Becker's Hospital Review

35 CHRO three months ended Sept. 30, 2025, compared to the same period in 2024. "We've gained more certainty in our workforce needs and are better able to project talent demand. at's helped us reduce what I'd call unhelpful labor costs — excessive overtime and unsustainable agency use," Mr. Till said. HonorHealth, one of Arizona's largest nonprofit health systems, employs more than 17,000 people across nine acute care hospitals and multiple outpatient and specialty sites. e organization does not currently use travelers or agency staff. Mr. Frangesch said the health system has maintained a workforce that meets its volumes by staying disciplined in its position control process. "We're making sure that we justify every replacement," he said. "And anything that's a new position, we really spend a lot of time thinking through the necessity." Years ago, HonorHealth also committed to developing a deep internal pool of staff who can work across multiple locations. e approach allows the organization to flex with volumes and cover unexpected absences without relying on external agencies. "If there's an unexpected leave or spike in volume, we can flex staff to where they're needed most," Mr. Frangesch said. "We think about staffing across our nine hospitals and clinics all the time — not just one department or shi." HealthPartners has taken a similar approach. e organization, which employs about 28,000 people, maintains a strong pool of float colleagues that allows it to supplement open shis and reduce agency or temporary staff utilization, Ms. Washington said. She added that the model also creates a pipeline for permanent roles. Strategically, she said HealthPartners recruitment and finance leaders meet weekly to assess open roles, evaluate department performance against budget and prioritize critical positions. Using workforce analytics to improve planning As labor costs remain elevated, health systems are also leaning more heavily on workforce analytics and forecasting tools to anticipate staffing needs, align labor to demand and reduce inefficient spending. At Providence, a human capital management and workforce management platform is reshaping staff planning. "For years we used our own tools, and now with UKG Pro, we're able to predict workforce needs based on community demand and our current care models," Mr. Till said. "We can now better predict what kind of talent we need, when, and where. at reduces waste and decreases reliance on agency and overtime. From a capacity standpoint, analytics are helping us optimize how we use people's time." e tools also give employees more autonomy over when and how they work, Mr. Till said, helping democratize schedules. Providence is also designing more flexible shi strategies that open shis previously filled with overtime or agency labor to internal caregivers. At HonorHealth, workforce analytics has increasingly focused on leadership planning as the organization prepares for retirements and succession needs. Mr. Frangesch said the health system spent the last year focusing leadership analytics on teams from executive through director and supervisor levels. Since going live on soware platform Workday in mid-2025, HonorHealth is expanding projections across all levels of staff. "at helps us better anticipate changes, like retirements," Mr. Frangesch said. "Staff retire at all different ages now, so you can't perfectly predict, but it helps us think ahead." HealthPartners is also moving toward more cross-functional planning. Ms. Washington said workforce planning has become more collaborative across human resources, finance and operations, with a stronger focus on aligning decisions with cost discipline and patient and member needs. Rather than relying only on static forecasts, she said staffing is managed in real time, with nurse leaders reviewing staffing frequently and participating in daily productivity calls to respond to changes in census, acuity and operational priorities. Alongside analytics and planning, leaders said a core goal is ensuring clinicians and nurses are working at the top of their license. For HealthPartners, Ms. Washington said that means ensuring clinicians and nurses focus on patient care and bedside decision- making. e organization is also investing in electronic medical record enhancements, ambient listening technology and better communication with care teams to improve efficiency and reduce administrative burden. Building a more sustainable workforce model Executives said the next phase of labor strategy is less about stabilizing from the pandemic and more about long-term capacity, retention and care model redesign. Mr. Till said health systems cannot rely solely on traditional approaches to close future workforce gaps. "Over the next decade, we're going to have more people needing care and fewer people available to provide it, due to birth rates and demographic shis," he said. "We can't rely only on the models of the past 20 years — 'just hire better, develop better, be more efficient.' ose will still help, but we need to rethink the overall care model." While technology is central to that shi, Mr. Till cautioned against framing it as a simple headcount reduction tool. "It's a bit of a fool's errand right now to talk strictly about reducing FTEs or cutting costs with tech. e real opportunity is using technology to make the work more human, to reduce administrative burden and allow caregivers to do what they really want to do: take care of patients." He cited ambient technology, AI and flexible shi models as examples of tools aimed at reducing administrative burden and increasing time for direct patient care. For HonorHealth, Mr. Frangesch said the evolution of technology is changing how work gets done and making HR partnerships with IT and transformation leaders more critical. At HealthPartners, Ms. Washington also emphasized the connection between cost efficiency and long-term workforce strategy. "When I talk with my CHRO peers across the region, we oen discuss how cost efficiency and a long-term workforce strategy are not opposing goals," she said. "ey are interconnected. Sustainable cost management requires discipline in staffing practices, an effective care model and leaders who understand both their team's needs and their budgets." n

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