CHG Healthcare’s new CEO aims for big impact on physician workforce

After more than 14 years at CHG Healthcare, Leslie Snavely has had to get new business cards quite a few times.

Snavely has held a number of different roles with CHG, the nation’s largest physician staffing company. She began as the vice president of marketing, and later worked in sales and served as the chief strategy and digital officer. She became president of the company last year.

In August, Snavely added one more title when she became chief executive officer of CHG Healthcare. She succeeded longtime CEO Scott Beck, who moved into an advisory role as executive chair of the company’s board of directors.

In an interview with Chief Healthcare Executive®, Snavely said that her experience with the company, especially in a variety of different roles, has prepared her to lead CHG.

“In an interesting way, it feels like I thought it would,” Snavely says. “And I think that's good, right? It is what I expected, and I'm excited to be in the role. Maybe the hardest thing is now I'm like, the center of attention on things, which is not my normal space to be in.”

During a wide-ranging conversation, Snavely talked about her career, her goals with the company, partnering with hospitals and health systems, and what she’d like to see 10 years down the road.

(See part of our conversation in this video. The story continues below.)

‘Be confident’

Snavely learned a great deal under Beck, who led the company for 10 years. She says she also received important advice about making her own path as CEO.

“Scott is an outstanding leader,” Snavely says. “He has been either my direct boss or mentor for the last 14 years, so he's been giving me advice along the way. But as I take this role, I think one of the most important things he's told me, and there's been a number, is just to be confident in your perspective.

“His advice is, you know what to do. You can consider what I would have done, but don't lead with it. You know, lead with what you think you should do, because you're in this job for a reason,” Snavely says.

As CEO, she says she can draw on her experience with the company and her connections to many of its people she has worked with for years.

“That's kind of part one, just the sheer learning of the business. But I think the other thing is, you learn how to learn,” she says.

CHG Healthcare employs 4,000 people, reflecting the company’s growth in recent years. When Snavely began working with the company, CHG had about 1,000 workers.

She says she’s aiming to preserve the company’s culture. She describes her first big goal as keeping CHG as “a great place to work.”

“We've built a place where each of those people can be happy in their work, successful in their job, find a career that's long-term, should they want it be, a trusting environment,” she says.

“So part one is to keep our progress strong on this great culture we've built. And that is, ultimately, we know we are a people company, so having people want to be here and do their best work and serve our clients and our clinicians,” she adds.

‘Career support’

When Snavely began with the company, physicians who came to CHG Healthcare for placement in different jobs reflected people at opposite ends of their careers. She says some were doctors just beginning their careers and were interested in working in different parts of the company, with others included physicians close to retirement who still wanted to work but perhaps with fewer hours.

Now, CHG is seeing more doctors with a wider variety of experiences looking for different positions, including temporary posts. And she thinks that CHG is well suited to help doctors navigate changes in their professional goals.

“They want a little more flexibility. They would like a little more control of their own schedule,” she says.

Snavely says the company is “uniquely able to help in career service.”

“I really believe that our job as a career staffing partner for physicians is to help them see all these options are there for them, from permanent placement to temporary coverage, to raise a little more money to cover your debt, to lifestyle change,” she says.

Doctors coming out of residency and fellowship programs may benefit from more guidance and support in finding the job that’s right for them.

“I see CHG really being able to help them find a path in their work that they are happy and successful,” Snavely says, adding, “We can help them be at their best with the right career support.”

Working with hospitals

Just as the company looks to place physicians in the best roles, Snavely talks about the importance of aiding hospitals.

“I see us as a career workforce partner for hospitals and health systems around the country,” she says.

Snavely says she understands the financial pressures facing hospitals, with many still trying to recover from the financial fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic. Health systems are often turning to CHG after they’ve tried filling positions without success.

“Our health system partners have unique stresses on them now because of the pandemic,” she says.

Hospitals have learned to be more flexible to fill staffing needs, by necessity, she says.

“They've learned to be more strategic, and how they think about their workforce,” Snavely says.

She sees the company working with hospitals to fill positions, but also helping them think more comprehensively about attracting talent to help them generate more revenue. She says conversations with hospitals are evolving.

“I feel the discussions are more strategic. The resiliency of those clients is higher, and we hope our skills have risen to meet the challenge, to help them in that process,” she says.

Snavely says she hopes CHG Healthcare can establish deeper partnerships with hospitals and health systems. Looking down the road, she hopes the company is helping more doctors make a successful career in medicine.

“I hope that we as a company can just keep doing that strong work and make more of an impact on the physician workforce over the next 10 years,” she says.

Snavely says she’s optimistic that the company can play a role in transforming the industry.

“I believe we can help change healthcare in our country by having the right amount of physician staff in the right place,” Snavely says.