To recruit and retain those who will apply their values, talents, and energy to the fulfillment of our mission is the job of Human Resources. Our workers provide the educated minds and therapeutic skills to help those who are homeless and disabled to achieve permanent housing, or those in crisis to achieve safety and relief from distress. Even more, our workers demonstrate the values, care, and conduct that define who we are as an organization, and as a community.

We always seek workers who can understand what needs to be done, and do it with efficiency and compassion. In turn, we provide workers with the flexibility and support needed to execute creative solutions for complex issues, to apply their talents in untested but promising ways, and to learn and develop their own capacities.

Meredith Hill (left) is Director of Human Resources.

Today, successful healthcare and supportive service organizations must pursue their mission with ever-greater efficiency, and be able to prove to the community the value of their services. Our Human Resources staff members find people who can achieve these tasks, and help MHS create the values and culture to sustain their achievements.

"The greatest competitive advantage of the United States," wrote Peter Drucker in the article referenced below, "is that it attracts top knowledge workers from around the world -- not just because they earn more money but because they are treated as colleagues, not as subordinates. Knowledge workers don't believe they are paid to work 9 to 5; they believe they're paid to be effective. Organizations that understand this -- and strip away everything that gets in their knowledge workers' way -- will be able to attract, hold, and motivate the best performers. That will be the single biggest factor for competitive advantage in the next 25 years."

Thoughtful and well-researched cultural competence standards (Center for Mental Health Services, 2001) guide MHS governance, clinical practices, and administrative activities. Training activities have included seminars on the differential effects of psychiatric interventions and psychotropic medications with individuals of racial and ethnic minorities, diagnostic issues among those of various cultures and ethnicities, and vernacular language use among those of diverse ethnicities.

Administrative and clinical policies and practices incorporate cultural competence standards (Center for Mental Health Services, 2001). These standards address the domains of governance, strategic planning, employee benefits, the management of information, quality assurance, performance improvement, client rights, and clinical services. All MHS staff members participate in at least one full day of cultural competence training each year. The agency's Human Resource Director heads a committee that meets monthly to address multicultural training and issues. Committee membership is made up of staff from all departments and levels of the agency. On-going training at the agency includes education of the effects of psychiatric interventions and psychotropic medications on ethnic minority persons, issues related to differential diagnosis of ethnic minority persons, and vernacular language patterns of ethnic minority persons. The agency's salary structure includes a salary enhancement for employees who are fluent in foreign languages used by our clients, and many of the agency's critical documents are available in Spanish. We maintain a service contract with a local language bank that provides us with interpreters to help us conduct assessment and treatment services 24 hours per day.

References

Center for Mental Health Services. (2001). Cultural competence standards in managed care mental health services: Four underserved/underrepresented racial/ethnic groups. (DHHS Publication No. SMA 00-3457). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2001). Mental health: Culture, race, and ethnicity. A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General. Rockville, MD: Author.