher sense of purpose and they actually had a really great experience, even when they hadn’t done this before. So it was all new to them and they loved it.
We also found that clinicians that were in medical, surgical environments, rated their assignments a little less favorably than those in critical care. We think part of that, of course, had to do with workload. These patients were sick, and they are sick, and they’re heavy patients to deal with and heavy patient load, right?
So we were able to really take that feedback with our clients and say, “These types of clinicians in this scenario, they need more support.” And we looked internally, and we said, “These clinicians need more support. So what can we do from our travel experience team, all the way to our clinical team, and build more support around these clinicians?”
Something that has been an interesting hybrid impact between travel and core staff, has really been the need for core staff to have some respite care, in the areas where they have been going 90 miles an hour for months on end. The buildings have been full, visitors have been restricted, so the most important care team member in many circumstances is no longer at the bedside. That’s the family or the loved one that’s taking care of someone.
So the nurse has taken on the role of everything from, the plumber, and the EVS worker, when we are in PPE containment strategy time, and do all of those things, to now being really the sole resource for many of these patients as well.
So I think there’re impacts on core staff where they need respite care, and in some ways travel nurses coming in, have helped to shoulder the burden slightly, and at least allow them to maybe work a few less hours a week, and get some time away.
But I also think that core staff could be impacted by seeing the opportunity that’s available right now in travel nursing and say, “You know what? That looks great, and I want to do that too.” And we’ve heard that some health systems are happy, and some are not, that their core staff are seeking adventure in travel nursing too.
But I think that the freedom of choice for employment right now is unlimited in its potential for travel nursing, and I think some of the impacts showing nurses what they can do, and the value of their skill sets in so many different ways, and how that contributes to health care, it’s a game changer for the professional all told.
Delohery: Yeah. You mentioned that the hospitals and the systemic support that come for travel nurses right now, and with some adjustments that you’re making internally to offer a new level of support for travelers. What are some ways that you found that have had an impact?
Like nurses are really excited about this, but they’re also facing, as you mentioned, just higher levels of stress, and outside responsibilities in their roles with COVID-19. So how have you guys shifted to support your nurses now?
Hansen: If I go back chronologically, and think back to March, which feels like three years ago, right?
Delohery: Yeah.
Hansen: If I think back to some of the decisions that we were making as a small leadership team, and thinking about things like, “What’s going to happen when and if our clinicians get sick? How are we going to resource them?” It would be the wrong thing to tell them to go back home and quarantine there.
We don’t want them to travel, we want them to stay where they’re safe, and where they can keep people safe. How are we going to make decisions to support clinicians with sick time? How are we going to make decisions to support clinicians shouldering the burden of extra housing expenses, and how are we going to share those costs to the extent that we can with our clients, and help them understand the predicament that clinicians are in when they are away from home?
And so, we did a lot of work upfront as a small team to decide, first and foremost, we were going to make the right decision by our clinicians and the right decision by our clients. That’s our guiding principle, and always our North Star.
And so there have been many instances and times where we have allowed clinicians to go negative into sick time, just so that they can get a paycheck, and not be destitute when they’re also stuck away from home. We have had to fund some housing stipends, and just do some other things like that to help keep our clinicians well and taken care of. I’m sure we’ve made mistakes along the way too, because I think everybody’s learning, but it’s been very deliberate on our side to say, “We want to take care of our clinicians.”
We’ve done some really cool things just from a motivation perspective, trying to keep clinicians engaged and offer them some really neat opportunities, whether its virtual concerts, and really cool Nurses Week videos and gifts and shout outs, Facebook groups that we see a lot of collaboration and support amongst the clinicians.
Aya has really been built on a foundation of providing exceptional experiences for our clinicians. We have an entire team, they used to be called The Traveler Happiness team. They’re our travel experience team, and their whole job is to ensure that our clinicians are happy.
Prior to the pandemic, we had a clinician in Texas, whose shoes got ruined in their car when the thing flooded, and the travel experience team just got them a new pair of shoes. They didn’t have to go and ask for special approval, and do this kind of stuff. They have carte blanche to extend company resources to take care of our clinicians.
Having that infrastructure already in place was paramount to our success in retaining our clinician base, and having them be happy through the pandemic, and we continue to do that. We continue to think of new and unique ways to keep our clinicians engaged, keep them happy, to take care of their problems when they’re stuck.
Not every assignment ends with a rainbow, right? There’s very real things that happen, and I think we do a good job managing through those situations, and we try to keep everyone happy to the fullest extent of our ability.
Bad things are going to happen. There’s going to be some unfortunate outcomes, and we’re in a very dynamic and fast business right now, but I think all told, having that infrastructure already in place, having that really be the culture of our organization, has been paramount to helping us make good decisions, and make good decisions on behalf of our business, our clients and our clinicians throughout this time frame.
Delohery: You took the words out of my mouth, because as you were speaking, I was just hearing that you have the culture in place to foster this kind of support and community for your travelers. The pandemic for a lot of staffing firms has really been a test of culture, both in terms of moving remote and in terms of having to really be agile in the way you’ve been talking about, and make changes really quickly in the face of uncertainty. How have you guys preserved your culture in this hotbed of the pandemic?
Hansen: I think back at SAA, probably two years ago, our CEO was on a panel and they were talking about culture, and everybody was saying the things that they do, and our CEO responded and said, “You really have to think what is culture?”
Sure, we have everything that we did before when we were in person in our offices full bore. If we had yoga on site, we now have virtual yoga, we have virtual meditation. We have nutritionists on staff that are conducting virtual classes. We have a full time event planner who does nothing but plan amazing engagements and parties for Aya.
If you know anything about parties, at Aya we have the best parties in the industry. She has channeled all of her creative energy into creating amazing team events. We have done mixologist team events, virtual escape rooms, lip sync contest, trivia nights, concerts. This coming Monday at SAA, we are hosting a virtual 80s happy hour with our staffing partner network.
I mean, you name it. Our company put together totally distance driving movie. We have done so many cool things to keep our spirit and our connectedness.
At a very basic level, we’ve always been enabled to work remotely, so from like a technology shift, where you hear a lot of companies that are like, “Oh my gosh, we just didn’t even have the infrastructure to let people go work from home,” our people have always had that first.
It’s very rare. I mean, a lot of people like coming to the office because our offices are fun, we have free food, we’re like one giant family. That’s fun, but we’ve always had that ability to really work on the fly.
Our work systems are housed in a cloud. It’s easy, we’re there. Microsoft Teams is right on my cell phone, so if I need to go somewhere, I’m available and accessible. We’ve collaborated really, really well. I think, going to Microsoft Teams earlier in the year, and streamlining through that platform, our business was already set up in a highly collaborative function virtually.
I talk on video all day long with my team members, even if we weren’t in a pandemic. So I think we’ve done so much, that if we had it while we were together in person, we still have it. And I don’t think a lot of our team members have really experienced a feeling of loss from being out of the office.
And when it was safe to get us back into our offices, we did, and we did it very smartly. Now people have a choice, if they’re there and they want to work from the office, it’s great. If they’re already remote, which we have a large remote workforce, we’re just doing what we’ve always done.
Except I do think my business development team would probably like to pack their suitcases, and go ride an escalator in an airport just for old time’s sake, because I think they’d probably miss, Marriott and Delta and other things, but I’d say for the most of us, we’ve adapted really well.
Delohery: That’s interesting. I’ve heard what you had before the pandemic seems to make a huge difference, and how well you maintained throughout this trial. So it sounds like you backed up very up too, so you have the foundation.
Hansen: Totally.
Delohery: You mentioned that you guys have a pretty small leadership team, and I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about how you guys work, and what your leadership style is?
Hansen: Yeah. I would say that we actually have a pretty large leadership team, but it was a small group of a small core group of us making decisions on the fly during the pandemic. I would say that our leadership structure in Aya is probably also unlike many other staffing companies leadership style, or leadership structure.
We are probably one of the least bureaucratic organizations that I’ve ever seen, and that bodes well with a lot of people who like that structure. We’re highly entrepreneurial, we hire the best talent, we hire them so that they can think on their own, and because of that, people will roll in, and they’ll say, “Let me see your org chart.”
We’re like, “What do you mean?” We don’t put a ton of weight in different things like that, but we have some phenomenal leaders that motivate, and inspire their teams every single day, and that’s really what I think is important.
We subscribe to a school of thought around situational leadership, and I think our organization demonstrates that really, really well. There are certainly times and especially times of constant chaos, where you need a leader to be a bit more directive, you need this autocracy that comes in and says, “This is what we need to do,” and then everybody is like, “Thank you for the direction. I’m so tired of making my own decisions.”
Then there are other times where it’s completely applicable to lead our groups by a democracy, and get that vote and see what’s going to happen. But I would say that, first and foremost, to really thrive as a leader in our organization, being able to manage yourself situationally, and turn your leadership style to what is needed, at that point in time in the business for that individual, in that situation is key.
And I think I embody personally a lot of those elements when my team really needs me to make a decision, give direction, be very, very clear about what is needed, I absolutely do that.
When there’s the opportunity for me to just pass the buck and say, “Be very laissez faire about some things that don’t need me,” and I’m 100% comfortable with my team leading in that way as well. So really being able to pivot, and being able to situationally adapt, and adjust is a key leadership trait that is finding success in our organization right now.
Delohery: It sounds like that also comes with an attendant comfortability, where hanging back and letting people do their own thing allows them the possibility to succeed, and it also creates a certain space where it’s safer to make mistakes or safer to fail even. So, I’m wondering, what’s your relationship to failures or mistakes? How has a failure in your path set you up for success?
Hansen: Oh, which one? How many, right? Oh wow. I’m not afraid of failure, but I think it’s one of those things that if you don’t know failure, you’ve never really experienced triumph, and so I think it’s important to look at both.
I also think you’re exactly right. If I back up just a bit, allowing your individual contributors, your team members, your teams together to function. Get out of their way and let them go.
We hire really, really smart, super talented people, and we hire them with the reason that we want them to do what they’re great at. So, it would be damning to put some sort of bureaucracy in the way to stunt their abilities, and we do our very, very best every single day to make sure that that doesn’t happen.
I also think that if we think about leadership in different ways, when we have a super high performing team, my role changes where I am just removing barriers out of their way. What is the roadblock? What’s the next thing you see up around the corner? “I’m going to go get that out of your way, and you just keep going. Keep your foot on the gas pedal and then go.”
But I also think that we’re certainly not immune to failures. I always have the tendency to be a little bit more on that democratic side. Like, “Let’s go politic this around a little bit, and figure out if it’s the right decision, and that kind of stuff.”
Something that I’ve learned over the course of this pandemic, when everybody is running low on gas, if they’re tired, they have developed and worked through many, many, many challenges, sometimes just providing direction, which doesn’t always seem exactly my style, just giving that direction and getting things done is alleviating to them.
They’re not mad, they’re just happy that stuff is just moving and going, because sometimes it’s hard to see the forest for the trees when we’re in this time of constant chaos. So, when I think about that, there’re some failures, that’s maybe not being quick enough to give some direction, and thinking that everybody’s got some things handled, and you of course correct.
If I think overall, just career wise, and some of those many, many failures, something that I’ve learned just about my own path, is to stay in the lane of what I’m really good at. I’m good in healthcare staffing, I love healthcare staffing. I’ve been in this industry on every angle of it, and I love it.
I’ve dabbled in other businesses, I own other businesses, and when I come back, and I really, really think about it, I’m best when I stay in this lane, and I stay in this industry. This is what I’m competent and knowledgeable about, it’s what I’m passionate about, and I think that’s probably palpable.
But at the same way, I’ve owned a hair salon. I have no idea why I owned a hair salon. Like what was I doing? If you’ve ever seen my hair, you’ll know that I do not have that talent. When you think about those things it’s really deciding, “Wow, what have I been blessed with for skills and abilities and competence and confidence?” And stay close to that, which is what I’m doing here in healthcare staffing.
Delohery: That’s great. And then also that self-knowledge takes failure, takes comfortability with failing, takes comfortability with taking the kind of risks that can go either way. So it sounds like knowing what you’re passionate about is sometimes hard won, that makes sense.
Hansen: Absolutely. There’s a lot of shiny objects out there, right?
Delohery: Totally.
Hansen: So getting into that pure passion zone, and seeing where you’re proficient. It’s easy to get distracted, it’s easy to get disinterested, and have to do some of those things, but the magic really happens when you’re both passionate and proficient on something, and when you apply your unique skills and ability into that. Even though you fail along the way, there’s no nefarious intent along any of those failures, you’re just learning as you go, but at least it comes from a place of pure genuine motivation and care.
Delohery: And maybe this is related, but is there any new beliefs or practice or behavior that you have picked up in the past five years or so, that has helped you get clarity on that path, or has helped you just to be more efficient or a better leader?
Hansen: Yeah, I think there is. I am a person who actually loves complexity, so the more complex the problem I’m like, “Oh, this is awesome.” Back in high school I used to be really into doing like very long, complex proofs in geometry, and I could master 107 step proof, and I saw how it all connected.
Then in nursing, I’m a CVICU nurse, I’m an open heart nurse, I loved the really complex, super sick puzzle that I got to peel apart and put together, and I loved complexity. One of the lessons that my CEO has taught me is that, “You know what? April, in almost all cases, simple is better.”
Delohery: Definitely.
Hansen: And so think about things, and if the pathway is so complex, it’s going to take additional time, it’s going to take additional thought, it’s going to take many more steps to potentially even uncover if the outcome is worth it.
And so when you’re looking at things, and when I’m deciding on pathways and solutions, and trying to figure out, I’m more often than not now going to look for simplicity, as opposed to complexity, even if I’ve previously been drawn there.
But the interesting part about that is I don’t think looking for simplicity, has actually reduced creativity. And that was always my concern. So if I was just trying to make things as simple as possible, was it just going to be boring?
And I think the answer that is no. I still have the ability to connect dots in ways that perhaps others don’t. But with that, it’s taking that approach to keep it more simple and less complex.
Delohery: Mm-hmm (affirmative). There’s a lot of elegance in solving the 107 step proof in 20 steps. There’s a great degree of creativity, and also intelligence in making something complex really simple.
Hansen: That’s just it. I also think there’s a certain knack that some people have to take simple things and make them complex, right? I’m trying to not do that.
Delohery: Exactly.
Hansen: Like, “This is a simple problem, let’s just keep it as simple problem, let’s just cut from… We don’t need to go A, all the way through Z, and stop at each point. Let’s just get there and move on. We got a lot of stuff to do.”
Delohery: I think this is very related. I see a lot of advice out there in the staffing industry and just in general leadership advice, that does make what’s very simple quite complicated. But can you think of any bad recommendations that you hear in your profession, or in the staffing industry that you would prefer we just do away with?
Hansen: Oh, I could think of a lot of them. Some of them might get me booed off the show. But I think right now, and especially as we’re into the end of the year. For many of us that operate on a typical calendar year, we’re thinking about fourth quarter, we’re thinking about closing strong, we’re thinking about setting goals for our next year.
Something that I think is just a little silly right now, is to really believe that anybody knows what’s going to happen, right? We all see our trends, we know our trends, we know the wave that we’ve been on. We look at those trend lines, and we all have stepped back from the highs and the lows, and we’ve evaluated the trend line, we can see what’s happening.
What I think is a misguidance, or perhaps just almost an irrelevant strategy right now, is to go plan out what’s your three year plan? What’s your five year plan? It’s silly, right? And if that’s the way you’re thinking about how you’re going to get to the next milestone in your business, I would prepare to be disrupted.
I think some of the bad advice has come that we’re going to think about our business, and the way that we’ve thought about our businesses before, and then some of the same principles apply, because they don’t. That’s a way that I think people can get a little sideways.
Delohery: Mm-hmm (affirmative). That’s great. It also, if nothing else 2020 has showed us that we have no ability to predict the future, so any model that is reliant on predicting what is even going to happen in 2021, is probably going to not just fall short, but be a total waste of time.
Hansen: Yeah, exactly. If you spend a whole lot of time on that, it’s tough. I also think that we have to give consideration to what is happening with our buyers right now too. Health care buying cycle has always been really long in many, many ways.
During the pandemic, it turned into a lightning fast speed of a buying cycle because they really, really needed help in a lot of ways. With that, there’s also great uncertainty in many places there with our buyers. So, as we step back, and we evaluate targets and goals and objectives, we have to take into account where our buyers are at, and how attainable some of these things are based on where they are.
I think, once again, the thought rules is that, let’s keep it simple, let’s just keep doing what is working well, let’s keep defining the jobs that need to be done with our customers. So what are those jobs to be done? And think about ways that we can get that job done.
Maybe the business is going to look a little different. Maybe we need to launch some different service lines, maybe we need to shut down some things that we were doing that just aren’t relevant anymore, and refocus teams and goals.
Delohery: Maybe you have exactly pointed to why this question is unanswerable, but what do you see on the horizon for Aya Healthcare?
Hansen: Aya is an incredible company, and I’m not saying that just because I work for Aya and I eat, sleep and breathe Aya. We’ve really, truthfully, have created an incredible company. We’ve doubled in the last year in size, and that doesn’t happen again, by accident, and it also doesn’t really happen in our industry.
By the time you start at the size we were at, and then you double in one year, that’s just unheard of. So when I think about the excitement that comes along with being part of the growth story here, I think it’s very humbling, it’s also very rewarding, and it’s very motivating.
So when you think about, “Wow, the hills we’ve climbed together, the summits that we are undertaking here,” it’s incredibly inspiring. And so I’m very motivated about what’s happening into the future, I’m so impressed at the speed in which we’ve released new technologies, and that we’ve improved business processes.
I’m just thrilled with some of the really great talent that’s joined our organization, and the talent that would like to join the organization, and our ability to continue to scale and grow in those ways. The camaraderie that I feel amongst my peer group, and inside our organization, and all of our teams continues to grow.
And I think our relentless focus on ensuring that our clients are happy, ensuring that our clinicians are having an exceptional experience in working with us, and continuing to differentiate ourselves that in those ways, will really be that continuing leading strategy into 2021.
I just had a meeting with my team today, and I was like, “Here’s what we’re going to do, just keep going. Keep doing what you’re doing.” They’re doing a really, really great job, but I see a ton of opportunity.
Am I naive enough to think that nothing will change? No. Am I confident and poised enough to believe that we have the right infrastructure, that we have the right talent, that we have the right leadership, and that we have the right motivation, and centeredness to know that we’re going to make good decisions?
Are we going to do the right thing with the business regardless of what happens in the market for that what we don’t know? We don’t know what it’s going to be, but I feel very positive about it.
I feel very bullish about our position, and I’m humbled and honored to be in this position, and to continue to do the work that we’re doing, because I know this work is very, very important.
Delohery: That’s great. That’s a beautiful place to end. I like the way you pull together an idea that we have no idea what’s happening, but if we’re agile and adaptable enough and rely on our strengths, then we can face the future, come what may.
Hansen: Absolutely. What other choices is there, right?
Delohery: Exactly. Well, thank you so much, April. This was a wonderful conversation, I really appreciate it.
Hansen: Thanks so much, Caitlin. I appreciate it, take care.
