Founded more than 85 years ago, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital is the region’s only independent children’s hospital and provides seriously ill patients with comprehensive, family-centered care.
To support its staff in fulfilling their mission to improve children’s health, the hospital replaced more than 12 systems with the Workday platform to streamline HR, financial, and supply chain operations. This sped up onboarding and improved insights and data accuracy.
“To paraphrase our CEO, excellence does not start at the bedside,” says Robert Bauer, vice president of HR at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. “You need excellent support systems in place.”
With real-time access to data and everything under one roof, Workday allows our teams to do more value-based work across finance, HR, and supply chain..
Vice President of Human Resources
Faster recruitment and onboarding.
Bauer says managers identify top candidates and get new hires started faster with Workday. “Before, we used multiple paper-based and time-consuming systems,” Bauer says. “With everything now in one place using a 100% paperless platform, recruiters proactively source candidates instead of letting them come to us.”
East Tennessee Children’s Hospital ensures that new hires are set up for success from the start with Workday Learning. Having certifications and skills data in one system with easy access helps keep employees up to speed and allows new hires to be regulatory compliant from day one. “Rapid onboarding is critical in a highly competitive healthcare environment,” Bauer says.
Data-driven rewards and benefits.
The compensation and benefits teams continue to find new ways to attract and retain employees despite intense competition for talent. “With real-time access to data they can be more proactive in candidate searches,” Bauer says. “Our compensation leaders look at future benefit designs, and finance can do long-term forecasting at a more strategic level. Automation and standardization with Workday will drive cost savings and allow us to continue to grow and evolve as a Workday organization.”
Additionally, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital uses real-time data from Workday Talent Management to make timely decisions about merit increases, diversity, equity, and inclusion. Hospital stakeholders prioritize rewarding employees for their hard work, which is why they developed a comprehensive pay-for-performance program. This gives managers access to the latest performance scores and merit-based data, ensuring that employees are recognized and compensated fairly.
Supply chain success.
East Tennessee Children’s Hospital has also improved its procurement processes and inventory management using Workday Supply Chain Management. Bauer says improved visibility and process automation makes ordering easier. With Workday, the organization has better control over PAR levels for supplies, minimizing costs due to over- or under-stocking.
“We customize reports, which we couldn’t do before,” Bauer says. “We’re able to identify one-off products and move to standardization. On the contracting side, we can confirm we’re not overpaying.”
When we look at where we want to be, high quality, high reliability—you can’t do that without the proper systems to support caregivers. We invested in our people when we chose Workday..
Vice President of Human Resources
Looking ahead, East Tennessee Children’s Hospital is confident that Workday will take it into the future. “We chose Workday as an investment in our people so we can deliver exceptional patient care. The communities we serve expect nothing less,” Bauer says.