The healthcare sector is diverse – from government hospitals, nursing homes, and clinics, to corporate hospitals, which have grown since the 1980s. A leading healthcare brand with a network of business units, spread across 61 locations and employing 30,000+ people had to streamline operations as they grew. There was a need to stay competitive and add incremental value to customers in an environment rife with government regulations. There was a need to evolve and reinvent itself on the people front.
The healthcare sector has stringent quality measures and regulation in the form of government schemes. The hospital chain was grappling with issues such as rising workforce costs and talent challenges, therefore, affecting organizational performance. There was a compelling need to streamline operations, to improve efficiency in the process, system & people. As a first step, it was that going digital will be the first step to process improvement. Matching skill sets to business needs, streamlining processes, defining accountability using the right metrics and KPIs became a priority in the transformation agenda.
The Key Interventions
With the widespread nature of business operations, it was necessary to provide a consistent employee experience. This would be possible only by opting for a completely integrated human capital management solution. The healthcare co. was an early adopter of Oracle’s Fusion HCM & Talent Management Applications, with Oracle’s Customer Success and COE sponsoring the implementation and leaders signing up for digital transformation. Some of the key action areas were:
- Data dependence: To enable better decision making on the talent agenda, real-time data through info lets and dashboards were enabled. Data was retrieved and organized to generate useful MIS.
- Streamlining Recruitment: Sighting and scouting for the right fit for the role was a key agenda under the talent transformation. The system helped drive paperless recruitment, and help managers view, understand the recruitment pipeline.
- Better Resource Management: Data-driven approach helped create a custom profile sheet for talent, to allow for better talent sighting and visibility.
- Driving Performance: A goal of 100% compliance in managing performance goals was set for assessing performance management. The system was designed to align goals as per the annual operating plan.
- Creating a Learning Culture: e-learning modules made learning on-the-go possible. It enabled a new learning experience to meet the need of developing continuous skills and outperform as per their desired timelines and roles.
- Hi-technology touch: The idea was to provide an enhanced digital experience to employees by making organizational processes more user-friendly through self-service modules. Some of the core actions achieved were digitalization of record documents, automation of the separation process, the introduction of new functionalities through cloud technologies every three months, and profile sheets and pay slips- for employees, accessible through the latest technological interfaces.
The transformation was centered on empowering and enabling employees and line managers, by equipping them with the right resources to bring their best selves to work. Self-service employee satisfaction was the way to go for a new level of tech-led convenience.
Overcoming Challenges
Embarking on a transformative change-journey comes with its challenges. The company had to overcome many hurdles to make digitalization a success. The first is to do with streamlining data. Since the company was spread across multiple locations, setting up processes across the hospitals was also important.
Digitalization of people-processes using HCM solution was a big change for employees who were used to the erstwhile traditional systems and processes. Hence, to drive adoption at the end user level, the leadership envisioned a great degree of people-education and awareness-building, so that people could embrace the new ways of working.
Business Impact
The business benefits being realized at every stage. The technology-led solution led to some very quantifiable benefits:
- Savings in recruitment agency fees and reduction in EVP advertising spend due to paperless recruitment.
- Lowered the time-to-fill for nursing positions from 45 to 30 days
- Helped enhance the Quality of Hire by sourcing and selecting ace candidates
The Way Ahead
Any transformation journey is an ongoing endeavor. With this HR technology transformation, the healthcare co. had improved HR efficiency and effectiveness. It would leverage the benefits to build a better competitive and future-ready business of great healthcare experience for its customers.