HR Case Management and the Healthcare Vertical. A Perfect Match?
In my role with Dovetail Software I get the opportunity to meet with many different HR organizations and companies from across the country, all with unique HR Service Delivery needs. I must say that it is always interesting to see how differently folks handle the tracking and workflow process of Employee / HR interactions. It seems that almost all companies are at different stages of what I call “HR Case Management Consciousness”. They span from completely understanding the value and importance, and perhaps are even running a fully functioning HR Shared Service Center where all interactions are captured, handled and reportable, to companies that are still using manual processes or nothing at all. In any case, all of these conversations are thought provoking and highly enlightening.
One vertical that really seems to see the value of HR Case Management is Healthcare. As I have had some success as of late working with multiple companies in this field, people are naturally asking me why, and what commonalities exist, that are steering them towards HR Service Delivery solutions like Dovetail Software.
Here are a few things that quickly come to mind:
• High quantity of Merger & Acquisition activity
• Companies with multiple decentralized hospitals and disparate HR organizations
• Increased compliance responsibilities and regulations
• Large 7×24 hour workforces
Healthcare has seen an inordinate amount of consolidation over the last few years leading to larger companies made up of formerly stand alone hospitals loosely sewn together. This consolidation has combined many disparate HR systems and organizations resulting in inconsistencies across the board. Creating one HR Shared Service Center utilizing an HR Case Management System has really helped a few of these companies in their efforts to centralize and become more unified. Another HR Case Management driver example that I commonly see is that overtaxed Employee Relations teams are starting to realize how scarce time and resources are to them. With their workforces growing at high rates, it has become more and more difficult to keep up with their workload. They are looking for solutions that will increase speed and efficiency in the handling of cases, and they also understand the exposure to risk that they face by not properly documenting these cases.
Overall Healthcare entities and their respective HR organizations are very busy places with a lot of moving parts. I believe that most of the companies in this vertical are currently seeking new ways to become more efficient and less susceptible to the pitfalls of being unorganized.
While HR Case Management does seem to be a great fit for Healthcare, I have also come to realize that most verticals face very similar challenges. In most cases other verticals have their own distinct issues that are also worthy of attention. Maybe there is just more of a sense of urgency in Healthcare that is bringing them to HR Case Management Consciousness earlier, or it could also be due to the fact that Healthcare companies have strong peer networks and tend to follow each other with regards to technology. Either way I look forward to observing how Healthcare and others will utilize the latest in HR Service Delivery technology to improve their situations. My guess is that they are going to like what they see and will wonder how they ever handled it all “back in the day” without it.
