Why You Should NOT Lay Off Your VA Coordinator?
I have observed a troubling trend that is popping up all over the healthcare landscape. This trend in hospitals, systems and IDNs are laying off their value analysis coordinators, managers and directors because of the affects of the new economy. This doesn’t make any sense to me, but it is a reality!
In fact, I was shocked when I called one of our Certified Value Analysis Leaders only to find out that she was laid off from a major teaching hospital last month, who I considered one of the best in the field. How could this happen?
I have a theory; see if you agree with me. I believe that this Value Analysis Manager didn’t show the intrinsic VALUE of her position to her senior management every day, in every way, and when every opportunity came her way. Therefore, her senior management, when the chips were down, didn’t see the VALUE of her position, so they eliminated it.
Don’t make this same fatal mistake! If you are a value analysis coordinator, manager or director take a lesson from this story. You MUST make yourself highly visible to your healthcare organization’s senior management and make sure they recognize you as an essential, indispensible and important cog in your hospital’s supply chains wheel. This can be accomplished by these four visibility tactics:
1. Sending a monthly, quarterly and annual report to your senior management on your VA savings and activities.
2. Publish a monthly Value Analysis Newsletter and circulate it to all of your senior management, department heads and managers talking about your VA successes.
3. Make sure that there is a member of your hospital’s senior management team on ALL of your value analysis teams.
4. Facilitate an annual value analysis strategic planning retreat and invite your senior management team to participate in this important planning process.
I think you get the idea, it’s your job to show the intrinsic VALUE of your position and this won’t happen unless you start to promote yourself and your value analysis efforts shamelessly, if need be, to ensure that your important position is recognized as mission critical to the success of your healthcare organization. Don’t leave anything to chance!
How to Select the Best VA Team Leaders
Indentifying the best value analysis team leader candidates can be like playing a game of roulette if you don’t have a list of proven characteristics that are known to be a good predictor of success. To help you in your selection here are four characteristics you should look for in your Value Analysis leaders:
1. Team leadership experience
Your candidates should have managed at least one team previously, before even being considered as a VA team leader. This is not the time for on-the-job training if you are looking for a high-level of performance for your value analysis teams.
2. Problem-Solving Skills
This is an essential skill that your team leaders must possess, since this will be a big part of their job as a VA team leader. This important skill will help their project managers when they hit the wall on their projects and think that no solution can be found to move their projects forward.
3. Proven Track Record
Just because a candidate has led a team before, doesn’t mean that they have done it successfully. Look for candidates with a proven track record of results (quantitative and qualitative) before assuming that they have the leadership abilities necessary to lead one of your VA teams.
4. Excellent Communications Skills
One of the most important leadership skills a VA leader can have is to be an excellent communicator, since this is 80% of what a VA leader does. A VA leader must provide frequent, consistent and timely verbal and written communications to their team members that are clear, motivating, and goal oriented. If a leader doesn’t have this skill they will be ineffective in leading their VA team in the right direction.
These are just a few of the characteristics we have found that VA team leaders must exhibit if they are to be effective, successful and competent in leading their VA teams. Don’t forget to use them the next time you make the important selection of a VA team leader. This will ensure your ability to get a good fit – not a mismatch!
