Miami 1.indd - Global Talent Measurement Solutions From PAN

MIAMI CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL CASE STUDY
A CASE STUDY
DISCOVERING A MORE STRATEGIC
APPROACH TO HIRING & DEVELOPMENT
Like many organizations, Miami Children’s Hospital
turned to talent measurement assessments to improve
its hiring and development decisions. But once HR’s
Magaly Borroso began exploring pan’s comprehensive
catalog of assessments, she realized she could help a
variety of hospital departments find the right people.
Borroso, the hospital’s Director of Talent Engagement
and Effectiveness, says that while assessments from
pan were initially directed at leadership development,
she soon expanded the use of assessments to other
positions, such as nurses and financial staff.
Unlike other catalogs, pan’s library brings together
assessments of all types from a wide range of publishers
– giving organizations like Miami Children’s the ability
to take a more holistic approach to testing. “Because
I had access to pan’s full library, I found assessments
that I hadn’t seen before, and that could meet our
other needs,” says Borroso.
11590 North Meridian Street
Suite 200
Carmel, IN 46032 USA
www.panpowered.com
(877) 449-8378
Until recently, the hospital had used assessments in only
a limited way – mostly for testing how well job candidates
for administrative and clerical positions could use
software programs such as Word, PowerPoint, and Excel.
That changed, says Borroso, when Miami Children’s
began an initiative to develop a more strategic approach
to the various aspects of leadership development,
including selection, pipelining, succession planning,
and talent pools. Hospital officials decided to use
assessments to strengthen the effort. “The idea was
that assessments could help us find out how quickly
the person could hit the ground running once they were
hired, or how much development they needed,” she says.
With assessments, says Borroso, the hospital wanted to
get beyond its longstanding method of using “guesstimates
by leaders nominating other leaders, saying this person
would be good at this, or this person would be good at that.”
MIAMI CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL CASE STUDY
THE NEED FOR A COMPREHENSIVE LIBRARY
OF ASSESSMENTS
Miami Children’s looked at a number of different vendors,
but each had only one assessment the hospital was
interested in. “This was frustrating,” says Borroso,
“because HR needed a variety of leadership development
assessments – and the ability to integrate them.”
“One vendor was strong in development, one was
strong in recruitment, but I couldn’t get one that could
integrate everything into one platform,” says Barroso.
However, she says, “when we looked at pan, we saw
that they had multiple vendors in their library, with
multiple assessments for the same types of skills.” That
gave HR the ability to choose assessments that closely
met their needs. “In addition,” she says, “pan’s platform
could be integrated with the hospital’s Taleo applicant
tracking system, which was essential.”
One way Borroso explored pan’s library was by trying
out assessments in advance. She took several of the
assessments herself, and she asked some of her HR
generalists, as well as hiring managers and other
employees, to try out the assessments.
“I needed to see, first of all, the ease of use,” she says.
“How long does it take? How difficult is it to complete?
If the assessments are too lengthy, people will just do
it at a rush, or cut it off in the middle
because they’re bored. I needed something
that was quick, simple and effective.” To
help validate the assessments, she also
asked the employees whether they “saw
themselves” in the results.
EXPANDING ASSESSMENTS INTO
NEW AREAS
It was through this exploration
of pan’s library that Borroso
found assessments that could
be used for a variety of roles in
the hospital. For example, the
11590 North Meridian Street
Suite 200
Carmel, IN 46032 USA
www.panpowered.com
(877) 449-8378
hospital’s chief nursing officer had long been looking
for an assessment that measured critical thinking, and
Borroso found one that was geared toward nurses. “We’re
looking for nurses who demonstrate respect and
support, empathy, composure, self-management and
service orientation,” she says.
Barroso asked nurses at Miami Children’s to take the
scenario-based, critical thinking assessment to test it
for ease and validity. “It’s now used at the hospital, and
has been very effective in evaluating candidates for
nursing positions,” says Borroso.
In another example, the new head of finance at Miami
Children’s wanted to assess the financial acumen of
the staff, as well as their advanced Excel skills. Again,
Barroso was able to find just the right assessments
in pan’s library, and – working with experts from pan
– put together a package for the Finance leader. “She
gave the assessments to her staff,” says Borroso. “and
then depending on their results, she sent them to an
advanced Excel class, or a financial class, to close any gaps.”
Barroso also found that she could use assessments
from the pan library to take over the testing of
administrative and clerical computer skills – enabling
the hospital to have all its assessments on a single,
integrated platform.
While the leadership development assessments have
just been implemented, Barroso says there is already
an improvement in the other areas, particularly in
hiring. “We’ve seen more confidence in the leaders as
they select these people,” she says. “We’re able to send
better applicants to the hiring manager, and that’s
reduced our time to fill.”
pan’s support staff has helped smooth the way for Miami Children’s to expand its use of assessments, says
Barroso. “They made it very easy,” she says. “They’ve
been very helpful and available. They come up with
creative ideas, they make recommendations when we
feel stuck or can’t come up with something. I can’t give
them enough credit.”