Keep an eye on Chasm Partners if you're interested in watching a company shake up healthcare. Founded by Matt Dumas and Kristy Lindquist in 2015, Chasm is a leading recruiting firm that partners solely with healthcare technology, healthcare services, and Life Sciences organizations. Their differentiator is the human-focused approach to executive placement, team-building, and leadership development based on advanced psychometric assessments and proprietary processes. Their fundamental objective is to uncover extraordinary talent and aid visionary organizations to propel modern healthcare into the future. If you've ever been head-hunted by a recruiter, you might understand why Chasm takes a different approach.
"I built and sold my first company in college and launched another twenty businesses since then. Through all those experiences, I did a lot of hiring and building teams, and honestly, I was dissatisfied with the experience I had working with recruiters. As a client and as a candidate, it felt way too transactional; it didn't have depth, there was never a trusted relationship." - Matt Dumas, Chasm Partners' Co-Founder
Chasm is flipping modern recruiting on its head, using organizational psychology and great people at the heart of its offerings. This is their story.
Crafting the Future of Healthcare with Exceptional Talent: Chasm's Vision
Matt Dumas and Kristy Lindquist met while working as executives at Procter & Gamble. They connected with a shared vision to disrupt one of the largest industries in the United States: healthcare. They realized that healthcare in the U.S. is decades behind. They joined forces and founded Chasm.Â
"As an example, many doctor's offices in the United States are still functioning with fax machines, and we see an immense amount of potential to empower new healthcare tech to improve the way healthcare is managed and practiced." - Matt Dumas
Matt and Kristy knew they could use their operational experience to make an industry-defining shift. Rather than focusing on a single product as entrepreneurs, they set out to empower hundreds of companies to pioneer that change. They focused on becoming the recruiting engine that drives healthcare companies to grow. If they could create a system to find and place the best leaders and teams at emerging healthcare companies, they could help drastically improve healthcare for millions of Americans. Transforming the human core of companies could have a monumental influence.
The name "Chasm" carries a significant meaning. It is a nod to the popular book "Crossing the Chasm" by Geoffrey Moore. The book teaches how businesses can move from the early stages of adoption to mass market acceptance and growth. Chasm bridges that gap for healthcare companies by focusing on the placement of exceptional leadership and team talent.
What exactly is Chasm's unique mission? It's clear and compelling: transform healthcare by empowering healthcare technology and services companies with exceptional talent. Chasm seeks to touch as many lives as possible by placing the right people in the right roles. Chasm is not just about filling manpower gaps but creating an ecosystem for leaders to develop in the roles they were meant to fill.Â
From Transactional to Transformational: Chasm's Human-Centric Approach to Recruiting
One of the failings of contemporary recruiting has been its gradual shift toward a highly transactional model. Quite often, the objective of recruiting firms appears to be merely about ticking off checkboxes on a list rather than genuinely understanding the nuanced requirements of a specific role within a unique organizational culture. This superficial approach erodes trust, rendering these firms less effective as strategic partners in talent acquisition. The truth is that recruiting is far from a one-size-fits-all formula. It requires a deeply human-centric and comprehensive approach focused on the overall fit and potential impact an individual can bring to a team rather than viewing roles and prospects through a narrow lens of skillsets and checkboxes.
Chasm purposefully pivoted to place people at the center of their approach to recruiting. Sensitive to the need for a more human-centric approach, Chasm developed its platform to change the perception of what recruiting could be. Instead of purely matching a candidate's qualifications to a job description, the company brings in a well-researched psychological element, seeking out the intangible qualities that extend beyond a candidate's work history.
As a result, the recruiting process adopted by Chasm resonates with authenticity. They don't merely fill vacancies — they breathe life and soul into the whole process, creating a dynamic culture of consistency and real, person-to-person engagement. This approach, combined with their dedication and commitment, positions Chasm as a transformative force in recruiting, radically reshaping the healthcare landscape.
Chasm's Unique Approach to Recruiting Top-Tier Healthcare Talent
ChasmSearch, the executive recruiting division of Chasm Partners, operates as the core engine behind Chasm's recruiting services. Specifically tailored to cater to the healthcare technology and services industries, it dedicates its resources to sourcing and recruiting the best executives for the role. ChasmSearch recruiters work meticulously with each client, studying their needs and culture to ensure they provide the perfect fit. This includes not only securing exceptionally skilled individuals but also those with a vision and drive that aligns with the client's goals and values.
ChasmSearch combines the line items on a job listing with the more abstract but equally significant aspects — culture, leadership style, and fit. These areas are not yet conveniently quantified or neatly presented on a resume or LinkedIn profile. To capture a holistic picture of a candidate, Chasm applies a three-part strategy: a proprietary recruiting process, validated psychometric assessments, and complimentary executive coaching for each placement. The assessments pull out quantifiable and diagnostic data related to personality types, leadership tendencies, emotional intelligence, and even verbal and mathematical reasoning abilities. This level of intricate psychological evaluation is not commonly seen in traditional recruiting firms — especially at no additional cost to the client. Chasm believes that dollars should not be a barrier to the insights gained from the assessments and coaching sessions, as they are critical elements to a successful placement.Â
Unusual for a recruiting firm, yes, but integral to how Chasm works. This integration ensures that the 'personal phenotype' is optimized, which is an unusual but powerfully effective facet of Chasm's services. The result is an executive who doesn't just perform but thrives and grows. In the increasingly results-driven world of healthcare, this focus on the human aspect, the individual behind the role, just might be the key to unlocking unprecedented success.
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These assessments are the foundation of every client relationship, priming them with invaluable data about their potential hires. The decision-making process evolves from a dart game to a calculated strategic move underpinned by data.Â
And the results? Candidates that don't just fit the job description but also align seamlessly with the company's culture and ingrained philosophies. Instead of fitting a round peg in a square hole, Chasm ensures that the peg and hole are custom-built for each other — an approach that results in a new level of trust for the recruiting industry.Â
"We have a 94% retention rate after one year of employment for candidates that pass through the psychometric evaluation and onboarding coaching." - Kristy Lindquist, Chasm Partners Co-founder, Partner, Executive Coach, and Organizational Psychologist
Chasm’s job doesn't end when a candidate is hired. They provide their placements with an executive coach for the first 60 days of employment. The Chasm team understands that the first two months are critical for a leader to harmonize with the company.
Cultivating Talent Post-Placement with ChasmLeadÂ
Gone are the days when a recruiter's role ended as soon as they placed a candidate in a position. ChasmLead focuses on nurturing and developing talent across the talent lifecycle — both in pre-placement through the use of psychometric assessments and in post-placement via four, 60-minute onboarding coaching sessions. The objective is to ensure the recruited leader’s strengths are well understood during the recruiting process and, once in the seat, they are not just performing seamlessly but integrating into all aspects of their new organization.Â
ChasmLead employs multiple organizational psychologists and executive coaches, each of whom has decades of experience in healthcare. These experts and coaches work closely with every newly-placed candidate to understand and optimize their personal phenotype within their new workplace. The professional relationship between the coach and the placed executive extends for two months post-placement at minimum. During this period, the coach supports the executive as they navigate the nuances of their new role and ensures they adapt well within the company culture.Â
This approach to leadership cultivation and development is indeed a game-changer. It enhances the likelihood of successful tenure for the placed executive and strengthens the company's talent base. It is an offering that underscores Chasm's commitment to a deeper, more holistic approach to healthcare recruitment — a truly human-centric dimension.Â
The efforts by Chasm are not just about filling positions. They are about ensuring that the right person integrates seamlessly into their new role, contributing meaningfully and productively to the transformation of healthcare systems. It's about bridging the Chasm between an individual's potential and their ability to reshape the healthcare landscape.Â
As innovative as it is, ChasmLead is but a part of Chasm's overall strategy. The company's vision extends beyond the confines of contemporary healthcare recruitment. Chasm is also invested in exploring the predictive potential of extensive psychometric data they have collected over time. With the help of a PhD researcher engaged in deep multivariate analysis, Chasm is hoping to determine the markers that predict an executive's success in the healthcare sector. This could well open up a new frontier in executive recruitment, making Chasm a trailblazer in the field.
What happens when a leader at a company is succeeding? The company grows. What is a core need when a company grows? New talent. Enter ChasmTeam.
A Great Leader Needs a Great Team, and ChasmTeam Fills that Need
Recognizing that the bedrock of every successful company is its team, ChasmTeam concentrates on building robust teams around powerful leaders, fortifying an organization's foundation for long-term success.Â
The genesis of ChasmTeam was purely organic and customer-originated. This is another example of the human-centric philosophy that resonates within Chasm. Clients made recurring requests to use the Chasm platform to build a team around their executives. In response, Chasm rapidly adapted to meet the need and released ChasmTeam.
By leveraging its profound healthcare recruiting expertise, ChasmTeam enables companies to build out highly specialized teams from the ground up. This ensures not just mere staffing but also the forming of a cohesive team that matches the pace, vision, and work ethos of the company.
ChasmTeam delivers full-cycle recruiting across all job functions and levels. One of the distinguishing aspects of ChasmTeam is its endeavor to decrease the time-to-hire and recruiting costs. ChasmTeam-Enterprise caters to large-scale recruiting, placing anywhere from 20 to 500 hires during an extended contract period. Alternatively, ChasmTeam-Select helps healthcare organizations to fill individual positions or build small teams.Â
ChasmTeam doesn’t merely recruit. They offer various services to help healthcare startups grow. Since many startups lack critical tools or a dedicated HR department, ChasmTeam steps in. They build career sites, set up Applicant Tracking Systems, and provide extra staff when needed. By partnering strategically, ChasmTeam's services help healthcare organizations effectively reach their growth and transformation goals.
Empowering Change through Human-Centric InnovationÂ
Through their all-inclusive services and their tailoring of organizational psychology elements to their business processes, Chasm is paving a more personalized and effective path for healthcare recruits. By integrating forward-thinking strategies, such as psychometrics and executive coaching, they are revolutionizing not just the recruitment process but also the subsequent development of teams and leaders within the healthcare sector. This, in turn, is instrumental in helping healthcare companies make the leaps necessary to innovate, transform, and consequently provide more effective and cutting-edge healthcare services. With its commitment to fostering diversity and its innovative approach to philanthropy, Chasm is a testament to the transformative power a business can wield when it recognizes and harnesses its role as an agent of social change.Â
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