The Bottom Line Pharmacy Podcast: The Prescription for Talent: Finding, Hiring, and Keeping the Best in Pharmacy
Looking to find, hire, and keep the best in your pharmacy? Tune in to this episode of The Bottom Line Pharmacy Podcast with Sykes & Company, P.A.’s very own Director of People Operations, Tyler Davis!
This episode dives deep into:
- The changing hiring dynamics
- Things to consider before hiring techs
- Tips to retain talent on your team
- How A.I. is helping streamline the hiring process
Tune in to this packed episode with actionable insights and advice to help you build a high-performing pharmacy team!
The Bottom Line Pharmacy Podcast is your regular dose of pharmacy CPA advice to fuel your bottom line, featuring pharmacists, key vendors, and other innovators.
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More resources about this topic:
Blog – Best Practices for Pharmacists’ Compensation
If you prefer to read this content, the video transcript is below:
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: We got our own Mr. Tyler Davis joining us today Bonnie on the podcast.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: We do. Who is Tyler Davis?
Tyler Davis: That’s a very interesting question.
[Laugh break]
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Tyler is our People Operations Leader here at Sykes & Company.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yes. Yeah.
Tyler Davis: Yeah, and I’m happy to be here. This is, I’ve been wanting to be on the podcast for a while now.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Tyler, I had no idea you had a passion for podcasts.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, I used to run my own podcast. So I was like, I think this would be great if we could, you know…
Bonnie Bond, CPA: What? I need this information.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: What topic or what was your podcast about?
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: It was basically just like a like trending podcast. Like talk about like topics that are happening in the news or the world. And honestly, it was a lot of banter. But sometimes it would get deep, especially depending on like who I had on or things of that nature. It was hosted by me and a couple friends. And, you know, we would talk about our lives, our days, kind of just really a venting sesh, if anything. Yeah. Yeah.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: That’s awesome. Man, I…
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Okay, that’s important for the people of operations. You gotta vent, you gotta get it off your chest, right? I guess? I don’t know.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Now that makes me a little nervous that Tyler has podcast experience.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Why does that make you nervous?
Bonnie Bond, CPA: I mean, because he may listen to our podcast and have a lot of feedback he may want to give us.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: I mean, you guys are so scripted to the point where like you actually, the plans that you have in place, the podcast that I was doing, we winged it a lot. It was a lot of, we Google what we were doing firsthand and then run with it.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Are you serious right now?
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: You must not be a serious fan of our podcast because it is well known that we wing the heck out of this thing.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Did you just say, I thought he was being sarcastic.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: For me, it seems so structured from the outside.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: There’s no script. Mm -mm. Really?
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: We pull that off, Bonnie. I don’t know how we do it.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Wow. Usually, I roll in with like two minutes to go and then we’re like, what are we talking about today?
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Bonnie rolls in!
Bonnie Bond, CPA: I normally roll in a hand, I usually am pretty nice if I know Scotty’s gonna be in the office, I’ll bring him his iced coffee, just to be nice. So, he’ll be nice to me on the podcast.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: With heavy cream.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Not heavy, a little.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: And I have a little bit of lactose intolerance.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: And then…
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: So, if you ever see me on a podcast and have to run out of here, because Bonnie got me the heavy cream.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Well. Look, there’s a whole agenda here and stuff that we’re talking about. And I was like.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: It hasn’t happened yet, but that’s what I’m hoping for. Yeah, I’m trying to add some comic relief.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: So you’re just trying, you’re just poisoning Scotty, is what you’re saying.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Here it is I’ve drank it all too so
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Well, it’s the only time I know for sure he’ll be here. So.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: It’s the only time that actually I never know when you’re gonna be here.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: I’m a true hybrid worker.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: I’m here most of the time.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Really?
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Yes, yes I am.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: I’ll get here between eight and nine, you know, get the kids all ready and make sure all that’s straight and then I’m heading over here because not working at the house with the newborn baby.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: You got a lot going on. You got a lot going on in the house right now.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: There is, there is.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Tyler, like I said, is head of our people operations. Without going into a lot of detail on the Sykes & Company side, he’s one of the best hires we’ve ever made.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Thank you. I appreciate that.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: We needed Tyler. Seriously. As a growing firm, just like many of you guys, independent pharmacies out there growing and…
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Tyler was great. Tyler was fantastic.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Dealing with staff and talent and trying to keep turnover down and keep good people, we obviously needed to reach out and have help in that arena as well. So we thought that was a great topic to talk about because I know that is definitely with independent pharmacy these days, keeping and retaining good people, it can be difficult. So welcome Tyler, because I know you have a lot of good insight on some of these things. You’ve definitely helped us.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, yeah, thank you, Bonnie. And yeah, some of these items that I kind of was going to bring today to talk about, you know, especially when it comes to retaining talent and finding good talent is complicated because it changes all the time. And especially depending on what industry you’re in as well, especially when it comes to the pharmaceutical industry and everything that’s changing all the time. Especially with the generations of people that you have that are coming up learning and wanting to be a part of it, is so dynamic. And you really have to make sure as a company that you’re clearly defining whatever role you’re looking for, that you clearly define it and its responsibilities and how it fits within your company, but also fits in the parameters of certain governing bodies. You want to make sure that you look for candidates that have that pharmaceutical knowledge, but also have soft skills like communication, are they able to adapt in different environments, especially depending on what type of pharmacy you are. So those are, you know, the things that you really do have to look at when you’re trying to, you know, hire new talent. It’s not just trying to find those people who have those hard – set skills that you’re looking for somebody who went to pharmacy school or did that type of training You know, it’s nice that they have those but there’s other things you have to look for as well You also have to make sure that they fit the culture that you’ve set for your company, too. You got to make sure that they fit within the values and the mission that you have because that also can help them be a part of the team and the environment that you’ve already created because if you throw somebody in that doesn’t match any of that all those skills and that education and knowledge they have can kind of be sidelined if they don’t fit those things as well.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: And that’s a time waster and financially, you know, a money waster too, right Tyler? You know, when you, especially if you know upfront that they may not fit, they could be the smartest person, you know, in the world, but if they don’t fit and you spend months, six months, even a year sometimes trying to make it work and then they eventually leave, that can be very expensive.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, it’s very expensive hiring someone in. I mean, you also gotta take for the account of the time that you’re taking to try to find these people. That’s a lot of time. And what I try to do is I try to foster as many relationships as I can before I fully commit to putting somebody into an interview. Just because I don’t wanna rush into anything. And I wanna make sure whoever I find, like for example, with Sykes & Company, that they will fit into our culture. Or I think that they would do very well and communicate very well with the team. And that takes a lot of time to do that. I really do have to create almost a friendship relationship with these people before I throw them into that arena.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Before he throws them into the fire with the actual interviewers.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: To the fire pit, yeah.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: I do have to stop really quick and tell the best Tyler story ever. And I don’t think you’re going to mind me telling this.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah. Yeah. Oh god.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: So, when we hired Tyler, hire him, and we do all the normal things, I don’t think we have to go into all of the nitty gritty of obviously back ground checks and things are important. People know this. I hope, I certainly hope you know this. Especially in a pharmacy situation, I would hope. But anyway. We pull Tyler’s background check. Scotty does, or somebody does one day. Not worried about it at all. He’s a great guy, you can kind of tell. So, Scotty calls me. He’s like, you’re not gonna believe this. Like, he was panicked. And I was like, what? He was like, two things popped up on, you know, Tyler’s name popped with the background check. Like, you’ve gotta be kidding me. I mean, we we couldn’t believe it. There was like a 10 minute span where we were like, this guy’s got stuff at in these random states. But just so everybody knows, we ended up finding that Tyler and Davis are kind of a very normal, common names.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Common name.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: It was not the Tyler Davis that is not the right Tyler Davis. We eventually figured it out, but we were like…
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: That’s why there’s a couple of lessons to learn here. Number one, we had, Tyler was just fantastic. So we knew like, hey, this is, this is our man. And so we hired him before the background check. So maybe A, don’t do that because…
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Probably not the best. Tyler wouldn’t have done that, but this is why. Okay.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: and then B…Now I got sidetracked, but.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: B would probably be you don’t need to be doing this yourself.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Yeah, that was exactly it. Yeah, you took it right. That was it. We had no business being, yeah.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Like we’re accountants, stay in your lane. Stay in your lane.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, it was very interesting because I’d never reviewed my own background check before. And then because when you guys called, I was like, that’s interesting. And so when I went and looked and I kind of walked Megan through, I was like, so this is what you need to do to verify that these people are. I was like, because I promise I’ve never lived in these states and I’ve never done these things.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: There was one of the states you said you’d never even walked, you stepped foot in there. I mean, you’d never even been there.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: I’ve never, it was like Arkansas, I’ve never been to Arkansas before. And, sounds interesting, yeah, you probably should always make sure that stuff is done before you hire the person. Yeah, yeah.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Yeah, we should. We should. That’s why I’m not a people operations guy.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Which is why we were hiring you. That was why we hired you. We were showing you how badly we needed you. And we did not do well on that. But we got it all sorted out. But that is a good… That was my favorite story.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Hahaha
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: We got lucky. We got lucky. We got very lucky.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: That was a really unique situation. I mean because you did have people in place doing these things that had never done them before and you know, you just needed help getting through that and you know, luckily I came along and didn’t have any issues with that and was able to help and you know, that is you know, really important for people understand is you know, there are people out there who have experience and knowledge on those things that can help. Mitigate any craziness like that You know because I’ve heard a bunch of places that do you try to do all that stuff after the fact and they get burned. Either because they didn’t understand it, they just forgot to do it, nobody was responsible for it. So yeah, you definitely want to make sure you have that stuff in place beforehand
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yeah.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: So, Tyler, pharmacy owners out there listening in, they may have 12 staff members, they need another tech or somebody. What’s like the top three things they need to be doing before they go out and hire someone? So it’s obviously a clear job description, listing the job responsibilities and so forth, a background check. Which we should have done before we met Tyler, but we got lucky. What else, what else Tyler should be done before hiring a staff member?
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah. Yeah, so those are some, those are definitely some great items. And I would also put references in there, especially, you know, if they are a seasoned person reaching out to whoever their professional references may be. And even if you’re hiring someone right out of school, try to get references from, you know, the colleges that they attended or different peers or even like professors. I think that’s really important too because that can give you some personal depth into that person as well. So I mean I definitely think references, your background check are two important items and also of course you want to make sure that you have hard copies of their education, of their credentials, especially in the pharmacy world you want to make sure that they’re board certified if that’s something you require. So, you know, some people will put that they are on a resume, but they may not have passed their exam yet or done their CPEs or anything of that nature. So you want to make sure that all that stuff is verified as well. So that’s really important because in my past life, I worked in healthcare and we would see that a lot. You know, on their resume, it said they had all that stuff, but they just forgot to do their continuing education. So it’s expired right now. And it’s like, well, I had it. I just got to do this. Well, you can’t start your job before you get this stuff taken care of. So I mean, those are some important things as well. And definitely making sure that the job description is defined because if that’s stuff you require, you want to make sure that’s up there. So if you require like a, just say we’ll use North Carolina for instance, you know, a pharmacy technician license through the board of pharmacy, you want to make sure that’s listed on your job description so that they, one, if they’re applying for the job, they’re aware that that’s something they need.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yeah.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: A lot of places may think that it’s just assumed, but that’s not always the case. Because there are some places that do not require that, especially for the job duties that they have. So that’s something I would recommend.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: How important is that job description? I’ve heard of people in other situations mention, you know, they get into this job and then they’ll say things like, well, that wasn’t in my job description when I was hired. Like, how, can someone really hold you to that as an employer?
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: They can. It is, it can be very nitpicky. That’s why it’s really important that you basically review your job descriptions annually to make sure that they are up to date. You know, a lot of companies do put that line in there, other duties as assigned, and that is kind of like a catchall. I don’t necessarily like that line. That’s just me though. but a lot of companies will put all these other duties in that line and just say, take it. But,
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Gotcha.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: You know, if you are going to start adding stuff to their job, that’s not necessarily what it was when they first looked at that job description. Instead of just putting that catch all, just add it to that or just reword your job description to include those items that you’re adding to it. Cause you never want to just start giving tasks to your team members that they never like reviewed something down on paper. Or it, and I like to have people sign off on their job descriptions so that they can acknowledge that this is the work that they’re doing. And I think that’s something important.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: That’s important, yeah. So, Tyler, where do you find talent? Where do you find great talent? You know, what’s the best way to do that? I mean, there’s a lot of folks looking for qualified help in the pharmacy industry, you know, qualified techs. What’s the best way to go about that?
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, so, luckily in the age that we live in, the internet is a wonderful place. That’s, you know, one of the best places to start. There’s so many different websites and social media that you can use to try to obtain talent. I mean, you have your generic ones like Indeed, ZipRecruiter, LinkedIn. LinkedIn, I think, is a really great tool to use because you can have actual conversations with people, whether you’re directly messaging them or in the comments, or you can like add yourself to groups within LinkedIn and have conversations with communities who you can see if people are looking for positions, you can bounce ideas and things off certain people. I do a lot of like sourcing and just like connection work where we may not be hiring for a position right now, but I’m still out there talking to people and making connections. So that way down the road, if we are looking for something and I’ve talked to somebody that has that experience or who I think would do a great job, I already have that relationship set up with them and I can reconnect with them.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: That’s a really good point because we’ve had it, we talk about a lady that works with us that literally walked off the elevator, and this was years ago, into our lobby that was just kind of like, hey I was just checking to see if you’re hiring and she ended up, we weren’t hiring at that moment, but she was just kind of a unicorn like and she was local and it was like one of those things where you’re not gonna not fire, I mean hire her because that doesn’t happen very often so I think what what I’m hearing you say is always kind of keep you want people to continue to send in information send in their resumes you may find somebody that pops through that it’s just somebody that is so great that you can’t maybe you want to just do what you can to somehow have them work out so you don’t want to shut the door to those possibilities.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Right. Yeah. Yeah. And a lot of the hires that we’ve had in the last year have come from me, either them reaching out to me directly or vice versa. Or even like going to school events at different colleges and meeting people there and obtaining their resume and their contact information. That’s another great strategy too, especially for people in the pharmaceutical realm. Like even going to your community colleges of people who are about to graduate and going to those job fairs and being there in front of them and have somebody to talk to you because college students are so excited to like start their adult career and their adult life that you know they’re excited to talk to people and have that face-to-face conversation where some generations are fine with just like the direct message on LinkedIn or something like that but you know as younger generations come into the working force, they really do like to be like in your face, having that in-person conversation. So that’s another thing that I think is awesome is going to these schools, talking to students, seeing not just like trying to advertise yourself so much, but just also showing them how you care about them as a person, because that also will show them that, you know, know, you foster that in your work environment. I like to tell people, you know, we go to these, one, yeah, we like to advertise ourselves that we’re available, but at the same time, you want them to remember you for something positive as well. And it’s fostering that connection with them, having that genuine conversation, not just about your company, but about them and what they want to do with their life and their professional career.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yeah, the culture that you have, yeah. Another thing that Tyler has done for us, Scotty, is really started this pipeline of kind of internships with, you know, with gosh, how many interns do we have right now? Three or four this summer maybe?
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, we have two and we just had our spring one start full time.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: We had one start full time. And so that’s something that we have talked for years about. We knew we needed to do it. You really have to put the time and the energy to kind of plant a seed there and, you know, and it’s going to take time to grow. But the results of it, I think, have been fantastic. Like you said, we just hired one of our interns full time. But even in the pharmacy world, I think that’s huge. I know we have a lot of pharmacists that do some of that, maybe on the level of pharmacists. I know some, while they’re off in the summers, go and do internship roles in pharmacies. I think those are great if you can have people come in to do that. Obviously they’re getting their experience that they need, but it’s also an opportunity for you to showcase what you have to offer. We have so many, so many, when I do these ownership workshops, people that are at the workshops because they are purchasing a store and it’s usually a store that they have been working in. Some have, are not even pharmacists, they just work there. They’ll say I worked there when I was in high school and I work there kind of as a store manager for the last five years, ten years, and they want to buy the store. And so I think you have to look at it beyond even maybe just the pharmacist role. You look at your techs, you look at any of these people that have been with you and that you can bring in maybe on an internship level type of a setting. But that’s something I know we’re really excited about that’s worked out. You know, I guess we’re in about year two now, but we’re already starting to see some of those things work out good for us.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Yeah, I love it. I love the internship that we have here that Tyler’s helped put together. But Tyler, so once you find the staff and you bring them on board, following the basic procedures there, what’s the best way to keep and retain that talent and help that talent grow and continue to thrive in the work environment?
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, so one thing that you just want to make sure that you’re doing to keep that retention high is one, you don’t want to just like have that person think you forgot about them once they’re hired and they’re just doing their job. But you definitely want to check in with them. You want to reward your team members for any achievements that they have, whether it be individuals or as a team as a whole. And you want to make sure that you’re helping them set goals, not just for the team or the department, but individually as well. And you want to make sure that they have an understanding that you want to be there to help them achieve those goals. Now, I know some people may think, some people may not want to set goals for themselves at all, which is totally fine. That’s okay. But you still want to be there to show them that you’re going to be there to help them no matter what and try to push them into being successful and making those achievements that are set. And just having conversations with your staff. I hear a lot that from, whether it be friends or other colleagues, that they were hired into a role and they never hear from their manager. Or they talk to maybe one or two colleagues and that’s it. And they just get work assigned in their email box and that’s all. Some companies thrive in that environment and they hire staff who also do that. But, you know, in my mind, I just feel like, you know, having simple conversations, it doesn’t have to be daily, but at least once a week, just checking in with your team members, making sure they have the tools they need to do their job well and that they’re being successful in doing that. And that they are recognized for whatever achievements they do. And it doesn’t have to be in a public setting as well. It could be just one-on-one with you and that team. You don’t have to make a huge spectacle about it as long as that person knows that they’re being noticed for whatever that they’re achieving. And also, you know, and not saying you have to like put so much money into rewarding your staff, I mean, it can be as simple as a gift card, a note, a thank you. You know, you can take them out to lunch, dinner, send them gifts, things if you want to of that nature, but you also have to make sure that those individuals because everybody’s different, is comfortable with those certain items. We have some team members who may not like a gift, but a simple note that is just well thought out and thorough of thanking them for what they’re doing is something they prefer way more. So it’s really getting to know your team members on an individual level to have an understanding. And like for instance, here at Sykes & Company, I’m that person that gets that gets to know these people that to that point where I can share that information. And I know some pharmacists or store owners in this work may not have time to do that because they have other things going on. And if they want to hire someone to come in as like an office manager or an administrator that can do those things, that’s totally acceptable too because it can help them. I’m not saying it has to be a full-fledged HR person because sometimes that’s not necessary until you reach a certain point. And they usually say about 50 employees plus is when HR is needed just because of certain regulations and things that’s required at that size point. But just someone who can come in and kind of make sure that they have an understanding of how people are doing, you know, not just managing them, being there for them as well. So that can be also an important role alongside, you know, your day-to-day staff is someone coming in and having those understandings of what the people need, who they are, and you know just someone who they can come and talk to when they need those things and want to express it. Kind of like a neutral ground if anything.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Mm -hmm. Yeah, that’s important.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: So switching gears just a tad. AI. Let’s talk about AI. I know that’s a big topic in the world today. What kind of things are you starting to see that are different or things that kind of this AI is affecting the hiring process and retention and that sort of thing?
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, AI is insane. So, AI creating resumes, cover letters. You can tell when people aren’t very well versed in AI and they have AI write something for them.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: AI sending emails.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yep, AI sending emails, responding to emails, AI even responding to text messages and stuff. Or, yeah.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Mm -hmm. Some of it can be great though. Helpful, it’s a tool. But I ca
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, I am all for AI. I think it’s great as long as you know how to use it.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Tyler, another quick example of story, I was asked, you would have died, just completely died, I was asked to go to the high school a couple weeks ago to sit with these kids and do mock interviews. And so they would come in and they would hand me their resume. I would spend a few minutes looking at it and then I would ask them some interview questions just to give them practice. So twice I got the resume and was looking at it and it had like, I don’t know what you want to call it, like it had had name, everything was fine. And then it got down to work experience and they were like auto auto-generated that they hadn’t filled in. They were like fillable sections that it was like enter work experience here. Enter work experience here. They hadn’t even filled it in. I mean it was… they obviously didn’t read it or look at it after they printed it, so my feedback was… I tried to be nice. It’s terrible. Terrible. So please at least use it as a tool is what maybe I would say.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah. Yeah, it’s important. Like you have to learn how to use it, use it properly and not saying, you know, you don’t want to go and just use AI and try to hide the fact that you’re using it. You should be open about using it, but definitely there’s so many courses and things online. You can learn how to prompt AI properly to make it not feel as robotic or, you know, to give it more like a human taste. Even going back and editing some of the stuff AI has given you, you don’t want to just take what it spits out at you and run with it. You do want to give it a little bit of your own personal taste too. But in the world of recruiting, there’s so many tools they’ve created for AI that use AI now. There are different software’s and systems that have been done to where if a candidate sends in their resume, the AI will look at the resume for you and give you like a determination if they’re qualified enough for that position or if they’re a good candidate to speak with. There’s so many different things now that will go and review these for you. Actually, I have a couple that I looked at. So there’s platform. Yeah. Yeah. So.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: It’s like an assistant, is what it is, I mean…
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yeah, I mean it definitely helps with efficiency. Especially if you have a lot of people applying or something like that. You can kind of…
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: There’s two systems that I looked at that will kind of do this for you. One’s called Eightfold and the other one’s called HireVue. And they literally will scan the resumes and give you like compatibility like notes on depending on your job description if they would suit that. And I think that is insane. I think that would be awesome especially if you don’t have time to go through resumes.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: That’s awesome.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: I think the last position that we posted, I had almost 300 people apply for it. And having something where you could just put all the resumes in and then it spits out maybe a group of people that would work best depending on your job description, I think is amazing. It’d be at least interesting to see how close it gets. Even if you’re testing it with old like positions that you had posted and putting in all those applicants and see if the person that you chose at the end spits out for what it comes out with. I think stuff like that would be awesome. And there’s plenty more other platforms that do it. And something you may even be using today might have a AI integration that you don’t even know about.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Or if it doesn’t, it may in the next week or two as updates hit.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Right. Definitely.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Lot’s of good information. Tyler, to wrap it up, when we’re talking about the independent pharmacy, what kind of things would you just say takeaways on an HR sort of level for our independent pharmacies as far as just key points, bottom line, things to look for.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, I would say just really make sure that you’re listening to the team members you have and use whatever feedback that you get from them to hire and look for those candidates in the future. And make sure that your mission, your values, whatever purpose yours is, is very apparent and that your team has an understanding of that and that whatever task or duties that you have your team doing is very focused and that they have a really good understanding of that as well. And don’t be afraid to talk to your team members. It’s okay to have conversations with them and you can keep it professional with light personal touches. It doesn’t have to be always very deep or in depth and you don’t have to sit there and be friends with your team. You can be professional and still have those moments that seem like friendship without having it being too personal or deep or emotional. You know, just talking to them and getting to know them on a surface level can go really great lengths to letting that person know that you care about them. So, I mean, I think that was one of the biggest things is just having those relationships with your team members, letting them know that you do actually care about what they’re doing there and who they are as a person.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: So yeah, my bottom line from what we’ve discussed, taken from Tyler earlier is to, you know, I I it’s important because the hiring process and retention process is very expensive in and training. So, you know, if you kind of have a gut feel in the beginning that this person, they may be great, but they’re not a match for your firm, your mission, your values, that they may not kind of sync well with the team.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: That goes a long way.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: It may be a hard thing to do, especially with pharmacy right now when you are struggling to keep good people and needing people. They just may not be the fit. You might just have to pass them by.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, and hey, sometimes mistakes are made and misjudgments happen and that’s okay because you learn from that stuff. So.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yeah. Absolutely. Scotty, do you have a parting word?
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: My parting word, my bottom line is, I think it kind of comes down to the relationships, build those meaningful relationships. And when you do that, you build trust. And when you do that, you get the feedback and you get the sense that you really do care and you want the best for that individual. And that helps to build a rock solid team. And as we were talking about on our previous podcast, Bonnie, you know, you got to have a rock solid team. We’re talking about the foundations of just business, you know, solid team, the financials. And I feel, and it’s my opinion that building sound relationships and meaningful relationships is a key to that. I think.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yeah, being able to delegate, trust other people too, which is something I struggle with is the delegation piece, but I’ve gotten better over the years for sure. I think we both have Scotty. But trusting other people to take some of it, you know, everybody they gotcha, you know.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: It’s hard with us control freaks, we wanna control everything, but you gotta –
Bonnie Bond, CPA: On a previous podcast, we were talking about a lot of our guest was talking about a lot of pharmacists or type A personalities and so it’s very hard for them. Same kind of situation that exactly how we are as accountants, CPAs. So yeah, just to know that people to be able to trust people, train them and know that they’re going to do a good job and trust them to do so. So.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah, once you have that trust and you’re able to delegate efficiently, it’s so free. Yeah.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yes, I will agree. I actually have one more bottom line. Because I gotta always have the last word.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: What’s that?
Bonnie Bond, CPA: I would also like to end with the fact that bottom line is I’m so glad we hired Tyler.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Yes, thank you Lord. Thank you Lord for that background check was not right.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: It was actually not right, yeah.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Well, thank you.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: I had to call Tyler, you know, Megan came to me like, I think we have a problem. I was like, what? So, we had to call Tyler right away. And, Tyler’s like, well, that’s odd because I’ve never been to that state. So anyway.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yeah. Well, you know, as a growing firm, just like with the pharmacies, you know, like we mentioned, you start to hit that 35, 40 employee mark. We were trying to handle a lot of this stuff on our own and you get to a point, you’ve just got to stay in your lane, handle the things that you know how to handle. Same in pharmacy. So, you gotta, you get, let someone handle that that knows what they’re doing. So, I’m glad we ran.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Yep, you do. And Tyler, once you cross the 50 person mark, you open up another set of doors that you gotta handle. So maybe on a future podcast, we can maybe dive into that for those larger pharmacy owners out there.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: Yeah.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yeah. And that also goes without getting into any whole lot of detail just if you’re curious. That doesn’t mean per entity necessarily. If you got common ownership, it’s a whole other thing. We may need to do another podcast on that.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: That’s right.
Tyler Davis, People Operations Director: I would be glad to be a part of that. Yeah, because Sykes & Company just hit that threshold not too long ago. So it is a different world of stuff you have to make sure that you’re taking care of.
Bonnie Bond, CPA: Yep. Just another thing for everybody to add to the list.
Scotty Sykes, CPA, CFP®: Just another thing, another hat to wear for the pharmacy owners out there. But thank you all for listening in. Thank you, Tyler, as always for all you do for our team. And we appreciate you. And we’ll see all you listeners out there on another episode of the Bottom Line Pharmacy Podcast.
