interview by Ben Mundy
Monica Romo leads the new hire onboarding team at UC Davis Health, under the Shared Services Organization.
How did your department come to be?
Our department used to be under the same umbrella as Talent Acquisition. We’re excited to be under the Shared Services Organization. Every transfer or employee that comes through the doors of UC Davis Health, we are involved in some way. There's a lot more awareness of our team from when I started two years ago. People now ask, is SSO HR onboarding involved? We’re now at the table. And as things escalate, as departments start talking, as things need to be fixed, there's awareness to get SSO onboarding involved. So we're the fixers
What’s changed and evolved in how you do work now?
There’s a lot more communication and more adherence to policy and compliance. We understand, in certain cases there is urgency to start employment to support the hospital. We’re just careful not to “push things through” and not have all our I’s dotted and T’s crossed. There’s been a shift in culture as we work more closely with our partners. As things evolve, we have moved to “just because we used to do it that way doesn’t mean we have to continue to do it that way.’ It’s humbling, and there's still a lot of things we’re learning. As a leader, I understand our role is to help, protect, and support our partner’s team. Also, if we need to take on a new task that a department is asking us to do, we do it even if it creates more work for us. UC Davis Health is growing, and we're growing. We’re behind in some technologies, which makes it challenging for all departments.
Which departments are you onboarding for?
Almost everyone. We work closely with employee health, with parking, with TA, Kim Ramos, compliance, and our applicants and transfers. We're all partners, even my team. I'm not successful without them.
Describe the onboarding process
Onboarding is start-to-finish before the applicant walks through the door. It is to create that wow experience for our applicants. We make sure we receive the applicant file by Talent Acquisition, confirm minimum qualifications, make sure pre-employment requirements take place (drug screening, the employee health screening,) gather data, verify employment, send the welcome email, and finalize everything. There’s so much to bringing someone on board and I'm learning something new every day. There's a lot behind-the-scenes and it can be very challenging, especially when departments make assumptions or give bad information, and we’re scrambling to start a candidate in 24-48 hours.
Can you have a quality customer experience and compliance?
Protecting UC Davis Health, the clinics, our employees, and our partners is the prime directive. No one comes to work saying, 'hey, today I'm not going to follow the rules.'
What drives your passion?
Having strong faith. Really believing. Even when things come across as challenging or create a lot of work for us, it’s really taking the time to sit back and look at the bigger picture and see what positive comes out of it. I really believe in learning from all the challenges that we get, and having that passion, faith and belief is what keeps me going. What's been helpful is to lead from a place of trust, vulnerability, and shared ownership. I read and listen to a lot of Brene Brown audiobooks and socialize this to my team in our huddles. My team holds me accountable and that mutual respect is there.
Do you let your team self-correct or are you hands on with feedback and process?
I’m a mentor and facilitator but not an expert. I’m more a coach. I learn from them and remind them all the time that they are the experts. They've taken me under their wing to show me how the work is done.
Our motto is, “We can fail, we can learn, but regardless, we still belong.”
You also have a degree in health administration. Where did you think that would lead for a career?
The story goes, at the time I had a paralegal certification and was attending law school when I became a mom, which I fell in love with. I had that difficult conversation with my husband that I no longer wanted to pursue law school as I didn't see myself working full-time at that time. I became motivated when day my son innocently asked what I had my degree in and I didn’t have an answer. Around the same time, I was being encouraged by my mentor at Kaiser Oakland that so much more would be possible and I could really move up if I did hold a degree. And so that actually motivated me to go because I was in healthcare at that time, to get a degree. What I saw myself doing is just getting a degree. I had moved up at Kaiser without a degree. It was based on my experience and my work. I just kept moving up. I kept moving up, worked closely with leadership. That's when I decided to go back to school. I didn't know what I wanted to do, I just knew it was a goal. My husband was going to school at that time to earn his master’s so I doubled up on my classes so my kids could see their mom and dad walking together. My motivation was to show my kids and myself that anything's possible.
What one of your values caused you to pursue a law degree?
I do tend to look at everything and analyze details. I wanted to do employment law to help people. I found it interesting to read cases and dissect what was going on. When I first earned my paralegal certification, I loved it. I remember working for an insurance law firm and gathering all the documentation needed for court; the challenging part of it, making sure all the details were there, date and time, everything about it. I just loved the reading the learnings. Every case was different, yet somewhat you could refer back to certain things that took place. I knew though, working with the attorneys in law firms with the amount of hours and time spent I didn't see myself there anymore after becoming a mom. My outlook changed
Any last thoughts?
Our team theme song is 'Shine bright like a diamond' by Rhianna. There have been many times a team member was going through a challenge and someone posted a picture of a diamond as a reminder.