February 5, 2012

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EVS department staffs up quickly

Plan, Do, Study, Act

FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 2008

Value compass: Best place to work

Department: Environmental Services, Sunnyside Medical Center (Northwest)

Problem: The department needed to hire approximately 50 employees quickly and knew the old hiring methods would take too long.

Metric: Number of promising applications received

First small test: Placed an job advertisement with Oregon unemployment department

Result: Hayes received 60 applications, about 40 more than usual; he hired 12 people following a one-day interview event and has since brought on about 30 more

Next step: He plans to hire about 10 more employees using the same hiring practice

Labor co-lead: Brenda Clemons, housekeeper, SEIU Local 49

Management co-lead: Leonard Hayes, EVS supervisor

Background

After Sunnyside hospital opened its new wing, Environmental Services needed to hire about 50 new employees—fast. But EVS Supervisor Leonard Hayes said historically it's been impossible to hire anyone quickly.

Kaiser's online application is complex, he said, and doesn't draw many candidates for EVS. If he's lucky, 10 people will respond to a posting and four will show up for the interviews.

The department's unit-based team decided to use the plan, do, study, act cycle to come up with a new hiring method. Their brainstorming led them to Oregon's unemployment department. The state quickly connected Hayes with 60 applicants, and he and other EVS staff interviewed them all in one day. Hayes brought on 12 good workers and has held two more hiring events with similar results.

Biggest challenge

"If you have the (PDSA) training, the process just goes smoothly. Make sure you've done the research before you start your project," Hayes said.

Side benefits: "We get better quality people," Clemons said.