Interns Help Us Innovate and Improve

Recently, I had an insightful conversation with some of the talented interns who joined Change Healthcare for the summer to learn more about their experience at our company and find new ways to evolve the way we recruit and grow talent.?Here are some of the key takeaways from our discussion.

Finding talent: casting a wide net

The interns I spoke with are a diverse group. And while we all know the value racial, gender, and socioeconomic diversity brings to business performance, I’d argue that diversity in academic background is also important. Take Austin Humphrey, for example. A graduate student in international affairs and aerospace at Georgia Tech, he isn’t the typical candidate for a marketing role. However, with his background in math and science, coupled with excellent writing skills, he actually fits in extremely well in a data-driven marketing environment.

Natalia Rosas Villeda, who graduated from Agnes Scott College with degrees in public health and economics, is working with our Technology Enabled Services finance team. “I came onto the team with no finance background and very minimal coding background,” she told me. “Now I'm building financial models using Python. I would have never thought that I'd be doing this, so coming into an internship with an open mind was key.” Organizationally, we also need to have an open mind at Change Healthcare and hire for aptitude, attitude, and potential rather than a specific set of skills.

Developing future leaders with intangible skills and mentorship

A related theme throughout my conversation with our interns was the importance of hard and soft skills. It was gratifying that each of the interns raved about their managers, saying that they provided true mentorship and a nurturing environment. Notwithstanding this support, these interns’ roles were demanding and their managers had high expectations.

?But our leaders also know that collaboration is key to improving business outcomes. Take two leaders: one is brilliant technically but doesn’t inspire others, another has a lot less formal education but everybody just loves working with them and helping them succeed. My bet is always on the second leader, in life or in business. If you know how to assemble an effective team, it's a lot less meaningful how technically adept you are personally. Ultimately, the team is what's going to succeed or not – one team member’s skill, no matter how advanced, will overcome the drag on results produced by a dysfunctional team.

?This has been an important lesson to Aleksandra Vujicic, who is a fourth-year electrical engineering student at the University of British Columbia. Aleksandra is working as a project coordinator in our enterprise imaging group. She told me she realized quickly how important soft skills are. “I find oftentimes with my classmates that there's this huge focus on technical skills. I definitely realized stepping into this role just how important it is to have good communication, interpersonal, and team skills.” That means communicating differently depending on whether she is talking to a sales team as opposed to an engineering team. “I'm still working on this skill, and I can see this being really important no matter where I end up in my future career.”

?Effective mentorship also needs to be part of this equation. Logan Gonzalez, a rising senior at St. Edwards University in Austin, Texas, described his experience of having to write a marketing video script for the first time: “My manager just told me, ‘Hey, I'm going to coach you. I'm going to mentor you through this.’ It was just crazy to have that amount of trust,” because the project he was working on was a leading edge use of artificial intelligence in cardiology imaging. I’m certain that Logan’s manager had been mentored himself; good management creates its own virtuous cycle.

?Pursuing purpose

My final takeaway is the importance of purpose. Each of these exceptional young people expressed the importance of working on projects that had meaning beyond the four walls of Change Healthcare. They could readily see how their projects help make our healthcare system more efficient, more sustainable. To “Pursue Purpose” is one of Change Healthcare’s five core values. If we are to succeed in the coming years, it is incumbent upon us to communicate our purpose to prospective employees. Only by doing so will we attract the best future leaders, people like Aleksandra, Austin, Logan, and Natalia.