Devyn Mikell [00:00:03]:

Hey, this is Devyn Mikell with the Hire Quality podcast. Super excited to be interviewing you. So could you introduce yourself, your role in the company that you work at?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:00:13]:

My name is Chantel Greenfield. I am assistant director of talent acquisition for Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System in the upstate of South Carolina.

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Devyn Mikell [00:00:20]:

What is top of mind for you as a talent leader at your organization?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:00:24]:

My focus this year with my team is to really focus on the candidate experience from start to finish. That means from application process, interview, screening, to the very communication that they receive from us and onboarding for those that are hire. So, candidates have so many choices now in all realms, but especially in the healthcare realm. And I want to ensure, along with my team, that each candidate has an excellent experience here, whether they're hired or not.

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Devyn Mikell [00:00:52]:

What is something you wish you knew about leading talent that you didn't know when you first started?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:00:58]:

Well, there's so many things that I wish I knew in the beginning of my career, but that's why experience is so valuable. I think if there's anything that I wish I could have told myself, then is to listen intently to each individual on your team and to know their skill set. I think too often we have skills right under our roof that we're looking for that could fill the talent skills gap that we have.

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Devyn Mikell [00:01:22]:

What's something unique about you as a talent leader at your organization that makes you a perfect fit for that job?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:01:28]:

Well, I'd much rather brag on my team, but if I had to say one thing about me as a leader, I'm a good communicator, and I take the time to know my team. I want them to know how valued they are as a team, but how valued they are as individuals. I want them to be celebrated as a team, but I also want to celebrate them as individual people.

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Devyn Mikell [00:01:47]:

We made it to the last question, and this one's a fun one. What is the worst question you've ever been asked in an interview?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:01:55]:

I think the worst question I've ever been asked is, you're a mom. Can you tell me how that's going to impact your job? Will you be able to devote the hours needed? Will it be too much for you? Such a sexist question. And for all you new recruiters. An illegal question. You're not allowed to ask that of people. You're not allowed to ask about their children or their daycare or that sort of thing. And it's just so inappropriate. It's not a question that men get asked.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:02:19]:

It's not a question anyone should be asked. We can be parents we can have lives outside of our professional life and be just as strong in a professional world. And let's face it. Moms can rule the world. We balance everything.

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Devyn Mikell [00:02:36]:

What's up, everyone? I'm Devyn Mikell, host of the Hire Quality podcast and co founder at qualify. Super excited that you join us today. And I'm joined by Chantel Greenfield, who you just heard on the pre interview, but she is now here to join me for a Hire Quality conversation. Chantel is the system director of talent acquisition at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. And, Chantelle, I know what you do. You know what you do, but the audience might not. And no better person to explain it than you. So why don't you tell the audience who you are and who Spartanburg is, in your own words?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:03:09]:

Well, thanks for having me on your show today. As you said, my name is Chantel Greenfield. I am the assistant director of talent acquisition here at Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System. The Spartanburg regional healthcare system is located in the upstate of South Carolina, not far from Charlotte, not all that far from Atlanta. And it is a medium sized healthcare system of about 10,000 people, six locations. And at our main campus, you're looking between. We have two main campuses. One really large campus right here in Spartanburg, and a sister campus is about 2 miles away.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:03:41]:

And between the two of those, we have over 700 beds, and we're trauma one facility right here at our main campus. So, pretty big system servicing a large area. There's a lot of healthcare in the upstate, and this is probably one of the most popular places to relocate. I think, for millennials, it was, like, ranked number eight, and it is one of the fastest growing areas, over 142 industries in the area. A lot of people don't realize that BMW has one of their only. Has the only North America plant where they build cars here. So, let's talk about what talent acquisition here is. At Spartanburg Regional, I lead a team of over 30 people.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:04:20]:

We're comprised of onboarding specialists, sourcing specialists, recruiters one, two, and three, and then team lead and manager. And what that means is, we're responsible for all of the hiring for the entire hospital. And as you know, hospitals run like a mini city. We are separate from physician recruitment. We do have two recruiters who support that that don't come up through my team. And so they handle all your physician, Pa, NP, but all the other physicians fall under here. So that means everything from EBS to nurse to finance. You name it, it falls under us.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:04:55]:

So, it's a very broad category of people to specialize in, for one, for that type of skill set. I work to create strategy, to bring focus to the team, to look at not only what are we doing right now, but what is our projection in the next six months, one year, two years. I think there's a lot of people that don't really understand what talent acquisition is. They think, oh, it's just a bunch of people. They go through paperwork, they hire. It's so much more than that. Your first touch of an organization is generally with the recruiter. They're the ones who create the atmosphere, create that culture that you don't know what it's going to be like.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:05:33]:

So they're creating that culture for you. They're defining the role. They're helping you walk through that process, which is, for most people, a very stressful process. Not everybody feels very comfortable going through that process. Helping you set up the interview. What do you say? What does your resume need to look like? They kind of hold your hand through that process. They also make recommendations on that side about, hey, what might be the best fit for you. And then on the inside, they're also working with all of the leaders and talking about, hey, let me help you go through, what do you need? Let me look and examine.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:06:05]:

Let me get to know your unit. Let me get to know what your office is like. What are your needs? Yes, we know what the job description says, but the job description is just one point of what that job is really going to be like. So you answer to so many customers. Everybody's your customer, internal and external, right? From a team lead all the way up to the CEO. You answer to everyone. So it's so much more involved. We're also the people that start the onboarding, that handle the background, that set you up for employee health.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:06:36]:

There's so many facets that go to that. So I always say I'm the one that kind of turns the ship, but my team execute and really bring the success to everything that we do.

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Devyn Mikell [00:06:48]:

That's awesome. You have that down to a science, it sounds like.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:06:53]:

I don't know about that. If I did, I could probably market it for millions, right? I'm not sure I'm there yet.

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Devyn Mikell [00:06:59]:

Well, you're on your way. I can tell. And you mentioned something in the pre interview that was not uncommon. Right. Like, what's top of mind for you is candidate experience. But I want to dive into kind of what that means for you a little bit more. You mentioned it. You're the first touch in an organization.

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Devyn Mikell [00:07:17]:

You're the candidate's first experience. Right. So everything you do matters at the recruiting level. And so how are you thinking about the candidate experience in a sense of, hey, here's how we've been doing things, and here's where we're needing to go.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:07:32]:

I think before in talent acquisition, and not for lack of caring, but we focused on the candidate experience of what was best for the organization. And I don't mean here, I just mean kind of globally as talent acquisition leaders. Right. What I'm looking at now, we all went through COVID, and we came out on the other side, probably a little worse for the wear. Let's be honest. It's been very difficult in healthcare. Our guys on the floor, all of our people, whether it was EVs, whether you were an LPN, an RN, a patient access, or whatever you were, they got us through COVID. I mean, they were the boots on the ground that got us through.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:08:09]:

And now that we're on that other side, talent acquisition has become increasingly difficult for many reasons. We know there's multiple shortages in healthcare. We hear about the nurses, but they're not the only one. Right? We lost many people, which is sad but very true. We lost them to actually losing their lives, to people changing professions, changing majors. I mean, it was a domino effect, and now we're really feeling it. We knew we had this shortage, and COVID just pressed down on the accelerator, and here we are. And so now we're left to deal with this, and I think it's changed the way that we think and feel about things.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:08:46]:

We may have thought we knew what was best, but I think it's time that we really started listening to the candidates, to our people on the floors. And I just turned that around and said, hey, what do you really want? Like, when I've applied for a job, which has been a while now, what experience I want and what experience I had that were the best and what didn't feel really well. And so I met with my team before we got into this year, and we talked about, I said, this is what I want our focus to be. And here's the three areas I want us to focus on. And so what we're focusing on, one is the no candidate left behind approach. So many people come through our systems and apply for jobs, and there's only one hire per job. Now, we know in healthcare, we got multiple openings in multiple spaces, but there are still people in certain jobs that are more niche. There's only a few available.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:09:36]:

We want to make sure that we're capitalized on them. That we're giving them what I call concierge service, that we're making sure there's not another option for them, really kind of highlighting for them what their career path may be. We're always used to talking about career ladders once people get inside, right. But now we're bringing it to the forefront, saying, hey, here's your career ladder up front. If you can't get to the floor that you want or the department you want or the office that you want within the hospital system, here's another way that could be a good possibility for you to come on board, gain experience, and in time, either decide that you love it here or build your way up to be able to transfer. You'll build your sea leg, so to speak. Right. You get that foundation, you learn our culture, you learn how we do business, that sort of thing.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:10:19]:

So that's one of the ways. The other thing is changing. We control part of the onboarding experience, I should say. We influence part of that. I work across with our colleagues in corporate education, and so the part that we influence, I wanted us to redo that. Looking at the paperwork, what does it look like? Is it self explanatory? Is it too many words on the paper where you're looking at this going, oh, my God, I got all these things to do. So we wanted to simplify that process, right. And then the third leg is just all communication that goes to someone, whether they're hired or they're not.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:10:52]:

We want to make sure that the experience is great, because just because you may not be the candidate today doesn't mean that you won't be the candidate six months from now or a year from now, because these markets are churning, right, and candidates do boomerang. There's many reasons, but if you have a bad experience somewhere, what are the chances of you applying again?

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Devyn Mikell [00:11:11]:

Right. And what are the chances of you being a customer of said organization, too? Right?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:11:18]:

We're a community hospital.

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Devyn Mikell [00:11:20]:

Yeah. So now it's like, I hate that hospital. Right?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:11:23]:

Right. And we're not the only one. The upstate, you can turn around and bump into a hospital here. It may not be as convenient as five minutes down the road, but it might be 20 minutes down the road. And so there are options. And I think when we think healthcare, we don't think shopping around. Right. We think this is our community hospital.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:11:39]:

This is where we go. But that's not true. People have choices. People are mobile, and they're more willing than ever to do the research because it's at their fingertips on their phone, on their tablet, on their computer. There's so many options. And so I think as good stewards in healthcare, we need to remember that.

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Devyn Mikell [00:11:56]:

Yeah. And I'm actually actively talking in my head. I'm like, if I'm a talent leader listening to this, I might think, well, that's so small, the candidate experience couldn't impact our revenue. But I'm like, I've talked to, especially probably your organization, thousands of candidates coming through the funnel. Right?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:12:16]:

Oh, yeah.

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Devyn Mikell [00:12:17]:

It could actually make a difference.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:12:21]:

Candidate experience is everything. Because that one experience I kind of equated. So I was a student athlete, may not be able to tell it now, but I was played athletics most of my life. And I kind of equate it to having that bad coach. If you don't have that good coach in the start of your career, when you're playing that sport, it may sour you on that sport forever. And you might have been an excellent basketball player or wrestler or football player, but if you do not have that good touch, you may never go back to it.

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Devyn Mikell [00:12:54]:

I love sporting analogies.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:12:55]:

Yeah. My team is probably like, oh my goodness, not another sports analogy. They'll listen to this and go, oh, my goodness, there she goes again. But it's true. I mean, there's so many things to be said that are correlation that same thing with a teacher. Right. You may love a subject, but if you get a teacher that doesn't believe in you or doesn't spark that engagement in that student, it's like the old adage, like, if you tell a fish the only way he's smart is if he can climb a tree, he's not going to think he's smart. Right.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:13:24]:

So it kind of goes along with that. And I was fortunate to have some really great coaches in my life. Not all great, but some really good ones. And I was so fortunate to have some excellent teachers. And I've even had some really good mentors throughout my career. And so I think those things shape us. So that's when you talk about candidate experience, those things all correlate.

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Devyn Mikell [00:13:44]:

Yeah. So you've talked about a little bit about some one was off the recording. I'm trying to bring it on record. But you've mentioned a couple, like, you've had some experiences. That's one thing I'm catching is like, you've had some experiences. And I think it's very interesting and I want to see how they've shaped you. Right. So talk to me about the athletics and the radio and things like that.

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Devyn Mikell [00:14:10]:

What are the things outside of talent that you've kind of experienced and been on teams or done well.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:14:14]:

I've been here a minute. Any day above ground's a good day, right?

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Devyn Mikell [00:14:18]:

Absolutely.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:14:18]:

So I've been here a minute. So let's go back and date myself. Just a second. So I grew up in a small town. No stoplights. Still don't have any stoplights. So let's just go on record.

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Devyn Mikell [00:14:28]:

It hasn't developed.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:14:28]:

I'm from the middle of nowhere, beautiful country, middle of nowhere, Virginia, and I started sports young. So let's preface this by saying I am one of five, and I am the youngest, and I have four older brothers.

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Devyn Mikell [00:14:40]:

Nice.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:14:41]:

So I grew up in a house full of men who were all athletes. A couple of them went on to be servicemen for our country, and when you grow up with that, it's eat or be eaten. I'm just going to be honest. They're great, though. I absolutely adore my brothers, in case any of them hear this. And my youngest brother and I were the closest. And I'm going to tell you, he was a star athlete. It came so natural to him.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:15:05]:

It was unreal, the emotional intelligence of being an athlete, that a lot of people don't focus on emotional intelligence as a leader. We'll talk about that at another time. But it is one of those things that that's something you don't teach. I think that kind of comes naturally. And he just had that natural finesse, and he practiced all his wrestling moves on me, and he was a great wrestler, third in the state when he finished. And I had such a competitive notion. I probably had the biggest personality out of all five of us. I don't think any of them would argue that, but it's their fault that I'm this way.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:15:38]:

So I started competition early on, like I was playing on the boys baseball team. It was the pitching machine, but I was the only girl, and my dad was a big softball player when he was younger, and I was the only girl to make the all star team. I was batting 500 out of the batting cage. I wasn't afraid of anything. But when you grow up with brothers, you're just not afraid of anything. I wasn't afraid to fail. I wasn't afraid to fall. And all of those things start to shape who we are, right? So I did play high school basketball, dabbled softball for a minute, did some track and field.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:16:14]:

I'm not the fastest person in the world. I'm faster if I'm chasing a ball. Let's just be honest. Basketball was my thing. Absolutely loved it. Played baseball until I was 8th grade and then when it came with the guy pictures, my dad was like, no, there starts to be that change there. So he was a little protective in that, but did play some softball and things like that and loved it and went on to college. Played college rec softball, but played college basketball at a small college.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:16:40]:

I'm not five foot ten or six foot like a lot of these ladies are. And I am loving this year for the women in the basketball. Women's sports are on fire and I'm here for every bit of it. So having said that, I grew up in the days of Cheryl swoop. She was it. Everybody wanted to be her. So I loved it. It was such a great experience.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:16:59]:

I love the camaraderie. I'm a true competitor. And during that know I'm a communications major. Probably no shocker by now as we're a few minutes. I did, I started out and I did some radio at our just local college. And then I went and did an internship for like a year and a half at a local radio station. It's a country radio station. I started out, was just going to be doing some editing, and then they tried me out and said, hey, do the weather.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:17:26]:

Then I became Mother Nature, which is so hilarious now. I can laugh at that. But then I became part of their morning show and it was just the most wonderful experience, working alongside some very experienced DJs, just getting that mentorship there. And I did it for a while and I loved it. It wasn't going to be a long term gig for me. I don't know. I can remember getting up at 04:00 a.m. To be at the station, and it really wasn't going to fit my lifestyle forever, but it was such a great learning experience.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:17:56]:

Met some really cool stars, which I'm not going to say they are, because it's really going to date my age and just had such a great experience there. Learned so much about who I was and what I really like to do. So it was more of a passion, not a profession. Same thing with basketball. The WNBA was never going to be looking for me, but I loved it and I coached for about nine years afterwards. I volunteered, did a lot of railroad, had my own AAU team, and that sharing what you know with someone will teach you what you know and don't know. And I thought that to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my life is to be able to share my passion with young people. So that's kind of some of what made me.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:18:37]:

And then I did play women's semi pro football in my late 20s, early 30s, which was a terrific experience. That league is still going on. My team dissolved, but I played for the Roanoke revenge. I played on the line, played on special teams. Absolutely loved it. My dad didn't love it so much. He's no longer with us, but it made him nervous. My brothers thought it was, like, the coolest thing ever.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:19:00]:

We played by college league rules, and it was also, at that point in your life, you're really thinking you've kind of gotten everything that you can get from that. But being together with women have a hard time stepping away and taking time for their hobbies and their passion, because we become wives, we become mothers, we work. And I will say this as a whole, we don't do a lot to stay connected in our hobbies and passion together. We don't. It's something women as a whole really need to work on more. And so I loved having that camaraderie at that age in my life, like I did when I was in high school and college. We came together, we shared our passion. We were from all different professions.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:19:36]:

I was an operations supervisor at the time. I had a firefighter on our team, a teacher, an accountant, you name it. So it was just such a great way to be able to share our passion as adults. And our kids were watching us, our parents were watching us, and little girls were looking up to us. I remember the first time one come and ask for our autograph. I just thought that was the coolest thing ever. And the news used to do, like, stories on us. It was just such a feel good thing to see women devoting to the other side of them.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:20:04]:

Not just the professional side, not just the mom side, not just the family side.

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Devyn Mikell [00:20:09]:

Yeah. So now, for sure, there's no surprises why you are where you are. You have team building, you have leadership, coaching, communicating, all the things that it takes to be the person that's running. You called it medium, I would almost call it large, and certain people probably call it large healthcare.org in talent. So that's awesome. And then you mentioned it, too, which is you didn't start from the professional side. You didn't start in recruiting. At least I don't think so.

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Devyn Mikell [00:20:41]:

You were an operations supervisor, which doesn't have recruiting in the title.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:20:45]:

I did start in retail. I was on the HR side of retail, so recruiting was part of my job. No one ever goes through college and says, hey, I'm going to be a talent acquisition leader. I'm going to be a recruiter. It just doesn't happen. Recruitment and talent acquisition finds their people and it just sucks them in. It was a part of my job most of my life, and then it just became my job, so to speak, because, as you know, talent acquisition always fell under the umbrella of HR and just kind of was up under it. And then probably about ten years ago, we were like, whoa, it's gotten big.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:21:16]:

We got to split out because things were changing in the market even then. Right. And now, while it is the sister to HR, it is definitely its own entity, and I think that's what's changed. So it became a part of my job, but then it was the thing that I could just never get away from. And I did some college recruitment, I did some recruitment in the private sector and then got bit by the healthcare bug and have been here really probably the majority off and on of like 14 to 15 years. And so this is where I've spent the bulk of my time, and I love it. I love being able to make a difference in someone's life. I believe in everything that health care represents, but can't stand the sight of needles make me sweat.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:21:58]:

And as tough as I am, like a drop of blood makes me just want to pass out. Unless it's like an emergency situation, I keep it together and then I'm done. So that's why I can't be on the other side. And I so admire the people that can do that. And I've had some experiences in my life that probably definitely shaped who I am in talent acquisition, especially in healthcare. And it was really probably just kind of a gut check moment for me about seven years ago. My husband at the time had been with for years and years, father of my daughter and grandfather. My grandson went for a routine shoulder surgery, and great, older than I am, was a great athlete all his life.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:22:37]:

Healthy, healthier than I am now. Could run circles around me. But he suffered an anxious brain injury in the middle of that surgery. It wasn't supposed to happen. There's lots of theories about things that happened. He didn't have a stroke or anything, but I won't bore you with the details of that part. But he came out and he couldn't speak. He had global aphasia.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:22:57]:

He was, let me say this, mental smart, cybersecurity. Graduated from Tech, Virginia Tech, with two degrees. He had three degrees total. Very smart man. And he came out and at the time, couldn't walk, couldn't talk. It was an absolute nightmare. This was a little over seven years ago, and I was working in healthcare, and it wasn't for the system I was working for or anything, but I had a gut check moment to say, gosh, I saw healthcare at its best, but I've seen it at its worst. And I have so much respect for nurses because the nurses saved me and they saved him, and they really were a part of the worst time of my life, but they brought me back.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:23:39]:

And there's so much more to health care than sticking a needle in somebody's arm or giving them prescription or reading a test or hooking up the tubes or all the things that they know how to do. The other side is that personal side, right? That side, that empathy, that understanding for someone when they're in that situation, giving them hope, holding their hand, being with them, giving them confidence that we're going to do everything we can to get through this. I will fast forward now and say that I am his main caregiver, but he can speak about 40 words. He completely understands. I'd say 98% of what you say can follow everything on TV. Can read some now, not the man he was by any far stretch of the imagination, but has come so, so far with great health care, rehab, nurses, techs. So I've really seen it at its best. I saw some that weren't very good either and could tell some stories on that side, but saw some great ones.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:24:39]:

And I'm so thankful that he's still here in the capacity, even though it's not the capacity that I imagined at this point in my life. And like I said, I'm his caregiver now. I'm remarried, but he lives with me. We have a great life, but that was a turning point. It definitely shaped my view on healthcare, my view on talent acquisition, because I think we often kind of understate what we do in talent acquisition. We hire and influence the people that the hiring leaders hire that are going to save people's lives. We also could hire the people that become complacent, don't do their job very well, that potentially are in a room that like what happened to Steve. Right.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:25:20]:

And it's just so impactful. And I don't think we give ourselves enough credit to the points of contact that we have that shape health care for the community. And it was one of those moments where I had to decide, did I want to be the voice of reason, the advocate, or did I just have to walk away? And I decided to be the advocate because it's a continuation of kind of my honor to Steve.

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Devyn Mikell [00:25:46]:

Well, that's amazing. The story that you have a why? I don't think a lot of people do, to be honest with you.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:25:56]:

Everybody does. They just don't know what it is.

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Devyn Mikell [00:25:58]:

That's actually a better way to say it. Yeah. And you put words to healthcare, talent leaders and iCs everywhere, like you're not just hiring someone the moment you screen somebody, even, and pass them. You are potentially changing someone's life in your community. That's a big difference, I feel like.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:26:21]:

And you got to decide, are you going to change it for the better or not? And I know we're in desperate times, and it feels that way. Every recruiter, every talent acquisition leader, every leader on the hospital feels it. But don't ever, ever hire a warm body to fill a spot because that person could end up taking care of you or your loved one. Want to make sure that they're fully dialed in, engaged, and want to do this for the right reasons.

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Devyn Mikell [00:26:45]:

Yes. So you've done a lot of things.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:26:50]:

A few.

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Devyn Mikell [00:26:51]:

I've said that many times now. But what's been your favorite job outside of healthcare? In talent, somewhere where you did talent? Yeah.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:27:04]:

Well, let's say it was partial talent because talent remembers for a long time was really part of many jobs. So probably my favorite job outside of here besides the radio gig when I was in college. Just cool. Okay. It's as cool as everybody makes it out to be in the movies. It's cool. But would have to be when I was an operations supervisor for Miss utility. Call before you dig in Virginia, very important business, too.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:27:27]:

Those lines will get marked. That's how people die and get hurt. But it was a call center situation because you have to call in, you have to make the tickets and get the utility people to mark the lines. It's a big thing to it. I was operations supervisor, so hired for a team, helped train there, started the first spanish team that they'd ever had for miss utility, which is a major need because so many contractor and construction workers in Virginia were of spanish speaking. That was their first language. So it was just the reason I say that is because I developed so much as a person and a leader there. You can look back in your history and go, there are just pivotal moments that you could reach through and touch that were the moments that defined you.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:28:11]:

And it was the first time I had a larger, closer team. First time I really got to be able to train and just share kind of my excitement for life and what I do. And I'll talk about that in a minute. That's one of the things that I think is missing right now, is people's excitement for what they do, their love, their passion for their work. But that was one of the things I got to share early on. I was the youngest leader there. Most of the other supervisors were old enough to be my mom, but I loved them. I learned from them.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:28:42]:

They embraced me and I embraced them. Had some great leadership there, and just had the opportunity to grow, help them start as part of their startup for their next. They had two locations. It has to run 365 days a year, 24 hours a day, too. So, mind you, of what? Hospitals, right?

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Devyn Mikell [00:28:58]:

Yeah.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:28:59]:

So it was just such a great experience. I was there over four years. I just learned so much. But I had my hands in so many things. Writing their manual, training operations supervisor, helping with hiring the team. There were so many things I touched. And when you're young and you're just that sponge and you're looking for all these things, getting to touch so many of those things really helped me develop later on in my career.

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Devyn Mikell [00:29:22]:

Nice. So you mentioned it. I'm going to give the floor to it. There's a lack of liveliness and life in doing what you doing, your work. What do you mean?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:29:31]:

Well, two parts to this, right? I say as we came through COVID, we probably were stirred a little bit about the important things in our life, right? How important our families are to us, how important it is to spend time with our loved ones and our friends. And I do think that was a valuable lesson to be learned. But also that it came out of that, I think, and we were already trending that way, is what we do. It's just a job. You go there to make money, okay? It's not your life. But I say, oh, you shouldn't identify as what you do. But come on, we are human. Part of what we do is who we are.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:30:03]:

And I will absolutely say that and stand behind it 100%. And I love it. I love what I do, absolutely hands down, know that it found me. And this is what I'm supposed to do with my life. And I think that I see so many times, I don't see that light. I do go out into the field with my team now. A lot of people do. I do don't do that.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:30:26]:

But I go out because how can I expect them to do that if I'm not there sometimes to see what's going on, to hear the students, to feel that atmosphere, right. Whether it's students or experienced clinicians or our professional roles that aren't clinical like myself. And I look at that, and I do see it sometimes, and when I do, it just relights that fire for me. But too often in the last couple of years, I can remember being in a classroom here about two years ago. And when I'll get up and actually do the whole spill, just like our recruiters do, and I'm like, okay, tell me why you became a nurse. It's one of the first things I'll ask, and I'll go around the room and, well, we had to. Oh, my dad was a nurse, or I went through this as a child, and the nurses were just great. You hear some of these great passion things, and it's like, this person's got it.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:31:15]:

They got that fire, they've got that burn in their belly for what they want to do. And then I'm like, okay, what kind of nurse you want to be? And you have mother, baby, labor, and delivery. We could all fill 100 labor deliveries. Just be honest. Nothing wrong with that.

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Devyn Mikell [00:31:29]:

It's just I need some other one everybody wants, right?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:31:32]:

It's just what everybody wants. And I get it. I get it. But I went through, and it's one guy, a travel nurse. That's geography. That's not a type of nurse. Right? And it was the money.

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Devyn Mikell [00:31:42]:

Right?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:31:43]:

And I'm not saying, listen, and none of us volunteering, okay? I got bills, you got bills. They got bills. We get it. But to me, healthcare, teachers, pastors, there are just certain jobs that are callings right now. Should they be paid well? Yes, they should. They should be paid well to live comfortably. But it's not a job that you seek for money, right? To me, that's my take on it. It's a job that you have to want to do.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:32:14]:

You should be paid well. There's two different sides here. I'm not saying don't pay them well, but when you're saying why you want to do something, if money is the number one reason, that's not really the reason. Money is a satisfier, not a motivator. We often think money is the motivator. It's not. It's the highest satisfier. Motivation comes from something deep within.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:32:34]:

What motivates us to stay somewhere motivates us to go somewhere has really little to do with money. Unless you're grossly underpaid and can't meet your basic needs. There are studies that say once you reach a certain plateau, that your quality of life does not increase. It used to be 68,000. I'm going to argue that considering inflation, right. We're going to probably have to get closer to about 88,000, 9000. Right. And depending on where you're at, some people in New York or California, listen.

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Devyn Mikell [00:32:58]:

It'S going to be it.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:33:00]:

But realistically, there becomes that number where anything beyond that doesn't give you that quality of life, it probably gives you more stuff, but stuff does not always increase your quality of life. So I think that that is something that we don't think about enough. We think, oh, money, money. And you, gosh, health care. How many places have you seen? All we're doing is throwing money at it, right? It's sign on bonus, it's relocation bonus, this bonus, that bonus. And not that those things aren't important and there is a place for them, but there's also that place for making sure people really love what they do. And part of that has to start with you before you ever get to where you're going. And then the other part of that has to be embraced in the culture where you're at, encouraged, developed, where you are, because developing you as a person, your skills, those things keep us alive for what we want to do.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:33:52]:

Right. Continuing education. And I don't mean necessarily going back to school, going to a conference, right. Doing a podcast like this, having those roundtable discussions, those are a big part of filling ourselves up. And you can't pour from an empty cup. And I see a loss of fire. And I'm not saying that it's just people are bad people. They're not.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:34:15]:

But if you don't feel that fire for what you're doing now or for what you're studying for, get out, find something else. Because we spend so much time doing what we do for a living and it bleeds over into our life, whether you think it won't, it does. It bleeds over to who we are. Work life balance isn't about equal hours. It's about the balance of who we are, what we love and what we do in our past. It's not always a 50 50 ratio. Right. But I think you have to find that fire because we spend so much time doing this that you'll be miserable and you won't ever reach your full potential if you don't have a fire for what you do.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:34:55]:

That's my tip for the day.

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Devyn Mikell [00:34:57]:

Right? You had, like, four. Yeah. No, with that, I think we could go for hours, but I'm going to.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:35:06]:

Transition us for the sake of Simon Sinek's ever listening. I'm a huge fan of your hearing, give me a call. We'll talk shop. One of my favorite people, though, that I look up to when we're talking about talent acquisition, people that I look to to fill my cup. I'm a huge Simon Sinek fan. Never had an opportunity to see him in person or meeting, but I'm reading, just almost done reading his book. Start with the y. Great book.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:35:31]:

I would highly recommend it for any leader. Another really cool person, April Hansen. She works for Aya. She's a workforce solutions. I think she's a president of workforce solutions, but she's also a keynote speaker. I actually had the opportunity to meet her in person and talk shop for like 20 minutes. And two very well thought out leaders that really get it. They just bring up all the right topics, and it's just the insightfulness.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:35:59]:

She's also a nurse, but just their insightfulness and their thoughts on leadership, their thoughts on workforce solutions and talent acquisition in my mind, are invaluable. And Kamira Sa, and I'm sure I just said butchered his name, so I'm so sorry if he's listening. Had an opportunity to hear him speak one time, too. He has a couple of books out, and he has a really cool personal story from where he grew up, which I believe was Beirut, if I'm not quoting that wrong, and just his personal story. I remember the first time I heard him speak when I first saw him standing up. Know he looks very much like a professor. And I was like, oh, this is going to be kind of boring. No offense, but when he started speaking, I was like, oh, my gosh, I was so engaged into what he had to say.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:36:41]:

And I want to say that he teaches at a college in Texas, maybe tried at college, but just really great people who get it and are spreading the right message, in my opinion.

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Devyn Mikell [00:36:50]:

Awesome. One of my questions that's coming at you is going to be similar, but we're going to move into the hot seat. I'm calling it. My goal with this is quick hits, fast paced. I'm going to literally read it faster. I can only read so fast, but I'm going to read it as fast as I can. You give me your quick hit answer for the crowd. So let's jump in.

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Devyn Mikell [00:37:15]:

And here we go. So one person that has changed your life in talent acquisition, got to go.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:37:19]:

With two people here. Steve, my former husband, who I take care of, changed my life. Such a great man, really taught me what's important in life and how I can make a difference to my current leader. She is just an amazing person. She believed in me with some of the craziest ideas. I had to make changes and really backed me the whole way. And those people are the type of people that shape who you are and how you feel about your profession.

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Devyn Mikell [00:37:44]:

Love it. Most challenging role you've ever had to recruit for.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:37:48]:

Oh, my goodness. I would say anything in healthcare these days, right? I mean, holy Hannah. When I was a recruiter, like a million years ago, some of the hardest things. I worked in the DC, Maryland, Delaware market and home health nurse. It sounds crazy, right? But can you imagine carrying your stuff and trying to ride public transportation through DC or having to drive that traffic? It was very difficult roles, which seemed like for me, because I'm from the middle of nowhere, so 15 miles, I'm like, woohoo. That's no big deal. They're like, oh, my gosh, it will take me an hour and a half. I'm like, really? And I mean, I've been to DC, but to live it every day, probably my most challenging roles.

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Devyn Mikell [00:38:26]:

Got it. Where do you go to stay updated on the latest trends and changes in the Ta landscape?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:38:31]:

Well, I just gave you my go to people. They're on LinkedIn. Follow them. Simon Sinek, April Hansen. Some of the other things I read, there's an HR quarterly review. I'll read that. Sherm's website is really good. I'm a researcher by nature.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:38:45]:

I've got, you can't see in my office here, probably about 20 journals over there. I read nursing journals. I'm not clinical, but my manager on this team, she is an RN and MSN. Great lady. Been doing this like 28 years. Super smart trauma and heart nurse. So I'm a networker. So talking to people.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:39:04]:

But those are the publications and these are the two people I follow the most.

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Devyn Mikell [00:39:07]:

Got it. What's your go to interview question? If you could only pick one.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:39:11]:

Okay, if I could only pick one, it would be. It's a two part one. But tell me about yourself and your journey to where you've come to professionally and what makes this the right next step for you.

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Devyn Mikell [00:39:22]:

Love that question. Last question. What's the common talent acquisition activity that needs to die?

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Chantel Greenfield [00:39:27]:

Comparing candidates. Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it. You compare the candidate to the role individually, not the candidates to each other. These are people, right? We're not shopping on bumble or online looking for people. We're comparing the person to the job and the culture fit of your unit, your organization. So take that candidate. If you find on the first candidate you get, and everything matches up, and it's good. Don't wait to see if you get another good candidate to see if it's better.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:40:01]:

We're not shopping like that. You're looking for the one. And if it's the first one, amen. We got it on the first go round. If it's the 10th one, it's the 10th one. But don't do that where, oh, it might be a little bit better. That is a risky role to play, and comparing candidates does not often bring you the right candidate.

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Devyn Mikell [00:40:18]:

Damn, that was good. I like that one. All right, so to end the show, one, greatly appreciate you being transparent for me, for the audience. This has been awesome. I'm going to give you the floor one more time. Any closing remark or anything you want to tell the audience, I know they want to follow you and learn more about you, so just hire where they can keep up with you and anything you want to leave them with.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:40:44]:

Absolutely. Well, I am on LinkedIn. Chantelle Greenfield. You can't miss me. There's not a ton of us out there. I work for Spartanburg Regional, and if I could leave you with anything, don't ever underestimate your ability, your power, your influence. Always know your value. Because here's the thing.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:41:02]:

A bottle of water in the grocery store is 275. A bottle of water at the airport is about $4. You get to Vegas, it's between eight and $13. It's the same bottle of water. It's the same manufacturer. It's all about knowing your value, not teaching someone else how to value.

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Devyn Mikell [00:41:17]:

You. Love it. Well, everyone listening. I don't have to tell you how good that was. You know how good it was. If you want more of that, make sure to stay tuned like. And subscribe here with Hire Quality so that you can never miss a beat. But you heard it from her.

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Devyn Mikell [00:41:33]:

Be the bottle of water. That's $8. I bought one. Yeah, but, Chantel, I really appreciate you. Thanks for hopping on the show.

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Chantel Greenfield [00:41:43]:

Thanks for having me. It's been a blast. Absolutely.

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