Archive
By Staff Report
Jan. 1, 2000
As a 75-year-old institution providing a full range of hospital-based services, from inpatient care to behaviorial health, MacNeal Health Network in Berwyn, Illinois, is a premier organization that has steadily expanded its scope of services to provide quality health care throughout Chicago.
Today, MacNeal Health employs approximately 4,000 and fills 1,000 positions per year for more than 38 facilities. Its selection and recruitment of that staff is an integral factor in the organization’s ability to fulfill its mission of medical excellence.
“We felt we were efficient in our recruitment and selection efforts, and were told so by outside consultants,” says Tony Rea, director of human resources for MacNeal Health Network. “But, as with anything, there’s always room for improvement. If we wanted to remain at the top of our field, we would need to automate our applicant tracking system to ensure hiring the best candidates, first.”
Revving Up Reaction Time
Knowing they could take a good system and make it even better, MacNeal began looking for software specifically designed for recruitment and selection. They turned to Lawson Software’s recruitment and selection product, ijob, for a unique solution to its staffing issues. ijob is a Web-based human resources solution that automates and reengineers the job candidate registration, recruitment and selection process. It allows candidates to enter job preferences, résumés and interview information online, giving the employer a pool of pre-screened candidates.
“When we looked into the price of recruitment and selection technology solutions, ijob stood out because it had all of the applicant tracking sophistication, but was Web-based and easily implemented,” said Rea. ijob matches skill sets selected by the employer with skills in the candidates’ work experience. Its workflow functionality automatically and instantly notifies hiring managers or human resources personnel when qualified candidates register online. The manager receives a complete package with all the candidate information, allowing them to review it and respond quickly.
In addition, ijob statistical metrics increase the chance of a successful hiring process by calculating which candidates will be the most successful employees.
The program seemed like a perfect fit except for one problem. In the scramble to meet Y2K compliance regulations, the company didn’t have the time to implement the application or host it on its server.
“One of the interesting ideas that was advanced by ijob at the time was to build it on the Web, using ijob servers,” says David Printz, chief information officer, MacNeal Health. By outsourcing the application, MacNeal Health Network could enjoy the benefits of the program without the headaches and additional hardware purchase associated with running it alone.
From Two Weeks to Two Hours
According to Printz, installation was a hands-off process that required just two meetings and a total of two hours of his time. Planning and installation was completed in two months about the same timeframe it once took to hire a candidate.
Staffing and development manager Bernadette Szczepanski remembers the effect the system had on recruitment. “We were two months into the process, really working with the recruiters, when we realized rather quickly and intensely what the system was capable of doing.”
Prior to the implementation, it took MacNeal staff more than 38 days to process an application, from entrance into the computer to offer extension. Suddenly, MacNeal was able to contact the candidate, interview and extend an offer within 20 days.
“We were actually contacting a candidate within 10 minutes of their entry into the system,” Szczepanski says. “They would be submitting their application from home and the recruiter would contact them before they were able to leave their desk. It was phenomenal.”
Adds Szczepanksi: “We’re not the only ones who are pleased with the system. Our candidates walk away thinking MacNeal is a high-tech environment, the type of environment where they want to work.”
The system has also paid for itself.
“We felt we would return our investment in ijob in a year, and I can tell you we’ve done that,” says Rea.
According to Szczepanski, the company now is looking at more ways to use the Internet for recruiting. “In the future we really hope to utilize the Internet to a great extent. We really want to drive the traffic outside of our office and really encourage individuals to apply online, at home or in the office.
“We’re confident that ijob will get the job done.”
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