Spicing It Up

Titan Medical Group motivates staff with varied perks and management support

When Brian Wilke launched Titan Medical Group in January 2002, he committed to creating an environment  where employees feel comfortable and have a great space from which to work. “We will reward you, and we will do everything we can to make you feel comfortable as long as you are giving motivation and effort,” he says. “You can’t bake a cake if you don’t bring the ingredients to it.”

Flash-forward 20 years, and business is booming. With an employee count at 200, Titan just leased a new building to open this summer and will be hiring 300 employees — more than doubling its internal staff to service clients even faster and improve efficiency.

Success like this requires a team effort — from the front desk to Wilke and everybody in between. “If everybody is not working together, it is really tough to succeed in this competitive environment,” Wilke explains. “If employees don’t bring their own motivation every day, it is really tough to teach.”

Drama, he adds, isn’t tolerated at Titan. “People want to work around others who are high energy like them. We offer lots of fun things on the floor, and people feed off that;  it becomes the environment — that’s what we try to pursue every day.”

Leadership understands healthcare placement is very important and can be stressful, so Wilke looks to spice the work environment up in unique ways. “Ninety-nine percent of the things we do are for the staff, not for management. We want people to feel rewarded.”

Perks include food trucks, gym membership reimbursement, fresh fruit in the breakroom, in-house games and Starbucks gift cards. Christmas and midyear bonuses are mainstays, but internal recognition — year-end awards, midyear awards and outings — are part of the mix as well. Top producers receive watches and jewelry. Pre-pandemic events included outings such as baseball games, Topgolf offsites, pumpkin patch visits and in-office trick-or-treating for employees’ kids.

Titan’s approach to employee motivation certainly resonates with Paula Ochsner, who joined the company in January 2021. Currently a recruiter within Titan’s CNA/LPN team, she knows firsthand what makes the organization a Best Place to Work For. From rewards for hard work to simply encouraging camaraderie and interaction among employees, “everything about this job has been a 180 for me,” Ochsner says. “I worked 25 years at another company, and in the short time I have been here, I can’t even express the gratitude I feel for the .”

For starters, despite being new to healthcare staffing, Ochsner felt at home from the outset. “People were super welcoming from the minute I walked in the door. It has been such a great journey for me.”

A Supportive Environment

Additionally, the way people are situated in the office is established with intent. Recruiters and account managers are interspersed, with managers strategically placing people and shuffling them around periodically to encourage them to get to know each other and learn from each other’s differing strategies and approaches. The end result is an exciting environment where no day is the same.

And if you come into the day with a great attitude, then you are going to be more successful in finding people and placing them in jobs, Ochsner says. “You are helping a person narrow down their spot. Some have two, three and four opportunities that they want to work for, so it is exciting and fun. Never a dull moment.”

Titan’s emphasis on supporting its employees is a component of staff engagement as well. For example, Wilke frequently touches base with individual employees, which enables him to see how they are doing and assess what kind of support and training they might need to do better and feel more comfortable on the job.

Leadership also recognizes that life for doesn’t stop when employees enter the office; they are willing to provide the support the staff requires so they can do their jobs well. For example, if employees need extra time off to address a personal family issue or to work from home for periods of time, their requests are granted. “It does not hurt us in the big scheme of things if they’re not here for a few hours or a day,” Wilke says. “If they’re doing a great job, we’re going to give time, or whatever an employee needs, to make sure they get their situation handled.”

A Place to Stay

People tend to stick around at Titan, such as Jake Failla, a senior account manager who has been with the company 11 years. While he works primarily with the facility side, taking hospital requests and filling the jobs as often as he can, he also works with candidates to ensure they are in compliance with Joint Commission guidelines and standards.

“I’ve only done staffing for Titan, but Omaha is kind of a hotbed for a lot of staffing agencies,” Failla notes. “One of the main reasons I like working for Titan is the consistent message of ‘We’re going to do this our way, and we’re going to do it the right way.’ That’s definitely a big thing for me — we never stray away from that, from making sure we’re putting emphasis on our clients and patient care.”

He adds that his colleagues are why he has stayed with Titan for so long. “You have options as to where you work, and you’ve got to develop trust [in the people] you’re working with — both internally and externally,” he explains. “Sometimes days can be crummy and off, [but] that’s where we pick each other up by staying positive. These folks are working with you every day … You rely on that, and they rely on you, and that helps things continue to go in the right direction.”

Failla credits his success as a senior account manager to Titan’s leadership, who understand what his role entails because they once did the same job themselves. “Those guys paved the road, and I am here to walk it or drive it,” he says. “I make a choice to do the best I can and make sure I am contributing to the company the way they want it to go.”

Astronomical Growth

Titan has enjoyed incredible growth thanks to the dedication of its employees, but Wilke also notes that Covid has ignited the industry even further with no signs of slowing anytime soon. “We are on track for 100% growth … maybe 150% growth this year. With the delayed surgeries that people needed to go to the hospital for, there is such a backlog that the demand for healthcare staffing is strong and will [stay] strong for the next couple of years.”

However, Wilke knows the employees at his company cannot be replicated, and that is why he considers them his greatest asset. “This company is not great because [of me]; it’s great because of the people that work here,” Wilke says proudly. “And it will continue to be great [because of] the people we hire in the future.”