Reduce nursing staff turnover
Deliver in-demand flexible work options
Proactively manage labor spend with data
Nursing turnover decreased from 18.5% to 8.6%
32% reduction in incentive spend
Built and scaled a direct, flexible resource team of 350 staff members
Uses ShiftWizard inpatient scheduling
20+ hospitals with 150+ care sites
$2.8B net operating revenue
1,200 staffed beds
Indiana-based Deaconess Health System needed a solution to control escalating labor costs and optimize their nurse staffing strategy. The organization wanted to reduce reliance on external labor, get a handle on premium spend, and improve nurse morale and retention. Siloed labor pools, manual shift rate management, and skyrocketing incentive expectations all contributed to unsustainable staffing costs.
Leaders at Deaconess knew they needed to rethink their approach, and began researching digital workforce management solutions they could leverage to support a more sustainable nurse staffing strategy. They found Works, an AI-powered platform that would allow them to manage nurse staffing through a single, transparent system - rightsizing shift rates, empowering nurses to pick up shifts that worked for them, and automating manual staffing processes.
Deaconess strategically piloted Works within their ICU resource team for system design and to validate real-world results. After the implementation period, they saw meaningful reduction in nurse premium spend, improved shift claiming, and less manual work to support staffing overall. Today, Deaconess is widely used by nursing and allied health staff, with nearly 80% of eligible employees having claimed a shift on the platform.
This case study showcases how Works enables Deaconess to streamline workforce management, control nurse staffing costs, and improve nurse satisfaction, ultimately positioning the organization for sustainable growth and operational efficiency.
“The major shift that we have undergone with the use of Works is a move from being highly reactive in how we managed staffing and labor costs, to being very proactive – we use a data-driven methodology. Works surfaces the necessary data and makes it easy to adjust our incentive policies.
Additionally, the system encourages staff to pick up shifts earlier because of how the incentive pricing is managed. Our nurse leaders no longer have to worry about missing time with their family to cover open shifts. That has been a major game changer.”
Katie Burnett
Vice President, Human Resources
Reduce Nursing Staff Turnover
Deaconess faced challenges with nursing retention - turnover peaked at 18% annually coming out of the pandemic. To ensure a focus on patient safety, Deaconess responded with heavy utilization of agency staff, and often relied on nurse managers to cover shifts - a huge dissatisfier for key leaders. Human Resources and Nursing leadership wanted to stabilize the situation and drive nursing staff turnover below 10% - which they accomplished within 12 months of the Works deployment.
Deliver In-Demand Flexible Work Options
The Deaconess team faced multiple hurdles when considering if they could meet staff demand/interest in shorter shift options and reduced FTE commitments as a way to boost retention and fill rates. There was no easy automation within their core scheduling system to manage the complexity of altering shift lengths away from 3x12, and the resulting manual effort would require them to significantly increase staffing personnel. Their goal was clear - find a partner and technology to deliver flexible shift options and build out a direct, flexible workforce layer to drive retention.
Proactively Manage Labor Spend with Data
The use of premium incentives was historically managed by individual unit leaders. This inherently created a significant challenge in keeping costs low. Each leader only had visibility to their own unit's needs - so they focused on maximizing fill rate for their unit(s) at all costs within the premium structure. There was no mechanism or automated support for distributing premium labor spend across the health system to ensure it went only where it was truly needed. Deaconess implemented Works OnDemand to execute specifically to this goal. Premium labor spend now reflects supply and demand across the health system, and incentive rates are managed by a learning algorithm that balances fill rate achievement and hourly incentive levels.
An AI-Enabled Workforce Management Platform
Works’ proven track record of reducing contingent labor costs and automating manual processes attracted Deaconess. Now 2+ years into managing multiple workforce layers across Nursing and Allied Health on Works, the data generated from the platform informs real-time decision making by leadership.
Works has been key to Deaconess’ retention and engagement strategy. Clinicians have visibility into available shift options across the health system, including transparent, real-time information on shift incentives that consistently direct staff to the health system’s most acute staffing needs – all without manual intervention.
Process Automation
Works moved arduous manual staffing and scheduling processes to automated workflows that require no manager intervention, reducing admin time. Key to driving cost savings, Works also sequences shift visibility by workforce group – ensuring that core staff and lower cost flex pool workers can access the shifts prior to higher cost PRN and gig staff.
Dynamic Pricing of Incentives
Works’ intelligent shift pricing drives staff to pick up open shifts while reducing premium spend. This AI-powered dynamic pricing feature learns employee shift-claiming mannerisms and which shifts are least likely to be claimed. The longer it runs, the smarter it gets. The end result is improved incentive dollar allocation and increased fill rate in areas of greatest need.
Reduced frontline manager burden - open shift coverage is now entirely managed via automation, giving time back to critical leaders
10% decrease in systemwide RN turnover (18.5% to 8.6%)
32% reduction in incentive spend
77% of clinical staff have participated in open shift claiming via Works
“Works has allowed us to manage staff appropriately and even the playing field. We want to treat our clinical staff well and do the right thing for them, which includes rewarding them for picking up shifts – but we want to do it in a sustainable and manageable manner. One of the most satisfying results of the project has been seeing over 77% of our clinicians claim and work a shift through Works."
Katie Burnett
Vice President, Human Resources
“I've implemented other technologies and this one is by far the most user-friendly. Nurses can see open shifts versus going through their manager to sign up, so they can pick up shifts much quicker than they used to. And, the way the dollars tier, it drives people to pick up harder to fill shifts. It has really helped filter people to our greatest need.”
Emilee Elpers
System Manager of Central Staffing
and Nursing Resources
Works OnDemand has served as a critical platform on which Deaconess has built a modern, flexible workforce strategy. The platform allowed Deaconess to centralize and automate the process for assigning incentives to ensure that target fill rates and safe staffing levels are achieved - without needing to increase headcount in the central staffing office.
Frontline staff have benefitted from the platform - both in the fairness that it creates for equal work opportunity, and in Works' ability to create and manage partial shifts with varying lengths. Instead of passing on covering a 12-hour shift, two employees can split coverage without ever needing to communicate directly with each other or the unit manager. Deaconess has used Works to uncover previously hidden workforce capacity - and to do so at reduced average hourly spend.
Lastly, Works has served as the primary platform on which Deaconess has built a 350+ member flexible, direct resource team. These critical staff members circulate across Deaconess facilities to fill critical gaps through the Works mobile app and proactive, targeted notifications. Shift coverage gaps remaining after core, part-time and float teams have been recruited are now covered by the Resource team - preventing frontline managers from ever having to cover direct patient care - a common practice prior to the Works deployment.
