Adapting to Staffing Crisis Needs during COVID-19—FocusOne Case Study

FocusOne Solutions was engaged by a large not-for-profit provider with post-acute care facilities in 24 states to assist in filling 400+ clinical and non-clinical positions in just a matter of a few weeks. With the COVID-19 pandemic moving across the nation, the client needed enough staff for its communities across several states as soon as possible.

Prior to the pandemic, FocusOne already had a partnership with the provider, helping to staff more than half of their 180 locations since 2018. Due to their success in filling previous positions, the facility knew that FocusOne would be able to provide a quick turnaround for this large request.

Recruitment Strategy & Execution

With staffing needs changing daily based on where facilities were impacted by COVID-19, it was important to develop a recruitment plan that allowed a large quantity of candidates to be compliant and placed on assignment quickly. The client provided the number of temporary employees they needed upfront based on region, not specific locations, and FocusOne began the search immediately.

In order to accommodate the large amount of positions that needed to be filled, as well as the unexpected staffing needs that the post-acute care locations might have, FocusOne adapted their standard recruiting process into a specialized one—gathering candidates first by state, rather than recruiting for a specific location, then informing them of the exact location they would be assigned upon placement. This new process allowed for FocusOne to make sure all candidates were screened and compliant, so they could quickly place enough staff when more location details were given.

FocusOne maintained transparency throughout the entire process by keeping an open line of communication – they sent updates twice a day to the client with the number of candidates that were being submitted, the number of placements confirmed, and the number of temporary employees currently on assignment. It was an all-hands effort to ensure the facilities were obtaining the right amount of clinical and non-clinical staff with numerous FocusOne team members working around the clock to look at candidate profiles, screen candidates for clinical/professional skillsets, and ensure all compliance was completed. Over the course of the project, the FocusOne team, phone screened over 600 candidates to ensure quick turnaround on the candidates submitted.   

Results

Over the course of seven weeks, FocusOne successfully filled 432 clinical and non-clinical COVID-19-related positions in 120 locations across 24 states.

Before the pandemic, theclient  was only using FocusOne for clinical staff, but due to the quick response and success of filling the clinical positions, the provider added non-clinical roles—housekeepers, nutritional assistants, dietary aides, and environmental services—to their list of staffing needs. This allowed FocusOne to create more connections for candidates, adding more than 30 staffing agencies to the client’s vendor panel in a short period of time.

The result of the partnership between FocusOne and the provider was once again very successful—and continues to be successful. FocusOne is now helping them staff post-acute care facilities in 10 regions instead of eight regions.

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