Children’s hospital wants to hire and retain the right talent

Challenge

Every hospital wants to deliver patient-centred care, and every hospital wants to reduce turnover. The mission of this prominent children’s hospital was to create a healing environment for its patients and their families that matched the hospital’s new state-of-the-art facility. The challenge was building a workforce that had cutting-edge clinical and technical abilities but also the requisite level of compassion, empathy, patient focus, communication and collaboration skills.

In a very competitive staffing market, the hospital had short-term turnover of 24%. At a projected cost of one-to-two times the annual salary, this was placing a financial burden on an already strained bottom line. So, the challenge was not only hiring the right talent, but also retaining them.

Solution

The hospital applied Talogy’s healthcare solution, idenitifying key functional competencies for each job level. The recruiting and selection process were re-designed to ensure maximum efficiency, legal defensibility, and a positive candidate experience.

The key to success was the implementation of healthcare-specific assessment tools designed to reduce turnover and select better people. These included Talogy’s healthcare interview and online assessments (formerly known as ServiceFit® for Healthcare, NurseFit®).

Results

Prior to the intervention, short-term turnover was 24%. Since the implementation, 450 new employees have been selected, and only two have left the organisation. Certainly, short-term turnover won’t remain at 1%, but the hospital has made a drastic change in its workforce by clearly defining the type of employee it is looking for and using the right assessment tools to select candidates who fit that profile. There is early evidence that patient satisfaction scores are improving, and the turnover cost savings are estimated at more than 750,000.

The system enabled the hospital to focus on what it does best – provide superior care – while improving the healing environment and benefiting the bottom line. By setting out to influence the organisation’s culture, the hospital is now attracting higher-quality candidates, selecting candidates more effectively and creating an environment where top-performing employees can thrive.