Case Study - Inova Health System

Topics: Recruitment, Human resource management, Job description Pages: 11 (2219

words) Published: July 8, 2013

Case Study - Inova Health System

Content

1. Introduction ……………………………………………………………………. Pg4

2. Case Study ……………………………………………………………………... Pg5

3. Answers to the questions

1. How would you begin to study this problem? ……………………….. Pg6

2. Might you use benchmarking in anyway? How? ……………………….. Pg6

3. Do you think you would choose to centralize the recruitment function?

Why or Why not? ………………………..…………………………… Pg8

4. If you do recommend a centralized recruiting office, what services would it provide?

……………………………………… Pg10

5. If you centralize recruiting, what benefits would you anticipate for

a. The company and ………………………..……………………… Pg11

b. The applicants? ………………………..………………………… Pg11

6. What barriers might you encounter in implementing a centralized system? Pg12

References ……………………………………………………………………………. Pg13

1. Introduction

Recruitment

Recruitment is the process of seeking and attracting a pool of people from which qualified
candidates for job vacancies can be chosen. Recruitment policy will reflect the objectives
and policies of the organization, objectives of recruitment and the avenues & sources of
recruitment.

Recruitment process

 Centralized recruitment

Here all the decisions regarding the recruitments and man power planning for the entire
organization (all branches and sub-divisions) are conducted by the main/head office. The
power to take decisions regarding recruitments remains at the upper level central
management of the organization.

In any organization 100% centralized recruitment is possible.

 Decentralized recruitment

When an organization has sub-divisions or branches distributed across a certain

geographical area, the power to make recruitment related decisions (for non-managerial
level/positions below executive jobs mostly) remain at the hand of the branch heads.
Therefore the decision making is brought down to the branch level and the central
management has got nothing to do with it.
2. Case Inova Heallth System

Inova Health System is a Falls Church in Virginia who is a provider of Health Care. Its
10,000 employees provide services in three hospitals, seven outpatient centers, and two
long term-care facilities and also provide home nursing visits. Historically, each of these
units has managed its own recruiting. As the health care budgets tightened, HR
administrators at Inova wondered whether decentralized recruitment was still appropriate.
Some of the problems encountered with each unit doing its own recruitment advertising
and screening were the following:

• Duplication of advertising expenses -- $ 500,000 in the past year

• Units competing with one another to recruit from the same labor market

• Candidates interested in jobs common to several facilities (such as nursing ) needing to

apply and interview separately at each facility

• Lack of internal mobility for current employees across units due to lack of knowledge of
openings

• A less-than-consistent corporate identify projected to candidates and by the community

unit-specific recruitment advertising.

• Inability to measure recruiting effectiveness – because of varying record-keeping

systems across units

• Inefficiencies because each unit is too small to support sophisticated recruitment

technologies such as a twenty-four-hour jobs hotline or a computerized resume-scanning
and tracing system.

You are part of the task force of experienced recruiters drawn from Inova’s larger units.
The task force is charged with recommending what, if anything should be done to improve
the recruitment function at Inova.
1. How would you begin to study this problem?

First study their employment processes with an eye toward a complete overhaul. The first
step is to investigate the health-industry market. It should be a thorough grasp of the
special considerations faced by a large, non-profit, community health-care organization
such as Inova Health System.

Their HR professionals and health-care managers should proceed by consulting, as well as

reviewing all published recruitment and employment policies compiled throughout the
system. Following eight areas should be concerned.

 Meeting the special hiring needs unique to the medical field, such as verifying
skills and credentials

 Ensuring that autonomous Inova units each receive an equal level of support from
human resources regardless of their hiring authority

 Ensuring that our affirmative action and diversity goals are met

 Finding a central physical plant to serve all applicants and employees adequately
while maximizing access for the disabled through the public transit system and
other Inova resources

 Acquiring new technologies, such as computer-scanning equipment to process

applications; voicemail telephone services to improve office communications;
computer networking to allow information sharing; and internal messaging or E-
mail to allow confidential communications and data transfer

 Addressing deficiencies spawned by our decentralized operations: low visibility of

Inova’s name, duplicated HR functions, difficulties in tracking and containing
recruitment costs because of varied bookkeeping and report formats, a lack of
adequate sharing of information about applicants, competition within the system
for top external applicants and a tendency to let applicant profiles, rather than
openings, drive hiring

 Reducing liabilities stemming from applicants’ confusion about our processes

 Providing access to information about job openings and internal transfers.

Clearly, we needed to overhaul their piecemeal human resources policies. Otherwise,

Inova wouldn’t be able to better serve our employees and applicants. Although several
individual units tailored their recruitment plans to meet their own needs, Inova didn’t
benefit as a whole. For example, many recruiters didn’t hire for the long term. Instead of
hiring those who could grow into other capabilities or who could be transferred down the
road, recruiters only looked at the job at hand.
2. Might you use benchmarking in anyway? How?

 Simplifying procedures and eliminating or reducing redundant tasks within and

between units

 Increasing the satisfaction of applicants who use the process, measured by the
quality of the applicant pool and by the availability of expert employment services

 Using technology to increase efficiency and expedite the consideration of

candidates for specific positions

 Reducing costs through consolidation, redesigning space and cutting redundant

expenditures, and accurately monitoring, recording and analyzing routine spending

 Redirecting the focus of individual positions to their most productive ends

 Achieving a measurable improvement in the quality of external hires, and the

transfer of internal staff, as they are incorporated into the organization.

With these broad targets in mind, they should the required steps to change. The process
will affect policies and procedures.

For example, they may have belittled the relationship between recruitment and internal
transfers. By improving their recruitment overall, they would be more likely to promote
from within, rather than relying on external recruitment. In other words, they would
recruit outside only when they knew they didn’t have the talent pool inside. Hence, it was
critical to establish a single employment center to gain the best chance of getting the right
people into vacancies wherever and whenever they occurred.

Subsequently, they can design a new job-vacancy information system, which maximizes
the possibility that high-quality candidates will learn of our job listings without increasing
their already strained advertising budget. The new system will provide their employees
and the community with up-to-date information about job openings through a 24-hour job
line and weekly job listings on internal E-mail with paper-copy postings and a staffed
telephone information desk.
3. Do you think you would choose to centralize the recruitment function?
Why or Why not?

Yes I would recommend centralization of recruitment function among different units

because of following advantages:

a) Uniform record keeping systems

b) Better internal mobility for employees

c) Job rotation of employees enhances their skills

d) Cost of recruitment is reduced due to combining of requirements and increased

efficiency, such as software and administration cost

e) Uniform corporate identity among employees and public

f) Easier for candidates as they have to apply through one window and also attend
interview only once. The organisation will get benefits by interviewing each candidate
only once for all units.

g) Compensation system and administrations systems at each unit can be further made
more uniform based on common recruitment function.

I think that the recruitment function should be centralized and consolidate all of Inova’s
recruitment and employment policies. That meant redesigning the applications and forms
that supported those policies. In addition to the hiring policies, should also include those
policies affecting current Inova employees: internal transfers, employee reassignments,
evaluation systems and health screening.

One of the outgrowths of this choice will be a plan to establish a centralized employment
center. With one centralized location to handle vacancy postings, recruitment and
screening, current employees could move more easily within the system. And potential
hires could be recruited and screened more efficiently.
4. If you do recommend a centralized recruiting office, what services would it
provide?

a) Receive labour recruitments with specifications from various units.

b) Maintain common database of potential candidates.

c) Advertising and promotional campaigns for improving corporate identity and attract
talent.

d) Training of candidates after selection, further evaluation and recommendation to

different units for inducting.

e) One point relations with job portals, universities and other affiliates.

f) Match requirement at different units with internal excess talent and identify possibilities
of internal mobility.

5. If you centralize recruiting, what benefits would you anticipate for a) The
company and b) The applicants?