White Papers & Articles

​Last week I had the honor of moderating a speaking engagement put on by Device Alliance in Irvine, CA.  If you aren’t familiar with Device Alliance (DA) it’s a Medical Device industry association whose primary focus is providing a supportive platform for the continued knowledge development and relationship building within the medical device industry in SoCal.

The purpose of the event on July 20th was simple – to have an informative discussion on ‘Changing Workforce Dynamics’ surrounding these three topics:

1. Generational Differences
2. Employee Engagement (and motivation)
3. Our Changing Workplace

I’ll admit, I may have burned out my DVR from watching CNN’s broadcast of the political debates over and over again hoping to pull some nuggets of knowledge from how the moderators handled themselves in preparation for the DA event.  Thankfully we were also joined by a top notch panel who brought a wide spectrum of experiences and insights to the discussion: Mark Murphy (former device CEO and CEO Advisor and Chair of Vistage), Jan Slater (founder of Career Connection.Me) and Pete Nalbach (Director of Engineering with Sea Spine).

As we got into the meat of the content for the evening I started to pick up on a topic that seemed like it was trending in a fair amount of our conversation. 

Is the Medical Device industry attracting younger generations at the rate it should?
​
There seemed to be a fair amount of dialogue and a bit of concern from some people present at the event addressing a discrepancy within the industry as it seemed that new grads weren’t flocking to medical devices like they once had.  I can’t substantiate this claim to say ‘yes’ it’s happening, or ‘no’ it isn’t, however it’s a powerful topic to discuss because it’s a potential challenge we face in the near term if in fact it is true.

So let’s hypothesize for a moment:  If new talent, in particular younger generations, are not entering the medical device industry like they used too, what are the potential cause and effects we’re faced with?

CAUSES:

1. Cause: Boomers aren’t retiring on time (Boomers reach the age of retirement at 10,000 a day and it’s a fact that they are waiting longer to retire which has a domino effect on jobs; perhaps this is the reason there isn’t a lot of new opportunities in the industry because those who would normally be retiring aren’t and they’re keeping jobs that otherwise would have been transitioned to provide new opportunities)
2. Cause: The Device industry tends to be fairly incestuous.  What I mean by that is it can be very hard to get into the business if you don’t already have experience.  I talk with people all the time in other industries (Aerospace, Industrial Manufacturing, Contract OEM) who say it’s “mission impossible getting into the Device industry because when companies are hiring they are always looking for prior experience with medical devices”. 
3. Cause: Are younger generations are attracted to high tech businesses rather than manufacturing?  Technology is ever changing and drives much of how our workforce operates.  New grads are often lured towards industries that are cutting edge offering cool, hip, flexible work environments that mirror the Silicon Valley feel.  While I fully believe medical device offers that (cutting edge tech, great places to work, feel good about what you’re contributing to mankind, etc.) perhaps we aren’t doing a great job articulating that to new grads therefore they’re chasing other opportunities.  Again, unsubstantiated at this point.
4. Cause: Is the Device industry growing in comparison to other tech industries which may be drawing young talent away?  Medical Device is slated to grow 6.1% through 2017.

EFFECT:

1. Effect: if Boomers aren’t retiring and taking the place for others we may experience a sizable talent gap in a couple years.  If Boomers were to actually flip the switch and exit out of their careers in large numbers the Device industry could experience a real bottleneck as a result of a flood of employees retiring.
2. Effect: what do we do about legacy information/ tribal knowledge?  Let’s face it, those who have been around for a while know how to get things done.  It isn’t realistic to think that every little nuance of how to develop a product or manufacture it is documented to such a degree that a new person can come in and pick up where the work was left off without some sort of knowledge transfer hand off.  If I was the owner of a medical device company I would be highly concerned about what data is collected and how it is stored to ensure all that legacy information doesn’t walk out the door as my Boomers retire.
3. Effect: One of the biggest barriers to entry in the device business is having prior device experience.  Companies are going to have to wise up, and do so quickly, if they want to bring in the best talent.  Just because someone comes from another industry doesn’t mean they don’t have the chops to make it work in Device.  I happen to be of the notion that a team with varying backgrounds and experiences is the best as it fosters creative ideas and perspectives.  If companies continue to make hiring decisions largely based off prior device experience they risk losing traction in the industry against competitors who have decided they want the best of the best, first and foremost, they’ll train competency after the fact.
4. Effect: The growth of the medical device industry at a proposed 6.1% seems good in comparison to our GDP which is 1.1%, point in time.  When comparing to other industries (such as 3-D printing, drones, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, food e-commerce, wind energy and green building; to name a few) our beloved device industry takes a back seat by a fair margin.  As a result when device isn’t one of the front leading growth industries is reduces the amount of growth potential companies experience which further lessens the amount of jobs available.

Is the Medical Device industry attracting younger generations?  What are you thoughts? Agree or disagree?  

The craze of the new hot app, Pokémon Go, has taken the world by storm as people meander aimlessly trying to catch little creatures to their hearts content.  As users continue to increase and we gain a better understanding of the fanfare this game has adopted an interesting parallel is developing which isn’t necessarily what the game is about at all, yet it’s a great learning opportunity for anyone in a leadership role.
Before we get into that, let’s start off with what the heck is this game anyways?
What is Pokémon Go?
It's a free-to-play, location-based, augmented reality, multiplayer online mobile game.  It’s a rebirth of a game that came out originally in the early 90’s which allows you to search for critters, catch them, train them and battle with them.  The game that was launched on July 6th uses your phone's GPS to track where you are while making use of a stylized Google map as the primary game board. Your character moves in the game as you walk around in real life, and events and objects – known as PokéStops – are associated with specific locations in the physical world.  You can look at the game world through your phone's display which serves as a viewfinder that mixes reality with game objects.
What has Pokémon Go accomplished?
It took a mere 3 hours to hit #1 on the iPhone app sales charts and a total of 13 hours for the game to hit the top of the US sales charts, bringing in $2M a day in revenue.  If that wasn’t impressive enough, its daily user penetration rate (% of people who download the app per day) is 10.81% whereas other blockbuster apps prior were only around 1.67% and 0.84%.  The average amount of time a user spends on the app each day is upwards of 45 minutes and the games retention rates are double the industry norm.  Lastly, this single app managed to raise Nintendo’s (creater of the app) market share by more than $7 billion, or 25%.  Basically it’s minting money left and right for the gamer maker. 
Why are so many people across such a large age range totally immersed in this app and what could we learn from it to implement in the workplace?  After reading that some of you might be thinking “why do we need to learn anything from it?  It’s a game, not work.”  That’s a valid point and you would be justified in saying that however I think there’s a great learning opportunity for any business owner or person in leadership to take note.
People like Pokémon Go because it’s an experience!
As leaders in business if we took anything away from what this app has accomplished it should be that the majority of people out there respond positively to things which elicit an interactive, creative and fun experience.  Is it then possible to harness the Pokémon Go experience and create that in a business setting?  You bet your backside it is, it’ll just take a little creative licensing to make it work.
Before we get into the 'how' let’s quickly explore why we would want to do this in the first place?
It’s a simple fact that happy employees produce successful companies.  When employees are cared for, respected and engaged successfully their productivity levels and general happiness soar in the workplace.  When people are happy they take less sick days, require less vacation and go above and beyond on the regular.  They don’t need to be told to go above and beyond as they do so naturally.  It’s not a utopian day dream to think that this is possible for every company out there because it is indeed possible.  It just requires someone to recognize the need for positive change and actually do something about it.
Now we’ll take what we’ve learned from the Pokémon Go experience and translate that into the workplace.
To create an experience that people will gravitate towards in the workplace we first have to listen and give people what they want, not what you (the leader) wants.  Once we know what our people desire we need to deliver on it by creating a work environment and culture that people are drawn too.  As Pokémon Go shows us people are willing to adopt things very quickly when it meets their needs and interests.  Creating a culture and environment that supports collaboration, appreciation and respect, along with having fun, are good starting points.
We also need to keep in mind that over complicating things at work doesn’t necessarily make it a better experience.  In fact, the simpler something is the better.  Pokémon Go does this perfectly by using something we already know (our phone GPS) and integrates it with our personal space and creative expression.  As a result we, the user, are put in the drivers’ seat to create an experience that is catered to our unique interests.  What that looks like at work is giving people the autonomy to make decisions and do their job effectively.
There’s an added bonus for us in the workplace!
We can create an experience that is stimulating and rewarding without the worry of being hit by a car, running into light poles or literally falling on our faces, which have been some wonderful experiences to come as a result of using Pokémon Go.

​After more than a decade of hiring people on a daily basis I’ve seen a thing or two when it comes to good vs. bad practices as it relates to hiring employees.  During that time I’ve also made my fair share of mistakes which have offered up a lot of learning opportunities.  What I've learned over the years is that making a hiring mistake can be costly.

Hiring an employee is an interesting and vital part of business.  Interesting in that the end result is bringing on a new person into your company with the idea that they will fulfill a role to help the company move forward.  Vital, because hiring really is one of the most important activities a business can do outside of generating revenue.  Without revenue streaming in there is no need for hiring and no company for that matter.

The act of hiring is often whimsical and mythical in nature, like a unicorn.  Everyone loves to say they’re great at interviewing as they ‘know how to pick em’, they’re ‘able to sniff out the best from the worst’, etc.  I always enjoy a good chuckle when I hear comments like this because the reality is that these words often come with hollow ground. 

In fact, the act of interviewing and hiring is so tough it’s probably best we just get these two stats out ahead of time:

1. HBR did a study that found 80% of turnover is due to poor hiring decisions
2. More than 70% of companies don’t have a specific process they follow to ensure their hiring process is streamlined and effective

With stats like that you’d think companies would focus more on hiring to improve that area of the business similarly to how they spend endless amounts of time and money on activities like kaizen events and lean initiatives in order to improve yields by a couple percentage points. 

In the end the numbers don’t lie as they tell us a very sobering story – no one is perfect when it comes to hiring employees.  However the quicker we build awareness around our actual performance in the area of hiring the quicker we can begin to improve it. 

Take a look below and see where you land on these 10 hiring blunders:

1. Candidates are disrespected going through the interview process (this happens all the time and is one of the quickest ways to lose a great candidate; disrespect comes in the form of wasting people’s time, not getting back to people, treating them poorly during the onsite interview, etc.)
2. Manager has unrealistic expectations and makes hiring decisions based on being able to perform immediately rather than long term success
3. Don’t know what they’re looking for in a candidate so they interview dozens of people hoping to figure it out along the way (this often times is an unspoken action as few people will openly admit to their peers they don’t know what they’re doing)
4. The job description used to search and vet candidates isn’t the same as the real job responsibilities
5. Interviewing is based around job tasks, not the expected performance results
6. Interview process is horrific (it goes months on end with weeks of down time in between, involving several interviews with dozens of people
7. Fails to connect what the company offers with a candidates career motivations (when this happens companies are hiring people to fill a job, not a career)
8. Don’t know how to find the best candidates (hint – only about 11% of people find their job on the internet so if your strategy is to solely to use technology you’re missing out on 89% of the rest of the workforce)
9. They are reactive, not proactive, in hiring
10. They have entire teams or departments involved the hiring decision (often times those people aren’t trained on how to interview and don’t understand the true needs of the job)

 
Do you or your company fall short in any of these areas? 
 
If so you’ve got an opportunity to improve the process and create a great hiring experience for the sake of your new hire and company’s performance in the future.