Specialty Hiring & Substantial Cost Reduction for UVA

The University of Virginia Health System (UVA) is consistently ranked as one of the nation’s top hospitals, with 10 medical specialties recognized in the 2012-2013 U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals guide. Featuring a 570-bed capacity and Level I trauma center, the academic medical center includes nationally recognized cancer and heart centers and primary and specialty clinics throughout Central Virginia. UVA had a critical need to hire nurses and surgical technologists to support its 28 operating suites. At one point, UVA had 60 staff vacancies and more than 40 travelers on contract. UVA sought a partner to provide proactive, consistent and results-oriented recruitment to hire superior nursing talent and reduce its reliance on travelers.

IMPLEMENTING A TARGETED SOLUTION
Cielo partnered with UVA on a project-based solution with the goal of solving their talent acquisition challenges in the operating room and increasing UVA’s competitive advantage in nursing talent. From the start, Cielo brought their deep expertise in recruiting nurses to UVA through a significant onsite presence. The team aligned with UVA’s reputation and academic medical center environment to fill these important roles and replace travelers with regular staff who were best qualified in skills, experience and cultural fit.

Working closely with UVA’s internal team to achieve both timely results and a sustainable solution, Cielo improved UVA’s recruitment process by implementing technology and best practices.

Enhancements included:

• Deploying technology-enhanced sourcing of passive candidates nationally, regionally and locally.
• Developing talent communities and increasing awareness of UVA’s employer brand.
• Elevating the candidate experience for external and internal applicants.
• Building relationships with hiring managers and strengthening the hiring manager experience.
• Establishing and reporting recruitment metrics, while benchmarking success against industry leaders.

DELIVERING IMMEDIATE IMPACT
UVA expanded the partnership, tasking Cielo with additional recruitment responsibilities in critical and acute care nursing, advanced practice nursing, pharmacy, and ambulatory clinics. Cielo was also engaged to meet UVA’s hiring requirements for a newly developed stem cell program, and expansion of its outpatient surgery center.

The year-long partnership accomplished UVA’s goals and measurably increased the quality of nurses being hired and reduced its dependency on traveling nurse services.

The strategic results included:

• Filling more than 350 positions with an average time-to-fill of 64 days.
• A 74% reduction in travelers’ contracts in 12 months.
• An increase in 90-day retention to nearly 94% as a direct result of the improved recruitment process.
• Through reduction in traveler, overtime and agency expenses, UVA saved a minimum of $1.1 million over the duration of the partnership.