Introduction

The nation’s largest for-profit hospital system and a leading provider of healthcare services recently sought ScottMadden’s help to refine their HR operating model. With nearly 200,000 employees spread across the United States, the client needed a dependable recruiting administration team in their HR service center to ensure consistent and efficient recruiting processes. When the newly established recruiting administration function was not operating as intended, the client engaged ScottMadden to identify the underlying issues, as well as develop and implement viable solutions.

Through an extensive talent management assessment, ScottMadden evaluated the current state of the recruiting administration team. Employee performance was analyzed individually and as a group. Evaluation criteria included employees’ strengths, areas for improvement, accuracy, use of provided resources, speed, staffing assignments, performance, communications, and professionalism. In addition, ScottMadden reviewed operational processes and technologies that supported the recruiting processes. After thorough analysis, ScottMadden delivered recommendations to improve the company’s productivity, compliance, accuracy, and quality goals.

The Challenge

The established healthcare provider hires nearly 40,000 people annually. Recruiting candidates for a company of this scale and hiring volume creates inevitable challenges. Candidate tracking, interview scheduling, background checks, and other associated tasks can be difficult to execute efficiently and effectively. After launch of the HR service center, leadership identified long delays in recruiting activities, as well as significant variations in staff performance. Supervisor presence and communications were inconsistent, and staff productivity targets were lower than expected, job assignments were not based on agents’ skillsets, and a backlog of work was building. This created a substantial challenge for the company.

How We Helped

ScottMadden worked closely with the service center’s executive team to assess root causes of performance issues and develop actionable solutions. The assessment investigated factors, including staffing, training, time management, adherence to processes, and use of technologies, to determine the underlying causes of missed performance goals. The team utilized a hands-on approach that focused on observing management and individual employees to gain a thorough understanding of workloads and trouble areas. Additionally, evaluating processes, technologies, and data provided further insight into sub-optimal technology usage, skill set gaps, and inefficient processes. Through our assessment, ScottMadden concluded that the “people” aspect of the recruiting administration function presented opportunities for improvement. Our recommendations included skill-set training, improved communications, strategic staffing assignments, and increased system integration to enable processes. Beyond the people aspects, our recommendations included addressing general training, improving technology use, and implementing process improvements (e.g., structured issue tracking). Additionally, identifying employee strengths helped align roles and responsibilities to increase overall productivity.

Results

By thoroughly assessing the entire function, ScottMadden helped the client implement a multiphase plan to increase productivity and overall efficiency. One of the first changes implemented was to expand the night shift to ease daytime workload. Inbound call coverage was also limited to certain agents to increase productivity of other representatives. Additional training and more structured communications were delivered to all recruiting administration staff so productivity expectations were understood and protocols were reinforced. Technology enhancements were also pursued. Within less than a month, the company’s recruiting administration group improved its customer-handling rate significantly. To illustrate, they began with closing 200 requests per day at the time of the assessment. With a small increase in staff, they now resolve more than 600 requests per day. An example output from the talent management assessment is featured below.

To learn more about how ScottMadden can help you solve your talent management challenges, contact us today at info@www.scottmadden.com.