CHICAGO, Ill. and WOBURN, Mass. – November 2, 2011 –The American Society for Healthcare Human Resources Administration (ASHHRA) and HealthcareSource, the leading provider of talent management solutions for the healthcare industry, today announced the results and findings of their joint online 2012 Healthcare HR Initiatives Survey.
Conducted June 1-30, 2012, this web-based survey was open to U.S. healthcare human resource professionals. Respondents provided their comments and answers to multiple choice questions online at www.yourHRinitiatives.com.
With a total of 395 HR professionals from healthcare organizations across the United States participating in this second annual survey, response rates for the 2012 survey increased 69 percent over the prior year.
Hosted by HealthcareSource and co-sponsored by ASHHRA, the 2012 Healthcare HR Initiatives Survey solicited input from healthcare HR professionals on their initiatives for three strategic goals: reducing costs, improving patient satisfaction, and improving patient safety. The survey also explored challenges healthcare HR professionals face and identified the technologies they plan to deploy to ensure their initiatives succeed.
“The growing influence of HCAHPS surveys measuring patients’ perceptions of their hospital experience is driving healthcare organizations to actively cultivate a service-oriented culture,” said Michael DiPietro, Vice President, Marketing and Product Management, HealthcareSource. “Results from our new survey show healthcare HR leaders unanimously agree that increasing employee engagement and satisfaction is essential in order to improve patient satisfaction and quality of care.”
“It’s all about engaging and empowering the employee around delivering quality care,” said Stephanie Drake, Executive Director of ASHHRA, an American Hospital Association (AHA) personal membership group. “If employees aren’t satisfied, they are less engaged about their performance and patient satisfaction scores go down. In an era of increasing accountability, hospitals can’t afford that to happen—if they want to compete and generate revenue.”
Results of the 2012 Healthcare HR Initiatives Survey:
Participants in the 2012 Healthcare HR Initiatives Survey were asked to choose one or more responses in each of five categories. Responses were developed with input from a group of HR experts. Top responses for each category were:
What are your HR initiatives to cut costs?
1. Streamline HR processes (90% chose this answer), up from 69% in 2011
2. Improve retention rates (85%), up from 66% in 2011
What are your HR initiatives to improve patient satisfaction?
1. Improve employee satisfaction/employee engagement (100%)
2. Increase employee accountability (95%)
What are your HR initiatives to improve patient safety?
1. Improve workforce education and development (82%)
2. Identify and manage out low performers (77%)
What are your biggest challenges toward achieving your HR initiatives?
1. Not enough time (80%)
2. Too many competing initiatives (79%)
What new technology are you planning to adopt to achieve your
HR initiatives?
1. Time and attendance/workforce scheduling/absence management (41%)
2. Performance management for employee appraisals (38%)
White Paper, Survey Results and Webinar Available
The 2012 HealthcareSource and ASHHRA Healthcare HR Initiatives Survey Results White Paper includes a summary of the survey results.
The white paper also summarizes initiatives that healthcare HR professionals see as important to achieve cost reductions, as well as increased levels of patient satisfaction and safety. A group of industry experts reviewed the survey findings and offered insights. This group included:
– Stephanie Drake, Executive Director, ASHHRA (Chicago, Ill.)
– Kathie Pasquarella, Director of Training and Education, Trinity Health System (Steubenville, Ohio)
– David Szary, Founder of LEAN Human Capital and the Recruiter Academy (Plymouth, Mich.)
– Jodi Weiss, Talent Acquisition Projects Lead, Children’s Mercy Hospital (Kansas City, MO.)
The white paper is available for download for all those who participated in the survey and others who register at: www.yourHRinitiatives.com.
The survey’s findings were unveiled publicly in a live Webinar on October 10, 2012 featuring commentary from these expert panelists:
– Stephanie Drake, Executive Director, ASHHRA of the AHA (Chicago, IL)
– Michael Rochelle, Chief Strategy Office, Brandon Hall Group (Delray Beach, Fla.)
– David Szary, Founder of LEAN Human Capital and the Recruiter Academy (Plymouth, Mich.)
– Joe Van De Graaff, Research Director, KLAS (Orem, UT)
– Rebecca McNeil, Educational Content Manager, HealthcareSource
(Woburn, Mass.)
During the webinar, panelist Michael Rochelle of the Brandon Hall Group offered his “prescription” for how HR can proactively grow a culture of service through a practical plan for employee accountability and performance: “You need to have some kind of cascading scorecard approach where you can translate the vision, mission and strategy of a healthcare organization into executable terms and show the link to everyone’s day to day responsibilities.”
A replay of the webinar and additional educational resources are available at the www.yourHRinitiatives.com site. Those seeking an informative overview of HCAHPS may also wish to download the HealthcareSource HCAHPS Infographic.
About ASHHRA
Founded in 1964, ASHHRA is a personal membership group of the American Hospital Association (AHA) and has more than 3600 members nationwide. It leads the way for members to become more effective, valued, and credible leaders in healthcare human resources. As the foremost authority in healthcare human resources, it provides timely and critical support through research, learning and knowledge sharing, professional development, products and resources, and provides opportunities for networking and collaboration. For more information about ASHHRA, visit our website at http://www.ashhra.org.
About HealthcareSource
With over 1,700 healthcare facilities as clients, HealthcareSource is the leading provider of talent management software for the healthcare industry. Through its cloud-based solutions, HealthcareSource helps healthcare organizations source, hire, assess, develop and retain the best workforce possible in order to reduce costs and to improve patient satisfaction and safety. The company’s talent management software solutions include applicant tracking, onboarding, performance management, behavioral assessments, reference checking, physician recruiting, and candidate sourcing. A private corporation, HealthcareSource focuses exclusively on the healthcare industry and consistently earns high marks for client satisfaction and retention. HealthcareSource was named 2011 category leader for Talent Management by KLAS Research. For more information visit www.healthcaresource.com, call 800.869.5200, or email solutions(at)healthcaresource.com
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Media Contacts:
Patrick Rafter for HealthcareSource
pr(at)healthcaresource.com
617-901-2697
Sharon Allen for ASHHRA
sallen(at)aha.org
312-422-3722