Department Profile: Kaleida Health Human Resources

Healthcare HR Week – the third week of March – is designated to recognize human resources professionals in healthcare organizations for their important role across the continuum of care.

Just over 90 people handle the human resource needs for a staff of 10,000

There are a number of teams that fall under the heading of human resources (HR) at Kaleida Health, including: 

• Site HR Operations & Labor Relations
• Talent Acquisition
• Benefits
• Compensation & HR Analytics
• Payroll & HRIS
• Learning & Performance
• Employee Health & Safety 
• Integrated Absence

“HR’s mission is to engage, empower and elevate our colleagues as we collectively provide high-quality care to our community,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer Ian Barrett. “Our vision is to champion Kaleida Health’s culture, partner with Operations on evidence-based solutions, and deliver excellent service.”

Here’s a brief overview of what our HR teams accomplished in 2023:

Site HR Operations & Labor Relations

• Collaborated with Operations to drive high-quality and safe care, delivered through excellent patient experience
• Assured that collective bargaining agreements and HR policies and procedures are interpreted, understood and implemented correctly
• Partnered with three labor unions and oversaw 23 bargaining units and 20 labor-management committees which uphold Kaleida Health’s mission and vision
• Consulted and coached leaders on how to lead their teams and help individual employees find answers and information and solve problems

Talent Acquisition

• Led the hiring and onboarding of 2,469 new hires (40% more than 2022), including 566 RN hires and upgrades of current employees
• Attended 75+ career fairs hosted by local schools and community organizations
• Currently manage about 1,000 open positions to fill (lowest since 2021)
• Developed materials for pipelining to careers in health care – “Come Grow with Us” presentation for schools, colleges, universities, community groups on Kaleida Health and career opportunities in health care
• Established outreach in community and partnerships with UB Educational Opportunity Center (UBEOC) resulting in the training and hiring of nine (9) sterile processing techs and training partnership for security guards
• Reactivated the Training and Retraining Committee, giving employees information on educational programs and requirements for sterile processing technician and respiratory therapist roles

Benefits

• Addressed 350 or more employee calls and emails per week
• Processed benefits for new hires, status changes and terminations, about 125 - 150 per week
• Managed benefits arrears billing and payment processing, 75-100 per week
• Reconciled and funded five retirement plans every pay period
• Reconciled and paid invoices for 15 benefit plan vendors weekly and monthly
• Ensured that employee data is relayed to all 15 benefit plan vendors, timely and accurately, each pay period

Compensation & HR Analytics

• Designed, developed and delivered broad-based compensation programs
• Managed wage increases and incentive programs
• Oversaw job descriptions, market comparisons, pay structures and compliance
• Ensured compensation programs are market aligned and support Kaleida Health’s talent strategy
• Helped leaders ask the right questions and use people analytics to drive decision making

Payroll & HRIS

• Processed 10,000+ paychecks per pay period and 12,000+ W-2s 
• Processed 100+ employee tax and address changes weekly when not completed in Lawson
• Processed three PTO buy-out processes annually
• Processed up to 19 different types of bonus payments each pay period
• Implemented complex collective bargaining agreement nuances into payroll/HR systems
• Addressed 400+ employee and manager calls and emails weekly
• Provided numerous reports to support business operations weekly
• Processed 3,0000+ employee record changes in Lawson per pay period
• Processed 1,000+ employee record retroactive data corrections based on union contract changes
• Managed 30 different union pay schedules in Lawson

Learning & Performance  

• Launched a system-wide, weekly new employee orientation program in April 2023 with continued favorable survey results since implementation:
  • 99% agree or strongly agree that they made the right choice in choosing Kaleida Health for their career
  • 99% agree or strongly agree that they feel prepared to start their career at Kaleida Health following the general orientation program)
• Intricately involved in the planning of a new Welcome Center space at Larkin, which will accommodate groups of up to 90 new hires and provide an updated learning space for our leadership development programs and instructor-led training
• Updated new leader onboarding program through the implementation of formalized training and launch of Kaleida UpSkill micro learnings
• Enhanced the Leader Navigator program through expansion of the navigator pool by 40% and formalized the process
• Implemented a system-wide patient experience nurse leader rounding training. Coaching established and in place at major hospital sites
• Successful managed the on time completion of 582 department work requests spanning eLearning development, teambuilding, document development, manager training, etc. (not inclusive of site-specific work requested of the Learning and Performance Partners)
• Launched a new KaleidaPerks platform in collaboration with the Working Advantage to enhance and expand available perks for our employees, medical staff, volunteers, residents and fellows. From the launch in September through the end of 2023, we had 5,819 new registrations in the platform with a total savings among our employees of $36,343
• Over 500 people attended instructor-led management development courses, maintaining a 4.8 out of 5 star overall satisfaction rating

Employee Health & Safety

• Managed more than 31,000 employee visits
• Achieved 95%+ compliance rate for the 2023-2024 flu season
• Collaborated with site safety programs to educate on sharps safety etiquette plus the development of screen savers throughout the system
• Managed safe patient handling training for all agency staff who have job duties related to patient care
• Led safe patient handling and mobility program in long-term care as part of the CNA training program
• Further implemented a Bariatric Closet at BGMC that allows for specialized safe patient handling equipment to best meet the needs of the bariatric patient population
• Continued to develop, educate and implement the Early Mobilization Pilot Program in the ICUs at BGMC
• Managed workers compensation claims

Integrated Absence

• Case-managed 4,600+ claims system-wide
• Implemented new carrier for paid leaves including paid family leave and disability
• Created quick reference tools for employees on how to request paid leaves
• Updated communication pathways to easily contact the Integrated Absence team via simplified shared email box and new targeted phone line
• Increased the visibility of the Integrated Absence team at the main hospital sites and VNA

Barrett said, “The secret sauce to what we do in health care is the caring and capability of our people, and human resources is there every step of the way. Every HR colleague makes a difference and I am proud to work alongside them every day.”

Please join Kaleida Health senior leadership and the HR leadership team in saying thank you for a job well done!