From Crisis To Comfort: Nursing & Rehab Providers Address Critical Staffing Challenge

The Dilemma

A shortage of qualified nursing talent had created a crisis for our client, a multisite nursing and rehab provider based in rural Ohio. Current staff was required to work a significant amount of mandatory overtime on a regular basis to provide the necessary coverage. As a result, employee attrition had reached concerning levels while many of the remaining staff contemplated making a job change. Administration was focused on solving a workforce issue which had increased their operating costs and negatively impacted the employer brand and employment experience, ultimately putting quality of care at risk.

The Strategy

Recognizing the immediate challenge, the client chose to engage DreamJobs, a DZConneX company, to develop and execute a high-intensity candidate sourcing initiative for an initial period of 90 days. The implemented solution would function in partnership with the existing HR team and include a significant focus on direct sourcing activities such as cold-calling and targeted email campaigns. DreamJobs partnered with the client to define job requirements, an employer brand message and process accountabilities. The program was fully operational in less than two weeks.

The Impact

The DreamJobs team was able to identify and message with the nursing talent within a reasonable distance of each location, producing an influx of qualified nursing talent. With modifications to the existing recruitment process, numerous on-site tours and many new hires resulted over the course of the program. After 90 days, the Director of Nursing indicated that they were no longer in crisis mode and had achieved higher quality candidates through the partnership with DreamJobs than they had been able to produce on their own. In addition, employees were happier and they saw a significant reduction in planned overtime spend. The Executive Administrator also noted a marketplace ‘buzz’ during the initial program phase resulting in an increase of quality talent interested in positions outside the DreamJobs scope of work.

Due to the success, the client chose to continue to leverage the DreamJobs team on an ongoing basis to ensure a continuous pipeline of talent was available throughout the talent acquisition process. Simply put, the DreamJobs team implemented a scalable recruitment solution which allowed our client to move from crisis to comfort.