Cambridge Healthcare Management
Cambridge Makes Better Hiring Decisions, Reduces Turnover, and Minimizes Compliance Risk With Kronos
Privately owned and operated for more than 35 years, Cambridge Healthcare Management has a passion for quality care and customer service. It operates three skilled nursing facilities in Virginia: Woodbine Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, with 307 beds; Lexington Court Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, with 196 beds; and Mary Washington Rehabilitation and Healthcare Center, with 60 beds. From cutting-edge recovery programs to around-the-clock long-term care, the team of experienced professionals at Cambridge’s facilities is committed to making every patient feel respected, nurtured, and at home.
Similar to many long-term care providers, Cambridge understands a crucial issue: Hiring and retaining quality staff members are critical to its business. And an automated hiring solution is exactly what the organization needed to make it happen. So Cambridge selected the Kronos® Workforce Talent Acquisition application for long-term care. Cambridge’s goals for the solution? Increase retention. Lower turnover. Minimize compliance risk. And, of course, help Cambridge provide high-quality care with high-quality employees. With Kronos, it was all possible.
Scientific assessments help managers select the best
In long-term care, it can be difficult to find experienced candidates who not only understand long-term care but want to work in that industry. A bad hire may be a short-term fix, but having the wrong person can negatively influence staff morale, resident satisfaction, and safety. The pressure to fill vacancies can often result in staffing managers making hiring decisions based on a candidate’s education and experience alone — without considering the fundamental underlying behaviors needed to manage the demands of the long-term care industry.
“Our ability to provide high-quality care on a consistent basis is enhanced when we are able to hire and keep the right caregivers,” says Lee Ann Lecheler, corporate HR director at Cambridge. “We needed a way to screen applicants in a consistent, fair, and scientific manner. Then we would only spend our time evaluating and hiring individuals with the greatest chance of success and longevity.”
Kronos and its behavioral-based assessments proved to be the answer. Kronos assessments measure a variety of individual attributes to predict certain behaviors, including empathy, conscientiousness, team orientation, time management, compliance, and positive attitude. Cambridge facility managers are now able to screen in engaged, productive, and dedicated front-line staff by using Kronos assessments. And, importantly, they can screen out potentially bad hires who might take unnecessary safety risks, break rules, or react insensitively to residents.
In addition to the assessments, Cambridge hiring managers use Kronos-supplied behavioral interview questions. These questions are specifically designed to measure key performance factors proven to be critical to success in front-line long-term care positions.
To create Cambridge’s targeted assessments, professional services and science teams from Kronos worked with Cambridge to gather information about the kinds of positions for which it hired. Administrators, HR staff, and key hiring managers from each facility received hands-on training. Then all three locations rolled out the solution just one week later.
Cambridge reduces turnover with Kronos
“Excessive turnover is bad for our residents, bad for the workload of existing personnel, bad for employee morale — just bad in every way,” says Lecheler. Cambridge wanted to reduce turnover — and it has — at each of its three facilities.
Year Percentage of turnover
2005 72%
2006 64%
2007 57%
“Even though turnover remains higher than we would like, I have to believe that without Kronos, it would have stayed at the 2005 level or gone up,” says Lecheler.
Automation minimizes compliance risk
Before it implemented its Kronos solution, Cambridge had a centralized hiring process. The organization did not want to change that process — and with the flexibility of Workforce Talent Acquisition, it didn’t have to. With the system’s high-quality, centralized information, Cambridge hiring managers are able to view all available candidates. They can see assessment scores and availability online. And they can make informed decisions about whom they want to interview. Then the managers simply advise HR, which takes over from there.
“This process is extremely important because licensed nursing homes are mandated to complete certain hiring steps in a certain order. And new employees must sign certain required forms,” says Lecheler. These hiring steps are now built into the system so that the required steps are not missed or delayed. The result: a consistent, auditable hiring workflow.
Another benefit: improved workforce productivity
While the goal at Cambridge was to reduce turnover and make better hiring decisions, Cambridge attained some of the other benefits of an automated hiring system. “Managing applications has improved exponentially!” says Lecheler. “No more files bulging with old applications that are unorganized and uninviting. Now when an opening occurs, HR simply goes to the active applicant screen to see applicants.”
Time and headaches are saved, since HR is able to generate a new-hire packet at the click of a button. No more forgotten forms or sloppy-looking copies of copies — each new-hire packet is crisp and professional. Pre-populated forms with names, addresses, and other required information are also extremely helpful. According to Lecheler, “I am able to determine at any given time what the applicant flow looks like for each facility. And I can track which of our sourcing channels worked to bring in the applicant.”
With its Kronos Workforce Talent Acquisition solution, Cambridge is making better hiring decisions. And this positively impacts the quality and consistency of care that Cambridge residents receive. The timing of the solution’s implementation is also excellent, considering the large number of people who will be entering long-term care facilities soon. Notes Lecheler, “The baby boom generation is beginning the time of their lives when our services may be needed.” To stand out as an excellent care option among the many choices, “it is going to be more and more critical that Cambridge hire the best employees who are most likely to stay and help us provide stable, consistent quality care,” concludes Lecheler.
Project benefits
• Workforce quality improves through automated selection and hiring
• Scientific assessments screen out ineligible hires, screen in the best candidates
• Compliance risk minimized with consistent, auditable hiring workflow
• Workforce productivity increases with automated processes
“Workforce quality and stability is paramount to our business. We take care of people. Our residents deserve compassionate caregivers who are dependable and stable.” Lee Ann Lecheler, Corporate HR Director
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