← Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Becker’s Healthcare Podcast
Jeremy Stephens, Chief Human Resources Officer and Executive Vice President at Tidelands Health
00:11:16
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- [00:02]
A
This is where healthcare leadership comes together. Becker's 16th annual meeting brings more than 3,500 hospital and health system executives and nearly 800 speakers to Chicago, April 13th through the 16th. This year's event includes keynote conversations with Dallas Cowboys legend Troy Aikman and former President George W. Bush. For the agenda and event details, visit Beckershospitalreview.com and click on the Events tab in the upper right. We're looking forward to hosting you in Chicago.
- [00:33]
B
Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare Podcast. I'm Kelly Gooch, senior editor and enterprise lead at Becker's. I'm thrilled to be joined today by Jeremy Stevens, Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer at Highlands Health in South Carolina. Jeremy, thank you so much for being here. I'm really looking forward to this conversation, especially given the work you're leading at the intersection of workforce and transformation, talent development and organizational culture, all areas that are, of course, front and center for systems navigating continued change today. So to kick us off, I'd love if you could introduce yourself, share a little bit about your background and your path in healthcare leadership that led you to Tylen's Health.
- [01:10]
C
Oh, sure. Thank you. And thanks for having me. I appreciate the opportunity to share a little bit about what we're doing. Really excited at Tylen's Health. We've got some really great initiatives before we get into all that, like you said. I'm Jeremy Stevens. I've been at Tylen's for about eight years. I've been in healthcare for probably 15, and then my background's kind of crazy. Before that, I was actually the state personnel director for the state of Michigan for four years, and then before that about 15 years or so in automotive. So I've been around the block in several different industries and really enjoy healthcare, though I think that it's really an opportunity for HR to make a real difference.
- [01:50]
B
Absolutely. Sounds like just a wonderful background, like you said, across many areas there. So I was wondering what maybe was the most important initiative you led in the last year or so, and what did you do and what were the results? I'd love to hear from you.
- [02:06]
C
Sure. So I think there's two major projects that I'd like to hit on. The first was we really focused on travelers. We had a pretty high number of travelers during COVID and did not really do a great job of bringing that number down. And so we really made a focus in 2025 of attacking the traveler number and getting that number down. We were at about 80 travelers. We're down to 12 now. So it was a real significant decrease. We have around 2,500 total employees. So getting that number from 80 to 12, that's a big deal for us. And we really, really put a lot of time, a lot of effort and focus. All the hiring managers, operations and HR partnered and really did a great job in focusing on. That was a big initiative and a huge cost savings. And then the other one that I'm really excited about, we launched what's called the Tidelands Health Scholars Program. And what that is is a program where we partnered with the local school district in the county as well as the local technical college. So Georgetown Community School District and Horry Georgetown Technical College. And we came together, the three of us, and developed this scholar. And what it is is we look at juniors in high school and we interview them, they can apply and they're then selected for their senior year to go through a curriculum of health science classes. And then when they go through that, they're also receiving a dual education, dual certification through or a Georgetown Technical College while they're also getting their diploma through high school. And so as they're doing that, they're graduating with that dual certification in health science. And then that allows us, we're hiring every one of them, we guarantee them a job when they get through the program and then we bring them on board. And we also have ability in our state and partnership with Horry Georgetown Technical College to offer kids 2 years free education so they get their associate's degree. So their junior year they figure out they want to be in health science, they're guaranteed a job while they're working, they can get their two year degree for free. We're real flexible with that. And then the goal is to find some, some sponsors or some, some folks to help us get from a two year to a four year degree for those folks also with the end goal being really to give students that are juniors in our community the ability to have free education. So we're over halfway there getting them through two year program. We want to end up with about 50 kids per year. We have 15 that went through for our first inaugural year, which was a really good number. And we're going through that year right now. And our goal is for 50 for next year. So that's a real big focus. And if you just, you know, you think about that after five years, that's potentially 250 kids that have received all the education that they want and are members of our community with great paying jobs working with us. And it's just a win for the community, for the hospital, for our patients, for everybody. So we're really excited about that program.
- [05:26]
B
Wow, that's amazing. Both initiatives, just incredible results there. And I was going to ask how many stay in the system, so. Yeah, that's just wonderful to hear. It's been able to really be valuable and a great, great thing for the organization that you're continuing to evolve. And it leads in actually to what I wanted to hit on next. You mentioned continuing to look at that. And so looking ahead, what are maybe some of the big priorities and headwinds you're focused on for 2026? Anything else you'd mention?
- [05:58]
C
Yeah, I think the big focus for us is to continue with our pipeline development. We're in one of the fastest growing counties in the United States. We're near the Myrtle beach area. And so our projections for growth are just incredible. And so with that growth, it's going to mean that we need to really have the pipelines in order to expand our services to the community. And so pipeline management is a huge focus. One of the biggest initiatives within that space is our student program that we developed several years ago. And what we've done is created a department that focuses on relationships with students from really, kindergarten all the way through college and even masters. And we have a residence program. So we're really focused on developing those students. And what we've seen already is about 30% of our open positions annually are filled through our student program. So it's a huge pipeline. It's almost a third of all of our positions are filled right there through that program. I know a lot of employers struggle with whether or not to put it in place or how to manage it, but it's been an absolute amazing thing for us to do and it's really solidified our presence in the area, in the community, and has really allowed us to become a premier employer. We, we've been recognized through Beckers as employer of choice now for the past three years in a row. And I think that student program is really feeding into that nicely and will really be a big thing for our future growth.
- [07:42]
B
That's so wonderful to hear just how that pipeline development has come about and just the success there as well. And we all know, as you said, that these initiatives are not always smooth sailing and there may be challenges along the way. And so wanted to ask you also, just maybe what's the hardest thing you'll have to do in the coming year?
- [08:05]
C
So this year is going to be a bit of a challenge for us In a very, very good, positive way. We are in, we've enhanced our relationship with MUSC in South Carolina. And so this will be a bit of a transitional year for us and that's exciting. It's going to allow us to provide more services, it's going to allow us to have expanded networks, it's going to just allow us to take care of our patients in the community better. And we were doing a great job at Thailand's. But adding MUSC to us in a more enhanced relationship is really going to strengthen that whole opportunity for our community to get the care that they deserve and that they need. With the growth that we're experiencing in this area, it was needed and super exciting. It's going to be a big year for us to transition and think about that impact, what it means, how we pull it all together, where we focus and really staying focused on our employees and making sure that they're real happy, which they are, but making sure that we're really doing a good job with the transition and just kind of working through all that. So that's going to be a big, big focus for us this year. But we'll still have to keep an eye on all our other critical things when it comes to engagement and turnover and pipeline and all of that. So a lot of strategic work that we'll be doing as well as just a lot of transitional and transactional type things, but a really exciting time for the future for title and tell.
- [09:34]
B
Yeah, lots of, lots of things to focus on. I know at the same time there and you mentioned, of course, musc, that sounds like that's going to be just a wonderful opportunity moving forward. Anything else you'd mention on just where you see the best opportunities for organizational growth? Anything else you'd mention about, about either that transition or other efforts?
- [09:55]
C
So I think for us, as I mentioned a couple times now, with the growth that we're experiencing in this area, we're going to put in several new freestanding eds, we're going to build a new hospital over the next few years. So that's going to require growth. I mean, it could easily, gosh, maybe even double our size, but it's certainly going to allow us to reach the patients and have that community focus that we need. But it's going to be tough for hr. That's, that's going to be a real challenging year and for our operations group and really all the areas to, to really bring the talent in, the right talent, develop the talent, make sure we keep all our talent and we grow towards the future. I think that, as I mentioned, this is just an extremely exciting time. I think we're going to be really identified with this partnership with MUSC as the premier place for healthcare in our area, and I'm excited to make sure we're bringing in the providers and the rest of the staff to provide those services for all the people that need it in our community. It's just a really, really exciting time.
- [11:05]
B
I really appreciate your time and really look forward to working with you again soon.
- [11:11]
C
It's my pleasure. Thank you for the opportunity.