Targeted expertise brings cost savings for UVA recruitment and speciality hiring

Challenges

UVA had a critical need to hire nurses and surgical technologists to support its 28 operating suites. At one point, UVA recruitment had 60 staff vacancies and relied on 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.

Solutions

Implementing a targeted solution

UVA partnered with Cielo on a project-based solution with the goal of solving its talent acquisition challenges in the operating room and increasing UVA’s competitive advantage in nursing talent through specialty hiring. From the start, Cielo brought its deep expertise in recruiting nurses to UVA through a significant on-site 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.

Strategic brand marketing 

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.

Results

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 recruitment requirements, involving specialty hiring 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:

• Filled more than 350 positions with an average time to fill of 64 days
• 74% reduction in travelers’ contracts in 12 months
• Increased 90-day retention to nearly 94%
• Cost savings of a minimum of $1.1 million over the duration of the partnership

“Cielo helped us become more effective in finding the nurses we need to provide high-quality patient care. Our dedicated recruitment team acted as if they were truly employees of UVA and really understood the type of nurse that would be successful in our academic medical center environment. During our partnership, there was a marked difference in the quality of the candidates we interviewed and hired,” said UVA's Chief Nursing Officer.