WakeMed finds a cure for talent acquisition strategy

Headquartered in Raleigh, NC, WakeMed Health & Hospitals is one of the first hospital systems to open its doors in the country. Named one of the top 50 hospitals in the nation by Leapfrog Hospital Quality & Safety Survey, the 800-plus bed health system provides a network of health care facilities throughout North Carolina. With over 7,000 nurses, technologists and medical support staff and additional 1,000 affiliate physicians, WakeMed provides its patients with the best technology, facilities and most advanced healthcare in North Carolina.

“Peopleclick RMS allows WakeMed to have several different simultaneous workflows including configurations for our staffing agency, college recruiters and volunteers.”
-Anna Baird-Hensley, Director of Employment at WakeMed

Recruitment Ailment:

For six years, the health organization was utilizing a talent management provider to manage their recruitment process; however, in 2008 their provider was unexpectedly acquired by another vendor. Most organizations would look at this situation as a negative, but WakeMed viewed it as an opportunity to find a more innovative approach to their current talent acquisition process.

Anna Baird-Hensley, Director of Employment at WakeMed said, "We could not accomplish the innovative staffing objectives we hoped for with our prior ATS, and this became a turning point for our long-term talent acquisition strategy. We began searching for vendors that could support 500 different hiring managers and transform our onboarding program to provide a first-class experience to our new hires and volunteers."

Like most health organizations, WakeMed continuously strives to improve efficiency. The recruiters at WakeMed needed a sophisticated solution to manage multiple unique workflows. But more importantly, the health provider wanted to enable effective communication with their candidates and upgrade the candidate experience without placing more work onto the recruiter.

Treatment - Peopleclick:

As WakeMed began evaluating other talent acquisition systems, the Peopleclick^® Recruitment Management System (RMS) was impressive from the start.  WakeMed Human Resources knew that having a sophisticated recruitment management strategy to drive their strategic hiring goals was crucial. Because Peopleclick^® RMS is tied to powerful reporting and analytic tools, WakeMed could achieve enhanced visibility into their recruitment practices, as well as their current and future recruiting objectives.

Second, the configurability of RMS was a key feature for WakeMed. WakeMed recruiters create unique workflows for college recruiting and paid scholars programs where the application steps can be uniquely streamlined. "One of the best characteristics of Peopleclick is their solution can be implemented to fit our needs. Although standard hiring workflows are provided, we could also configure the system to complement the way WakeMed does business," added Anna. "Peopleclick RMS allows WakeMed to have several different simultaneous workflows including configurations for our staffing agency, college recruiters and volunteers.

Quality versus Quantity

Third, the ability to attract high-quality health professionals was a fundamental initiative WakeMed wanted to tackle. At any given moment, WakeMed recruiters could be managing up to 600 candidates for a single open position and WakeMed routinely has between 200 and 340 open vacancies. In addition, attracting high-quality nurses and other hard-to-fill specialties was a top priority. Now, WakeMed can manage the high quantity of resumes while keeping sight of the best talent available. With the enhanced automation of RMS and advanced reporting capabilities, WakeMed recruiters have been able to reduce their time-to-hire for some positions in half from 61 days to 30 days and are able to fill all positions within 43 days.

In addition to full-time and part-time staff, WakeMed brings onboard approximately 1,000 volunteers each year. WakeMed relies heavily on their volunteer base, which contributes to over $1.5 million in labor, and they need a process-driven plan to recruit, train and then route their volunteers into the workforce. Using Peopleclick RMS, volunteers will soon be able to apply online with the same technology candidates use when applying for open positions. "That's the beauty of Peopleclick RMS; it provides our volunteers, some of which are retired CEOs, with a professional system," added Anna.

Besides streamlining the recruiting process for their new hires and volunteers, the solution has also bridged the communication gap between the recruiter and hiring manager.  By increasing their level of collaboration, the expectations for each hire are fully met. Peopleclick RMS provides WakeMed with the proper workflows and processes to turn their strategy into reality, while saving users quality time that used to be spent on manual tasks.

All Aboard

Now that WakeMed has a five-star recruiting system, they didn't want the five-star experience to end. In 2009, WakeMed implemented Peopleclick^® Onboarding, an additional component of the Peopleclick Talent Acquisition Suite^TM. This full-featured product integrates seamlessly into Peopleclick RMS and provides WakeMed with the tools to create engaged new hires from day one.

Peopleclick Onboarding is a solution designed to automate the necessary processes of forms and task management, and immediately immerse a new hire into WakeMed's corporate culture. This solution bridges the gap between offer letter acceptance and the new hire's first day of work, ensuring a smooth experience for both new employees and volunteers within the WakeMed Family. "WakeMed has 16 different locations now, and having a technology solution for onboarding staff in a decentralized environment was critical. The solution offers the flexibility to provide unique onboarding forms and information to new employees based on the job code of the individual," noted Anna.

A New Hire Portal, configured to represent the WakeMed brand, is available via the internet for new employees to fulfill required tasks. With this component, new hires can gain insight about WakeMed, enroll in company programs and learn other vital company information that will help socialize new employees from the start.

"We could not be more thrilled to be giving our new hires a first-rate onboarding experience," added Anna. "More importantly, our new hires normally bring forth a paper overload, not just for HR, but for all departments. Peopleclick Onboarding will make the new hire experience extremely efficient throughout the entire hospital, while being environmentally cautious at the same time." With the new hire portal, WakeMed plans to provide new hires with a message from the CEO and a video explaining the WakeWay Values so new employees can begin to learn more about WakeMed's culture and embrace the WakeWay from day one.

"With the best quality nurses, doctors and volunteers, we are able to provide the finest care to our patients," said Anna. "Peopleclick has provided a robust recruitment management and onboarding solution that helps us recruit and retain the very best talent for every position."