From Early Morning FedEx to Healthcare CHRO: Kelly Oliver’s Journey | Healthcare Series

Intro: Welcome to another edition of Inspired Stories where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes how they’ve overcome adversity and explore current challenges they’re facing.

Anthony Codispoti: Welcome to another edition of the Inspired Stories podcast where leaders share their experiences so we can learn from their successes and be inspired by how they’ve overcome adversity. My name is Anthony Kodespode and today’s guest is Kelly Oliver, Chief Human Resources Officer at Nevada Health Centers, which was founded in 1977 and is the largest provider of primary care for underserved populations in Nevada. As a non-profit, they operate 20 health centers and 5 mobile health programs across the state, offering services like dental care, family medicine, pediatrics, women’s health and behavioral health. They make quality healthcare accessible and affordable through a sliding fee scale.

With initiatives like the Mamo Van and Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, they bring care directly to those in need in urban, rural and frontier communities. Kelly joined Nevada Health Centers in February 2023 and has been instrumental in fostering a positive workplace culture and enhancing employee engagement. He holds an MBA in international management from Thunderwood School of Global Management and dual bachelor’s degrees in management and finance from the University of Utah. With extensive experience in human resources leadership, Kelly has served in roles at HCA Mountain Division and Regional West Health Services.

He also holds certifications including Senior Professional in Human Resources, SPHR and Certified Scrum Master. Now before we get into all that good stuff, today’s episode is brought to you by my company, Add Back Benefits Agency, where we offer very specific and unique employee benefits that are both great for your team and fiscally optimized for your bottom line. One recent client was able to add over $900 per employee per year in extra cash flow by implementing one of our proprietary programs. Results vary for each company and some organizations may not be eligible.

To find out if your company qualifies, contact us today at addbackbenefitsagency.com. Now back to our guests today, the Chief Human Resource Officer at Nevada Health Centers, Kelly Oliver. I appreciate you making the time to share your story today.

Kelly Oliver: Thank you so much for having me, Anthony. I appreciate it.

Anthony Codispoti: So Kelly, as I look at your work history, before you got into HR, you were doing something radically different, risk management, information systems. Tell us how that leap took place.

Kelly Oliver: Sure, sure. When I was in college, when I was deciding my major, doing management, I think that management was kind of fun and I enjoyed it, but I wanted to push myself and so I was working for American Express at the time and I was doing banking and credit and that sort of thing. And I really loved the credit side of things and I really loved working for American Express, but I kind of had dabbled in employee engagement a little bit in college and where I was working and that sort of thing, but I really loved risk management and that sort of thing. And I just challenged myself to get a double major. I thought, I might as well double major, you know, and it’s just, you know, a little bit more work, but I really enjoyed being in the kind of activity of risk management and doing credit and banking and things, but yeah, it’s probably not a traditional HR background. For sure, half my career was kind of in banking and risk and then here I am in management.

Anthony Codispoti: And so what led to that transition? Why did you decide I’m going to shift gears from risk into HR?

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, so back in 2000, about 2008 was when I made the jump over in HR. What led to that was the fall of the market, the housing market, the bubble bursting, so people here sit in the bubble burst in 2008. Well, when I was at the bank, I was doing risk management for a subprime mortgage portfolio of about four and a half billion dollars. Okay. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, I see where this is going.

Kelly Oliver: And so what I kind of realized in about midway through 2007, I was at a credit conference and one of the instructors at this credit conference had said, hey, what’s your mortgage ratios looking like? And I was like, they’re not looking so good.

And he was like, let’s look at this. And so I started realizing that the market was kind of hitting an iceberg, like the Titanic almost, maybe a major iceberg. But I really knew what we were doing internally, but I had a hunch that the market was probably going to go soft sooner or later. And so it was a rough time.

Anthony Codispoti: So you had a front row seat to everything that was going on and actually knew much sooner than almost anybody else that this was about to hit.

Kelly Oliver: The indicators were there. The bankruptcies, the repossessions, the foreclosures, seeing people not being able to pay their mortgages and things. Or back then, there was a lot of adjustable rate mortgages in the marketplace. And there was also really weird things happening in mortgages like drive-by appraisals and stated income loans, which is like they didn’t verify your income and things. And so people were kind of betting on their future that they were going to get raises and things and be in a better financial spot when their adjustable rate mortgage set. But the indicators were there. And so I was kind of, management was like thinking that nothing’s going to happen.

Don’t worry about it. And just keep working. And I’m like, hey, the numbers were getting worse every month. And so I knew I had to get to a better place. And so I decided I was going to see if I could use my management degree and maybe do some human resources type stuff and get out of there. OK.

Anthony Codispoti: So you saw the writing on the wall. You got out before the bottom really dropped in that industry. And did you find your way to HR right away or was there sort of a bridge between there?

Kelly Oliver: Yeah. So I was able to get a job as a project manager and at a health care company, a very large health care company was driving to work one day. I saw this big sign there opening up a hospital says, hey, we’re hiring.

You know, here I was depressed about the mortgage market. And so I applied for a job and they offered me a job as a project manager. But they also knew I had this like employee engagement background from from my previous work. And so my boss was like, hey, I’d really like you to help lead employee engagement in our department. And so I jumped in doing doing my project management stuff, but the employee engagement kind of on the side. And I started getting getting noticed by corporate on things we were initiatives we were doing for employee engagement. And and so one of the vice presidents reached out to me after a couple of years of being a project manager and said, I really want you on my my HR team. And so so I joined the corporate HR team of this health care organization had about 36,000 employees.

Anthony Codispoti: So what did it look like the employee engagement work that you were doing? Why was this? Why was this getting you so much attention?

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, so our I don’t know if it was the leader I was working for the division I was in, but they had really poor scores on their employee engagement survey, just their annual employee engagement score. And and I was like, well, we can improve this, you know, like we can have a little committee on the team, you know, and and, you know, I had I had I had done a six sigma Greenbelt project for employee engagement years earlier on working through, you know, issues with employee engagement and stuff. And so when that came out that I had, you know, kind of, I guess you would say maybe mastered or improved employee engagement through a six sigma Greenbelt project, you know, people were kind of perked up a little bit. And so that’s that’s, you know, where I was able to, you know, implement some changes. And so we went to the kind of went to the top of the to the top of the company, you know, with our scores the next time we took the survey. And so people were like, have that department from go from the bottom to the top in one year, you know,

Anthony Codispoti: and so like, what were some of the practical things you mentioned, like forming a committee, give us some other examples.

Kelly Oliver: Yeah. You know, having the leader be a little bit more open to, you know, meeting with employees, you know, showing a personal side, you know, recognition was was big, you know, to recognize employees, you know, on for daily things, and then for, you know, projects completed and, you know, making, you know, having some meaningful, meaningful messages to employees, you know, like sending a personal card, you know, to them, you know, writing, you know, thanking them and stuff like that. And so, you know, that meant a lot to employees and, you know, it changed the atmosphere, changed the environment.

Anthony Codispoti: So what, how did the opportunity for Nevada Health Centers open up? What led you there? Yeah.

Kelly Oliver: So I was, I was in Nebraska, working for regional health, regional West health services there a couple of years ago. And it was the, the organization kind of went through a rough spot financially, but also the culture was really poor. And I had learned some, some things about the, some of the executives and things that were not in line with my values of, you know, you know, honesty and being trustworthy as an executive. And, and so I started to look for a job. And one of my friends who was actually the head of human resources here was taking a job in another state and called me and said, Hey, you ever thought about Las Vegas?

And I, and I really hadn’t. And he said, I think you’d be incredible to come work for our organization, you know, and, and I’m, you know, he was leaving. And, and so he, you know, introduced me to the executive team. And it was just a really amazing relationship that was quickly formed through meeting with them a couple of times. And the CEO is a phenomenal guy and a leader that walks the talk and that, and it was just really refreshing to see it.

He’s very visionary too. And, and, you know, he offered me a job on the spot and said, he said, Hey, Kelly, I want you to come, you know, what would it take for you to come join us in Nevada? And so it was, it was easy for me to, to say, Hey, I’m, I’m on board, you know, but I really love the healthcare space.

Anthony Codispoti: What is it that sort of bonded you and the CEO so well? I mean, you mentioned he walks the talk, but what does that mean in this environment?

Kelly Oliver: You know, so he’s been with the organization for over 10 years now. And he, he came in the organization when, when they weren’t very financial, via financially viable, and he’s taken and expanded this, this company from, you know, maybe, you know, 10 or 12 clinics to now, you know, 20 clinics and to having mobile units and being able to serve the homeless and low income people across the state of Nevada. But he has similar values to me, you know, you know, accountability and mutual respect and trust. And, you know, he, he likes, you know, ideas of, you know, let’s go improve our culture. Let’s go do employee engagement. Let’s meet with our employees. And so he and I, every year we go meet with every employee.

We drive to every clinic in the state of Nevada and meet with our employees and just listen to them and just talk to them for a couple hours. But it’s important to us. We call it the CEO. Let’s talk. And so we just go and listen to it. But it’s, it’s, he, you know, it’s a guy I want to follow.

Anthony Codispoti: So tell us a little bit more about Nevada health centers and what it does. There’s now 20 locations. It’s primary care. You’re serving the homeless. Who else kind of paint us a picture?

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, yeah. I kind of give a little rundown sometimes when I’m interviewing other people and kind of lay in the company background out for people. But yeah, Nevada health center has been around for 40 years. We have 20 clinics, 20. So that’s 20 medical medical and dental clinics around the state of Nevada.

So from, from the far northeast side of kind of Elko, Nevada, if anybody knows the geography over to Reno, Carson and the western side, and then all the way down here in the south in Las Vegas. And so we, we do have medical and dental clinics, also behavioral health services and social services. And one clinic that we have here in Las Vegas is in our homeless corridor. So we work with the city of Las Vegas and some of the, some of the county programs in the homeless corridor to provide medical care and social services to the homeless people.

And it’s really cool to see that. And one of, one of the programs that we have is called street medicine. And so we have EMTs who go up and down the streets and see homeless people and see if they need just aspirin or if they need help, medical care at a clinic or, you know, emergent, you know, to get them an ambulance. And those people are just kind of like the mother Teresa’s, if you will, of health care that they’re just like kind of in a dangerous spot, you know, because you don’t know what you’re getting with some homeless people. And, and, but they, they see what kind of care they need and assess it.

And then they either get them to our clinic or to a hospital and that sort of thing. But it’s just, it’s really rewarding work. And then our five mobile units that we’ve expanded to, that was a vision of our CEO as well. So we have two mobile medical units and two mobile dental units. And then we have a mammogram mobile that does breast cancer screenings.

And so they’ll show up in a very small town in Nevada for a day and do breast cancer screenings. And so last year we did over 3000 breast cancer screenings and we helped 16 women with early detection of breast cancer and they were able to get care quickly and, you know, haven’t had any, you know, problems since then. And so those are the really cool stories that I love to share with people. I was like, hey, we helped 16 women, you know, you know, get care very quickly and, and, you know, possibly save their lives.

And, you know, the homeless story is great with the street medicine. And then, you know, just being here in our clinics as I visit the state with medical and dental and vision and another cool program that probably isn’t well known as street school, school-based medicine. So if, if your parents don’t have insurance, but you are a registered student between the ages of four and 18, you can get medical and dental care. And then the city or the county reimburses us.

So, so kids don’t go without medical care. So. Wow. And then, then another side, I always have to put a plug in for these guys, but we do the women infant children program in Las Vegas area. So we’re the largest administrator of the, they call it the WIC program in a lot of states. And so we do about 23,000 encounters a month for women and children, you know, helping them with, you know, breast cancer or breastfeeding and, you know, and baby formula and nutrition for the mom and the baby. And so that’s, you know, another part of our business that a lot of people don’t know that we do, but we’re the largest in the state because Las Vegas is, you know, the biggest population, but we, we have 23,000 encounters a month on that program as well.

Anthony Codispoti: Wow. That’s really impressive. The school-based care that you’re talking about, it, the care isn’t actually delivered in a school setting. Am I right? Like they would still come to your facility.

Kelly Oliver: So both, we do go to the school. We do have a couple of school clinics we go to and do. And so our providers will go there and, you know, our, like a nurse practitioner or a doctor will go there for a day. And one day we can do, you know, medical care at the school, but, but they also come to our medical clinics as well for, for more than maybe immunizations and things like that.

Anthony Codispoti: And how does somebody qualify for that kind of care? Yeah.

Kelly Oliver: And so for like school-based, it’s, you just have to be a registered student in one of the school districts.

Anthony Codispoti: There’s no kind of minimum income requirement or maximum income requirement.

Kelly Oliver: I don’t think so on that one. I’m, you know, I’m human resource. I don’t know all the billing, but, but our, our front office, our front office associates, when, you know, anybody walks into our clinic and needs care, they have an assessment that they do. And so we have that like sliding scale. So, you know, based on your income and things, you know, have the fees there.

And then if you, you don’t have any insurance or any income, you know, we also have some programs there that we help you, you know, get Medicare or Medicaid and, and work through those programs.

Anthony Codispoti: As we talked about in the intro, there’s a sliding fee scale there. Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly Oliver: So it’s really cool. So whether, you know, if you can’t pay at all or you can pay some and, you know, and, and, uh, yeah, we provide, we don’t turn anybody away.

Anthony Codispoti: So, um, the, the folks that you’re overseeing that are helping the homeless, uh, you call them like Mother Teresa, right? They’re in a little bit of a dangerous spot from, you know, an HR perspective. I don’t know how do you think about, uh, positioning those folks so that they can be where they need to helping the people that need the help, but also ensuring their own safety. Yeah.

Kelly Oliver: And so, you know, we provide them with, you know, cell phone and different things like that for, for protection. Um, I, you know, we, we, we brought on this street medicine program about a year ago and, um, because we just had the homeless program, but, but it really dovetailed nicely having the street medicine because they were, there was an existing program and the organization that had it was, was, you know, ending there, you know, wanting to run it.

So, so we took it over. But, um, I went from, uh, you know, just having medical clinics and mobile trucks to, okay, I need to provide a coat, you know, and a, and a beanie or something. You know, cause the weather gets a little cold down here in Vegas, believe it or not. But, but, um, so, you know, providing some, some gloves and, you know, coats and things like that so that our employees, you know, are warm and that’s where they, it was kind of new for me, um, you know, in, in this space, but, uh, yeah, just, um, we have some, you know, some protocols that we follow, um, you know, good, they go in pairs and, and that sort of thing. And, um, you know, there’s, there’s ways to inform, you know, if they get into a risky situation or anything. But, but yeah, um, you know, our, our homeless clinic does have like bulletproof glass in it, in the front and things like that. There’s, yeah, things we have to do to protect our employees a little bit. Yeah.

Anthony Codispoti: Um, so you guys have grown to 20 locations and I get that this may not be your exact error per view, you know, having, you know, be the head of HR there, but I’m kind of curious if you know, has that growth happened by acquiring existing centers or just going into new locations and sort of starting from scratch?

Kelly Oliver: Um, it’s been a little both. Um, and so we’ve, we’ve opened up a couple of clinics since I’ve been here and most of those have been where maybe a community, you know, a city or a town will reach out to us and say, um, you know, we need some medical care in our town. Um, and so then we assess it and maybe meet with their city council or their town council and, and discuss that, um, and work through some things like that. And so we’ve, we’ve, um, open up some clinics in some smaller towns that way. Um, and then, um, earlier this year, there was an organization that was here, um, that, um, decided to get out of the kind of, they called the federally qualified health center space. And so they were shutting down a couple of their clinics. And so we decided we, we take on one of their clinics. Um, and so we basically acquired their space. But, but yeah, um, it is a lot of involvement with communities and city councils and also the government, um, to, you know, see if we can, uh, we look at the kind of the population and the need for the healthcare. And you know, if there’s, if there’s not any healthcare there and, you know, can we, can we go into that space?

Anthony Codispoti: Uh, you guys have future growth plans in the works?

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, we’re always, always looking at it. Um, you know, there’s, there’s, there’s a lot of places in Nevada that we’re not yet, you know, and then some small towns. And, um, so it’s, it’s always on the table to look at it and see what makes sense and, you know, see what we can do from a funding perspective. So we, we receive a lot of funding from federal and state grants and things. And so yeah, we’re always, always looking to do that. If it makes sense with our, our company and our, you know, vision and values as well.

Anthony Codispoti: And when you go into a new location like that, from an HR perspective, how do you prepare the company to kind of hit the ground running? Have the, the best, yeah.

Kelly Oliver: Sometimes we get a short runway, like, Hey, we’re going to open up a clinic in three weeks. Like, whoa, you know, um, so let’s just hurry and, and, uh, you know, post jobs all over the place. Um, we’ve been lucky. Uh, we, we recently opened up a clinic in the town of Perump, Nevada. And, um, we, the lady that’s our clinic manager there, um, actually is pretty well connected. And so she had a lot of friends from a previous clinic that she was working at.

So it’s leveraging those relationships. But, but yeah, sometimes you would really like a little bit longer runway to be able to, you know, post jobs and, and, um, but yeah, we, um, we do have to look at, you know, being competitive pay. So we’re kind of look around and see what, what other, uh, companies or organizations are paying for similar positions in the area and stuff.

So we kind of get it right the first time or as close as we can, and then that make adjustments. But yeah, it’s advertising and, you know, working with, you know, people who know people that might be looking for a job and that sort of thing. So, um, also working with, um, you know, trade schools and, you know, places that are maybe, you know, training medical assistants, you know, and getting them certified and, you know, needing, uh, you know, someone wanting a job after they’re done with their schooling and stuff.

Anthony Codispoti: So, I’m mostly direct hire. Do you do some, um, contract or temporaries?

Kelly Oliver: Mostly all direct hire. Yeah. We, we just have some contracts on the provider side, like on the doctor side, but, um, on regular employees, non-providers, it’s all pretty much direct hire.

Anthony Codispoti: Um, what’s typically the hardest position for you to fill?

Kelly Oliver: So a lot of the turnover is in medical assisting in front office. Um, it’s the front, front line employees, you know, entry level, uh, there. Um, providers is, is hard to, um, recruit for, uh, to come out and work in Nevada. Some, sometimes in these small towns, uh, but providers is a little bit tough.

Um, I, um, work with the provider relations of vice president. And so they, she has a tough job of finding providers who want to come and work in a small town in, in Nevada. But what do you say providers? You mean doctors? Doctors, nurse practitioners, physician assistants.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, so when you find somebody, you’ve got them in house, what are some things that you’ve found to be successful to retain them? Really good question.

Kelly Oliver: Uh, that’s another thing I love about our organization. We have what’s called in the Vata Health Center’s university. And so, um, for all employees in their first year of employment, they’re given, uh, online courses and, um, web courses with one of our organizational effectiveness, uh, directors. And they have a number of courses that they, they take over that first year and then we have a first year celebration, um, for them.

Um, if you’re a leader in the organization, like a new manager, a new director, um, we have a manager cohort, like new leader, um, cohort that’s about 10 months long and you’ll, you’ll do some courses there. We’re really big on crucial conversations course, uh, through VitalSmart. So we, we encourage every employee to go through VitalSmart’s, uh, crucial conversations course. Um, and then for physicians, we have a physician, um, physician steering committee, but we also have a physician leader program that we’re working to, um, provide mentoring for our new graduates of that are providers, you know, maybe just out of school, um, be mentored by some of our existing, uh, providers. Um, so we do, and then this also our university has a couple thousand different courses that you could take for like self improvement and stuff that you want to do. Or like if you want to learn Excel or, you know, learn to be a better communicator and things like that, you can go do that at any time, uh, on the, on the platform.

Anthony Codispoti: And this platform, it’s free for all your employees to access. Yeah. And it’s not like, um, it’s not like they’re earning a certification that might like increase their pay. They’re just doing it for their own edification, their own self-improvement.

Kelly Oliver: There’s both out there. Actually. I mean, they, they can, um, they’re mostly it’s self improvement stuff, but they’re, and but you can earn a certificate. Um, and we also are like our one year program, you get a certificate and then our physician leader training stuff and our manager thing. We provide a little graduation and a little, you know, excitement around it celebration. But, um, yeah, all of our employees can do that, um, anytime they want. But, um, yeah, we recognize them when they do go through it, like a certificate. Some, some courses do provide you like a certificate and stuff. So, okay.

Anthony Codispoti: So, um, that’s a pretty cool program. Are there other examples of, uh, some unique initiatives that you’ve led to kind of foster a more motivated and commitment workforce there in Nevada health centers?

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, we, we do, uh, twice. So we, um, contract with a group called Huron Consulting. It’s, uh, and if you’re in the healthcare space, you might have heard of Quint Studer.

He, he was kind of, I don’t know if I’m the godfather of healthcare, like, uh, management or whatnot, but, um, Huron, um, you know, um, acquired his knowledge of healthcare and that sort of thing. And so we do what’s called a leadership development institute twice a year. So usually in the spring and the fall, where we bring all 70 of our leaders together for usually two days of training on some things operational, some things leadership and management.

And, um, we just did one in October. Um, and we, you know, we talk about different topics and things like wellness came up this time, compensation. Um, we sometimes pepper in like a five dysfunctions of a team learning or, you know, the four agreements type book, things like that, and some guest speakers and things.

So, um, we do that every, every, uh, twice a year, about six months in between. So, um, it’s, it’s been really good to keep our leaders, um, you know, knowing what’s going on in the organization and help them, um, with their skills and, you know, being sharp.

Anthony Codispoti: So you yourself, you double major, um, you’ve got at least a couple of six Sigma belts. Um, so degrees, certifications, um, some of the education opportunities that you’re providing to your employees there. Uh, also some of them come with certifications. How important do you think those degrees and certifications are either for yourself or for your workforce in general? Yeah.

Kelly Oliver: Um, I’m a believer of, I don’t know, I live by a quote that says we should all plant trees will never sit under. Um, I like to help people. Um, uh, and sometimes that’s helping people that you don’t even know or, or just, you know, giving to people.

Um, but whether you’re an HR coordinator or you’re an HR director in, in my organization, I want everybody to be the best. Um, I, I did a little bit of time in the Marines right out of high school. And when I was in the Marines, I always said, you’re only strong as your weakest link. And, um, I really believe that. And so, um, what, like I said, if you’re my HR coordinator or HR secretary type position, I want to get you indoctrinated into a HR and provide you an opportunity to get like an HR certificate that, um, whether you stay with us longterm or, or not, um, you can always have that on your resume that you, you know, you have an HR certificate and things. And so I firmly believe in training and, you know, leaving the world at a better place. And so, um, our positions, we try to help, you know, help our medical assistants be certified in different areas of the company and their positions. We try to help people, um, you know, be the best at their position. And, um, you know, I want people to be able to, like I said, if they, you know, decide to leave the organization, they’ll be able to say they had a, you know, HR certificate or a medical assistant certificate on their, on their resume and, you know, and help people with not just, you know, while they’re here with us, but for the rest of their life.

Anthony Codispoti: Because you believe those certifications are going to help them get noticed in a crowded job space. Yeah.

Kelly Oliver: Yeah. You never know what’s going to happen with, you know, the world or organizations, you know, and, and, uh, you know, for myself, I always, you know, I was the first person to graduate from college and my family, but I, I felt like if you have a degree, you know, nobody can take that away from you. Um, you can have a lot of work experience and that might be good and all, but I think you, you know, having a degree, um, can, you know, you can fall back on it if you need to, um, you know, it’s not ever going to end like a certificate, you know, even a trade certificate, you know, from a trade school, um, you know, people can’t, you can’t take that away from a person.

Anthony Codispoti: So, Kelly launching new programs like the clinical trials partnership with Javara that shows growth, shows innovation, which, you know, we’ve already seen examples of it here in our conversation. I’m curious from an HR perspective, how do you prepare and support your staff for that kind of expansion and integration of new services?

Kelly Oliver: Yeah. I’m smiling a little bit because I remember when we, we were talking about clinical studies and research, uh, about a year and a half ago or so. And it was, um, working with an outside organization to come into our organization and partner with us. And we were like, oh, we’re allowing this other organization. And from an HR perspective, it was like, okay, we got to make sure that everybody meets the same immunization and background check and drug screen, all that stuff.

But looking at the future and also the potential that it provided us to help more people. I was told that there was one of our research studies, the medicine and stuff that’s in that program. If, you know, for people that can’t afford it, it was like a $30,000 treatment. And because they were able to sign up through our research, you know, clinical study, they got that medicine for free. And, you know, that’s really cool that, you know, a low income person, you know, could come to us and say, hey, we have these studies going on and, you know, be able to give them some medicines and stuff that they might not be able to afford otherwise. And from an HR perspective, it was like, okay, it’s another kind of maybe stream of revenue, if you will, into the organization. But also, it expands our services and what we can offer people, like I said, with the $30,000 example, you know, really cool, cool things there to help people get care. And then also maybe be on the cutting edge of treatments as well.

Anthony Codispoti: Obviously in HR, you know, a couple of the key roles that sort of fall under your umbrella are hiring and firing. Let’s talk about the hiring piece first. I’m curious, you know, from all the, obviously an innovative guy, like to be kind of on the cutting edge of things. What are some things that you’ve found have been really helpful to kind of weed through applicants and get a sense beforehand as much as possible. Nothing’s 100%, but as much as possible to be able to weed out people that are not going to be a good fit from a cultural standpoint.

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, I think sometimes it starts with also like your job description or your job posting, like, you know, being as transparent as you can and what you’re looking for with the position so that, you know, when people send you a resume or send you the application or apply online, you can see if they have that experience. And pre-screening is very important, you know, because if you start having an interview with 10 or so people, you know, involved, you know, adds up in money, you know, or just, you know, time away from the work and stuff.

But one thing, you know, we do panel interviews is important. There have been, when I first got here, there was some leaders that were just doing, you know, their own, like one-on-one interviewing and stuff, and these people were turning over. These physicians were, you know, turning over pretty quickly or the people weren’t a right fit.

And so we did have to, you know, let them go, you know, terminate them early. And so I’ve said, hey, we need to do panel interviewing because if we can get more people involved, even HR, if we can be a part of the interview, we can, you know, lend a, you know, a lens that, you know, maybe the operations team doesn’t see, you know, and so it is like that culture, you know, like, we can ask some cultural questions from HR and, you know, some background questions and things. And so having a good panel interview and maybe, I tell people like, you do it at phone screen, right? Maybe 30 minutes, you do an interview for an hour, and then you make a job over it.

Maybe that’s not enough time. Maybe you should have a phone screen and then maybe two rounds of interviews, you know, for, you know, getting to know someone for a couple of hours, but, you know, asking those questions. And also, believe it or not, we do, we do reference checks on some of our positions, and that’s actually been very informative to us and can give us some information. It’s, you know, some people are like, oh, those are, you know, way old, you know, people don’t do reference checks anymore, but we do some reference checks and it’s been telling sometimes.

Anthony Codispoti: Now, I’m kind of curious from a legal perspective, as an employer of somebody who has, you know, left and gone on to other opportunities, somebody calls me and asks for, you know, a reference. What is it that I’m allowed to say? Is everything like on the table?

Kelly Oliver: Well, so, like if employer wise, you know, most organizations, if you were to call up their former employer, it would just be like their dates of employment, what position they held. There’s really not much information there. But if you give me, you know, a character reference of yours, like a former boss or, you know, somebody that worked for you, things like that, you know, and provide a character reference. Sometimes people have reference letters and things that they’ll provide us, you know, and sometimes people’s willingness or not willingness to talk about a person can also be telling, but yeah, you are, there is restrictions on, you know, what you can and can ask. Some companies have it in their policy on what they will share or not share with a with another organization.

Anthony Codispoti: So are there different like state and federal laws surrounding that? Or is it just like a policy that each individual company would set up typically?

Kelly Oliver: I’m familiar with a lot of the like, company policies, you know, of, because we’ll say this is if, if you’re terminated when we let somebody go, say, you know, somebody calls for a reference, this is all we’ll share is there, you know, you worked for us from the dates and your position, that sort of thing. I’m sure there’s probably some laws out there. All right.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, I’ve been called for references before and most of the folks have worked with me in the past are great. So I’m happy to go beyond and give a glowing recommendation. But I remember one time in particular, I got a call about somebody who was, you know, not somebody that I could give a good reference to and I didn’t know what I was allowed to say. So all I kept saying was I can confirm their dates of employment.

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, yeah. I mean, because like we’ll ask the candidate, hey, can you provide us with two or three, you know, reference people so they kind of know they’re going to get a phone call and it’s a little that way it’s easier, you know. But yeah, we wouldn’t just call, you know, some applications would ask, you know, write down your, your previous leader and their phone number on that job application. We don’t, we don’t usually go that route. Gotcha.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah. You guys ever use a, sorry, go ahead. Oh, no, go ahead. Do you guys ever use a personality assessments for any of the positions that you hire?

Kelly Oliver: There’s been talk about it. I’ve worked for organizations that do have personal but we currently don’t hear. Do you have an opinion on them? Well, some of the assessments can be really long, you know, and and take a lot of time to fill out. But I’ve seen some good things come from it in terms of situational interviewing based on how a person filled out that assessment. The one assessment tool we use would provide us questions that we should maybe ask, you know, or areas that we should, you know, look for or try to bring out in that candidate. So those are, those are pretty cool.

Anthony Codispoti: So what looking ahead, Kelly, what kind of future plans do you have for the HR department there? Are there other programs or innovations that you’ve got in mind that you want to roll out?

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, you know, and I think it’s not like anything grand, I would say I, we haven’t had a wellness program here that got off the ground. They’ve talked about it for several years. I’ve heard about it. We’re, we’re just getting off the ground with a wellness program for our employees. Just just started this month and, you know, running into the, you know, 2025 here, we’re excited about that. Recognition is another thing that I want to improve on our anniversaries, you know, 510 15 year recognizing that making that a little bit more special for employees. Communication is an area that that I think that we can improve on in terms of, you know, letting our employees, I say, does the water get to the end of the row, you know, to the all employees, you know, get the message, you know, and so working on some communication initiatives for for next year.

I just believe that, you know, employees can have a connection with their organization if they get a little bit more communication. And what that looks like is, you know, we have like a newsletter that’s put together for our board of directors meetings and things. And I’m like, well, why don’t we just add a couple of things to that, like recognize some anniversaries and some good call outs and let’s let’s send it out to all of our employees, not just the board of directors and executives, but let’s let’s get it to all the employees, you know, and so there’s, yeah, those initiatives are right there in front of us in the next couple of months. And so we’re going to be working on those initiatives with recognition and communication and go forward.

Anthony Codispoti: You mentioned that one of your previous positions, you know, really being able to increase employee engagement scores. Is that still something that you measure there with Nevada health centers and if so what does that measurement process look like.

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, we are, we’re switching over right now from one vendor, we have press gain is kind of a healthcare space for patient experience and employee engagement, switching over to Qualtrics here in the end, actually this month for patient experience and then our next Employee Engagement Survey. We currently do one annual employee engagement survey and then one mid year survey. I’m thought about doing a quarterly poll survey. I’ve been in some organizations where is just send out, you know, eight to 10 questions, you know, once a quarter to employees.

So you can kind of have a little bit more feedback, you know, some data points throughout the year. But yeah, I’m pulling engagements really important to me. I, I’m the type of HR leader that I don’t know if you want to hear this, but I, I’m a guy who dresses up as Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny and goes out and visits all of our employees in the clinics and visits our patients.

And it’s, it’s kind of fun. I want HR to be a place where people want to come to it’s not just a punitive place, you know, or, you know, they’re afraid to talk to HR, you know. So, earlier this summer when it was 115 degrees here in Vegas, I bought a snow cone machine, a commercial snow, great snow cone machine. And we would, we had this little collapsible wagon, we’d pull up to a clinic, put it in our snow cone machine, roll it into the clinic, we’d make snow cones for all the employees, you know, and I just say, Hey, you know, I want you to, you know, cool down on a hot summer day, you know, and so we had different snow cone seraps and things and, and, you know, I just try to try to engage with our employees, you know, and let them know we appreciate them.

And sometimes it’s the small things that go far. Yeah, I come in as Santa Claus and, you know, do different things, but it’s, you know, it’s fun like last Saturday, we had a Saturday clinic, we’re not usually open on Saturdays, but we’ve been doing medical clinics at a couple of our locations on Saturdays. And so these, you know, 15 or so employees are working hard on a Saturday. So I just, you know, put on my Santa Claus costume and popped in and, you know, took some pictures with the patients and the employees and stuff. And, but, you know, that’s, that’s important to me to engage with our employees as, you know, a people leader.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, that’s fun stuff. Shifting to not fun stuff, firing, letting folks go that obviously falls under your umbrella too. For those folks out there listening, maybe they don’t have a ton of experience with it. But they’re in a leadership position where that’s something that they need to do. Do you have some advice on how to approach that? Yeah.

Kelly Oliver: So a few years back, I think your name is Angela Duckworth. You wrote a book or no, is Angela Duckworth. So hers was grit. Sorry. There’s a book called Radical Candor. And it’s a book that that I really like and it talks about being able to have conversations with people about things that are, you know, maybe going off the rails as they come up. And so organizations that can have radical candor can, you know, say things, hey, hey, Anthony, this isn’t going so well right now, you know, we need you to improve, you know, or, you know, kind of what’s going on in your life. But just being open with your employees. But when it comes to, you know, problems and issues, you know, what we, what we allow, we enable, you know, and so as a leader in HR, I always try to be factual. I tell my, my employees in HR that are my business partners, you know, what are the facts, you know, what are we, what are we dealing with here because I can’t affect someone’s employment without the facts I need, you know, I need, you know, hard information. So I kind of use a couple of models.

One is called FOSA. It’s the facts, objectives, solutions, and actions or consequences. And I kind of try to frame my conversations with people that way, you know, what are the facts that happened, you know, you’ve missed work, you know, a couple days or whatever. My objective in talking to you is to improve your attendance. Our solution is, you know, or, you know, kind of like, is free to show up.

Anthony Codispoti: Yeah, the solution to show up right. And then your actions or consequences is, you know, you’ll be probably written up or even terminate. And so I try to help people, you know, that’s a very simple way to talk to people, you know, and, but, but first off, let’s talk to people, let’s find out something’s going on in their life, you know, that’s kind of what I’m talking about radical candor, you know, like, why have you been late the last, you know, few days or something, you know, something going on in your life or as a road construction, whatever it is, you know, you hear different things. And then if it gets to, you know, I believe in coaching and counseling, kind of in that level, you know, being human with people. And then if I have to ramp it up to, you know, the formal documentation. But, you know, I would tell people address those issues because the good performers are going to see you as a leader that doesn’t address the poor performers or, you know, someone that’s continually, you know, making a ruckus with the team and those good performers are going to leave they’re not going to want to work for an organization or a team that is just enabling bad behavior and stuff.

So it can be a, I don’t mean it in a bad, you know, I mean it respectfully when I say it can be a cancer if you don’t address it, you know, and it can can eat up your team and stuff. But, but I’m addressing those behaviors being, you know, being real with the employees like hey, what’s going on, you know, and then like hey, if I talked to a provider, a doctor a couple weeks ago and there was some you know, what was brought to me was the doctors doing all this stuff, it’s crazy and all this stuff. And I hadn’t had any conversation prior conversations with them and so I said well I’m going to go over there meet with them in person and just talk to them and just kind of find out what’s going on. And by going there talking to them, finding out what’s going on I said hey this is kind of what I’m hearing what’s you know what’s going on. And we talked about I learned about why things were happening the way they were and stuff. And the provider sent me a letter, an email, a few hours later and said thank you so much for just listening to me and hearing my concerns and things. And I’m like sure no problem you know because I said before I ever want to impact anybody’s employment, you know with a written warning or final written warning or anything like that.

I want to you know hear hear what’s going on and see what the facts are. Is that difficult for you to do with so many employees and so many different physical locations?

Kelly Oliver: We are situated pretty well here in our organization because I’ve got three regional HR offices. We’ve got Las Vegas, I’ve got one in Carson and one in Elko and I have HR people in those three locations. And so if something’s going on at a nearby clinic they can they can drive over there and so my HR business partners are able to geographically take care of the state of Nevada that we have there. And then oftentimes they’ll bounce ideas off me or tell me about a situation and ask for recommendations.

Anthony Codispoti: You ever have to deal with somebody getting aggressive or violent during a termination?

Kelly Oliver: Yeah sorry I’m laughing. I shouldn’t laugh at that.

Anthony Codispoti: Hey what else can you do?

Kelly Oliver: You know I take security or you know people’s you know security, I guess security you know very seriously and so I sometimes plan for the worst because you never know in this day and age if someone’s going to have a gun or physical violence and things like that. I’ve had people over the years you know come across the table and try to go after their leader like try to strangle them or more things like that. I kind of assess the situation. I sometimes you know think about having a couple of people on standby you know in case you know outside the room or things like that. But you know I do think security is important and I do try to plan for it in our terminations and you know making sure there’s backup if you will.

Anthony Codispoti: That book that you referenced Radical Candor the author is Kim Scott.

Kelly Oliver: Kim Scott I heard her speak at a conference and I got this book and I just it’s great you know it just tells us like because some leaders are afraid to have a conversation with people and then you know they let things snowball out of control and by the time they talk to a person it’s like a big dumpster fire you know and so What kind of what she’s saying there is like we should be able to just sit down with you and say hey here’s what’s going on today you know and that sort of thing before it has to be formal and I think employees respect you for sitting down with them and like I had that provider example they respect you for just sitting down and talking to them about things before you just come walking in with a formal document and and there are times you know when people clearly break the policy or you know or you know detrimental to the company where you just you know you know you know sexual harassment or something like that you know you got to you

Anthony Codispoti: got to start with the document you know you got to start there but you know if you can you know on those other situations be human about it. Yeah. Kelly. What’s a serious challenge you’ve had to overcome either business or personal and what are some lessons that you learned going through that.

Kelly Oliver: Oh wow. I probably both sides of the things. I’m a I’m a deep value like values run deep with me like like having honesty and integrity are very important to me and when I see people that are maybe bucking the system or or you know and sometimes at my level you’ll see some you know some peers some other executives and not at this organization luckily but but when you see people acting unethically that disturbs me and I don’t I don’t want to be there. I’ve actually you know posted out of a job before because I didn’t want to work with that director and vice president because they were just unethical and you know that that sometimes conflicts me a little bit you know.

I know one time. Well I don’t know if I should get into this but there was an HR experience where I had I had been you know some information and brought to me about a an employee that was doing pornography on that you know all of their company computer and things. And I mean we’re talking over 1500 images on their computer during work time and on their company computer. And this this employee was a high performer and the organization and so I took it to my leadership I said this this person needs to be let go and my my senior leaders said we’re not going to let that person go there a high performer you know they bring in a lot of money for the organization.

And I was like if this was any other employee they’d be fired immediately. And you know so sometimes my my personal values you know and you know leaders like you need to just stand down on this and I was just like I can’t man you know but I did you know but but sometimes your personal values can sometimes conflict you a little bit. But you want to be with organizations that that match your values you know and that sort of thing.

So that’s you know sometimes a challenge there to you know have your personal values and you know boundaries if you will a little bit you know challenges for me you know personally. Oh wow. You know, so back in my early days of my career I was going I was I was I was like 22 years old. I was I was working at a grocery store I was a manager I was a heard of Albertsons grocery stores maybe have. I was wanting to be a store director I was on my way and we used to apprehend shoplifters in the store from time to time. And I was assistant manager employees come up to you and tell you that guy’s walking out the door with all these groceries you know so as assistant manager you go you know go after this guy.

Well this guy as I was waiting you know I got this guy but he decided to as we he heard some sirens that weren’t even you know cops don’t turn their sirens to come for shoplifters but anyway this guy was triggered by some sirens and as you know we were waiting for the police to come. He kicked me in my back as hard as he could twice and I used to say you know let them hit you first you know because then it’s going to self defense or whatever but but he got two good kicks off in my back but anyway I ended up having back surgery. I spent 90 days off of work I mean this guy pushed out five of my discs in my back. And but it was a life changing experience for me because I was I was you know having back surgery at age 22 and back you know five discs that were bad in the grocery business you lift a lot and things and you move around a lot and it was a time in my life where I decided what am I going to do with my life I can’t like to be a store director you’re going to have to continue to lift and do all these different things you know lifting groceries and you know stocking shelves things like that and I decided to apply for a college scholarship. I was laying in I was laying in the hospital bed and I was just like what am I going to do with myself and you know someone said well maybe you could do some vocational rehab or whatever but so I went and applied for a college scholarship and I was given a scholarship to go to college and it changed my life.

I had to learn how to walk again during those 90 days it was the most saddening thing I ever had to deal with because when you have back surgery they take all the muscles and tendons out of the way to get down to the disc and they have to recover there. You have to reattach themselves and so for like three weeks like I had to have my wife roll me over you know I mean there’s there’s just no it’s not attached yet but like I was depressed and but when I found out about you know maybe going to college and stuff. You know it’s going through rehab learning how to walk again and I was just like okay well okay maybe God’s telling me I need to do something different with my life and so I went to college I made the most out of it and you know first start out of the community college I got an associates degree in business administration and then okay my next goal was get my bachelor’s degree and while I was there I thought hey it’s not that much more to get a double and so I got a double finance and management. And then I took a year off and I was like I should get my master’s you know and you know just keep rolling up here you know keep setting the bar for yourself but that was a personal challenge for me was physically to do that also change kind of you know I was in high school in the grocery business it was just kind of running my blood and I loved it but God kind of wanted saying there was something else you needed to do and so I was like okay I’m going to go back to college. So I went to college and you know and just it’s I kind of set goals for myself you know since that you know early age you know and accomplishing you know career things and to keep I always think it’s not a I’m not at a destination right now yeah I’m the chief human resource officer but I think it’s still a journey it’s continuing to learn it’s continuing to see what’s out there in the marketplace of HR and you know laws and things that are changing and stuff and so I’m going to go back to college.

I’m on a journey still and I will probably be on a journey till the day I retire. You know but I but I think it’s it’s good to keep learning keep setting goals for yourself. You know I probably not going to do any more education in terms of a degree, but certificates you know or or things like that are important to me to kind of keep challenging myself to keep continuing to grow.

Anthony Codispoti: Always be open to growth and learning new things. Yeah, I had a guest on very recently that referenced a book by Ryan holiday called the obstacle is the way I’m not sure if you’re familiar with that one. But basically it’s like the hard thing that you’re going through now is actually what is the kind of paraphrase is what’s going to open up the next opportunity for you and so for you. Yeah, you were all in on the you know Albertsons that was going to that was in your blood that’s what you’re doing right and then you had this you know horrible back injury and this this back surgery that like took you out of that. And if it hadn’t been for that traumatic event. Yeah, other doors you know probably couldn’t have opened or you wouldn’t have seen them.

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, and you know I think having some resiliency you know there’s been challenges in my career. You know, there was probably eight years or so ago, a new vice president came in and said I don’t want half of you, your HR team anymore and reorganized this out of the company. And it was a setback for me, you know in my career because I was an HR manager and, you know, was, you know, thought everything was was well you know in my life and to.

I’ve never been terminated or laid off before but that was the first time I was laid off, you know, and said, you know reorganizing you and you have your team out of the organization. And, you know, you couldn’t find you apply, you know, all the stuff you do in HR, applying for jobs and interviewing and I don’t I probably applied for, I know over 100 jobs, you know, and you get some interviews and you get excited and then it doesn’t work out, you know, and, and, you know, I ended up working two jobs for a short time. I was, I’m not afraid to say it but in 2000, in 2018 I worked at FedEx at two o’clock in the morning till eight o’clock, and then I went to this HR job that I got that was, you know, didn’t pay as much as my other HR job yet but I had a wife and kids and responsibilities and I didn’t want them to suffer so I worked, you know, 90 hours a week for, for, you know, almost a year. Just, you know, and it, it brings you to your knees to just, you know, get on your knees and pray, you know, but, but, you know, I just kept going I’m like hey things will work out, you know, and, you know, and it did I was, you know, almost a year and I got a call from HCA Healthcare and said, you know, I applied for a vice president job and you know they called me and and said we’d like you to be our vice president, you know, over the mountain division and, you know, and to not have to work 80 to 90 hours a week was just amazing, you know, and, and, but I’m very grateful for the experiences I’ve had. I’m grateful for the, you know, the kind of the determination I have and to not be, you know, deterred or depressed, you know, for very long sometimes that, you know, you get to, you know, don’t be like, you know, you know, you’re not going to be a vice president, you know, and, and, but, you know, I, I’ve had to work hard and I had some setbacks but, you know, now, you know, being chief human resource officer, it’s, it’s really cool and I’d love to help give back, like I said, you know, make sure training is happening for our employees at all levels of the organization and, you know, we’re only as strong as our weakest link and that’s, that’s how I want our organization to be.

Anthony Codispoti: Kelly, I’ve just got one more question for you. But before I ask it, I want to do two things. Everybody listening today, I know you love today’s content. Please hit the like, share, subscribe button on your favorite podcast app. Kelly, I just want to let people know the best way to get in touch with you. What would that be?

Kelly Oliver: Yeah, I mean, LinkedIn’s an easy way if you want to Kelly Oliver on LinkedIn, you know, Nevada Health Centers on there. My, you can message me out there. It’s my email address here at work is koliver at nvhealthcenters.org. But yeah, that’d be an easy way to reach out to me if you want. And personally, I give you my personal email too, if you want, it’s Oliver Kelly 01 at yahoo.com. But yeah, I send a daily quote to 100 of my friends around the world every morning.

So I could add you to the quote list if you want. What was today’s? Today here, let me look real fast.

It was, it was really, let’s see here, go to my center real fast. Today’s daily quote is, if you’re, it’s by Greg Anderson, it says, if you’re going to doubt something, doubt your limits. So, so I, I make, I make a quote up, I get quotes and I send them out to my friends around the world every morning.

Anthony Codispoti: So, All right, that’s fun stuff. Last question for you, Kelly. What do you see the big changes are that are coming to your space in the next couple of years?

Kelly Oliver: I think AI is, is big. I mean, everybody’s talking about AI, you know, people using it for interviews or using it to write their resumes. I see some good things from it where it can help write policies or help us, you know, establish policies. I don’t know, you know, we’ve edited them a little bit, but I think that it can help, it can help and hurt us.

Maybe it’s kind of like the internet when the internet came out, you know, there’s good parts of the internet and bad parts of the internet. But, but I think AI is going to be big. There seems to be lots of people wanting to work from home still from COVID, you know, and so there’s these, you know, a lot of people wanting to work from home. I see a lot more work balance that work life balance, where people are going to, you know, not necessarily maybe want to be leaders in an organization because they want to, they want to do things, you know, so I’m seeing that now with things. So people are asking to work less hours, maybe 32 hours a week so they can have eight more hours, you know, of life, you know, and stuff. But behavioral health is a big thing that I’m hearing and seeing a lot from employees and, you know, working through behavioral health issues is getting a lot of attention.

Anthony Codispoti: If you could wave a magic wand in the AI world, what would you like a tool to do for you?

Kelly Oliver: Answer all my emails. What would I like it to do? You know, I just wanted to be truthful, you know, I want it to be honest, you know, like if someone’s using it to write their resume, I hope that they’d be honest, you know, but I think just, just have some integrity, just AI. I’d be having integrity in what it’s doing.

Anthony Codispoti: Well, Kelly Oliver, I want to be the first one to thank you for sharing both your time and your story with us today. I really appreciate it. Sure.

Kelly Oliver: It wasn’t good to talk to you and think about some things of my past and stuff and share that with people. Hopefully it’s inspiring and yeah, if anybody ever wants to chat, I’d be happy to check them out or if they want to come down to Las Vegas and catch a meal or something, come on down.

Anthony Codispoti: All right, there you go, folks. Open invitation for dinner. Yeah. That’s a wrap on another episode of the Inspired Stories Podcasts. Thanks for learning about this today.