Situation

• Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) had already implemented and stabilized its human resources technology and PeopleSoft application and wanted to focus on strategic HR activities to support the key imperatives of delivering world-class patient care, health education and research
• HHS also wanted to reduce the long-term risks associated with the sustainment of its back office HR systems
• HHS began looking for a partner that could complement and deliver a solution to enable them to focus on leading-edge HR initiatives that would attract, retain and grow their top talent in the Canadian healthcare marketplace

Approach

• HHS issued a Request for Proposals
• Of the 6 respondents, only TELUS met all criteria and had experience with PeopleSoft in a healthcare setting
• HHS felt TELUS added much in terms of business continuity and rigorous processes
• HHS maintains the licence for PeopleSoft, while 73 HHS staff transitioned to TELUS to deliver payroll, recruitment, compensation, benefits and occupational health & safety services in addition to upgrading and sustaining the software and hardware infrastructure that supports the day to day delivery of these services

Business Benefit

• HHS now has predictable HR costs for the next 15 years
• HHS receives HR services based on mutually agreed upon Service Level Agreements with commercial-level accountability
• TELUS brings best practices information and analysis to HHS, in addition to benefits associated with ongoing business process reengineering
• TELUS ensures best-in-class disaster recovery planning for HHS
• Ongoing HR training and education for HHS-transitioned staff offer career paths that would not normally be available, because HR isn't the core focus of a healthcare organization
• HR managers at HHS now have time to strategize on ways to meet new workforce challenges
• A Centre of Excellence in the downtown core helps HHS support community initiatives in the City of Hamilton
• Together, HHS and TELUS will develop innovative solutions that can be marketed to others

Solution

For acute and specialized health care services, over 2.3 million residents of the City of Hamilton and its surrounding regions in
central southern Ontario rely on the five hospitals and cancer centre that make up Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS).  Most of those residents would probably agree with HHS President and CEO Murray T. Martin who states that “… it is really the people who work at our hospitals that make them exceptional.”

HHS employs a staff of more than 10,000. This makes their Human Resources department an acknowledged expert in the delivery of a full range of HR services. “HHS’ original implementation of PeopleSoft was initiated in 1999 and has since upgraded once in an effort to leverage best-in-class technology to deliver superior HR services and information to its staff,” says Gayle Holmes, Assistant Vice President, Human Resources. “Having made this investment and realizing the initial benefits associated with the ability to extract key information that allows HHS to make better organizational decisions, we’re now ready to take our HR department to an even higher level of value.”

Knowing they could do it themselves if necessary, HHS nevertheless decided to start by looking for a partner that could focus on the “how”, so HHS could maintain their focus on strategic HR outcomes. “Of all the respondents to our Request for Proposals, TELUS Sourcing Solutions was the only group that met all our criteria,” says Holmes. With more than 29,000 people on its team, TELUS is a significant employer and already had the Calgary Health Region as a client, delivering similar services within the healthcare sector, using PeopleSoft as its HR platform.  “They also added a lot in terms of business continuity through the rigour of being a telecom company,” Holmes explains.  “Add their branding and marketing, and ongoing relationship with PeopleSoft, and TELUS put us in a different bargaining position than just a hospital dealing with an IT company.”

Under the terms of the partnership, HHS becomes the marquee client for TELUS Sourcing Solutions in Ontario. HHS maintains the license for PeopleSoft, while 73 HHS staff transitioned to TELUS to deliver payroll, recruitment, compensation, benefits and occupational health & safety services in addition to upgrading and sustaining the software and hardware infrastructure that supports the day-to-day delivery of these services. TELUS and HHS will also work together to develop, test and evaluate innovative HR solutions that can be marketed to other healthcare and broader public sector clients.

As far as HHS is concerned, Holmes explains that the strategic components of their HR business processes will still start and end there. “We took out the transactional and various components of decision support. I still care about what’s done and its outcome, but I no longer have to worry about how it’s done.” TELUS is also responsible for tracking best practices in the industry and making recommendations for improvements. So, in addition to now having the freedom to focus more conceptually on strategic issues rather than on the day-to-day transactions, Holmes will have the information and expert analysis she needs in workforce planning to deal with issues such as the boomer curve. “Health care is an essential service and I feel accountability around ensuring that we have it available in the future. With a declining workforce population, I’m pleased I have a partner that enables me to focus on attracting, retaining and growing our top talent, in this ever competitive marketplace.”

From a purely financial point of view, the partnership has stabilized HR costs for HHS for the next 15 years. “No surprises,” says Holmes. There’s one more benefit: “We’re very excited about moving jobs to Hamilton’s downtown core,” she says. “It supports our community initiatives. Having a partner like TELUS down there is fabulous for everyone.”