Robin Sarkar, CIO, Lakeland Regional Health System, Chapter 3

When it comes to retaining top talent, many organizations are missing the point, says Robin Sarkar, who believes the key is to focus less on annual performance reviews and more on meaningful dialogue. What that means, says Lakeland Regional’s CIO, is asking questions that focus on where employees want to go and how leadership can help them get there. In this interview, he talks about how this strategy has helped strengthen his team, as well as the work they’re doing to bring data closer to the point of care and push population health forward. Sarkar also talks about why innovation can’t happen without failures, and what it was like coming to healthcare from the business world.

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3



* “Talent management is a major focus”

* Identifying the 4 major competencies

* Less performance review, more talent dialogue

* From the business sector to healthcare

* “It’s an industry where you can bring your mind & heart to work.”

* Adjusting to the “speed & cadence of healthcare”

* It’s not managing IT, but “how you leverage IT to benefit patients & providers.”



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Bold Statements

We actually feel that the operational competencies — things like infrastructure engineering, Epic certification, network management, and application support — are core skills. They’re the price of entry. You’re working in healthcare or IT, but how do you get better? How do you provide exceptional care?

How do we work with our fellow health systems and demonstrate soft skills and conflict resolution skills? I think the day of an IT person just hunkering down and coding is way gone. We have to partner and work with our colleagues.

I really have a purpose every day. I consider my job not as an IT professional, but as a caregiver, and my job is to provide hope to our patients and customers and save lives. That provides a tremendous purpose and motivation for me and everyone else who works at Lakeland Health.

Healthcare, like higher education, has a heavily tenured leadership. So when a senior leader joins from another industry like I did, which is probably not the norm, it did take some time for my healthcare colleagues to understand how I could add value.

Gamble:  With all these things your team is doing, it really highlights the importance of having a strong staff and having good people. I wanted to talk about your strategy as far as holding on to and really engaging with good people, and what that takes from your standpoint?

Sarkar:  Sure. This is one area where I think we have done something good which would be interesting for others to look at. Talent management is a major focus. It’s a major focus for me as a CIO, and it’s a major focus in IT. We actually don’t have a performance appraisal system where every year somebody shows up and say, ‘Robin, how did you do? Did you do good? Did you do bad?’ Of course, we have regular dialogue, but what we do have is a talent management process.

What is talent management process? It’s focused on career development. It focus on aspirations. It focuses on training. We also focus on four competencies. We actually feel that the operational competencies — things like infrastructure engineering, Epic certification, network management, and application support — are core skills. They’re the price of entry. You’re working in healthcare or IT, but how do you get better?