In her second year of inspiring, motivating and leading Fusion’s communication and creative teams, Vice President of Communications and Public Relations Calli Hite has built communication structures now relied on by the company and led her award-winning team through several company events requiring a high level of communication. In this interview, she talks about how good communication can impact all, while explaining how she leads others to leave their mark.  

Can you describe what the Vice President of Communications and Public Relations is responsible for? 

In my position, I do public relations, internal communications, creative, branding and community relations. Those are all areas where we're really bringing the brand to life while expressing how Fusion shows up to improve the lives that that we touch.  

What are your big priorities when leading those teams? 

 We inform, engage, and build community. That includes strong communication to employees, public relations efforts, special engagements at Fusion and outside of Fusion, and ultimately, building a strong reputation for the company. A great example of one of these priorities is Fusion’s new Compassion in Care Scholarship, which was developed last year. We have provided ten $5,000 scholarships to students working toward a degree in nursing. This effort is geared at what is most important to us, which is providing quality healthcare professionals to facilities across the country. We know that there are more needs and jobs than there are clinicians, and we simply need more nurses across the country. This program helps to ease that financial burden and provides mentorship opportunities with our in-house clinical team.   

How are projects like that and the others you lead supporting healthcare travelers who work with Fusion? 

Ultimately, we want to help travelers and facilities to fill staffing needs and support patients. We don't have medical professionals at Fusion’s headquarters, but we have hundreds of people here who are supporting them. My team’s work is really focused on informing, engaging, and celebrating the hundreds of employees who are here; in turn, they impact thousands of Fusion travelers and then the tens of thousands of patients that we impact every single day. My team is focused on improving things around Fusion so that our healthcare recruiters' experience working with travelers is as smooth and painless as possible. It’s internally aligned, but it’s really a drop in the ocean that has a ripple effect that goes outside of these walls exponentially.  

Fusion has always had a strong commitment to community engagement, and you have the responsibility of leading some of that. Can you explain why community engagement is such an integral part of Fusion?  

Fusion is very grounded in our values of being humble, driven and positive, and one of the ways that we bring that to life is by volunteering and supporting our community; that contributes to the culture at Fusion and makes it great. We support each other and we support those in our community. Just in the first half of this year, Fusion employees contributed more than 2,500 hours in community engagement activities. If we had been measuring for years, I really think it would stand up year after year that we show up like that. It's always been a part of who Fusion is. I just get to help bring that forward and make sure that we’re fulfilling that part of our purpose every day. 

Fusion is on a mission to Refresh Healthcare. What does that mean to you? 

To me, refresh healthcare means looking at things with fresh eyes. Going back to our values of humble, driven and positive, part of being humble is knowing that we can always learn and grow, adapt and be better. Refreshing Healthcare is how we can constantly grow and improve what we're doing for our culture internally, for our patients, for our travelers. 

You’ve made quite an impact at Fusion in just the last two years. What experience did you bring to the role? 

I have worked in a number of companies in a number of different industries including telecommunications, real estate, banking and transportation. What united my experience and the needs of those companies was working in communications.  

No matter what industry you work in, there is always a need for a skill set that includes public relations, internal communications, executive communications and marketing. I've been able to advocate for employees in telling their stories, and then help inform them on what's happening around the company, why we exist, why it matters and how they really connect to it and can make this company a greater place. 

What are some challenges you’ve faced in your nearly 20 years of experience in communications? 

I remember when I was maybe 5 or 10 years into my career, I had two little kids, and I was doing crisis communications. I was going to incidents sometimes in the middle of the night, sometimes leaving on a plane unexpectedly for two days. I found it inside myself to be decisive when it was hard to do that and to ask for help when it was needed. I did it and there was nothing special about me. I just carried on. Then I realized that it was really challenging for me and my family, so eventually we made a positive change. Believe in your own power and remember that it's OK to say, “This isn't working for me” and then figure something else out for you and your career. 

How does that experience and those challenges help you in your position at Fusion? 

I have learned so much from other leaders around me, people who cheered for me, those who told me what I was doing well, and also those who told me what I needed to get better at. I worked with people who had compassion, empathy, and a true desire to help me be better, and that has helped me as a leader, reminding me to think about other people first.  

How would you describe your leadership style? 

I would describe myself as a servant leader who is focused on the needs of the individuals or the teams that I'm leading. I'm not necessarily prescriptive saying, “this is exactly what I want you to do and how you should do it.” It's more about the destination that we're heading toward. I ask team members, “How do you think we should get there? How can I help you formulate a plan? How are we going to measure and make sure that we're successful. Are you going to feel good about this?” I'm not a micromanager; I don't think anyone has time for that. As leaders, we unlock people's greatest creativity and impact when they can chart their own path and figure out the best way to do things themselves. 

 

You can hear more from Calli by heading to Fusion’s YouTube channel.