Leveraging Talent in a Difficult Economic Environment

The current global recession combined withcontinuing economic uncertainty has compelled companies to seek out new ways tomaximize business opportunities while at the same time minimizing businesscosts. But one industry must always focus on streamlined costsand efficient operations — the Not-for-Profit.

At Sutter Health, a ninety-year-old, non-profit organizationwith 48,000 employees and volunteers and 5,000 physicians, our mission is toprovide the highest-quality service to our patients while minimizing the costof healthcare delivery whenever possible. This balance requires Sutter to continuouslyexplore new technologies and new processes that allow us to streamline ouroperations. The net result of this exploration is higher-quality healthcare atreduced cost to our patients. One of the most effective ways of achieving theseresults is through Sutter’s unique approach to managing its people.

Talent intelligence: capturing critical data about people

Employees are the lifeblood of a healthcare organization. Allof the technology in the world isn’t a substitute for the individual care thatour people give to our patients. Our goal at Sutter Health is to hire the mosttalented people into the right positions in order to leverage their skills tomaximum effect. We accomplish this goal through talent intelligence, which isour way of capturing critical data about our people, gaining insight on thedata to make the best decisions for our business, and then immediately takingaction on that data. Sutter uses a combination of process and technology to get thelevel of talent intelligence necessary to achieve the desired results.

Some of the processes that Sutter has optimized and enabledwith technology focus on setting effective, company-aligned goals and monitoringprogress, as well as helping employees recognize their career potential anddevelopment opportunities. Sutter has found that a focus on these processesresults in an engaged, inspired workforce. And that means higher-productivityfor the organization, dramatically reduced turnover, and improved services andcare for clients.

And it goes a step further. Most American and European companiesrecognize that many of their key employees — often corporate leadership — areapproaching retirement age.  Manyorganizations see this only as a dilemma, but at Sutter Health, we also seethis as an opportunity.  With the right employeedata on hand, companies can easily identify the superstars of tomorrow and groomthose people into the roles that will lead the company into the future. We perceivetalent in the same way that we perceive new technologies and newmethodologies — with new talent come new ideas, new perspectives, and newopportunities that will guarantee us a bright future. Recognizing the importanceand the cost benefit of nurturing talent is essential for the continuedwell-being of our business.

The Sutter Health approach to talent management

When Sutter undertook the challenge to streamline our talentmanagement processes, we made a conscious decision to evaluate any opportunityto use technology as an enabler. We had already automated the talentacquisition process with Taleo, and made the decision to extend thatrelationship by enabling other facets of talent management like goals andperformance management, succession planning, and employee development. While wedefinitely used cost savings as a driver to move toward a single vendor, wealso saw the benefit to achieving talent intelligence by having one technologyplatform to drive user adoption and broader visibility into the workforce. Wespecifically selected Taleo as our vendor for their focus on customer support,their vision of talent management, and the fit between their solution and ourneeds.

While superior talent management can drive significantbottom-line results through reduced attrition and increased productivity, technology costs can rapidly erode thoseresults. As part of Sutter’s evaluationprocess, we performed a complete cost analysis with multiple vendors. Taleoprovided a significant total-cost-of-ownership benefit in comparison with theother vendors we considered. Over the next few years, the cost savings will be substantial. 

How we applied technology

To ensure that technology truly enabled our processes, the solutions we selected hadto have the right feature set.  At SutterHealth we wanted to transform the typical administrative year-end performanceevaluation into a more continuous dialog between manager and employee. Thisconversation would help engage and inspire employees and improve productivity, drivingreal business results. Frequent employee performance conversations ensure regular assessment and coaching of employees, resulting in benefits beyond thesimple automation of the annual performance review process. Taleo’s designphilosophy was to focus on the right features to enable this dialogue, versushaving the “bells and whistles” thatweren’t driving results.

Talentmanagement solutions enable us to see the strengths and weaknesses of everyemployee in real-time so that we can identify the best candidate to assign to specific tasks as they arise. This allows us to more effectively retain top-performingemployees by providing them with the appropriate challenges for their skilllevel. Employees who successfully meet challenges presented to them in theworkplace remain far more engaged than those who languish in repetitive tasksthat do not challenge them. On the other hand, extending new opportunities tothose ill-prepared to succeed at them can produce frustration and negativity. We’veseen the results of putting the right people in the right roles through our improved talent acquisition process, and weaving in the performance andsuccession data will markedly strengthen this process.

The payoff: goal alignment, improved service, more productivity

Performancemanagement software that integrates with desktop productivity tools enablesemployees and managers to provide regular and timely updates and feedback. The solution we chose allows for out-of-the-box integration with our internal toolsand our core ERP software. That has resulted in goal alignment between theemployee and the organization as well as better real-time decision support forcost-center managers and their employees. At the same time, we enjoy improvedservice and improved usability, which results in improved productivity.

Times ofeconomic uncertainty provide opportunities for companies to reevaluate theirassets and incorporate new, streamlined processes through which to maximizethose assets and realize significant benefits. During a down cycle, focusing on talent might be the best possibleresponse – and it may provide the best ROI.