Attracting and retaining talent: "The way you give is better than what you give"

QTO - The story of a master's degree holder, a resident physician who studied in France, giving up a high-paying job to "join" a regional hospital with a salary of only 1/3 of his previous income has made many people curious. When asked about the "secret", the hospital director replied: If you are not "strong enough" to create a special mechanism, you must care with a special attitude. For talented people, sometimes "the way you give is better than what you give". It seems so simple, but not everyone can do it to attract and retain talent.

Unprecedented

After many years of persistent searching, meeting, and inviting, in 2024, the Northern Quang Tri Regional General Hospital (DKKV) received the consent of a young, dedicated, and talented doctor to work at the hospital. That is Master, resident physician Tran Van Buu (born in 1994), from Phu Yen province (old), now Dak Lak province. Previously, after studying in France and returning to Vietnam, Dr. Buu worked at a private hospital with a fairly high income, about 60 million VND/month.

The day the hospital leadership discussed the salary payment for Dr. Buu, everyone was concerned, because this was an unprecedented event. Finally, with the responsibility as the head of the hospital, Dr. Nguyen Viet Thai, Director of the Northern Quang Tri Regional General Hospital, concluded that Dr. Buu's salary would be equal to the hospital director's and an initial support of 150 million VND.

Compared to the income of nearly 60 million VND/month that Dr. Buu received before, the salary of about 20 million VND/month is a "telling" number. Because, it is a great effort and determination of the hospital in the condition of having to "tighten the belt", struggling to operate because of having to be autonomous. As for Dr. Buu, the "attractive" salary equal to that of the hospital director shows the special treatment of the unit. According to Director of the Northern Quang Tri Regional General Hospital Nguyen Viet Thai: "For many people, income is very important, but "what you give is not as good as the way you give", that is the decisive factor in their choice".

Doctor Tran Van Buu and the team performed the surgery at Bac Quang Tri General Hospital - Photo: CH

Talking to me, Dr. Tran Van Buu happily shared: "It is the sincere concern, trust, expectation and effort to create the best conditions and support from the hospital's management that has confirmed that my decision to contribute to the hospital is the right one." Upon taking on the job, Dr. Buu was trusted by the hospital's management to be in charge of the ENT unit of the ENT-Dentistry-Maxillofacial-Eye interdisciplinary department.

More than half a month later, Dr. Buu performed sinus surgery. This is one of the advanced and difficult techniques, usually only performed at upper-level hospitals. Therefore, the hospital did not have the machines and equipment to serve this surgery. Knowing that a nearby hospital had them available and was not using them, he suggested that the hospital leaders borrow them. The next day, the necessary equipment was ready in the operating room. The first sinus surgery performed by Dr. Buu right at the hospital was successful beyond expectations.

Since then, many of Dr. Buu's proposals for purchasing equipment to treat patients have been met by the hospital's leadership within its financial capacity. In less than 1 year of working here, Dr. Buu has directly performed many difficult techniques, successfully treating many patients, which the Northern Quang Tri Regional General Hospital did not have the conditions to perform before, such as: Endoscopic tympanic membrane repair surgery, laryngeal microsurgery...

Doctor CKII Nguyen Viet Thai said: “For capable doctors, there is no shortage of places to invite them to work. The important thing is that after attracting them, we must really create the best conditions and environment to retain them, helping these doctors to develop their full potential. We have been trying our best to help them do that, because helping them is also helping ourselves.”

Need a mechanism that is attractive enough

Quang Binh Pedagogical College (CĐSP) in the past, now Quang Binh University (ĐĐ) is the "cradle" of knowledge training of the province, the dream and aspiration of many generations of students. Since it was a CĐSP, the school's entrance exam scores have always been competitive with major universities in the region. What makes this school attractive to students is that, after graduation, most of the students in the pedagogical majors are arranged jobs right in the province.

Following the development trend, Quang Binh College of Education was upgraded to a university. From here, the school became a unit that attracted many highly qualified people to work. However, the "golden age" of the school only lasted for a short time. The number of students from several thousand people, now only a few hundred people. Difficulties in enrollment, resulting in insufficient revenue to cover expenses, many lecturers with doctoral and master's degrees "left" to look for a new "destination" or had their staff streamlined.

It is worth mentioning that this is a high-quality human resource, trained systematically in the country and abroad. In particular, there are cases where upon completing the postgraduate training program, they immediately lost their jobs. Why do some units "look with red eyes" to find and attract talented people to work, but cannot retain those who are available (?!).

Discovering and nurturing talent from university lecture halls - Photo: CH

The story of attracting and retaining talented and capable people has long been of interest to the province. However, for many different reasons, these policies have not brought about the expected results. Is it because the mechanism, policies and the implementation process still have many "barriers" and obstacles? Director of the Department of Home Affairs Le Thi Thanh said that the policy of attracting and creating a source of cadres from excellent graduates and young scientists not only contributes to supplementing and improving the quality of the cadres and civil servants, but also improves labor productivity, quality and work efficiency, positively affecting the socio-economic development of the province.

However, due to the limited economic conditions of the province, the attraction policy is not attractive enough for capable and talented people to want to contribute to agencies and units in the province.

In the coming time, based on the new policies of the Party and the State on attracting talents, the Department of Home Affairs will continue to research and advise the provincial leaders to promulgate practical mechanisms and policies in attracting and employing talented people; at the same time, promptly detect, recruit and employ talented people, ensuring publicity, transparency, objectivity and competition to work in agencies, organizations and units in the province.

Implementing Decree No. 140/2017/ND-CP on policies to attract and create human resources from excellent graduates and young scientists, from 2018 to present, Quang Tri province has attracted 33 people to work in agencies and units, including 15 excellent graduates and 18 talented young scientists or scientists.

Duong Cong Hop

Source: https://baoquangtri.vn/xa-hoi/202509/thu-hut-va-giu-chan-nhan-tai-cua-cho-khong-bang-cach-cho-7916bf0/