How We Saved A Client 55% on HR Costs

Using our tools and expertise, we were able to save an early-stage health tech client 55% on their HR headcount costs over the course of a year.

Background

Upon our initial Organizational Effectiveness 360 Assessment of the company, we found the following issues: 

– Because the company was young, they were having trouble attracting the level of talent and leadership they needed. Their recent software engineering hires did not have the ‘driving’ personalities they needed to get work done as efficiently as needed. 

– Operationally, the medical practitioners they had hired felt somewhat disconnected from the rest of the business and had difficulty in keeping up with the fast-moving, agile nature of a startup. The remote and distributed nature of the company amplified the disconnect. 

– The company lacked efficient HR processes and documented policies and thus often found they had to make it up as issues came up. Their HR headcount was also low and teams for different functions were not formed. 

– Finally, while the company had a solid business strategy in place, they lacked an idea of how to translate that to a people strategy – what kinds of talent they would need at each milestone as they scaled. 

Our Solution

With our Agile HR Accelerator program, we were able to provide the company a complete strategy and done-for-you tools. We began by working alongside their leadership to understand the company’s growth plan for the next year, 3 years, and 5 years. Based on these metrics, we were able to determine what their HR needs would be in the immediate future and going forward.

In the immediate term, we decided on a conservative HR budget to develop their foundational HR capability with limited resources or new hires. We were able to accomplish this using our in-house talent optimization tool, as well as implementing  BambooHR as their HCM software. 

By engaging existing employees and benchmarking within the startup space, we were able to understand strengths and gaps in the current compensation and benefits framework to make valuable adjustments.  Through a series of cross-functional workshops, we also developed and documented company policies that would be aligned with the company’s culture and vision. 

Based on our assessment, it was also clear that the company collaboration tools were not as effective as expected. Upon analysis, in fact, we found that medical practitioners were barely using the tools that were in place(e.g. Microsoft Teams and Office365), as they were not familiar with these tools and had not received adequate training. 

As a result, we developed customized trainings specifically targeted to this group to further familiarize them with the tools and processes in place. We also developed a weekly cadence for cross-functional video calls led by leadership, which had thus far been happening ad-hoc on a reactive basis.  This also aided in developing the culture of the organization and aligning teams on functional needs and the status of their work. 

Finally, we used our talent optimization tool to dramatically reduce the time it had previously taken the company to hire their technical talent. By helping leadership identify the key skills, competencies, and behavioral needs from these hires, we were able to help them quickly sort through hundreds of applications to identify the highest potential candidates and guide them through the interview process efficiently.

After revising and automating their HR processes and utilizing our hiring tools and guidance, they were able to hire 3 new engineering leads within 1 month who had previously worked with companies like AirBnB and Amazon and were a much better fit for the company’s needs.  Furthermore, because they worked with us initially to develop a strategy before putting together a full HR team, we were able to save them 55% on costs that year vs. hiring for full-time HR positions.