Exempla Healthcare

Integrated Campaign

ASSESS

Bernard Hodes Group conducted a 360° assessment of Exempla Healthcare's recruitment situation and tactics. This assessment phase revealed a number of critical issues that needed to be addressed, including a need for a true employer brand, an integrated, mixed media plan, a revamping of their careers Web site and an applicant tracking system. Additionally, we found that:

• Almost 90% of the recruitment budget was being spent in newsprint, which resulted in just 9% of hires

• The employee referral program was not being heavily promoted, but still accounted for 19% of hires

• Our client's facilities were not meeting their RN and new graduate RN hiring goals

• On average, it took 42.4 days to fill a position

We also conducted focus groups at the Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital and Exempla Lutheran Medical Center to gather information to enhance current recruitment and retention initiatives. Throughout the focus groups, all participants showed great pride in being part of the Exempla family. Their passion ran as deep as their commitment to providing the best patient care. These groups also revealed that the previous campaign was fragmented and inconsistent, and offered no connection between their various facilities.

We developed a campaign to establish a rapport with our target audience and communicate the fact that respect and empowerment are among Exempla's key cultural attributes. Using a simple and consistent conversational approach, this campaign, known as the “YOU” campaign, received much positive feedback, and the participants felt it seemed to resonate with both patients and employees.

STRATEGIZE

After our “YOU” campaign had been validated by the focus groups, we began developing an integrated media plan and diversifying the dollars spent in newsprint. This was done without previously recorded metrics, since they were not available. Our media plan also took into account a new hospital opening scheduled for December 2004.

We then created new ads and a site map for a new careers site. By sending applicants to this comprehensive Web site (www.exemplajobs.org), we could cut down on ad copy and make better use of our ad space. Our campaign was designed to attract attention and make a personal connection with candidates. The copy approach, which is built upon the word “YOU,” helped to establish consistency and convey a sense of personal empowerment—one of Exempla's unique selling points. The employer value proposition became: At Exempla, we're on the way to creating something great, and you can play an integral role.

Finally, the Bernard Hodes Group Health Care division conducted recruiter competency boot camps to ensure all Exempla recruiters were armed with the tools and strategies needed to make the most of their recruitment and retention initiatives.

IMPLEMENT

Once the campaign received approval from our client's marketing department and executive management, we began development of the new Web site and implemented an applicant tracking system. Our integrated campaign was designed to build Exempla's awareness locally and nationally, and included the purchase of Web packages for Monster, Careerbuilder and Medhunters, placement of ads in niche publications and Web sites, direct mail to nurses and pharmacists, radio ads and cinema slides, billboards and transit ads, job fairs, denverpost.com, search engine optimization and virtual postcards. To attract new graduate RNs, recruiters and nursing managers attended national student nursing association conferences.

We also designed a new employee referral program, complete with both monthly and quarterly giveaways, as well as onsite celebrations. We promoted the new program with a letter from the CEO sent to all employees and with marketing materials placed in highly visible locations throughout their facilities.

MEASURE

Our integrated campaign was targeted and incredibly successful. The percentage of employee referral hires increased to 23% (from 19%), and Exempla's newspaper contract decreased by $450,000. And the number of hires exceeded all expectations, with 561 RNs on board and an 87% offer-to-acceptance ratio. As of the end of 2004, our client had hired 833 new employees for Good Samaritan Hospital (including 293 RNs), 334 employees for Exempla Lutheran Medical Center (including 121 RNs) and 384 employees for Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital (including 163 RNs).

Exempla Healthcare's Director of Recruitment added that “Hodes has extremely knowledgeable, out-of-the-box thinkers, who are truly great business partners. They treat me like I am their only client and exceed my high expectations.”