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Nursing a Referral Program
April 04, 2007
Oklahoma's Integris Health has hired 500 nurses and technicians in hard-to-fill jobs, thanks to a referral incentive program
By Leo Jakobson
Profile
Company: Integris Health
Industry: Health care
Objective: Encourage employees to refer potential recruits in nine hard-to-fill job categories, notably experienced registered nurses
Strategy: A $1,000 bonus and aggressive internal marketing campaign are made more motivating by an incentive raffle for prizes, including a new car.
Results: After six years, Integris has filled 500 job slots in hard-to-fill medical professions
A recent study by the governor of Oklahoma's task force on health care came up with some disturbing statistics: By 2010, the state's hospitals will face a shortage of 2,500 nurses and 500 medical technicians. That's not just a local problem.
If you are Jason Eliot, system director of human resources at Oklahoma City–based Integris Health, a nonprofit institution that, with 10 hospital centers and two mental institutions, is the largest health system in Oklahoma, that report is very disturbing. And if the average age of your nursing staff is 48, it is profoundly disturbing.
And it's not just the nurses. Eliot says Integris—really Oklahoma—has nine medical professions in which qualified professionals are particularly hard to find, beginning with registered nurses (RNs) with at least one year's experience. The others are pharmacists and echocardiographers; ultrasound, radiology and nuclear medicine technicians; and respiratory, occupational, speech and physical therapists.
Nor is it a regional problem that can be resolved by hiring a national recruiting firm and paying moving expenses: the nursing shortage in particular is so severe it affects not just the United States but Europe and much of the developed world.
To fill the holes in Integris' staff, Eliot added an incentive component to the hospital's employee referral program six years ago, and the results have been excellent. Integris, which has 9,000 employees, has hired more than 500 people through referrals—the majority RNs—for hard-to-fill jobs, as well as about 1,750 other employees. "We judge it very successful," he says, noting that referrals jumped dramatically after the program began.
"There are two key benefits," Eliot says. "First, it is a recruitment avenue. Referrals account for 25 percent of our hiring base, and is the single biggest part. Second, it is a retention tool. Referred employees stay longer, and it is a way to get items and money into the hands of employees. They like it."
The referral program has two sets of rewards. Staff members who find an employee that Integris hires get an initial reward—$1,000 for hard-to-fill positions—and then become eligible for quarterly and annual drawings for merchandise. Referring candidates for positions not classified as hard-to-fill wins employees movie tickets when the new hires start work and a chance in a quarterly drawing for a $1,000 cash prize.
Each referral for a hard-to-fill position is good for a separate chance in the drawings, Eliot says, although he cannot remember anyone winning twice in a single drawing. Each quarterly drawing is for a flat-screen plasma television, which is a very popular award, he says.
But the big deal is the annual grand prize drawing, held at a banquet early the following January, Eliot says. This year, Trauma Registrar Candy McFarlane won a two-year lease on a new Toyota Prius hybrid for referring a respiratory therapist. The car was selected in a nod to high gas prices and for the hybrid's growing popularity, but earlier models included a Chrysler 300 and a Mustang convertible. It is not the only award, however. Other prizes include a plasma TV, $1,000 gas gift card, a digital camera, a massage every month for a year, an annual membership at a health club, an iPod and $40 certificates good for Integris-logoed items like sweatshirts, bags and caps. The drawings are held at a banquet for referrers, and everyone wins something, Eliot says. Senior leadership, including the CEO, president and the organization's directors attend the banquet, underscoring their commitment to the employee referral program "and how dedicated we are to our employees," he adds.
While the big internal marketing pushes come at the quarterly drawings, Eliot says, Integris creates a major campaign for the program each year. For the 2007 referral year, the campaign's theme is Stake Your Claim, which takes its name from to the Homestead Act that populated Oklahoma, and is linked to the state's centennial celebrations, which will be going on all year. "We chose the Centennial theme because there are a lot of public events tied to it," he says. "We will tie to those and leverage them."
For instance, Integris will be giving away tickets to the revival of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Oklahoma! that a local theater is producing this year. "We are going to give out marketing items like flashlights that look like old mining lanterns and tin miners cups, as well as brochures" and more commonplace marketing materials, Eliot says. This year's car will be a Dodge Nitro—a popular new model that, being a sports utility vehicle, also fits in with explorer/homesteader theme of the Oklahoma centennial.
The marketing works, he says, noting that many employees are regular referrers. In fact, the employee who won the car last year had her name drawn for the $1,000 gas card at the most recent banquet, Eliot says. "And she has already referred someone who we hired this year, so she is eligible for the next drawing as well."
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