A Journey to Best Practice in Healthcare Recruitment

The Solution

Transformation Built on Trust

Over the course of 15 months, Korn Ferry took LVHN on a journey of improvement to build sustainable excellence into its healthcare recruitment and workforce planning strategies.

The success of the partnership was built on the depth of understanding that Korn Ferry gained during discovery, and the level of trust fostered between the two organizations.

Key client stakeholders were fully immersed in shaping and delivering strategy at every step. The buy-in, advocacy, and input of LVHN leaders were fundamental to the solution’s success―as was their courage in challenging existing organizational practices and their willingness to do things a different way.

Identifying the Right Solution

The initial discovery process identified a three-pronged solution that would solve underlying issues and provide a foundation for best-in-class hiring and employer of choice status:

• Evolve the budgeting, position control, and staffing model
• Enhance the Employee Value Proposition (EVP) and employer brand messaging and marketing
• Streamline recruitment processes to achieve more filled positions

Harnessing Workforce Optimization and Leader Upskilling

Korn Ferry’s Advisory specialists focused on workforce optimization and upskilling of incumbent leaders. Through more than 440 hours of bespoke education workshops, nurse leaders were equipped with the finance, budgeting, and planning knowledge to radically reshape position control, create balanced schedules, and enhance the care team model. The outcome was a successful rollout of Network Best Practices across every LVHN location, ensuring consistent, best practice approaches for the key tasks of nurse budgeting, position control, scheduling, and staffing.

Bringing EVP and Recruitment Marketing to the Fore

The Korn Ferry RPO team dedicated itself to transforming both external perceptions and internal processes. LVHN was yet to define and market a formal EVP. Korn Ferry specialists ran a comprehensive research, development, and validation project to craft an authentic, values-based EVP that would genuinely resonate with existing employees and outside talent.

The EVP was then translated into a creative employer brand identity, alongside marketing materials and recruiter guides. The team covered every detail of brand activation and implemented a major multi-channel launch that included online and in-person events. This promotional push was complemented by increased investment in programmatic advertising. Candidate awareness and applications increased quickly as soon as the new EVP reached its audience.

Maximizing the Impact of Skills-Based Hiring

Of course, applications do not translate directly into filled roles. Korn Ferry analysis showed that existing assessment practices were proving a barrier to bringing talent onboard. The team worked closely with hiring managers to embed a shift in thinking on selection. Previously, the hiring focus was on filling individual roles. This led to talented candidates being rejected for not quite fitting all of the role profile requirements.

Now, the mindset has moved to attracting skilled nurses to the organization as a whole, then matching them to suitable positions (or even creating new ones). After a full review of wider internal practice, a suite of standardized best processes was implemented across the network, accelerating the consistent adoption of industry best practices.

Setting the Path for Seamless Future Success

Before the conclusion of the RPO contract, the final task was to help LVHN embed the new recruitment model internally, ensuring a seamless continuation of improved performance and results. In little more than a year, every major metric was impacted. LVHN can now make stronger data-driven decisions based on metrics and reporting, and its internal capabilities are transformed.