These are exciting times at State Collection Service. If you haven’t already noticed, we are growing. We experienced an 11% growth rate in 2013 and are projecting to have grown by another 37% by the end of this year. We are adding new clients, increasing our market share with existing clients, gaining new employees in all areas of the company, opening new offices and expanding current offices – all of this growth makes the need for leaders more important than ever before. Having leaders ready and willing to grow with us is vital and will be paramount going into the future.

When you promote employees from within, you already know they fit well with the company culture and have a proven performance record. Also, because they already know the company and the culture, they can hit the ground running instead of going through an on boarding process. In fact, research has shown that internally promoted employees perform better than external hires and are less likely to leave their jobs on their own accord. Of course, any newly promoted employee will surely still need some time to adjust to their new position, and may require a moderate amount of skills training to ensure they are equipped to succeed in their new role.

Supporting the growth and development of our staff is important in order to harness as much productivity and success as possible, encouraging motivation and retention, and setting them up for further career advancements. To aid us in our expansion, the Future Leaders program was born. This program is designed for high-potential employees who have demonstrated leadership aptitude and a sincere desire to pursue management as a career. The purpose of the program is to provide participants with a series of training session, discussion groups and assignments that will:

• Expose participants to a variety of collection-related disciplines through classroom instruction, panel presentation and required reading
• Establish task and learning objectives that will enhance and expand the participants’ existing knowledge base
• Provide participants with monthly feedback on performance and progress relating to program and individual objectives
• Establish a group of trained and experienced collections professionals for consideration in State Collection Service succession and business growth plans

Classes are held once a month, over a six-month period. The training modules include an introduction to leadership basics, team building and development, collection floor management, root cause analysis, and leadership challenges. The program ends with a panel discussion consisting of current managers and supervisors.

We are currently in our second six-month Future Leaders session of 2014. The program has been well-received and highly successful – in fact, as of November 1, nearly 50% of participants have already been promoted. As we look to 2015, we will continue to grow this program and find our next batch of Future Leaders!

Since 1949, State Collection Service has provided quality collection service to countless healthcare organizations.

Through experience and innovation, State Collection Service has grown to become a tremendously credible and nationally-recognized collection agency offering services from pre-registration to bad debt. It is upon the basis of ethical behavior and a dedication to integrity that each State Collection Service employee works to uphold the company’s vision – Partnerships for a Lifetime.

*This article first appeared in “A State Collection Service, Inc. Newsletter Volume 20, Issue 4, Fourth Quarter 2014”