Health system advances great workplace culture with UKG

LOWELL, Mass., and WESTON, Fla. – UKG, a leading provider of HR, payroll, and workforce management solutions for all people, today announced that Hartford HealthCare is advancing its great workplace culture and commitment to innovation with the AI-powered UKG Pro Workforce Management suite.

Hartford HealthCare employs 37,000 people across more than 500 locations. Named by Fortune as one of America’s Most Innovative Companies in 2023, alongside UKG, the health system migrated to Pro Workforce Management (formerly UKG Dimensions) to strengthen its mission as a great place to work and better support the needs of frontline staff who are deeply committed to delivering exceptional patient outcomes.

“Our goal is to care for our patients and our community. To do that, we have to take care of our people first, and that’s where UKG comes in,” said Amanda Lopes-Edson (pictured), manager of shared services at Hartford HealthCare. “UKG lets us meet our people where they are – whether that’s bedside caring for our patients or at home with their families – with innovative technology that’s easily accessible and available at their fingertips.”

In an industry that continues to battle staffing shortages, Hartford HealthCare implemented advanced scheduling in patient care areas across its locations to give employees greater flexibility when it comes to selecting shifts that work best for them. At the same time, managers and supervisors have real-time visibility into areas where coverage is needed most so they can make timely and accurate staffing decisions.

“Pro Workforce Management is incredibly versatile and robust, especially the staffing dashboard. We can get a detailed view of where our people are working at any moment and compare that with our patient census information to ensure we always have proper coverage across our units,” said Lopes-Edson. “With the UKG Pro mobile app, employees – including float staff – can swap shifts, pick up open shifts, and request shift coverage, which not only gives them choices and greater work-life balance but helps us cover shifts faster to care for patients.”

Moving to the intelligent, cloud workforce management suite has created additional efficiencies for Hartford HealthCare that are being felt across the health system by employees, managers, and leadership alike.

“With Pro Workforce Management, we now have one standard timekeeping policy and platform – one source of truth for workforce data across all locations,” said Peter Nelson, director of payroll at Hartford HealthCare. “We have also removed duplications system-wide. For example, we previously had 19 different pay codes for the same job, and now we’re down to just one. We were able to massively standardize what our managers can see and do in UKG, which has really simplified their lives.”

“Another area of significant improvement is how we manage accruals,” added Lopes-Edson. “This process used to be managed outside of UKG. It was difficult for people to understand how much time off they had accrued, and it was a labour-intensive process for my team. Now, we don’t have to spend hours auditing and verifying information because Pro Workforce Management does it all for us. That means we can spend less time in the system and more time on the floor interacting with our people and our patients.”

For hospital leadership, Lopes-Edson says UKG has been especially critical in helping ensure overall well-being amongst employees.

“Our leaders utilize UKG to make sure we’re taking care of our staff. Wellbeing is top of mind for all of us, and the fact that our leaders can approve time off and ensure balanced coverage so our people can recharge or do other things outside of work that they love is tremendously important and valuable, and central to us being a great place to work.”

“Great workplaces are powered by great technology,” said Hugo Sarrazin, chief product and technology officer at UKG. “Organizations like Hartford HealthCare, who commit to creating exceptional experiences for their people through AI-powered technology that does the heavy lifting for them, benefit from a happier and more engaged workforce, resulting in better business outcomes. Innovation is at the heart of everything we do at UKG, and the driving force behind our commitment to helping organizations worldwide become a great place to work for all.”