As the Head of People at a fast growing tech startup in San Francisco, I’ve had the pleasure to meet hundreds of candidates and refine the way we approach hiring and talent at Datavant.
These are my guiding philosophies, which may help other teams who are developing their approach to talent acquisition.
- ABR: Always be recruitin’ — it never stops, you never know where you’ll find the next great person. I’ve recruited at friends’ weddings and spun up career conversations with the spouse/+1s I meet at company events. Ask people what great people they know. You’ll be surprised at how often this generates a lead.
- Selling from the start — great people can work anywhere, we want them to want to work at Datavant the most. Build rapport from the start. Share content about the company, vision, hiring philosophies, and what it takes to succeed.
- Speed wins — this is the easiest and most in-your-control way to stand out. Speed and responsiveness tell candidate they matter and we care. Slowness tells them they’re not important priorities. Many recruiting processes at less nimble companies have weeks elapse between touch points. Our goal is 24 hour response time on all candidate touch points, no matter what. And for our whole process, we aim for phone screen 1 to verbal offer in 2.5 weeks, and only deviate from this due to candidate constraints.
- Know what makes your company different — There are dozens of dimensions that candidates may use to drive their choices: mission, industry, product, geography, role, culture, manager, mentorship, fun, short-term compensation, equity, caliber of talent, growth opportunities, and more. At Datavant, we win on rate of growth, impact on the world, and caliber of team. We don’t win on all attributes (and we don’t try to), but on those 3, we’re world-class. More on “Why Datavant”.
- A world class team should represent the world — we embody an open borders approach to talent, we sponsor visas and immigration support even as an early stage company, despite the administrative and legal costs. We want our team to reflect the world we aim to improve, not the bubble we live in.
- Diversity matters — Both the kinds of diversity you can see with your eyes and those you cannot matter. It’s critical to show a candidate the cross-section of team members they’ll have. We are building a warm, welcoming, and inclusive workplace (ice cream happy hours more often than bar happy hours; family-friendly work social events, etc). The team has a wide aperture on what constitutes diversity. Different mindsets, backgrounds, political and philosophical views, different kinds of prior employers, and educational backgrounds all shape a multi-faceted team that will find effective solutions faster.
- Know what the candidate needs to say yes before offering — We tell candidates how our offer closing process works so they’re not surprised; throughout the process, I try to uncover what they really want and need in their next role — easily covered in a behavioral interview or debrief after an onsite day. Our approach is to encourage a winning candidate to lean into a verbal agreement before papering it.
- Make offer-granting a joyful celebration — We start enveloping them in warmth and knowledge as soon as the proverbial ink is dry. This is a big, emotional moment for a new teammate. Hiring managers excitedly announce each new hire to the full team, usually within 30 minutes of offers being accepted, and invite every employee to send the new Datavanter a welcome email (we call it ‘digital welcome hugs’). Shortly after, we send a light-hearted box with tshirts and branded hoodies, a noise maker, maraca, and bright colored candy and other Datavant swag. Then we start the onboarding process with pre-readings and company info so they starting to ramp up before day 1.
Building Trust in Privacy-Preserving Data Ecosystems
As the regulatory landscape continues to evolve, Datavant’s state de-identification product offers an innovative tool for privacy officers and data custodians alike. By addressing both state-specific and HIPAA requirements, companies can stay ahead of regulatory demands and build trust across data partners and end-users. For life sciences organizations, this can lead to faster, more reliable access to the datasets they need to drive research and innovation while supporting high privacy standards.
As life sciences companies increasingly rely on SDOH data to drive insights, the need for privacy-preserving solutions grows. Data ecosystems like Datavant’s, which link real-world datasets while safeguarding privacy, are critical to driving innovation in healthcare. By integrating state de-identified SDOH data, life sciences can gain a more comprehensive view of patient populations, uncover social factors that impact health outcomes, and ultimately guide clinical research that improves health.
The Power of SDOH Data with Providers and Payers to Close Gaps in Care
Both payers and providers are increasingly utilizing SDOH data to enhance care delivery and improve health equity. By incorporating SDOH data into their strategies, both groups aim to deliver more personalized care, address disparities, and better understand the social factors affecting patient outcomes.
Payers Deploy Targeted Care Using SDOH Data
Payers increasingly leverage SDOH data to meet health equity requirements and enhance care delivery:
- Tailored Member Programs: Payers develop specialized initiatives like nutrition delivery services and transportation to and from medical appointments.
- Identifying Care Gaps: SDOH data helps payers identify gaps in care for underserved communities, enabling strategic in-home assessments and interventions.
- Future Risk Adjustment Models: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) plans to incorporate SDOH-related Z codes into risk adjustment models, recognizing the significance of SDOH data in assessing healthcare needs.
Payers’ consideration of SDOH underscores their commitment to improving health equity, delivering targeted care, and addressing disparities for vulnerable populations.
Example: CDPHP supports physical and mental wellbeing with non-medical assistance
Capital District Physicians’ Health Plan (CDPHP) incorporated SDOH, partnering with Papa, to combat loneliness and isolation in older adults, families, and other vulnerable populations. CDPHP aimed to address:
- Social isolation
- Loneliness
- Transportation barriers
- Gaps in care
By integrating SDOH data, CDPHP enhanced their services to deliver comprehensive care for its Medicare Advantage members.
Providers Optimize Value-Based Care Using SDOH Data
Value-based care organizations face challenges in fully understanding their patient panels. SDOH data significantly assists providers to address these challenges and improve patient care. Here are some examples of how:
- Onboard Patients Into Care Programs: Providers use SDOH data to identify patients who require additional support and connect them with appropriate resources.
- Stratify Patients by Risk: SDOH data combined with clinical information identifies high-risk patients, enabling targeted interventions and resource allocation.
- Manage Transition of Care: SDOH data informs post-discharge plans, considering social factors to support smoother transitions and reduce readmissions.
By leveraging SDOH data, providers gain a more comprehensive understanding of their patient population, leading to more targeted and personalized care interventions.
While accessing SDOH data offers significant advantages, challenges can arise from:
- Lack of Interoperability and Uniformity: Data exists in fragmented sources like electronic health records (EHRs), public health databases, social service systems, and proprietary databases. Integrating and securing data while ensuring data integrity and confidentiality can be complex, resource-intensive and risky.
- Lag in Payer Claims Data: Payers can take weeks or months to release claims data. This delays informed decision-making, care improvement, analysis, and performance evaluation.
- Incomplete Data Sets in Health Information Exchanges (HIEs): Not all healthcare providers or organizations participate in HIEs. This reduces the available data pool. Moreover, varying data sharing policies result in data gaps or inconsistencies.
To overcome these challenges, providers must have robust data integration strategies, standardization efforts, and access to health data ecosystems to ensure comprehensive and timely access to SDOH data.
SDOH data holds immense potential in transforming healthcare and addressing health disparities.
With Datavant, healthcare organizations are securely accessing SDOH data, and further enhancing the efficiency of their datasets through state de-identification capabilities - empowering stakeholders across the industry to make data-driven decisions that drive care forward.