By Mark Wineka
mwineka@salisburypost.com
Bayada Nurses is in a hiring mood, looking especially for recent college graduates or professionals with solid credentials to groom as future company leaders.
This past Thursday, Bayada employees in Salisbury celebrated their recently renovated headquarters building at 130 Arlington St., part of the Loflin Center.
The daylong open house included food from Red Lobster in Concord, door prizes and a ribbon-cutting with Salisbury Mayor Susan Kluttz.
But the open house also gave the company a chance to promote its Associate Leadership Development Program, designed to recruit highly motivated people interested in home health business management.
Salisbury is central to this pilot program for the company because Division Director Melinda Phillips of Mocksville played a key role in designing it.
Phillips said she made the proposal to create a talent pipeline for the company, which has grown to 140 locations in 18 states.
It will help Bayada have the necessary leaders ready to open up new offices and grow the business.
And make no mistake, Phillips said, the industry is growing, and with it, so are the job opportunities.
“There are jobs,” she said, “and I want people to see where they are.”
Candidates for the Associate Leadership Development Program must have at least a bachelor’s degree with a minimum grade point average of 3.0
The program will require six to 18 months of training. Each leadership candidate will be assigned a “champion,” adviser and coach to provide guidance through the program.
When they complete the ALDP, candidates will be placed in a management position in a Bayada Nurses office and put on track to be a future director. Phillips said the program participants have to be willing to travel for six to 12 months and be flexible enough to relocate when management opportunities are available in the company.
Candidates will be trained in office management, strategic planning for growth, leadership, fiscal management, coordinating and scheduling home care staff, case management and staff recruitment.
The Southeast region, where the pilot is being tried, includes North Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
Salisbury has been chosen to support two candidates for the next six months.
Karen LeRoy of Salisbury and Kimberly Medlin of Albemarle, who are both client services managers, are serving as coaches or the candidates’ direct supervisors.
Phillips and fellow Division Director Virginia Steelman of Salisbury will serve as their champions.
Bayada Nurses’ Northeast region, which includes New York and New Jersey, is offering a similar pilot program, while Bayada Nurses in Bucks County, Pa., has a pilot development program specific to nursing candidates.
Bayada Nurses’ Salisbury location is, in fact, two offices ó one a pediatric specialty office and the other for adult rehabilitation and geriatric care.
Together, the offices employ 12 people who oversee close to 300 field representatives encompassing certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses and registered nurses.
Bayada Nurses is one of the nation’s bigger home health care companies, providing skilled nursing services, home health aides and home makers to help people remain independent and at home.
The company worked out of a North Main Street location while Jake Alexander, the building’s owner, renovated the Arlington Street site. Salisbury’s Bayada Nurses is a trailblazer of sorts, Phillips said, because the renovated space now matches what Bayada envisions as a companywide model.
Bright red and white are the company colors, and each room has some of the Bayada values displayed in words on the walls.
The pediatric and adult offices are mirror images with shared common areas in the middle.
The separate pediatrics office is new and was pulled together by Steelman.
“We absolutely love” the new offices, Associate Director Shawn Widrick said.
Phillips said she would encourage anyone in this economy to pursue jobs in the health-care field.