EvenMORE For You

Company-Wide Monthly HR Meeting Kicks Off

A New Forum for Team Members’ Concerns

Early this month the first monthly meeting for all Crossroads human resources (HR) team members was held on Teams and well-received. 

Convened by C4’s Chris Hurst, now every month the HR team will have a standing meeting. 

On their meeting agenda are successes to be celebrated but also problems and concerns raised by team members at our site locations and how to best address them and learn from them.

With this new avenue for grassroots feedback our hope is that we can constantly be improving our work environment and processes while fostering a hopeful culture of collaboration.

Crossroads team members are encouraged to confidentially share any issues they may be having with their site HR contacts. Crossroads’ leadership is listening and motivated to share helpful solutions with all Crossroads locations.

Crossroads' Communications Command Center

A Tech-Driven Compassionate Differentiator

“Quality of compassion.” That’s how team members who work at C2 are measured, according to Crossroads’ Vice President of Referral Services Della Miller. That’s in contrast to the key performance indicator of a typical call center, which is volume of calls.

However, the C2 call center is hardly lacking volume. The 28 team members and three supervisors handle more than 30,000 calls a month, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. 

In its own one-story building with interior Crossroads-green walls, C2 is right next to the Crossroads Memphis site. That’s where 15 dedicated inbound 800 number lines and 33 overflow lines from each site flow in. But it’s not just calls that are handled.

“C2 monitors all omni channel communications” for Crossroads, Della said. Included are responding to the “Contact Us” form on the website and connecting with individuals round-the-clock through Chat. A typical call lasts one to three minutes.

C2 is Wired to Care 

C2 is also command central team for team members in the field enroute to patients’ homes, helping clinicians and caregivers connect back to the office or to referral sources. This is one of its most critical behind-the-scenes roles.

When recruiting new C2 team members, Della listens for “compassionate tone” and seeks individuals who “truly care about people.” She is looking for “conversational experts” who can be on calls all night “when the most exciting calls happen.”

Della is proud of her team’s varied backgrounds in social work, nursing, school guidance, education and even accounting and wants her Crossroads colleagues across the company to know they are very qualified and motivated to continue supporting Crossroads as we innovate and grow. 

C2’s supervisors Jharline Orozco, Fertina Bryant and Kevin Reed were all Customer Service Operators with a depth of Crossroads operational knowledge promoted from the C2 frontline. Della commends them for their unparalleled service to Crossroads.

“They resolve tech issues and support continuous education and training,” Della said of the three supervisors. “Because of their experience, they can help navigate any problem that pops up. Scheduling their teams to meet Crossroads’ patients’ needs is their focus but making sure that company-wide the Crossroads team is knowledgeable and responsive is what drives them.” 

It starts at the top with Della who joined Crossroads in 2009. She’s an operations expert who was recruited from another hospice to create C2 for Crossroads. Her experience serving in the U.S. Air Force as a Ground Equipment Technician for C5 carriers based at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware and as a 911 Operator drive her ambition to marry the most technology and innovation with the highest touch at C2. 

We thank the C2 team for their green spirit, unwavering support, caring touch and expertise in end-of-life care!

Lean Forward: on the Slippery Slopes at Work

Ten years ago, I embarked on a ski trip with my friend for his birthday. I hadn't skied since I was young, but I assumed old muscle memory would have me skiing again in no time. Boy, was I wrong! I could barely stand. My ski instructor had to demote me to learning with the kids. I spent the day on a flat escalator unstable on the gentlest of slopes. Eventually, I figured it out, and now I ski several times a year.

The experience of skiing is quite like work today. First, learning to ski downhill is initially antithetical to how we think. Common sense tells you that when going downhill, you need to lean back to gain control or slow down. But this response needs to be revised. Leaning forward and steering with your skis gives you better balance and control and is much safer. Learning to ski involves overcoming initial instincts and retraining your body to move in ways that work better and feel much more natural once you get the hang of things. Internalizing these skills aids the mechanics of skiing to feel logical and intuitive. We can transform our natural reactions into practical, skillful actions in any area of life. Internalizing these skills helps skiing feel logical and intuitive.

Many cultures today feel unnatural because many of our old models, built from the common sense of hiking up a mountain, are no longer relevant. Technology, regulations, and competition are slippery slopes. The combination of these can be challenging to steer.

The 21st-century workplace is on its way to making work more fulfilling. The challenge we all face is that we've mastered learning from the outside from other people; it's safer that way. These skills don't work for the inner journey; they are inauthentic. The advice comes from someone else heart.

The world is slowly waking up to this fact, realizing that our best selves, our engaged, confident, and authentic selves, singing in the choir, are what make us great. This journey begins with learning how you work internally and then giving of yourself to others. One that requires giving equal weight to the head AND the heart.

Adapting to the modern work environment is not just about surviving but thriving. It's about using the power of human connection as your superpower.