The First Bite of the Elephant - The Life of the Application

Recruitment. Need I say anymore. This is the one aspect of HR that I like the least and the one aspect of HR upon which everything is measured against. Do it well and nothing else matters; don't do it well, and well, nothing else matters. How do we do it well? Attract many top notch, quality candidates and hire them very quickly. It is  a simple quantity, quality and timeliness proposition and simply one that I can credit much of my recurring gray to.

My department is comprised of HR Generalists, not a recruiter in the bunch, and we are on one heck of a wave.   We are not crashing to shore . . . .yet. We are in need of redesigned recruitment systems, shifts in culture and well, a bunch of technology to have any chance of getting on top of this. With shifts in culture occurring baby steps at a time and introductions of new technology occurring only a little bit faster, I am looking for something more immediate so redesigning our recruitment systems it is.

Redesigning our recruitment systems - 4 little words, one big elephant. Well,  the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time so, I am going to take the first bite. Not alone mind you, but with our first systems redesign team. We are going to use the principles of Advanced Clinic Access (ACS) but they could just as well be Quick Response Manufacturing (QRM), Lean Thinking, etc. Bottom line is we are introducing rigor, measures, and in the end, organizational accountability for a critical business process we call recruitment.

The best place to start is at the beginning.  In response to our recent applicant frenzy, and in discussions with our internal systems redesign coach, I have a definitive start and end point for this initial bite of the process. We will start the process when an application comes to HR for our nurse or physician applicant supply file and will end it when the application is no longer "alive" because the person has been hired or the application has been returned to the applicant. We will look at the Life of the Application: it's receipt, movement through the organization, and ultimate disposition. We will design the tracking systems necessary to measure and report progress.

Primarily an internal HR process, this will be a great first redesign to cut our teeth on. With this, I will be able to improve the outcomes of the process and introduce continuous improvement into the department in a big, very visible way. 

Very cool!