HR Pulse - Spring 2008 - (Page 16) [HR LEADER] When he became the committee chair the following year, what really energized him was working with the committee members to create more structure, with the goal of boosting the group’s effectiveness. Payne collaborated with Carla Luggiero, senior associate director in AHA’s Division of Federal Regulation, to make Hill visits more targeted in terms of tactics and goals. “While I didn’t start out with a love of advocacy work, what I found really exciting was the opportunity to mobilize the committee,” he explains. In 2005, Payne was one of a handful of HR professionals from across the country who were invited to participate in a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension (HELP) Committee “select-roundtable” discussion on whether the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) was working as intended; the HELP committee included Sens. Kennedy and Clinton. As the ASHHRA representative, he testified on how certain aspects of the law, namely the intermittent leave portion, had become problematic for health care employers. Even though the hoped-for reform did not materialize, the experience made a lasting impact on Payne. “This was one of those career highlight moments for me. I saw how we could impact the legislative process, and that was a powerful experience,” he says. Assuming Two New Roles Payne recently has taken on two significant new roles—one for ASHHRA and one in his daily work life. In November 2007, he was elected to the ASHHRA Board of Directors as treasurer. “I really consider it an honor, and I’m looking forward to working with the other board members to make sure ASHHRA remains financially sound and that we continue to grow our revenue base so that we can do even more for members in the years ahead,” says Payne. In December 2006, he became vice president of human resources at Lakeland Regional Medical Center (LMRC) in Lakeland, Fla., an 851-bed, acute-care community hospital with 4,500 employees and an HR staff of about 60 people. Of all the things he’s working on there, Payne is most excited about the opportunity he has to restructure the HR function. Under Payne’s direction, LRMC has implemented a new HR business partner model based on one he helped introduce while at Palmetto Health. The department is transforming into three primary functions: 1) organizational development; 2) compensation and benefits; and 3) what Payne calls “the face of HR”—business partners. Three HR professionals serve as business partners assigned to specific areas of the hospital and act as the primary liaisons between unit managers and HR. Their objective is to better understand the strategic direction of the departments and provide solutions through appropriate HR programs and services to improve organizational capabilities. Payne says the overarching goal of the restructuring process is to elevate the HR function to a more strategic level within LMRC. “It’s a cliché to say we {health care HR professionals} need to be at the table,” according to Payne. “What we need is to get to the point where leadership would not dream of having strategic meetings without us. Right now, in the greater HR ‘world,’ we’re still too often having to ask to be there.” n Reduce Vacancies Lower Turnover Eliminate Agency Costs Point Nurse Recruitment in a Different Direction 16 HR Pulse Spring 2008 Our Services Include: Recruitment Process Assessments OnSite Nurse Recruitment Recruiter Training Program Since 1993 ent m t rui ec R in N urs e RSI The Pion www.rsirecruit.com 363602_Recruitment.indd 1 eer I 800-787-9669 1/7/08 11:51:25 PM http://www.rsirecruit.com
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