IH West staffing services team.
New technology improves staffing services
S
ince the days of old, businesses around the world have needed to manage the ever changing element that is employees.
Whether it’s a business of two people or a business of 20,000 people, if an employee is unable to come to work, adjustments and adaptations must be made. However, it is the way that businesses manage these day-to-day staffing changes that makes them unique.
Then, one year ago, a new way to offer, bid-on, and fill shifts was born. May 6, 2017 marked the one year anniversary of the implementation of the Automated Shift Callout (ASC) system, a technology tool used to offer vacant shifts to IH employees. Automated Shift Callout enables staffing services to broadcast a shift offer to all eligible employees through automated phone calls, text messages, and emails. Employees then respond, via their preferred method, to express interest in the shift. Then, through the ASC system, the shift can be awarded.
At Interior Health, our Staffing Services department is divided into five regional offices, serving employees located in IH West, IH East, and IH Central (including north, central, and south Okanagan). This team of 147 people manages “This new technology has had an incredible impact on both the shifts for most of our unionized employees – more than our call centre staff and employees who are signed up to 18,000 people. use the system,” says Lee. “Previous to ASC, our short-call clerks would seldom get beyond filling the shift relief needs Over the years, managing the daily changes of this many for today, tomorrow, and maybe the next day. employees has taken a lot of manual work from call centre staff. In one month last year, for example, the Staffing “After a year of using ASC, we are seeing shifts awarded Services call centre placed more than 180,000 individual faster and a significant reduction in manual shift-offer calls. phone calls to fill short-call shifts (a shift vacancy within Staffing clerks can meet the immediate shift relief demands next seven days). Often, it would take phoning hundreds and up to 14 days in advance – making it easier, and giving of employees to fill a single shift. more time, for managers and relief employees to plan around the available work.” “Our call centre clerks were under constant pressure to meet the demand for short-call shifts,” says Lee Van Meter, Lee says that while ASC has provided a number of benefits, Corporate Director, IH Staffing Services. “The time the change in process has presented some challenges. dedicated to calls was daunting, but we were also running the risk of decreased quality of patient care as a result of “Using and adapting to a new technology has been a unfilled shifts.” learning curve for both users and schedulers,” says Lee.